Top Hat and Feathers

Monty is one of my favorite strips. I'm especially partial to Fleshy, the furless psychotic cat seen here performing some rabbitless magic.  The strip, which started off as Robotman, has been running for over 25 years now and was originally started by United Features Syndicate to tie in with a toy merchandising campaign. Jim Meddick was asked to draw the strip after a young Bill Watterson turned the opportunity down.  He went on to create his own strip Calvin and Hobbes.

Hotel Melancholia

Here are this week's strips about Trixie's battle with depression and a failed world although of course her salvation is a sense of humor and a passion for the arts which is pretty much my view.

Ta-Daaaaaaaaaaaaa Against magic

Yesterday's Pearls Before Swine features a nice magic rabbit panel.  I'm fascinated by Stephan Pastis's development as an artist.  The longer he draws his strip the more adept he becomes at rendering his characters in what is now a totally individual way.

Magic Books

Thanks to Superpunch I just discovered the art of local artist Marilyn da Silva. The piece above is called "The Trouble With Magic".

Frogs in Suits Against Magic

The great animator and too-talented-to-be-human Joe Murray has started his own YouChoob channel featuring his new too-edgy-for-TV character Frog in a Suit, best viewed if you're not sipping a beverage or if your computer has been rigged with a protective waterproof screen.  He's already posted two episodes (curiously starting with number 34) of hilarious shorts.  Joe is most famous for Rocko's Modern Life and  Camp Lazlo.  Trivia fact: the animation was done at Michael Jantze's studios, he of The Norm!

Frog in a Suit - Episode 34  "All Bussed Up"

Frog in a Suit - Episode 35  "Tricky Business"

Wow!

They don't make magic acts like they used to.

Poetry Against Magic

My dear friend and fellow cartoonist Kap reminded me that today is World Poetry Day.  It's a UNESCO sponsored event to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world.  Here's to words making life on this planet amore tolerable [clink].

Red Scare Against Magic

In the wake of the McCarthy-like House Homeland Security Committee Meetings on the supposed radicalization of American Muslims and homegrown terrorism last week I present this gem of a novel by Vargo Statten from the red scare era of the 50s when we faced a much more terrifying and imminent threat... giant socialist insects.

Lazy Cartoonists Against Magic

Today's Pearls Before Swine implicates that today's Rabbits Against Magic strip was a result of laziness.  It's the first time in nearly three years I've used a "dark room" gag and it had to coincide with this high profile "outing" of a cartoonist's favorite short cut. Curse you Stephan Pastis.

Incidentally the excellent Pearl Blows Up, the fourth Pearls Before Swine treasury now available at Amazon for 36% off!

Not Your Father's Magic Rabbit

This is from the cover of a book by Clayton Rawson called "The Magical Mysteries of Don Diavolo".  The eponymous hero of the novel is a stage magician who uses his magic skills to solve crimes. Surely an important and much overlooked work in the ever expanding magician detective genre.

Rabbits Against Radioactive Fallout

I draw my strips about a month ahead of publication time so this ill-timed radiation-themed strip that ran on Monday was completely unintentional, as I'm sure was today's Shoe.

Since San Francisco is directly in the path of the low level radiation wafting from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant this week, I'm more than a little concerned despite the padding of the Pacific Ocean in between.  Still, we have little to worry about compared with those dealing with the enormous catastrophe in Japan. My best wishes and thoughts go out to everyone affected by the tragedy.

Little Monsters Against Magic

Does that wooden fence look familiar?  I'm honored to have been "ripped off" by the great Lawrence Roufail in his excellent Little Monsters webcomic.  He writes a charming web post about it here.

Black Rabbits Against Magic

Here's a submission from Jason Limon (no relation) for a new exhibition at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles.  Over 100 artists are included and each one is an interpretation of the black rabbit Inlé , the anti-hero from the 1972 book Watership Down by Richard Adams.

According to Wikipedia:
"Inlé is a sinister phantom servant of the god Frith who appears in rabbit folklore. He is the rabbit equivalent of a grim reaper in human folklore, and similarly ensures all rabbits die at their predestined time. "Inlé" is the Lapine term for the moon or darkness".


Here's the poster:

I read and enjoyed the the book as a child despite its over religious symbolism and actually visited the hill in Hampshire, England where the story supposedly takes place although I remember hating the subsequent Disney movie version.  Here's another contribution from the wonderfully named Bob Dob.

Fester Head

Sam Gross is one of my favorite New Yorker cartoonists.  There's a fabulous career-spanning interview him over at the Comics Journal Blog this week including some background behind his famous frog cartoon  heralded as one of the most famous gag cartoons of all time.

Peter Cottontail Against Magic

A lovely little video from UPA and Castle Films, worth watching just for the psychedelic gunshot animation towards the end.