THE BETTER HALF by Bob Barnes

THE BETTER HALF was created by veteran cartoonist Bob Barnes in 1956 and syndicated by the Register and Hall Syndicate, and then by King Features until the panel ended in 2014. Two years into the feature, Barnes won Best Newspaper Panel from the National Cartoonists Society. The panel changed hands after Barnes' death in 1970

"His wife Ruth Barnes and illustrator Dick Rogers continued the strip until September 30, 1979. It then passed to Vinnie Vinson (October 1, 1979 to October 3, 1982) and Randy Glasbergen (October 10, 1982 to November 30, 2014).^[1]

"Between 1982 and 1992, Glasbergen did the strip under the pseudonym "Jay Harris," so as not to confuse publishers who were familiar with his different style of humor and character design. ("Harris" was his wife's maiden name.) As he was able to transform the characters to his own style, he began using his own name. In the process, Stanley became much shorter than Harriet and lost his scruffy mustache.

"At the end of syndication, The Better Half was appearing seven days a week in approximately 150 print and online newspapers around the world. The strip ended on November 30, 2014, after a 58-year run" - Wikipedia

Stanley and Harriet Parker spar over middle class concerns. She stays home and irons and does the wash and is a bad woman driver. He smokes his pipe, mows the lawn, complains about the bills and occasionally ogles other ladies. If the spouses aren't trading zingers with another, they are combating the many butchers, paper boys, garbage men, store clerks and others that populate the suburbs.

James Coco and Lily Tomlin portrayed the couple in an unsold 1970s ABC TV pilot. 

Here are two dozen from THE BETTER HALF book, a paperback collection published by Duell, Slean and Pearce, New York and is copyright 1963 by the Register and Hall Syndicate

 

Related: 

From the Dick Buchanan Files: Bob Barnes 1913 - 1970

 

Edited from a January 12, 2012 blog entry. I wish I could fine video of that unsold TV pilot.  

 

GREAT CARTOONS OF THE WORLD Edited by John Bailey

A selection of wordless cartoons from GREAT CARTOONS OF THE WORLD Edited by John Bailey, copyright 1967 by Crown Publishers, New York, NY. This is the first book in what became a series of John Bailey-edited GREAT CARTOONS books.


The above cartoon by Larry made me laugh out loud. There are levels of meaning here.


The cool dude is Jean Paul Belmondo from "Breathless." The kid's expression is so great, that I get the context even though the fellow in the large thought balloon is not well known these days as he would have been in 1966. A bullseye by the French cartoonist Pierre Adebert.

Zacek draws a sad desert island gag.

Czech cartoonist Vladimir Rencin with what may be termed a political cartoon about war.



The Saturday Evening Post mainstay cartoonist Henry Syverson's dynamic pen line is so animated.


Gallagher's cartoons just blast forth with his animated line work.


Vahan Shirvanian made me laugh out loud at the above 4-panel gag.


A great gag cartoon can make you think. Charles Martin's cartoon gives me cold comfort about health care. Over 50 years later, the writing still resonates.

Mordillo is one of those cartoonists who deserves to more popularly known in the States. Another desert island gag -- beautifully and joyously drawn.


Anatol Kovarsky plays on perception in this breezily drawn (no pun intended) 2-panel exercise.


And another Henry Syverson cartoon finishes up the sampling today. 

-- Edited from a blog entry from October 13, 2009.

Steve Brodner: The War on Minneapolis ... and People So Not Having It

 Via Steve Brodner's The Greater Quiet Substack: 

The attack on American city continues with ratcheting violence and propaganda laid on by the Trump-ICE gestapo and the brave people of Minnesota not backing down. They will be Trump’s undoing. That is the sound of America not having it.

 

 

There is a very good Plan to Fight Back laid out in a number of places now. Check one out HERE at Save America Movement.

It essentially is this:

In his publication of The Warning with Steve Schmidt this morning, SAM co-founder Steve Schmidt laid out our proposed 10-point action plan. See our recommendation below:

1. The Governors Must Lead: Governor Andy Beshear must immediately convene an emergency summit of the Democratic Governors Association. They must invite any Republican governor who still possesses a shred of loyalty to the Constitution over their party. This is the new front line.

2. A United Front: These governors must enter into interstate compacts to increase their collective power. They must issue a joint Declaration of Principles—a firewall against federal tyranny—outlining specific commitments to protect their citizens from MAGA aggression.

3. Emergency Sessions: Governors must call their legislatures into special emergency sessions immediately. The goal: Pass binding resolutions that affirm loyalty to the U.S. Constitution and reject unlawful federal directives.

4. Assert Sovereignty: States must weaponize every tool in their arsenal. This means hearings, subpoenas, investigations, and the strategic use of state pension funds to pressure corporate collaborators. They must assert their sovereignty to defend liberty.

