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The old newspaper biz

I was watching the news and a lady was on from the Detroit Free Press and it made me think of all those great old newspapers. Not to say the Detroit Free Press is an old newspaper, but it actually is, founded in 1831. They are sometimes known as Freep – which is their website name: freep.com.

It makes me sometimes wish I was around when newspapers were important, but then I would be old now, so maybe not.

When my parents were kids, NYC had 14 daily newspapers! Remember there was no tv then, there was radio, but the news came from the newspapers, which were published all day, every day.

NY had the Mirror, and The Daily News and the Journal American, The Sun, the Herald-Tribune, The Times, the Post and so many. Millions of papers were sold daily – literally millions. The Daily news sold 2 million alone daily and 4 million on Sunday!

There is something about the deadlines, and the roll of the presses and then getting them out on the streets. Every single day.

Such great old names, too – The Brooklyn Eagle, The Miami News, The Tampa Tribune, The Boca Raton News, The Hollywood Sun-Tattler, Los Angeles Examiner, Oakland Tribune, Philadelphia Bulletin, Chicago Evening Post, New Orleans States-Item, Boston Phoenix and so on. There is a long list here.

I visit some of the old sites when I am in certain areas, like NY, you know, visiting the original Daily News building or the location of the New York Herald, the New York Sun and of course Park Row and all the history there.

One fifth of daily newspapers in the U.S. closed in the past 15 years.

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Charlie Brown back on broadcast tv

After screwing up Charlie Brown for Halloween, I never did get to see it this year, Apple tv has made a deal with PBS to show A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and a Charlie Brown Christmas on broadcast tv.

PBS will show the episodes commercial free on Sundays, November 22 and December 13 at 7:30 pm eastern time both nights.

Details here on the PBS website.

Shots

Here’s today’s published comic and you know, what? I’m disappointed in myself. I forgot one big thing when it comes to shots – the vaccine shot! A reader pointed that out to me.

I should have had the ladies lined up getting vaccine shots in one of the panels.

I did this cartoon awhile back, so the vaccine and pandemic were not a thing at the time, but it would have been right on point if I had added the shots. Maybe I’ll redo it and post it with the vaccine shots once the vaccines are out.

Update: It was bothering me so much so I added a fifth panel!

Happy 200th Bob’s Burgers!

One of my favorite cartoons, Bob’s Burgers, is celebrating its 200th episode this Sunday!

Love that show. I mostly watch it in reruns in early evening now, and I’ve seen every episode more than once. I never get tired of it.

On more than one occasion I’ve been walking through a Comic Con and I hear their voices – especially Linda, the mother, I look up and there are the voices – the actual people – sitting at a table signing autographs! Iconic!

Even though it’s a cartoon, it seem so real. I want to visit Ocean Avenue where Bob and family live and work – with the small town seaside feel and the amusement park on the pier at the end of the street. It all feels so real!

One of my favorite episodes is Brunchsquatch – where every scene is drawn by fans. It jumps from character to character design, all different, but it works.

We have a little dive diner in town called Burger Bob’s and of course I always call it Bob’s Burgers by mistake, like, “Hey, wanna go to Bob’s Burgers for lunch?” It’s been around for many years, so it came before the tv version, but still Burger Bob’s is always Bob’s Burgers to me.

Walking through Starry Night

I’m seeing a reason to visit Indianapolis. Something I don’t think I ever thought of.

Why? For THE LUME’s debut at Newfields in Indianapolis. Starting in June 2021, Australian-based Grande Experiences is featuring a cutting-edge experience where you can walk among Vincent Van Gogh’s work.

You can immerse yourself in 30,000 square feet of Van Gogh, where 150 projectors will turn paintings into a 3D world.

Walk among Starry Night, Almond Blossoms, Irises and Van Gogh’s self portrait among so many others.

These images of The LUME Indianapolis are courtesy of Grande Experiences

Pretty in Pink

I watched Pretty In Pink yesterday. Yup – Andie and Duckie. 1986. How I wish I could go back to that era – my favorite time. I was flipping through channels and there it was in all it’s 1980s glory.

Watching it was like a time capsule – the sayings, the places, the fashions. I don’t think I saw the movie since the ’80s, so it was nice to see.

All of those John Hughes movies ARE the 1980s. I think the Simple Minds song, “Don’t You Forget About Me” from The Breakfast Club, is one of the THE ’80s songs. It always brings me back there when I hear it. Always.

