The Cartoonist

Saturday, December 14, 2002

More things Victorian. The Internet Library of Early Journals has old magazines like The Builder (1843-1852) or Gentleman's Magazine (1731-1750) online, each page scanned as a gif file. Just wonderful, tasty, gorgeous and delicious. A few of those links don't seem to work though... 3:47:06 PM     |

I think I've mentioned this already, but just to make sure: The Orion Museum is online. And the picture on the left is rendered by yours truly, The Cartoonist. 2:53:33 PM     |

I know someone who will like this story, right, dPhilc? ThisisLondon: "Detectives are attempting to unravel the mystery of reports of a car crash that led them to discover the skeleton of a man killed at the same spot five months ago. 12:19:13 PM     |

What the Victorians did for us. A website with amusing victorian experiments. "My Dear Faraday, I would like to expound to you a phenomenon of singular curiosity, apparent during investigations into expanding the electrical spark. It affords me little joy as my discovery took the sight from Hodges right eye and I have had to dismiss him. As my last correspondence indicated, I have surmised that the experiments are deleterious to poor Hodges, his health having sharply deteriorated due, I think, to the quicksilver effluvia he breathed during leyden phial silvering. "link" 9:53:20 AM     |

Friday, December 13, 2002

Currencies. Worldwide. Still remember that paper money? Banknotes? Before Credit Cards came up? This is a wonderful gallery of currencies, even Antarctica is listed. Go and have a look. 9:35:34 PM     |

What? The old fart is still alive? Surely not. Must be a revamp then. I used to work on the Captain Birdseye account when I was at Lintas... (English readers, don't worry: it's all about fish fingers.) Der Kontakter - Der Nachrichtendienst der Kommunikationsbranche: "Käpt'n Iglo kommt ins Fernsehen - 2003 startet Langnese-Iglo eine Kampagne, die die Marke Käpt'n Iglo zur Dachmarke für Kinder ausbauen soll. Neben den allseits beliebten Fischstäbchen wird das Unternehmen im Fernsehen auch andere Kindergerichte bewerben, die "nicht aus dem Fischbereich stammen", sagt eine Sprecherin in Hamburg." Amazing. They tried all of the above more than ten years ago and it didn't work. And they tried a relaunch with a younger Captain Birdseye, which didn't work either. So why do they think it's supposed to work now? And if the art director thinks, he can have a few weeks off shooting in the Carribean: forget it. They'll film it somewhere around Norderney, where it's cheaper. I think Palmolive should relaunch Madge... (good ol' Tilly in German...) 9:07:31 PM     |

Reindeer, ok, but "chocolate-covered insects and snake wine"? Reindeer on the menu [This is London: London News] 8:57:02 PM     |

At last! Another RatSwine cartoon, done in-between meetings and presentation work! Now how is that? 4:29:42 PM     |

This is pure German, but go and have a look anyway - ::: koewi.log ::: has posted a link to a website with Donaldismen. And those are Dr Erika Fuchs' translations of Carl Barks' Duck comics: "Sinnige Sentenzen und windige Weisheiten" 2:06:46 PM     |

At present they only have George W. - but I am definitely looking forward to Richard Nixon! Talking Presidential Action Figures. Belongs into every household worldwide. I hope they'll extend the product range to German chancellors... 12:11:09 PM     |

Everything about Marxism can be found at the Marxists Internet Archive. "link" 11:16:29 AM     |

Now this is the real thing. The one and only Batmobile that matters, presented on a very extensive webpage. Blueprints, photos, stories, links - whatever you want to know about Batman's most potent secret weapon, it's there. 12:03:54 AM     |

Thursday, December 12, 2002

The Unsuspecting Tourist has a new London Underground inspired design. Nice. 5:01:58 PM     |

Found an english website about Arno Schmidt with lots of links. Arno Schmidt at the Complete Review: "Arno Schmidt is one of the greatest German writers of the 20th century -- and certainly the least well known of the top-tier authors. World War II delayed his debut, but he published furiously and extensively for some twenty-five years. Some of his early prose is still relatively straightforward -- printed like normal text, read like any other work of fiction -- but he is perhaps best known for the oversize typoscripts of his later years, including the notorious Überroman, Zettels Traum" 2:39:21 PM     |

Another Orion picture, showing one of those psychotic robots. 1:45:22 PM     |

Yes, but I like Mac rumours... The Mac Observer - Apple Sues Two People For Posting Trade Secrets: A Closer Look At The Issues: "When this stuff gets published, it often blurs the line between "news" and "leaked trade secrets," and there are often suits of the sort that Apple is laying on. In other words, this is not isolated to Apple or the Mac community, despite what some Chicken Littles might have you believe." 1:33:47 PM     |

Again I am not surprised. Werbeeffektivität der Pharmaindustrie sinkt [Pressetext: Medien] 1:26:20 PM     |

I am still very busy with that presentation I'm working on. I really can't promise any new RatSwine cartoons for the next days... 1:20:01 PM     |

