If you want to be a better writer, try skipping today’s bestsellers, and read one from the 1930’s instead. Or read something besides fiction in order to find your own metaphors and perspective. Plus, just because a city’s name...
A listener in Brazil wants to know about the source of the phrase keeping up with the Joneses, which refers to trying to compete with others in terms of possessions and social status. This expression was popularized by a comic strip with the same...
Researchers have found that stress is a leading cause of plewds — you know, those drops of sweat popping off the foreheads of nervous cartoon characters. That’s one of several cartooning terms coined by Mort Walker, creator of the Beetle...
The curved lines that follow the moving limbs of cartoon characters? Those are called blurgits or swalloops. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Comic Strip Motion Lines” Oh, by gee, by gosh, by gum, by Joe. Oh, by Joe...
Solrads are those lines radiating from the sun or a lightbulb in a comic strip, while dites are the diagonal lines on a smooth mirror. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Solrads” There are a lot more of these Mort Walker...
stripper n.— «More daily cartoonists, who call themselves “strippers” and many of whom consider themselves artists, really should consider hiring gag writers, although a few do. Just because you can draw doesn’t mean you’re...