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| world issue : ◆ US / US Designs; ◆ China / Shanghai EXPO , GuangZhou World Games , China Creativity - Beijing Olympics ; ◆ Japan / Japan Comics - comment most popular books (Chn) |
Cartoons are an indelible, indigenous part of American culture. The
history of American cartooning has already been more than 250 years.
(ps1) Numerous people in the US ( & world ) taste newspaper cartoons while having
breakfast everyday. Cartoon books and materials are categorized as "humor"
section in American book stores. Many ideas of arts and designs come from
cartoons.
Below are selected from some examples I scanned the US newspapers,
magazines, and books that randomly chosen within a short time.
Comparatively speaking, European cartoons are more stylish witty.
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★ (1) Personality? or coincidence? click
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The US Cartoons |
similar |
comments |
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Two
best magazines in the US use same idea (line-chart
mouth) in their cover ― see pictures on the left. Not sure which is the most original one. In graphic design books you also can find this kind of ideas (Charts & Diagrams, 'Nigel Holmes,84).
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 original work by Rob Lawlor. |
Both cartoons use similar idea ― pic. left :Human beings as bullets for an artillery, pic. right: human beings as bullets for a machine-gun. Both cartoons are famous art-works. Left one is Biro Mihaly: A haboru borzalmai ellen, Plakat Budapest, Europe, at 1912. http://www.hnm.hu/utils/Gallery.php?ItemID=213&PicNum=9 pic. right won '83 Sigma delta Chi Award, also was selected as <Best Cartoons of the Year>.
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Beetle Bailey |
Beetle Bailey 1) The official is shouting to his dog : "Sit ! Sit ! Sit !!" 2) all soldiers beside the official "sit" like dogs. |
an old idea |
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Beetle Bailey |
1) He got 6 pack on his stomach 2) I've got A kegger ! |
1) an old joke : 6 abdominal muscles in belly vs a big
one. 2) a 6 pack - a kegger(keg) is widely heard, not sure who is the 1st one created it. |
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| BC | Don't buy a bottle of wine that has a "SELL BY" date on it. | Feb. 16, 2007 | 19 answers to "Does wine have an expiration date?" on answers.yahoo.com at June 13, 2006. |
| Non Sequitur | During a battle in ancient time, at the top of a castle's high wall, a large bowl filled with boiling water + soldiers + kitchen chef (cooker) ... | June 25, 2007 | this idea appeared earlier. |
| the Argyle sweater | In a dogs' party, drinks are in a toilet | Aug. 3, 2008 | On May 2004, toilet bowls were already shown in Toilet (Marton) restaurant in Taiwan. |
| BC | 1) what's wrong with the internet? 2) too many idiots frolicking in the surf |
April 18, 2007 | using pun "surf" (net & sea) is a widely-used idea. |
| Non Sequitur | surfing inside a bathtub | June 14, 2007 | surfing in bathroom is a very old & best known advertisement. Beside, surfing inside bath tub, jet in bathtub, etc appeared earlier. |
| Non Sequitur | Bridging the divide between race and gender - 3 bridges can not connect. | April 27, 2007 | many similar cartoons were published before. |
| Peanuts | The dog flied like a helicopter by revolving its long ears. | Mar. 16, 2007 | Peanuts used this trick again in his another cartoon. |
| The born loser | 1) The holiday season is suppose to be full of "Ho Ho Ho" 2) Why does it end up with "Owe Owe Owe" |
199X-200X | In 198X, I saw some bumper stickers on the rear of cars in Florida, displaying a parody (modified Disney 7 dwarfs' song) "I owe, I owe ..."! |
| The Far Side | "These new uniforms are a crock" ― soldiers uniforms each with a target sign ... | Oct. 30, 2000 | a shirt with a target sign ― by agency Peck Sims Mueller, 1995, or a target formed by stripes on a tiger, an early graphic design. |
| illustration, prt design, ads in magazines | computer shaped house, castle, skyscrapers, etc, or earth in eyeball, in eye-glass, in telescope, or famous one : earth in eyeball with tears, etc. | lots of similar ideas. | |
| news cartoon | Delay tactics - Sprinkle water on a small tree to hang (strappado execution) a chicken tied/strapped on the tree till the tree grow up long long time later. | ||
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★ (2) Talents?
Smart cartoonists can figure out excellent ideas by using whatever is happening or by materials around, like financial storm, etc.
