Pig Love. Yes, I said Pig Love.

Yo! Here's a comic strip called Squinkers by cartoonist Sandra Lamb. This one features a couple of flirtatious pigs but that's not what the strip is really about. Squinkers centers on a young girl, her mother and grandpa who live and work on a farm/bed & breakfast. It's a well-drawn strip with engaging characters and storylines. The zingers are sometimes too pun-based for my taste but the humor is generally good. Check it out and read more!

I chose this one from the current storyline. It's not that often that you come across strips about horny pigs zinging up some love. Does this one make you laugh or kinda creep you out? Both for me!'


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On a side note, Marilla and I will be off from Zingerding until next week (vacation to Seattle). We'll post again on Wednesday the 2nd. In the meantime, check out our archives of comic strip zings.

Attack of the Jumbo Ants!

Yo! Here's a spoof comic by cartoonist Mark Tatulli, creator of Liō, a syndicated strip about a strange young boy. The regular strip is quite offbeat and one of the best new strips to zing into the newspapers. It is told in pantomime, thus having already hit an international audience with relative ease. The humor is dark, often involving strange creatures and questionable situations.

Now check this one out. By the way, Liō is the boy with the single-spiked hairstyle. What's interesting about this comic is that it starts from Liō in the center of the page. Follow the "jumbo ants" from there on out. I like spoofs and it's great to see a syndicated cartoonist attack his own peers with man-eating ants.


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Marilla promised you funny last
week. What do you think of this one?

Not Another Cartoonist!

Only eight days after Johnny Hart's death, Brant Parker, the cartoonist behind 'The Wizard of Id' passed away last Sunday. The two were co-creators of the strip and longtime friends. Parker also collaborated with cartoonists Bill Rechin and Don Wilder on their comic strips, Out of Bounds and Crock. Let's hope their days are not numbered now.

Brant Parker started The Wizard of Id in 1964 with the help of Hart (as a co-writer) who was drawing the successful B.C. comic strip. Parker drew the strip until 1997 when he passed the pen to his son, Jeff Parker, who draws today's strips.

Here are two 'Wizzard' strips, the first being an early strip drawn by Brant. I could not read the date on this one. The second is a modern one drawn by Jeff. I like how these two compare. It's good to see a certain level of consistency across artists and decades.




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One more thing, will you cartoonists stop dying! We don't want to have to make this a memorial blog. In the next post, I promise to bring you a thriving strip by a living cartoonist.

Situational vs. Character Driven Zingers

The two basic types of humor found in comic strips are situational and character-driven. What does that mean? Simply put, situational humor comes from what happens in a comic strip. Character-driven humor relates to how the characters react to what happens.

Situational is where it starts. This is the basic premise of any comic strip, the core of the cartoonist's idea. The zinger in the last panel is based on what happens before it. A situational zinger takes the standard form of any joke - the setup, then the punchline. The focus is on what happens or what is said. This is the most common type of humor in comics.

Character-driven zingers are more complex, taking the humor to the next level. This is only possible with well-developed characters. Situations becomes secondary. The cartoonist can place the characters in almost any situation and know how they will act and the humor comes from those actions. This doesn't make writing a funny zinger any easier but the humor is derived from a more personal experience, for the cartoonist and the reader. The best and most successful comic strips reach this level of humor.

This isn't to say situational zingers are bad humor. Sometimes they are brilliantly hilarious! They work best in strips without reoccurring characters or at least ones that have that gag-a-day mentality. Where situational zingers falter is when the strip is character-driven but the humor is not. This unfortunately is common as it is more difficult (or just more rare) to write good character-driven zingers than think up funny situations. How do you spot this? When you read a comic strip, ask yourself whether it matters which character did or said what. Or if it matters whether it took those specific characters to tell that specific joke. If it doesn't matter, the humor is situational. I think most strips strive to achieve character-driven humor but end up situational. The result is often a flat zinger.

Try asking yourself these questions when you next read the funny pages. Are they situational or character-driven? Which ones make you laugh most?

Wanted: Cartoon Motorcycle Cop

Here's a Mutt and Jeff comic strip from 1913 drawn by the original creator, Bud Fisher who drew it from 1907 to 1932, which at that time it was taken over by cartoonist Al Smith. Here we have Mutt (Jeff is not in this one) applying for a job as a motorcycle cop. What I like about it is that he shows up decked out in his modern 1913 motorcycle gear, goggles and all. What's he got wrapped around his legs?

Check out the 'double-take' that the cop makes. Visual devices like this are common to cartoon language these days but that's pretty innovative stuff for 1913. The dotted line from the cop indicates his gaze (or is it Mutt's) and then the question mark indicates his confoundedness. It kind of looks like Mutt shot a question mark out of his eyes and it bounced off of the cop's head. Hehe. And those are some serious motion lines in the last panel.



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Merely Margy - Flapper Comic

This comic strip from 1929 is called 'Merely Margy' by illustrator, John Held Jr., well-known for capturing and defining the "roaring 20s". His flappers became synonymous with the times and 'Merely Margy' is no exception. She embodied the care-free attitude of the era, lounging around teasing her numerous, mindless suitors.

The strip first appeared in 1927 and lasted into the early-1930s when he replaced it with a strip called 'Rah Rah Rosalie'. I imagine Rosalie wasn't that different than Margy. As the Great Depression took hold of America, the whimsy and lifestyle captured in 'Margy' lost its steam as did much of Held's work, not just the comic strip.

From this example, it appears to be a pretty shallow comic strip, the characters simply playing out a gag - and a long, dragged-out gag at that. Margy herself is fairly transparent, her motives being to get as much male attention as possible from the team. The joy of the strip is Held's artwork. His famous Art Deco style is a treat to enjoy in comic strip form. Just check out the football tackle scene, it's delicious! And Margy is rendered so beautifully, both elegant and awkward in her high-fashion flapper style.

A few other things to note. I like the names of the football players: Arab, Noisy, Mr. Phwhen and Bull. It is funny how the skinny medics aren't even attempting to carry Bull to the ambulance. And typical of Held's work is the sophistication of the women while the men appear foolish.

I hope you like this treasure of a strip. Go Endgate!


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Alien Comic Strip, not starring Shaggy

Yo! So there's this Finnish company called Futuremark Corporation which does some sort of computer technology stuff, blah blah blah. For some reason they spun a comic strip competition into their marketing efforts. Heck, why not?!

Here's the 1st place winner, an 'Unsolved Mysteries' strip by Uros Jojic and Borislav Grabovic. It's pretty good and gave us here at Zingerding a good laugh. You can read the 2nd and 3rd place winners here. I didn't even understand the third.




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B.C. - The End of an Era

In comic strip news, Johnny Hart, creator of B.C. and co-creator of The Wizard of Id passed away a few days ago on the 7th. He was drawing in his studio when he suffered a stroke. Hart was an old-time player in the industry, having started B.C. in 1958. He also was one of the rare cartoonists who single-handedly wrote and drew every single strip throughout the decades.



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As usual, the syndicate is in fear of losing revenue if they allow the strip to end. So B.C. will continue forth. Apparently, Hart's family have been helping with the strip for a few years by pulling drawings from a computer database. So the new comic strips will be digitally cut-and-pasted from old art. Hmm, it sounds like a laborious process compared to just drawing the characters. And I have no idea who's going to write the strips.

Comic strips are such a personal expression of the cartoonist, that sometimes the predecessor inadvertently kills the strip. We'll just have to see how B.C. fares in the coming years. Even if it plummets, that's no guarantee the newspapers will do anything but keep printing them.

But here's to Johnny Hart and his decades of contribution! Thanks for drawing funny cavemen leaning on rocks!

Comic Strip Review: Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog

Yo! Here is a new comic strip to hit the web in the last few months, Bleeker: the Rechargeable Dog by cartoonist Jonathan Mahood. Starring the dog Bleeker and his kid, Skip. Bleeker is today's do-all electronic gadget - email, digital camera, daily planner, printer, GPS and more.

It's a good strip, well drawn and very enjoyable. I don't think the humor is all that... yet. This is the kinda strip where the humor is gonna come from the characters and it'll take some time for them to develop. It's a new strip here, people. The current jokes are mostly about what Bleeker can or can't do as a robotic dog. It is situation-driven, not character-driven which is typical of new comics. Given time, I think we'll see the potential. There have been some good ones so far. So keep readin' it and give it a solid chance!



