Moments of Silence

James Brown, Gerald Ford and, er, Saddam Hussein.

Moment of Silence

Joe Barbera died.

I used to bore my Evansville Saturday lunch cronies with countless tirades about how Hanna-Barbera ruined TV cartoons. Out of respect for the dead -- and out of respect for his truly awesome "Tom & Jerry" shorts for MGM -- I'll refrain from besmirching him just yet.

Mallard Fillmore Finally Funny, Albeit Accidentally

Bruce Tinsley, the mastermind behind the brutally unfunny "comic" strip Mallard Fillmore, was picked up for DUI a few weeks ago. The blogs were all over it, of course.

The strip's fans say that those who dislike Mallard's antics hate the strip's politics, and while that certainly plays a role in my own personal irritation with it, my main gripe is that IT JUST ISN'T FUNNY. Needless to say, Tinsley's arrest was the first time he ever made me laugh.

In fact, the funniest Mallard Fillmore was a parody strip done for America: The Book:


That is, until now. This strip ran a couple of days after Tinsley was arrested:


Man, you can just taste the frothy irony mixed with deep, rich schadenfreude. Cheers, Bruce!

A Moment of Silence

Associated Press says that Ahmet Ertegun has died.

Dude signed Led Zeppelin. Respect.

Indeed

Bush has created a comprehensive catastrophe across the Middle East

This op-ed piece from The Guardian sums it all up nicely.

Borat 1 Douchebags 0

From The Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A judge rejected a request by two fraternity brothers to block the DVD release of the hit spoof movie Borat.

...The South Carolina fraternity brothers sued Nov. 9, claiming they were tricked into making racist and sexist remarks to British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

...The fraternity brothers claim the filmmakers got them drunk before getting them to sign release forms agreeing to appear in the film. Their names do not appear in the lawsuit. The film “made plaintiffs the objects of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress,” the lawsuit claims.

Superhero Footwear

Man, I love me some Iron Fist, especially the version that had his own book back in the late '70s. You know, the one collected in The Essential Iron Fist.

But I always thought the yellow ballet slippers he wore looked a little, well... faggy.

Well, it looks like Marvel did a redesign, and while the yellow split-toe combat boots are an improvement, they're not much of one.



Go team comics!