5. Change Leadership Now: The Senate Democratic caucus must replace Chuck Schumer. This is a moral imperative. His leadership is indistinguishable from collaboration. We need a wartime general, not a terrified politician.

6. Topple the Speaker: The House is nearly tied. Democrats must ruthlessly exploit the slim MAGA majority. They should cut a deal to elect a dissident Republican—someone like Thomas Massie or Adam Kinzinger—as Speaker until the November election. This is the “Titanic Strategy”: help a few Republicans into the lifeboats to sink the captain.

7. Constitutional Hardball: Once the Speakership is broken, Congress must use its inherent contempt powers and the power of the purse to strangle this administration’s illegal activities. The madness stops when the money stops.

8. Boycott Collaborators: Hilton Hotels punished a franchisee for refusing to serve ICE agents. We must punish Hilton. A coordinated, massive boycott must force them to understand that collaboration with fascism carries a fatal price tag.

9. Olympic Boycott: No moral athlete should march past Donald Trump at the upcoming opening ceremonies. It will be a visual echo of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. We are calling for an athlete boycott of the parade. Do not dip the flag to a fascist.

10. Global Isolation: We must organize boycotts of the World Cup in the U.S. and urge foreign tourists to stay away. The message to the world is simple: Do not normalize this regime with your presence or your money.

The time for polite disagreement is over. The time for “giving them a chance” is dead and buried.

They have chosen to stand for violence. They have chosen lies. They have chosen to tear down the American idea.

We will not submit. We will not be intimidated. And neither should you.

Join us.

Thank you for subscribing. Sunday Challenge coming in a bit.

In solidarity,

Steve

 

 

"Dilbert" Creator Scott Adams Dies At the Age of 68

 

 

A 2014 photo of Scott Adams by Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle 

 

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip and a racist right-wing podcaster, died at the age of 68 of metastatic prostate cancer. His comic strip was dropped from syndication in 2023 after Mr. Adams made racist remarks.

Associated Press:

"His first ex-wife, Shelly Miles, announced the death Tuesday on a livestream posted on Adams’ social media accounts. “He’s not with us right anymore,” she said. Adams revealed in 2025 that he had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. Miles had said he was in hospice care in his Northern California home on Monday.

"'I had an amazing life,' the statement said in part. 'I gave it everything I had.'

"At its height, 'Dilbert,' with its mouthless, bespectacled hero in a white short-sleeved shirt and a perpetually curled red tie, appeared in 2,000 newspapers worldwide in at least 70 countries and 25 languages."

Derf Backderf on Scott Adams' legacy:

"As a cancer survivor, I would never gloat when bad people die of cancer. Plenty are, which is troubling.

"Scott Adams was a bad person, who said vile things. Relentlessly, over many years. It's perfectly ok to discuss that, as we do with the loathsome Al Capp, whose infamous self-destruction outmatched that of Adams. 

"Adams could have been remembered fondly as a guy who made a silly, very successful comic strip in the final era of newspaper comics. All he he had to do was just keep his mouth shut and his vile thoughts to himself. He, and he alone, chose not to do that. He leaned into far-right racist politics. He reveled in it. He gloated about it.

"In the end, most of the damage he did was to his place in comics history. And that's fitting.

"We look back collectively at the beloved cartoonists we've lost. Their work is still revered, and they're personally worshiped by us comics folk, and many of you civilians. Charles Schulz, Jack Kirby, Al Jaffee, Bill Mauldin, Kliban, Richard Thompson, on and on. Their work lives on. Their legacies grow and grow.

"A week from now, Scott Adams and Dilbert, on the other hand, will be forgotten and seldom mentioned again. That's his legacy, and he alone wrote it."

Laugh Parade

 

 

Here are some gag cartoons from LAUGH PARADE, a 1945 hardcover book, copyright that same year by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Ward Greene edited the collection and it was published in New York by Grosset and Dunlap. 

 

From the Introduction, titled "About This Book:"

"There are fixed standards in this world for intelligence, moral and prowess in the pole vault; there are authorities on every subject under the sun from plumbing to art. But there is no sure answer, except the individual's, to the question, 'What is funny?' In this matter every man must be his own barometer." 

Here are some groaners, some sexist, some silly, some politically incorrect cartoons of their time. 

Mischa Richter:

Jaro Fabry:

Graham Hunter:

Gardner Rea:

George Wolfe:

Virgil Partch:

George Wolfe:

George Price:

Ali:

Gardner Rea:

George Reckas:

Gardner Rea:

Mischa Richter:

Ali:

Gardner Rea:

Jaro Fabry:

Leo Salkin:

George Shellhouse:

Garrett Price: