Clever. I think the OP on Youtube calls it the Ultimate Tease. It is!

Here’s my promise to you: if you don’t laugh, I’ll owe you $5. Put it on my tab.

More cartoons:

1. It’s true, a dog always upstages the actors.
2. Nancy and Sluggo-Dogs 2

For Illustration Friday, topic: Lesson.

Image via Wikipedia

I hope the kid in this cartoon learns the lesson that it’s okay to make a mistake, but it’s better to be mathematically correct.

Cartoon caption: Student and teacher look at chalkboard where kid has just written 3 plus 5 equals 7. Title: Mathematically Incorrect.

Interpretation: Obviously the title is a takeoff on the overused, and misused phrase, “politically incorrect.”

Also: Since Mother’s Day is this weekend, 2 Mother’s Day cartoons for you:

A talk radio Mother’s Day cartoon.

A political Mother’s Day cartoon.

More cartoons:

1. Glee, stop trying to teach us lessons.
2. I spy a shoe sale.

Sergio Aragones at Carney's Hot Dogs

I’ve known Sergio for many years, through CAPS and NCS when I belonged to those clubs, and occasional cartoon get togethers. He really is a fascinating man – married three times, and was a real ladies man with starlets and others in Hollywood before that. He’s charming, and a big talker – but he has the creds, from MAD Magazine mostly. Of course, those were the days when MAD was monthly, not quarterly, and they took all the contributors (cartoonists and writers) on trips around the world every year! (As well they should, since they have a really awful old-fashioned and stingy Work for Hire contract.)

Anyway, Sergio has a studio up on hot Ojai, which I visited once, on a day spa trip up there. Very fun, and so is he.

I knew from seeing a thumbnail of this that this was one of his early drawings, and so it is – 1978. From the 99Cent Chef Blog, who is a character himself, doing a roundup of hot dogs in Los Angeles.

On a much sadder note,  one of the best editorial cartoonists in our generation, Paul Conrad, died last week. I didn’t know him as well as Sergio – only briefly met him at Impolitic, a gallery in Santa Monica that we both had our work in. Impolitic had great parties, and I think he came to most of them, although he didn’t seem interested in anyone, and just wanted to chat about his cartoons. He was a great talent.

More cartoons:

1. Terrible news: Marty Murphy passed away.
2. Marty Murphy Memorial (and books.)

I do so many tech cartoons, I figure it’s time to get on Twitter and see what it’s all about.

Ya think?

This is why single panel cartoons and magazine cartoons are a dying breed. There are many cartoonists like him, using a style they learned 40 years ago, with the same type of 1950′s humor – ie, puns, a word twist, easy stuff. No thought or research required. Stuck in their own rut, afraid to try anything new. Whatever works, right?

I’m a pragmatic capitalist, so yeah, up to a point.

But it’s not art, and you’re not trying, and you don’t care, and I could never call you a good cartoonist. Even though I wish I had your income.

More cartoons:

1. Ask a cartoonist!
2. How many minority and women cartoonists are in the LA Times?