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Three from the New Yorker
Two from the 2/29/16 issue, one from the 3/7/16 issue, all having to do with language, but in different ways. Michael Maslin (who’s appeared here twice before) on the 29th, with the opposite of...
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Where is he now?
(Mostly about tiki stuff, but with some initial talk of hot-hot man-man sex, which you should skip over if you’re modest about such things.) A week ago, in “Sex comics: Brad Parker / Ace Moorcock”, I...
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More tiki!
By fortunate coincidence, today’s Zippy, with its tiki figure transformed into a salt shaker, comes on the heels of my posting of the 2nd, on Brad “Tiki Shark” Parker and the pop culture phenomenon of...
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Kookie Zippy
Today’s Zippy goes back to 1962 and Kookie comic book #1: (#1) — meanwhile, engaging in a battle of beatnik poetry with the character Bongo from Kookie. (Another in a long line of Zippy strips on...
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Most unusual ties
Juan Gomez, surveying some of the penguiniana at Ramona St. (there is even more at Staunton Ct., where I’m trying to clear things out), noticed this very handsome silver and black tie on display in my...
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Crate labels
Continuing the story of commercial art forms in popular culture that started with tie art this morning (“Most unusual ties”, here): the art of crate labels, for shipping fruit, vegetables, and other...
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Two tests in cartoon understanding
From the July 2016 issue of Funny Times, two cartoons that are real tests of understanding, the second more so than the first. From Bob Eckstein, a cartoon that is funny on the grounds of sheer...
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The fallen V
In today’s Zippy, Bill Griffith continues his long exploration of American pop culture, especially roadside culture — diners, motels, and (very often) big fiberglass advertising figures: (#1) (Note...
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Word play for 7-11
Three cartoons today (July 7th, or 7/11 in American usage; this will be important): a perfect pun (from Rhymes With Orange), using an ambiguity in local; a more distant pun (from Mother Goose and...
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The giant lava lamp of Soap Lake
(Not much about language here, just weirdness.) Today’s Zippy, with a bow to a novelty item of the 1960s and a modern piece of visionary Americana: (#1) This being a Zippy strip, of course there is a...
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Arthur Godfrey and friends
Today’s Zippy appears to be just a surrealist melange of pop-cultural absurdity (and can be enjoyed at that level), but in fact many of those absurdities are knit together in a web of allusions to...
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“What you done, sunshine, is criminal damage”
The 1975 quotation (in Green’s Dictionary of Slang) is from a (British working-class) policeman, who “levelled a finger at” a man and made this accusation. My interest here is in the address term...
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Return of the Sam Gross balloon dog
In the latest New Yorker (September 12th), Sam Gross’s clown and his balloon dog return to the magazine: (#1) Oh no! Not the chair! Another wordless cartoon, like the earlier one posted here on...
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Beefcake on screen
(Little of academic or social significance, but mostly about shameless displays of the male body. Not, however, X-rated, either visually or verbally.) A while back, links on Facebook to Hollywood...
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A conundrum
From Kim Darnell, this puzzle, which she found on Tumblr (no one seems to know the ultimate source, as is usual in such things): (#1) You can see this as a puzzle, or you can see it as a wordless...
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Barebackula
(About gay porn, but without explicit images — these are in an AZBlogX posting — or even detailed discussion of man-man sex, but men’s bodies and sex between men are certainly topics of this posting,...
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Two cartoons for month’s end
.. and Halloween, though, pleasingly, neither has anything to do with All Hallows’ / All Souls’ / All Saints’. A One Big Happy that’s a study in American (and Antipodal) phonology; and a Zippy with a...
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Giantess Jackie
Today’s Zippy takes us back to Kennedy Camelot times (January 1961 – November 1963), through the medium of a gigantesque Jackie: (#1) This is Bill Griffith’s work, so there is of course an actual giant...
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Seward Johnson
It looks like the bots at Pinterest are doing a pretty good job. Thanks to my having posted, in “Giantess Jackie” on the 2nd, a bit about Seward Johnson’s “Forever Marilyn” statue in Chicago, this...
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The shop of many things
Today’s Zippy, set in a place that’s hard to trace: (#1) Steeped in popular culture. It’s a launderette (possibly with some connection to a bus terminal or an airport terminal or computer terminals),...
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