The Cartoon & Poem Supplement
The Cartoon & Poem Supplement
"We’re fortunate to live in a country"
🫓
The supplement is off next week, so everyone gets it for free this week.
Poems:
“70” by Patricia Smith: Two poems by ex-journalists this week. Patricia Smith was a commentary writer, a Pulitzer-finalist1 famously fired from the Globe when she admitted to fabricating characters and stories; exactly twenty years later a book of her poetry was named a Pulitzer finalist, too. Whatever you make of that, it’s an interesting story, and Smith’s poem here, on aging, is erudite and multifaceted. She begins with the low and bodily, and gradually, as a series of “gripe”s, moves toward transcendence – while also revealing that both these modes are really on one plane. The constant verbal code-switching – re “Beyoncé’s body”, “When you’re 70, / it’s best to file that under ‘Kiss my old / decrepit ass' and go about your biz” – is funny but also welcoming, as though the speaker wants to be sure everyone can understand at least part of what she’s saying. There’s something really humanistic and compassionate about that, and paired with the never stilted iambic pentameter, one does think of Shakespeare, work pitched to hit both noblemen and beggars.
“Ichthys” by Jay Fielden: Notable fancy man Fielden is in semi-retirement, getting paid by Ralph Lauren and here writing about fish, fishing, and holiness. Perfectly decent in its musings, although I wonder what Fielden’s “lost lands” and “mauled bones” are supposed to be. Is there maybe the smallest sliver of self-pity peeking through the water?
Cartoons:
Here's where to find the cartoons, with credits, in order.
Two bests this week, to tide you over.
Cover: A photograph! For, apparently, only the second time ever. But Cindy Sherman’s work is so much about craft and editing it’s practically illustrative itself; it doesn’t immediately scan as a wild break from the norm. (The first photo was William Wegman’s similarly illustrative riff on Tilly.) Sherman’s take, with fake honker and sartorial substitutes, absolutely works; I love details like the precisely drawn eyebrow and the muttonchop-aping earring.
Pg. 21: If you’re going to be this zany, you have to be pretty funny. And this doesn’t even cross the starting line!
Pg. 26: Unconvinced by the panel-by-panel lettering choice, which just feels weird for no reason. I like the choice to present God as angry with his failures, not curious or serene. Implies that a vengeful God would probably also hate himself, which is theologically fascinating.
Pg. 29: This is interesting for one reason only: Guessing what band the guy is talking about. There are really hardly any early-00s indie-rock groups that have largely faded from relevance without scandal, disappearance, or transformation. Maybe “The Hold Steady”?
Pg. 33: I’m glad the culture issue had room for some mast media.
Pg. 34: SNL does variations on this joke like twice a season, and it’s generally not a gag that survives deep thought. The illustration sells it here, though.
Pg. 38: The M in the usual MPJ bit2 fills itself in so obviously here it defeats the purpose.
Pg. 42: I’ve heard of real projection, but this is ridiculous!
Pg. 45: His resumé’s just long because he used a double indent-mnity.
Pg. 47: So overdetermined for an overtly goofy gag! “This can’t be right” isn’t needed, the surprise marks coming from her head aren’t needed… and it’s just not that funny to begin with.
Pg. 51: Expert execution of Chast’s usual variations-on-a-theme style. One joke, five punchlines.
Pg. 52: I have genuinely had a therapist that deliberately showed up a few minutes late to get his clients feeling vulnerable. It kinda worked!
Pg. 57: Haefeli is like an old master at these the-way-people-talk-now bits; they aren’t usually my cup of tea but this is his strongest effort in quite a while. co-Best of the Week.
Pg. 58: What if a shark… had a job?!?!
Pg. 60: …😐
Pg. 64: I am using my yearly allotment of ONE panel I greatly enjoy largely because I see myself in the scenario at hand. co-Best of the Week.
Pg. 67: Not really much of a gag; this is quite factually how mosquitos are. It is funny to compare their sense of taste to ours, I suppose, but it’s hardly even an analogy; they have taste, they discriminate, and blood gets spilled in the process. There’s a reason Ruelas’ Critic looks so much like a mosquito.
Pg. 70: LED astray.
Pg. 87: Nothing amazing, but leaves well enough alone. Imagine if it said “The Birth of Nepotism” at the top, or whatever. Deadly.
Pg. 91: The concept of the hot take has not been inherently funny for at least ten years. As for the actual takes… Hell Gate does it about a thousand times better. And fluoride is more of a conspiracist thing than a hot-take thing anyhow.
62 Years Ago Today
knock me over