The Brat Pack, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Culture Club, George Michael, Prince, Guns ‘n Roses, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Tina Turner, Cyndi Lauper, The Police, Def Leppard, Metallica, Talking Heads, REM, etc. So great.

Cheers, Alf, The Golden Girls, Night Court, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, Moonlighting, Remington Steel, thirtysomething, Dynasty, Unsolved Mysteries, Dallas, etc. Such great tv, too. And movies – Ferris Bueller, The Outsiders, Moonstruck, Field of Dreams, Heathers, Top Gun, Weekend at Bernie’s, St. Elmo’s Fire, and of course all the John Hughes movies.

I sometimes think that when we die, we can then travel through time. Like if we want to visit a time and place, we can go there. I would visit the 1980s, I would start on January 1, 1980 and live it through to December 31, 1989 and do it all over again.

Joe Cool

Today’s comic was a friend’s idea. He said, “Why don’t you do something with Joe Cool and Joe Biden?” I wasn’t keen on the idea at first and then started thinking about it and came up with this. It really doesn’t say much, just two figures of American culture; maybe welcoming Joe Biden as our top figure now in media, I guess. Now that he is our new prez, he is surely the main guy in political cartoons now. I know many of you don’t like when I post political cartoons, and I won’t post many, I’ll stick with my usual gag-a-day, but who knows, Cool Joe Biden may pop up once in awhile. Who knows.

I drew Biden before in another cartoon, I’m not sure if I’ve ever used Snoopy, but I’ve drawn him since I was a child, so he’s easy to do.

This other Biden cartoon was used when he was deciding to run or not, it seemed so long for him to make his decision, but I think it was longer in 2016, which is when I originally used this cartoon, I think it ran in the Huffington Post at the time.

Joe Biden and the comic strip

See this picture? It’s Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, our new Prez and VP, but look closely at Joe’s desk. See what’s behind the computer? It’s a comic strip.

A Hagar the Horrible strip that spoke to him.

With all that Biden has gone through in his life; many deaths in the family, this strip spoke to him. I love that.

Many times I wonder if people are reading comics these days. I know they are, but are comics relevant today as they were years ago? I guess they are according to ~~President~~ President-elect Joe Biden.

Gives me hope, not just for the future of comics, but for the future of our country. You gotta have a president who reads and saves comics!

This comics info on Biden came from a long Piers Morgan article in Mail Online, it talks about his phone call from Biden when his son Beau passed away, Piers had never spoken to Joe Biden before, but he knew Beau, and at that time, Biden told him about saving this comic strip. You can read it here.

This morning there was a great segment on CBS Sunday Morning about a book compliation between Steve Martin and Harry Bliss, the cartoonist. Here it is:

He’s getting away!

We keep hearing “Stop the count!” and I thought of this cartoon for today – Count Dracula getting away!

There have been memes of The Count from Sesame Street, too. Lots of funny puns and stuff.

#stopthecount – the hashtag of the week? Or maybe #trackingkornacki for the tireless Steve Kornacki. His hashtag even comes with a little icon of himself!

Visiting the past

I was talking about visiting places back in time in a previous post. It reminds me of a couple of NY stories. This image of Union Square fascinates me since I am always in that location. There are literally hundreds of pictures in that area from the past century and beyond.

Back when I read The Alienist for the first time, I started noticing something – the places written about in the book were written in such vivid detail, even directions on how to get to and from places. So I started writing them down. This was probably 1994, when the book was first published.

It takes place in 1881-82 NYC. There are tv shows now based on The Alienist, but I highly recommend the book.

The next time I was in NYC I started a little tour of all those locations and lo and behold – they were all still standing! Author Caleb Carr used current locations that were there in the 1800s. I remember 19 Washington Square South, where the grandmother lived – still there – part of those high end row houses across from the park. And Wanamaker’s store and Grace Church and all those wonderful places!

Anyway, just recently I saved an old photo of Union Square on my phone, from the late 1800s. I took the photo to Union Square and I held it up to the buildings, trying to match the image exactly. The funny part is that I had the phone basically up to guy’s face as I was searching.

He looked at me, wondering, why are you taking my picture? I showed him the image on the phone and told him what I was doing and we both got a good laugh.

I have seen so many photos of Union Square and so many of those buildings are still there and so are the statues. I also like to visit the two Andy Warhol Factory locations that are still standing at different areas of Union Square – just wondering what life was like back then.