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Dropping cartoons

Editor and Publisher has an article on the disappearing of syndicated comic strips in newspapers. The NY Post dropped the few they had years ago and I stopped reading the Post after that – and for other reasons.

***Ginger Meggs comic strip by Jason Chatfield.***

The major hit was in Australia, where so many popular strips, including the 100 year old Ginger Meggs was dropped by hundreds of newspapers, all owned by Rupert Murdoch and Nine Entertainment – a problem and monopoly right there. By the way, Murdoch also owns the NY Post. I guess he just doesn’t like comic strips.

He is replacing them or enhancing puzzles and games in the newspapers rather than print the comics.

Ginger Meggs is printed on GoComics daily, and I like some of the others that were dropped, which, like Ginger, you can read online now.

Swamp by Gary Clark is a favorite of mine – when it would pop up online somewhere. You can read that online at swamp.com.au and Snake by Allan Salisbury can be seen here: snakecartoons.com/snake.htm.

I read the comics online at various sites – GoComics, Comics Kingdom and other websites and I think the majority of readers do that these days.

After so many years of trying to be syndicated in newspapers, I don’t think that’s where I want to be now. For one thing, I think it’s a precarious place to be to make a living. Every day you may be losing clients (and money), not gaining new ones and it seems that the readers are mostly online anyway.

But I do agree that newspapers should carry cartoons and comics pages for those that read them there. It’s part of life, it’s been part of all of our lives – everyone that is alive today has lived with comic strips and panels as part of their daily newspaper. As long as the newspapers are still printed and published, why not include them? They are pop culture, part of everyday life.

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I like this new boarding policy

I like United Airline’s new boarding system. I suspect many don’t.

It’s called WILMA – for window, middle, and aisle, and it starts next week.

It’s where those sitting next to the window board first. My pet peeve is that I always sit next to the window and invariably I have to deal with a person who is blocking my seat by sitting in the isle seat. The thing is, I am one of the first on the plane, I don’t know why, but I’m not comfortable until I am in my seat. Then I’m great with the rest of the flight. So even though I am one of the first on the plane, there always seems to be someone ahead of me, blocking my seat.

I had this thought just the other day when coming home from New York.

I’m always tempted to say something, but now with United’s new plan, I won’t have to.

There are a couple of drawbacks to this – first off, I’ve never flown United. I probably have flown most other airlines, but these days I mostly fly American Airlines and Delta once in awhile.

Secondly, the people who board later will complain that there is no room for their carryon bags whereas if they boarded earlier, they would have overhead space. I always put my carry on under the seat – I make it fit. I pack for that – even in winter, I manage.

People will have to buck up and deal with the new system. Until they change it back from hearing many complaints. It only seems to save a couple of minutes, so it’s not a big deal really.

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From tokens to tapping, the OMNY subway system

Looks like the NYC MTA caught up with the times.

I had written about the flaw in the OMNY system which is used for the subway and busses. It’s where you tap your phone instead of using an MTA card to pay for the fare. Instead of getting a weekly pass for $33.00, you can get the “pass” automatically by swiping 12 times in a 7 day period. It adds up the $33.00. But the problem was the system worked on a specific 7 days – Monday through Sunday. So if you started using the touch system on a Friday, for instance, all the touches/swipes from Friday until Monday, would be useless.

Now it’s any day of the week. You can start the tapping any day and for the next 7 days, it will work it’s way to the free unlimited rides after the first 12. No need to wait for Monday to start.

It should have been that way from the start, I’m not sure why it didn’t. It’s a good thing, too, because apparently in 2024 they will be doing away with the metro cards and the tapping phone system will be the only way to use the subway.

I may have mentioned this before, but I have a friend who jumps the turnstiles. I know, I know. It bothers me, too. He does it when I’m not looking because he knows I am against it.

I told him about the OMNY system – how after 12 rides the rest are free. So he tried it out. After a week he said it was a ripoff. Not because of the 7-day rule where you have to start on Monday at the time, but because it isn’t forever.

I asked him, “You thought you would get 12 paid rides and then forever after that it was free?” He said, “Yes.”

So it’s back to jumping turnstiles for him. He was recently in Boston, not sure how he managed their subway (the T) there.

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Sleepy Hollow

As we drove back down to the city from Highland and pumpkin picking last weekend, we stopped to see the Hudson River views in Tarrytown, NY, but as we wandered around, we wandered into the village next door which was Sleepy Hollow!

What a find. It’s so wonderful. It reminded me a lot of Salem, MA, but also so much of Stars Hollow, the fictional town from Gilmore Girls. So quaint and such a special place to be in the fall.

So many hills and backstreets to explore. We also explored the cemetery and all the Headless Horseman locations. One problem – so did thousands of other people. The poor little town is overrun by tourists, including us. I’m not sure how the locals deal with this.

It’s one of those good things that is ruined by crowds. But even with the crowds, it was special and I would not mind visiting again, maybe in a quieter time of year when it’s out of season.

There is so much history there starting in the 1600s, including the church and grave stones.