Fantastic! Historic Cities: Maps & Documents: "This site contains maps, literature, documents, books and other relevant material concerning the past, present and future of historic cities and facilitates the location of similar content on the web." 12:23:30 AM     |

So when's the shit going to hit the fan then? Tomorrow? After Christmas? First week of January? World Tribune.com: Turkey deploys thousands of troops to Iraqi border"Turkish sources said thousands of military and paramilitary forces were deployed around the Iraqi border over the weekend. They said the forces were comprised of mostly infantry as well as support units." 12:13:02 AM     |

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

Another merger? Takeover? I'm getting fed up with this business. MediaGuardian.co.uk | Advertising | Japanese ad giant buys stake in London agency I'm just back from a party in a posh bar off Carnaby Street held by a London recruitment agency. It was kind of bizarre (but also a great party!): 70% of the guests there were unemployed art directors and writers, desperately trying to get at least some freelance work ("A permanent job? Fully employed?? Are you kidding?"). Like, you're sipping your free champagne and ask the person next to you: "What are you doing?" - "Oh, I'm just another unemployed Art Director". And the place was full with people like that - your cartoonist included, of course - really good designers, copywriters - all out of work. The ad industry is going downhill. Did some 'networking' though and met lots of nice folks. 11:54:43 PM     |

Tsk. Failure for super rocket. Europe's new heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket explodes shortly after launch. [BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition] 11:36:50 PM     |

And then there is this Franquin site: André Franquin 4:17:42 PM     |

The netbib weblog asked for it, so here's a repeat of my André Franquin links: First, there is the wonderful official site of Gaston Lagaffe, created by Mostra &Marsu, available in french, dutch and english. Then we have Franquin est Modeste, a website in french about Modeste and Pompon. And last (but not least) an article in english: Franquin died on 5th of January 1997. His work will live on... 4:13:32 PM     |

Laurie Anderson's amazing "here" website from 1997 is still online: Here This web project was designed with Hsin-Chien Huang in 1997 and remains on line. It was created under the auspices of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Holland. Shockwave alert. Bigtime. But worth it. More or less "schock", who posted the link to Laurie's homepage. BTW, is she still Lou Reed's girlfriend? 10:28:42 AM     |

This was bound to happen one day: Libel case could change the future of the internet. Online: Australian court gives millionaire go-ahead to sue US website. [Guardian Unlimited] 9:31:17 AM     |

A website about Don Martin with quite a few samples of his cartoons and posters. Also of interest is The Don Martin Web - both websites are horribly designed though. 9:25:13 AM     |

New Google toys. Google debuts reputation, slideshow experiments. Labs toys [The Register] 8:18:57 AM     |

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

norxu@xmbkrreckadsfjzyexgf.jp, pqkd@ebfbobpdtxstsgwvq.st, vcldysrg@fdguhudfxtndipirbi.com, oagjr@zkmcfano.pl, qvydjnxn@pltsasgnrbflvlatve.org, kjhbuse@acxgbfhadeazcjunq.nl, zegbhqgeex@iqielxecubqbpeodp.br, ioyudtsfhr@nuareowkqils.biz, fmprgk@xusqfd.de, wziugv@wsxnzq.ar, szvznugtxu@pqrpvcqouaczomtj.at, jovaheqfcn@kdnfkqychshwkpl.de, nwykzvod@adftg.ru, tlbxrj@gkfyedbibpithhcrlzwz.com, ovigal@hoavq.com, xdmclwcj@tufeqjrsqveff.de, ikuhzjg@bqbjxgz.st, nbwddvto@wvnqqzlzgtexagwo.com, zumddnch@canffqi.mil, qyerkslb@envkv.pl 11:11:38 PM     |

I am not surprised. Yahoo! News - The Who Guitarist Townshend Is Going Deaf Rock legend Pete Townshend (news) is almost deaf after nearly 40 years of subjecting his ears to his own crashing guitar riffs with the British band The Who. 9:33:08 PM     |

Robert Crumb's Philip K. Dick comic is online. The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick by Robert Crumb 9:21:10 PM     |

I keep saying so... Bloody arrogant behaviour. Quark Taking A Dive. Already on the ropes, Quark continues to give us reasons to root for InDesign. The MacEdition’s Naked Mole Rat reports... [Typographica] 9:13:03 PM     |

Santa -DEAD?! No way... BBC NEWS | England | Vicar tells children Santa is dead: "Youngsters at a Christmas carol service were devastated when the Reverend Lee Rayfield told them Santa Claus was dead." 5:33:04 PM     |

Absolutely. Hey Quark, I'm switching to InDesign! Do you hear me?! Slashdot | Reprieve for Booting New Macs With Mac OS?: "I can imagine that conversation with Jobs: 'Why don't you just finish porting your freaking product already?'" 5:23:43 PM     |