Most American newspapers cartoons under the theme of Olympics during Olympics 2000, 2004, 2008 were not witty or humorous or satirical enough.
Famous cartoons like The Peanuts, Garfield, The Far Side, etc, have none or good one using front-page news - Olympics as materials. Some others have a few, but only very few of them are stylish witty, or humorous, satirical.
| The US cartoons | 2000 Sydney
Olympics (9/16/2000 - 9/30/2000) |
2004 Athens
Olympics (8/13/2004 - 8/30/2004) |
2008 Beijing Olympics (8/7/2008 - 8/22/2008) |
| BC | 3 cartoons include Olympics sign, but only 2 are really Olympics cartoons. | 6 are sports, but only 2 of them are really Olympics cartoons. | 10 sports cartoons, although Olympics logo (emblem) out there, probably only 2 are really Olympics cartoons. |
| Dilbert | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peanuts | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Garfield | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| The Far Side | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Beetle Bailey | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non Sequitur | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mother Goose | 4, but only 1 is really Olympics cartoon | 0 | 2 |
| The Born loser | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Hagar The Horrible | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Opus | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| For Better Or Worse | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| The flying McCoys | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| the Argyle sweater | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Luann | 0 | 0 | 0 |
No-talent vs. talented creativity :
| The US cartoons | content | compare smarter ideas | date |
| Beetle Bailey | Alternative fuel = 3 soldiers pushing official's jeep to move. | compare with this cartoon by Nickolaj Kapusta
of Ukraine,
which is much cleverer.
http://Courageworld.ch/VH-eu.htm
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Aug. 27, 2004 |
| Hagar The Horrible | 1) The captain teaches his soldier shield ahead will
protect him from enemy arrows. 2) soldier asked : what if the enemy is behind us, too ? (an arrow in his bottom already ) |
 A witty idea by Bess, Germany as above. China has a cartoon depicting a soldier keeps practicing shooting arrows to a target's back, is an excellent idea too. http://Courageworld.ch/V-satire-w.htm |
Jan. 29, 2007 |
| BC | 2 tracks of a ski-board passed a tree, one on left side, another on right side... but he can not pass the next tree ― he hit that tree. | Cartoon (left) is not a smart idea. <New Yorker> magazine has a similar one long time ago ― a ski-board passed a tree's 2 sides, but no solution provided in both cartoons ― how it passed. Smarter solution should be like this : he is very tall (or long legs for some reasons like circus) so as to pass the tree.
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Jan. 20, 2007 |
Some cartoons use formula (just change some variables) or cliche to get ideas !?
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the US cartoons |
content |
comments |
date |
| Garfield | 1) Should eat little less at each meal 2) I could do that ... Doubling up on the snacks |
similar to this kind of joke : low fat cake? give me double ! | Aug. 26, 2008 |
| Non Sequitur | ... Hypothesis on why the fish aren't biting ... The guy is fishing on the hole of a golf green. |
using golf hole or pool hole, etc for another sport is an old idea. | Feb. 19, 207 |
| Mother Goose | lots of cats come upon invitation "dinner with cat-woman" | not unexpected ! To relate cat woman with cats or rats etc is an easy idea. |
May 31, 2007 |
| BC | 1) How get rid of large roaches? 2) Move! |
an easy idea, not unexpected ! | May 12, 2007 |
| Beetle Bailey | The army caught a circus joker (clown) because explosives in his large shoes | I usually wear bit larger sized shoes, once airport security gave me an angry hint (I guess they have wasted too much time on watching my shoes) ; exaggeration to clown shoes is not a crib. | April 2, 2007 |
★ (3) stupid
&/ simple ideas
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The US cartoons |
ideas |
comments |
date |
| Hagar The Horrible | 1) The pirate captain asked his crews if they did plug the leak
in the bow? 2) The crew said he thought the pirate captain did ... at this time the boat is sinking ... |
too simple, no fun | April 3, 2007 |
| Hagar The Horrible | 1) A woman is trying to hook a big fish. 2) "SPLASH !" ... The woman was dragged into the sea by that big fish . |
too simple, just a slapstick | May 2, 2007 |