We had lunch at a nice restaurant overlooking the Hudson River and called it a day. Exhausted by all the walking up and down hills, but very happy. A good exhaustion.

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NY Comic Con 2023

Another October, another NY Comic Con.

Went to the first day of Comic Con on Thursday, it was a beautiful day, sunny, cool and perfect. The usual cosplayers took over the Javits Center.

I walked around for a long time looking for the National Cartoonist Society booth, the program provided by the convention, didn’t show their location. Finally found it after an hour of walking around and there was Jason Chatfield, right in the center, doing his thing, which I think was drawing and giving out autographs.

I didn’t get too close to the booth – too many people. But I’m always tempted to “talk shop” with him. I interviewed last year for my 10 With Tom column and that would be a good ice breaker, but I didn’t introduce myself last year and I didn’t do it this year.

You can see him in the group of photos above, chatting away at the booth.

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Pumpkin and apple picking

We did our usual pumpkin and apple picking this past weekend at one of our favorite places Dubois Farms in Highland, NY, in the Hudson Valley.

The leaves didn’t turn yet but it was still beautiful and fun. The temperature finally dropped into the 50s, so it felt like fall. We had apple cider doughnuts, hot apple cider and pumpkin pie. We left with a bunch of large mum plants, too.

Driving through the winding roads in Upstate New York is really wonderful. I keep thinking that it might be a great place to live. The views of the valleys and Hudson River and beautiful, too.

On our way back to the city, we stopped at Tarrytown and Sleep Hollow, what a treat that was. I’ll post the photos here in a day or so.

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At the MET in the rain

It was raining Saturday, so I headed to the MET Museum, which I probably would have done even if it was sunny. But since it was raining, it seemed like the whole city showed up, The lines to get in were endless. But since I trudged up there via subway and walked around in the rain a bit to get there, I stayed.

I did miss a couple of cool things which is weird because I’m usually in the right place at the right time, but in these two instances I was not where I should have been.

The first was a wedding proposal. I heard a loud applause in the next gallery and when I walked over, it saw that a guy proposed to a girl. I missed it, I only caught the applause and happiness part.

Then I walked into the Temple of Dendur area of the MET and I just missed a ballet performance, right up near the temple building.

Otherwise it was maddening with all the people there, but it was more fun than being out in the rain.

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I gotta rock

This recent cartoon is a play on words from “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” You know, the “I got a rock!” part.

I got a t-shirt recently with the Peanuts characters and Charlie Brown is shown saying that as the kids go trick-or-treating. I plan on waring it at NY Comic Con on Thursday.

I was wearing the shirt the other day and one of my neighbors, who reads this blog, by the way, asked me what it meant. She didn’t get it.

She’s not big into pop culture. But this cartoon been playing non-stop every October since 1966, so I don’t understand how she didn’t understand it. She’s about my age, so we have had plenty of years to see the tv show. It was funny, because I was explaining the scene to her. She asked, “You mean every time he went to another house he just got a rock? Why?”

“Because he’s Charlie Brown,” I responded.

You can get the shirt here on Amazon if you like it. It comes in different colors.

Looks like Apple tv still has the rights to the Charlie Brown specials unfortunately. I miss having the shows on CBS with Dolly Madison and Coca Cola sponsoring them.

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Finding masks all over the place

I’m headed to NY for a couple of weeks, don’t worry, I’ll take you along.

I’ll be doing my usual things – NY Comic Con, pumpkin and apple picking upstate, maybe the Oyster Festival and some other thing in the Hamptons, etc.

I was trying on a couple of jackets to see which one I’ll take. For a guy who lives in Miami, I have a ton of jackets, coats and hoodies. Not sure why.

As I tried various jackets on, there was one common denominator with each of them – medical masks in the pockets – backups I guess for when needed during the pandemic. I think I used them this summer when I traveled, but not sure. But I knew they were there, I just forgot until I put my hands in the pockets. I still have a bunch in my car, too. I don’t know why, but I guess I want to be prepared for whatever. But even when I’ve gone to the doctor’s or visited someone in the hospital lately, I haven’t needed to wear a mask, so I guess I’m just packratting. I come up on some in the house once in awhile, too. In draws, behind things, in couch cushions. And my luggage, I have some masks in pockets in my luggage. Just in case.

They may come in handy on the subway when I’m in NYC with so many people crowding the trains, but in the last year or so I’ve noticed only a handful of people wear masks on the subway.

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Meet TEX

It’s been a minute since I did a 10 With Tom interview, but I’m back. There’s a comic strip I really like and I wanted to find out about the cartoonist, Jesse Atwell, and his strip TEX.

Eight-year-old TEX was “born” on GoComics.com a year ago.

After playing with various other ideas, including a single panel cartoon, Jesse’s TEX cartoon came to be. This year the strip was nominated for the National Cartoonists Society’s cartoon of the year in the online short form comic strip category.

I love the drawing style and the coloring technique.

My interview with Jesse is here at 10WithTom.com.