Quite right! The Guardian | Prisoners of the past It is absolutely pathetic that, more than half a century after the end of the second world war, this country is so lazy about its attitude to Germany. Even if it was ever true that all Germans were Nazis (which it was not), it certainly is not true today. Yet we remain like Basil Fawlty, unable to think about Germans without mentioning the war, and blind to the fact that this inability says far more about us, the British, than it says about them, the Germans. Thanks, Reimund! 4:39:36 PM     |

Small, but very nice website about Arno Schmidt and Tellingstedt. Tellingstedt: "Obwohl bedeutende Germanisten sich bücherweise Gedanken darüber gemacht haben, weshalb Arno Schmidt den Handlungsort seiner Novelle "Schule der Atheisten" ausgerechnet nach Tellingstedt an der Eider gelegt verlegte, ist man bis heute noch auf Vermutungen angewiesen." 4:13:56 PM     |

How to cook insects the proper way. Yuk. And be warned, the site is written entirely in engrish. "link" 3:52:22 PM     |

Brrr... London colder than Reykjavik [This is London: London News] 3:42:31 PM     |

Greek! Get your lorem ipsum there: Lorem Ipsum - All the facts - Lipsum generator: "Lorem Ipsum, or Lipsum for short, is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book." 3:40:50 PM     |

Tsk... British Library staff suspended over alleged internet porn use. Education: Nine employees at the British Library have been suspended after allegedly looking at pornography on the internet. [Guardian Unlimited] 3:34:02 PM     |

A nice article by The Unsuspecting Tourist about today's pop stars et al: "Pop Madness - If you do not live in a part of the world where Pop Idols are treated like gods, consider yourself fortunate (and where do you live?? I want to move there)." 12:02:16 AM     |

Monday, December 9, 2002

Wow. I'm impressed. system.verbs.builtins.radio.cloud.registerWithServer changed on Mon, 09 Dec 2002 22:41:24 GMT: If the server sends back a commentsPageUrl when connecting an existing user, store it in weblogData.prefs.commentsPageUrl. [Radio.root Updates] 11:48:42 PM     |

Books. Go and get them. Blackmask Online: Like Getting a Drink of Water from a Fire Hydrant: "There are 10428 books for you to choose from!" 11:46:45 PM     |

The Carl Barks Base comes with a new layout and is now available in German and English flavours: http://www.barksbase.de/ Introducktion: Carl Barks (1901-2000) was, without doubt, one of the most important comic artists ever. This site aims at gathering information on his work and making it available online. And the picture on the left is, without doubt, one of the best Barks portraits I've seen so far. 9:07:13 PM     |

Exactly! While designing a new logotype for a client, quickly a new news item from The Register: UK is a broadband slowcoach - Oftel. Oh, really? [The Register] 1:04:35 PM     |

Harry, go and get the car... I'm kind of busy working on a pitch for the next three days, so I can't promise any new cartoons. Instead a link to an especially peculiar item of German TV-history: Der Kommissar. ("I said so, didn't I?" - "Yes, you said so." - "That's what she said, Herr Kommissar") Fabulous: "Während Robert, Walter und Harry (später Erwin) ihre Schreibtische in einer Linie am Fenster haben, muß Fräulein Rehbein in der Ecke zwischen den Türen ihre Arbeit verrichten; der Kommissar hat einen wohnlichen Raum ganz für sich allein." Der Schockwellenreiter is right (as usual) about Rolf Kauka - he screwed up bigtime with his Asterix translations. But he also published Spirou and Fantasio, and Raumpatrouille, of course. Conservative and right-wing, yes, but he wasn't that bad after all. His 'Liebe Freunde' column is legendary... 11:22:16 AM     |

Scotland: Armin, you're up there at the moment! Can you have a look for us? Edinburgh fire 'could last for days'. A major fire in Edinburgh's historic Old Town may not be fully extinguished for another two days, fire chiefs say. [BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition] 9:35:19 AM     |

Strange Christmas presents. I like the inflatable church... Ship of Fools: the Magazine of Christian Unrest"Looking for the perfect seasonal gift to impress your pastor or priest? Well sing hallelujah, for your search is over! Welcome to the Ship of Fools 2002 12 Days of Kitschmas, with a choice selection of Gadgets for God.""link" 9:31:58 AM     |

Sunday, December 8, 2002

Thank God Pipex doesn't charge for bandwidth yet! Bandwidth Bill 9:17:34 PM     |

Grrr! Radio-Comments server down since this morning. Website meter down since this morning. What is going on in the states? 7:43:17 PM     |

Talking about old German comics - here's the definitely best website about Lurchi, the Salamander! I really couldn't find a better one... 1:40:58 PM     |

Rolf Kauka's Fix und Foxi. All about the 'German Walt Disney' and his creations. I actually like this small but comprehensive website much more than the official site. 10:58:01 AM     |

The famous Silk Cut campaign...Maurice, sure you don't need an art director urgently? Saatchi's Silk Cut swansong. Guardian Unlimited Dec 7 2002 5:01PM ET [Moreover - moreover...] 9:38:20 AM     |