Out of Sorts

I'm out of sorts. Just a nasty cold. I'm on the couch with the cats, making a fire in the woodstove and watching an old Powell and Pressburger movie ("The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp"). The blog will resume.

Panels and Prose Video: Reprinting Alley Oop with Chris Aruffo

Chris Aruffo just finished an impressive run reprinting all of the Alley Oop comic strip dailies from the early 1930s through the 2000s. 

Chris Aruffo''s Alley Oop library is available at http://www.aruffo.com/alleyoop/

 

New York Times: The Real Horrors of America by Lynda Barry

 

Lynda Barry writes about horrors in the movies and in real life. I have gifted the comic from the October 31, 2025 New York Times so it's not behind a paywall.

Berndt Toast Gang Luncheon October 30, 2025

 

Here are some photos from last week's Berndt Toast Gang get together. We bring a spooky drawing (I offered up my Let Me Out original.) and raise some money for charity. That's Bunny Hoest, me and Karen Evans.

Thursday brought together the Halloween Berndt Toast Gang get together. It's a Halloween tradition first created by Bill Kresse back in the day. So many wonderful, talented friends. The fact I don’t get to see these faces as often as I would like to made it all the more dear. Grand to see National Cartoonists Society president Karen Evans and Mark Habegger, who flew out from California. Thanks especially to Jim Salicrup and Sarah Booth for making the time to attend.

Jim Salicrup and Sarah Booth.

Francis Bonnet and John Reiner.

Roberta Fabiano, Carmen D'Adamo and Bunny Hoest.

Mark Habegger and Andy Eng.

Adrian Sinnott and Karen Evans.

Mike Lynch Cartoon: Let Me Out

 

When I just started drawing strange cartoons that I thought were funny, that was when they began to sell. Here’s an example of a cartoon of mine that was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

I will be away for a while from this here blog. Just a short time and then I plan to be back. 

The 125 Year History of the St. Louis Weatherbird Exhibit

 

Original illustrations by the artist Albert Schweitzer, who drew the Weatherbird until 1986 when cartoonist Dan Martin took over. Photo: Whitney Curtis for The New York Times

 

The Weatherbird cartoon has appeared The St. Louis Post-Dispatch front page every day for almost 125 years.

"The Weatherbird, considered the oldest, continuously running daily cartoon in American journalism, is the subject of an exhibit, 'Behind the Feathers: A Century of Weatherbird History,' which opened in June and runs through Feb. 15 at the Field House Museum in downtown St. Louis.

"The exhibition includes drawings of the Weatherbird over the decades, profiles of the artists who have drawn him, Weatherbird collectibles, fan art and instructions on how to draw the Weatherbird on your own." -- A St. Louis Bird That Crosses Divides Gets His Own Show, New York Times, by Valerie Schremp Hahn. I have gifted the article so it's free from its paywall and you can read it. 

 

It's the longest continuously running newspaper comics feature ever. Dan Martin currently draws the Weatherbird. He's been doing it for the past 27 years.

 

 

A Mike Lynch Cartoon: Protest Signs

 

Sometimes I'm asked if I am a political cartoonist. I was just asked this last week. I say I am more of a person who comments on society. Like all cartoonists, I would like to make a point but I also want the cartoon to be funny. I don't get to decide that. Only the editor and then the reader does. But since this here blog is editor-less, then it's all up to you, the reader.