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Pepsi and Pete - the Pepsi-Cola Cops

Yo, friends. This is one bizarre comic strip advertisement for Pepsi, from May 1941. Read it and let me dissect this one for you. Sorry for the poor quality scan but that's how these rare ones often are.


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Panel 2, the opening of the story. Pepsi (the bigger fat one) and Pete fall from the sky after passing through "the wrong door" into a magical tropical world of speed-planes and palm trees.

Panels 3 and 4. A grass skirt, top hat wearing native asks for a match so they can cook a "fat explorer" for a banquet. The similarities in the explorer's body type to Pepsi worries him though it doesn't seem the natives are interested in eating the two cops. The native is quite polite and not using his spear in attempt to capture the new fat people that fell from the sky (obviously their food source).

Panel 5. Pete shows his sympathy for the poor explorer while Pepsi just focuses on the act of running. You know, getting into the zone.

Following this so far? Does it make you thirsty for an ice-cold soda pop? It should.

Panel 6. Strange birds fly around with a somewhat Dr. Seussian looking fish and cat.

Panel 7. The two cops have captured one of these exotic birds, presumedly by Pete grabbing its legs as it flew by while Pepsi jumping it from the nearby tree, his weight pinning the bird down. Time for a drink, eh? For only 5 cents, they were able to afford to force the bird to swallow some Pepsi (the drink, not the man. You never know who may be eaten in this magical world.)

Panels 8. With the power of a sugar rush, the bird is able to help capture the happy fat explorer from becoming "fricassee" (a word not used enough in comics today).

Panel 9, the end of the story. Can the bird read English? If not, is it just coincidence that they happen to be heading back to America? The dazed bird doesn't seem to care what happens to him now that he got his soda buzz. What will happen to them when they arrive back in Long Island with a naked fat man? Pepsi and Pete actually look worried about it.

But it doesn't matter because all that is supposed to sell you on a big big bottle of Pepsi. Print out this comic strip and present it at your local grocery or email it to pepsi.com to get your 66 year old bottle for only 5 cents!

Garfield Meets Lasagna

Here's the first Garfield comic strip to feature lasagna, dated 7-15-1978, about a month after the debut of the first strip. Upon reading it, it's not really that funny. But try to erase your mind of the fact that popular culture has known about Garfield and lasagna for almost 30 years. If this was the first time you saw a cat have a thing for a pasta dish, maybe you'd laugh. I mean, the lasagna thing caught on, right? Garfield readers in the late 1970s musta popped a rib laughing at this stuff. Ha ha, lasagna. Get it? Lasagna! Ha ha ha ha...


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Look out, Krazy Kat!

Yo! I introduced the 'Krazy Kat' komic to you yesterday. Here's another one to wet your whistle with some odd facts about the strip.

Krazy has no specified gender and has been referred to as both male and female throughout the life of the strip. Ignatz the mouse and Officer Pupp have generally been konsidered male.

Strangely koincidental, it was for a while unknown of kartoonist George Herriman's race. He was a New Orleans Creole man from two mixed-race parents. But during the racially ignorant first half of the 20th century, people just didn't know what to make of him.


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Today's komic strip from 2-1-1922 features Ignatz working as an insurance agent. That's not really his job but he's writing a policy for the sake of another brick-tossing zinger.

That's one Krazy Kat!

Yo! One of this bird's faves is George Herriman's 'Krazy Kat' komic strip which ran from 1913 to 1944. The strip focuses on a relationship triangle between Krazy Kat, Ignatz the mouse and Officer Pupp, a dog. Here's the rundown. Krazy is in love with Ignatz. Ignatz acts as his nemesis by throwing bricks at Krazy which the kat takes as a sign of affection. Officer Pupp tries to keep order by protecting Krazy and often locking Ignatz in jail.

The amazing thing about 'Krazy Kat' is that nearly every single komic strip is about Ignatz beaning Krazy's noggin with a brick. It's the same freaking gag over and over and over! But each strip plays it out in a new, klever way. It's brilliant!

Here is a sample from 3-8-1922 with a few interesting things to note. The strip itself for this day has a title (upper right) and the panels are numbered.


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I'll be bringing you more Krazy komics in the future and discuss other amazing things about this highly unique comic strip.