The Cartoon & Poem Supplement
The Cartoon & Poem Supplement
"Paula, do you know where my green jacket is?"
I’ve decided that the supplement, which has previously been only for paying subscribers, will now sometimes, though not always, go out to all readers. Hi everyone!
Poems:
“From ‘The Baltic Seas’” by Tomas Tranströmer: Online is a new translation of the entire lengthy poem, which is from 1974. What’s in the magazine is part two of six. The selection is representative but not an especial highlight; the poem is strong, but the emotional release is all saved for the end. This segment lists from side to side like a craft in water, groaning from its weight; its long lines slide one way and another, but even out. That’s not a bad thing, though it’s unfamiliar; these days, poets mostly play the game of treading lightly. Kevin Young calls this poem “stark”, which is right; there are no peaks or valleys on the sea, just a long expanse.
“A Dream Dreamt by Fernando Pessoa in Which I Play the Role of Fernando Pessoa” by Momina Mela: Immensely likable. A strange discourse on our many selves and their manifestations within us – as in the title of a Jenny Hval song, “The Dreamer Is Everyone in Her Dream”. And this use of Pessoa as a sort of figurative avatar for the contemporary-dissociated-surreal condition of separation from cultural lineage is witty and wise. Mela goes in stranger directions, manifesting that surrealism and not merely gesturing toward it, so sense can’t quite be made – but that final image, of a small internal cigarette-shaped alienation cracking the whole waking world, does echo.
Cartoons:
Here's where to find the cartoons, with credits, in order.
Cover: Nice to see Queens represented, and the idea here is great. The color story and composition I’m not crazy about, though; the scene is so full of pinks and light pastels that it mutes any impact the shards of sunlight could have, and the halfway-to-one-point-perspective layout does provide an opportunity for lots of fun detail-spotting, but ends up feeling more cluttered than lively.
Pg. 10: This newsletter’s readers realized at once that it was the biggest mistake of their lives to have asked me to explain Balk’s Laws.
Pg. 15: Blurth being a square totally ruins this. They should all just be lumps!!
Pg. 16: This was actually how people were writing UI for a little bit there. There’s a reason that Oopsy Woopsy tweet had such staying power.
Pg. 20: The rare marital-stress joke in these pages that I really like. It doesn’t overdo things. Best of the Week.
Pg. 23: Putting the guy in a Yale sweatshirt renders the joke overdetermined.
Pg. 29: I sorta get it, but I don’t really get it. Kids do ask these kinds of things, they’re hard questions, and honestly, the children’s book industry should be doing more to answer them. Also, this shouldn’t have been placed so close to the Finck Sketchbook, which is telling, broadly, the same joke.
Pg. 30: Has the restraint to not include some lady mugging blankly at these offerings, and boy does it improve things.
Pg. 33 [Sketchbook]: Pretty simple joke – “these are the questions toddlers ask” – but great execution; I like the random question numbers, and the riff on types of bears is especially strong. Writing in an answer for question 96 is a big violation of the premise with little to no payoff as a result; cross that part out and this is a near-classic.
Pg. 36: Doesn’t actually do anything with its reference, it’s just lol so random humor but for intellectuals.
Pg. 41: A sequel to Who’s the Boss? called Who’s the King?
Pg. 42: It’s a funny name, but it’s not that funny.
Pg. 45: Excellent whatever-that-guy-is-supposed-to-be; sort of a combination religious leader/carnival barker. The hair and the mustache could be distractingly quirky details, but somehow they’re just right.
Pg. 46: I get that it’s supposed to be absurdist, but I do wonder if a pair of differently sized dumbbells, so that the premise would at least theoretically obey the laws of physics, wouldn’t seem even more clever.
Pg. 51: You could do a whole series of these, and most of them would be hacky; this is elevated (very slightly) by Lee drawing a stellar pea pod.
Pg. 54: The path of geese resistance.
Pg. 58: Surely this has been deliberately pegged to this year’s especially dramatic Fat Bear Week competition.
53 Years Ago Today
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