I have a large collection of cartoons, both regular and political. The collection ranges from Best Editorial Cartoons of 1974 to Peanuts and Asterix, and includes some cartoon books picked up in travels both in the US and abroad. I like to compare humor styles and I am especially excited when I find examples of humor that are localized - unique to a particular geographic region or cultural group (e.g., Footrot, a New Zealand cartoon strip). Also, for example, Tundra cartoons are interesting to me, because a good bit of their humor comes from people, animals, and situations that are especially applicable to Alaska. I have the complete collection of Gary Larson cartoons, which are absolutely great for a unit I do with upper elementary through middle school kids on making inferences. It is such a thrill for me when kids use the method (An Inference Is a Guess You Make - the early graphic organizer) to analyze Gary Larson cartoons and the meaning of the cartoon gradually becomes clear to them.
I am also especially fond of my complete Calvin and Hobbes collection, my nearly complete Zits collection, and my nearly complete For Better or For Worse collection. It would be wonderful if my salary kept up with my collecting interests.
Two of my more recent cartoon interests are Frazz and Get Fuzzy. New books from these strips will be discussed here.
99% Perspiration by Jef Mallett
The main character in this cartoon strip is Frazz, who is the custodian for a small elementary school, when he isn't out riding his bike or composing music. His main sidekick is an extremely smart young African American kid named Caulfield. Since this strip combines my interests in education and in gifted kids, it can't help but appeal to me - and it does. Just one of my favorite examples (though it might be from his other book): Caulfield says that a guy in his dad's class called him a person of color, but he wasn't sure what color he was, so he went to the paint store and got all these cards with colors on them and decided that he was "Serengeti Sunrise". The next panel shows many differently hued kids checking out their colors, too, including one young person who declares, "Woo! Hoo! I'm buff!" They also classify Frazz, the principal, and then Caulfield jokingly calls his teacher's color "Old Foghorn", but gets caught at it by Frazz. The humor is mostly gentle and childlike, with occasional jabs at the educational establishment.
I don't have a direct use for these books in the classroom, but I do find them very appealing.
Scrum Bums by Darby Conley
The main characters in this strip are Robert Wilco, who is, I think, an advertising copy writer, his dog Satchel, and his cat Bucky. Satchel is this sweet innocent character with an absolutely adorable look of befuddlement, whenever the conversation goes beyond his very literal comprehension abilities. Bucky is his sarcastic, self-centered, scheming feline counterpart. I am not a dog lover, but who wouldn't fall in love with naive, innocent Satchel. And what cat lover doesn't recognize the evil tendencies of their feline companions in the schemes that Bucky thinks up. I have two cats - the large Maine coon reminds me a lot of Satchel - with his bumbling naiveté; the small black and white devil kitty is obviously Bucky, though she isn't quite as clever - and is only about half as evil.
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