| Beetle Bailey | On the purpose of promotion, 2 guys searched and moved a golf ball to better place for his boss to play easier. | too simple, ordinary trick | June 2, 2007 |
| Peanuts | A kid is trying to play kite-flying , then all 4 kites were hanged on 4 trees. | not witty at all, do I need some efforts on over-interpretation? | May 1, 2007 |
| Beetle Bailey | 1) You're selling your watch? Yeah, I found I
really don't need it anymore 2) Hey, Beetle! What time is it? |
too simple | Feb. 8, 2007 |
| BC | 1) patient : do you realize I've been waiting for you
for over one hour? 2) dentist : Of course, that's why we call you patients. |
easy pun | Jan. 22, 2007 |
★ (4) cruel ideas
| Dilbert | 1) ... my head will explode 2) "KABOOM !!" 3) "Clean up on aisle there !" |
May 25, 2007 | The boss is cold-blooded ! |
| Dilbert | 1) According to my soul-o-meter, you still have 1% of
your soul 2) I'll give you a doughnut for it. Sold ! 3) Funny! how quickly a good day can become a great day ! |
April 17, 2007 | |
| Mother Goose | Using Indian people as mascot in the cartoon - Lone ranger and his faithful Indian sports mascot | April 21, 2007 | Indian people protested using them as mascot . |
★ (5) political cartoons
― Pulitzer prize winners
According to <Reporters Sans Frontieres> (RSF, Reporters without Borders, France), The freedom of press/the freedom of information 2011-2012 of the US and USA-extra-territorial ranked not too good ― world No. 47 and 57, which's worse than that of Taiwan, Japan and Korea.
After viewing Pulitzer prize cartoons (the best news award in USA) from 2006 to 2011, I do hope some nice-heart political cartoons already helped USA & this planet moving ahead. Fighting against bad politics is respectable.
But from artistic view, I also found :
1. Most Pulitzer prize cartoons heavily rely on words to speak, some cartoons need lots of words, drawings (the visual part) can't function independently, and play just (very) minor role.
2. Most cartoons focus on reporting/commenting a major issue/story, instead of creating a big idea. The piece of cartoon has little value without the news. The editorial cartoon itself can't attract people, in contrast, many European gag cartoons of humor & satire do attract people, in addition to brief a major news.
e.g., Compare some gag cartoons below with a Pulitzer prize cartoon in 2006 ― a SOS hand (New Orleans) in the sea, but the rescue staff (the US gov.) said "Just a sec ! I misplaced my whistle" .
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M. Velickovic
Yugoslavia
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A. Borigen Israel http://courageworld.ch/ENG-courage-contest.htm |
3. Some seemed an old idea, e.g., The Pulitzer cartoon of 2008 "I looked the man in the
eye, I was able to get a sense of his soul, Bush on Putin" ― A Russia sign in the eyeball. In the past
years, many cartoons, illustrations, prt. designs showed similar ideas,
e.g., an Africa map in an eyeball, or well known one ―
world on eyeball, eye with tears.
This idea : Taiwan shaped eye (the map looks like an eye) + communist China
in the eyeball, is better, if the assumption of political reality is correct.
4. Some Pulitzer prize cartoons may provide with more knowledge, e.g., a best cartoon in 2006 expressed a housewife faced a big eye (looks like CBS logo) in her TV and said scary "I hope this is CBS"......(omitted) This is a good cartoon, actually American government has tech. to spy on Americans by TV, computer, cell phones, etc in civilian's room or handy around Americans .
ps: 100+ cartoons data ref. to <about.com political humor>, "pulitzer prize-winning cartoons"
'06-'11.
★ (6) Ability?
New York ad. festival (one among largest ad festivals in the world), SigGraph (one of largest animation contests), etc, selected some old (or similar to old) ideas as winners.
★ the ending
Lots of
suspect cartoons appeared in cartoon world, some golden award was revoked
(China's biggest title - golden monkey), some European events winners were
publicized in European's FecoNews, some (e.g., Japanese Yomiuri int'l cartoon
contest, offering world highest money price, attracting most artists attended )
winners were publicized in this web-site.
Drawing similar or same ideas can be any possibilities, e.g., bad behavior, stealing, crib, or
just coincidence, sleeping effect, but people may doubt those author's or/and media's
ability, personality, talent, etc.
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pic. :
This web-sites group was
ranked No.1 on Yahoo search engine of USA by keyword "comment designs by
USA", 2022-12-9 |
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ps: Cartoon America: comic art in the Library of Congress, by Harry Katz. ps2: Olympics cartoons ref to China Post.
