Category Archives: Comic Art

An interview with Brooke McEldowney

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Cross-posted from Nicola Rose at Substack.

Rachmaninoff Lord Yes

Brooke McEldowney is the artist responsible for 9 Chickweed Lane, a syndicated comic strip that started out as a gag-a-day exploration of the lives of three generations of women living under the same roof – Gran, Juliette, and her daughter Edda. Now over thirty years in publication, the strip has morphed into something else entirely, with long (sometimes years-long) arcs of character development and relationships fraught with humor and pathos both. GoComics link: https://www.gocomics.com/9-chickweed-lane

Mr. McEldowney (he’s a he, yes, despite people wanting to claim that “Brooke” is a woman’s name) is also the author of the online-only webcomic Pibgorn, the wild and wooly saga of a fairy who longed to exceed her limits of lugging dewdrops and hobnobbing with bumblebees. The stories, many of which have been published in book form, have almost entirely conformed to the admonitions of Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn:

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

In other words, just go with the flow.

Is it exciting? (You gotta read this next paragraph in Peter Falk’s voice): Are you kidding? Fairies (whole and cyborg), demons, succubi, historical figures (people like Mozart), evil little girls, mechanical aliens, accordions cum weapons of destruction, film noir episodes, talking animals, hellish game show hosts… the list goes on. Don’t try to figure it out, just enjoy the stories and the captivating, luscious artwork. You can read Pibgorn here:

The authoress of the blog mentioned, who happens to be McEldowney’s daughter, pinned him down for an interview, and asked questions culled from readers across the internet. I was one of them, having been a fan of Brooke’s work since at least 2002 and possibly earlier; I’ve since met Brooke and his delightful wife a number of times and have tried to be one of his most ardent supporters in the face of some serious unpleasantness from those who should have been entirely in his corner.

Link to the current Pibgorn strip: https://www.gocomics.com/9-chickweed-lane. Because of time constraints, Pib has been on hiatus for quite a while, but it’s the artist’s intention to end the current saga and begin another. Sadly, the archives are now only available at GoComics to paid subscribers (greedy sods), but a number of Pib’s adventures (as well as 9 Chickweed Lane collections) are available at Pib Press.

Nicola’s interview can be found here. You are welcome.

Peanuts: Stereophonic-Fussing (and more)

Posted on by The Old Wolf

According to the Peanuts Museum on Facebook, the strip below was first published on January 7, 1957⁠:

Now that’s a cute strip, but I’ve also seen the following panels out there:

I’m quite intrigued by these additions, and would love to know if they are part of the same strip, or are subsequent strips, or fan-created materials. Google and Lens have been no help.

Any ideas out there?

The Old Wolf has spoken.

In honor of Spider-man Day

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I had no idea there was such a thing, but I encountered this at Imgur and after using up a box of tissues I thought I’d like to share it, just in case others have too much Kleenex™ on hand.

A touching story with lovely artwork, credits in the first frame: Peter David, Colleen Doran, José Villarrubia, Todd Klein, and Stephen Wacker.

What can I say, except “You’re welcome”?

Edit: It turns out that Leah Adezio was a real person, and a friend to Peter David. Some backstory is here, which makes this lovely tribute all the more poignant. You can also visit her FindAGrave memorial.

Darn onions.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Then there were those language cartoons.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Just a while ago I gave you some of the comic strips that made me laugh absurdly hard over the course of my life. The ones I present here were not always that kind, but they are ones that pleased my inner linguist. You don’t spend a lifetime playing with languages and not appreciate things like this.

(Some of the images enlarge when you click on them, others don’t.)

The danger of encountering a translator in the wild.
A rare skill.

On that note, I mentioned this joke earlier in a post about macaronics:


A professor of Latin at Yale, (sounds like a limerick in the offing, doesn’t it?) having ordered a meal at a fine New Haven restaurant, decided that he would like some wine with his dinner. So he summoned the wine steward and asked for a bottle of hock. Feeling clever, he added, “hic, haec, hoc.”

“Very good, sir,” replied the wine steward, and left.

Twenty minutes later, no wine. The learned man summoned the steward again, and asked, “Didn’t I order a bottle of hock?”

“You did indeed, sir,” replied the steward, “but then you declined it.”

Any part of speech can be verbed, up to and including entire paragraphs. “I don’t wanna go to bed!” “Oh yeah? I’ll ‘I don’t wanna go to bed’ you if you don’t get up those stairs!”

I, too, am very hung up on languages. And I have studied Hebrew, and Korean, and Serbian. They are all still “in progress.”

Fortunately, I never had to take “Bonehead English.” One of my favorite English classes was taught by Joe Boyle at Cheshire Academy. Hi, Joe! 😁
This one did double duty – it tickled my language bone and also made me laugh too hard. Sorry.
There’s nothing like a good language pun. Sandra Boynton is a mistress of the genre. This one is very obscure – you have to read “Aisle B loving ewe four heifers”
Johnny Hart was an inveterate punster.
This isn’t really a pun. It isn’t really a Mondegreen. I don’t even know what to call it, but it’s funny.
The Grammar Police are never far away.
If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium.

Ferd’nand had a similar problem. “My hovercraft is full of eels.” In passing, this is one of a very few strips where Ferd’nand actually says anything at all.
Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints become fluent in the language of their assigned countries over the course of time, but getting there can be a challenge.
This one reminds me of “The Polar Express,” for some odd reason.
The Chinese reads ” Wǒ ài nǐ. ” (I love you).
This Mafalda is one of my favorite translation-related cartoons.
It all started somewhere.
Another classic by Johnny Hart. He’s right, you know.
I’ll see your nuclear physics and raise you my prescriptive grammar.
Thanks to “Y Gwyll,” I have no problem pronouncing “Aberystwyth” and a host of other Welsh place names. Wonderful show, by the way, I’m sorry it wrapped up.
Whatever you do, don’t think about a purple aardvark skydiver.
Alien languages can be a hassle. How would you order a pizza with ham and pineapple if all you could say was things like “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra?”

Many others, there are in the world – but this will have to suffice for now.

The Old Wolf has spoken.