Kevin Siers: You Write The Caption

The new cartoon caption winner

The winner:

"You have to understand, Charlotte only gets a real snowfall every four years too."

-- Tracy Poole of Charlotte

The runners-up:

“It’s the new freestyle competition!”

-- Carolyn Hudson, Columbia, S.C.

"The real winners were the grocery stores."

-- Bolyn McClung, Pineville

“And the cold medal goes to …”

-- Mark Loper, Concord

“I miss steroids.”

-- Lee Baber, Charlotte

"Oh, Canada."

Doug R. Cox, Albemarle

"This almost makes curling seem athletic."

With variations, from many, many readers

Thank you for all your entries. As usual, feel free to discuss any of this in our "Comments" section.  Just click the blue link below this post and add your observations or additional captions!

Here's a selection of some of the other lines we received:

"Three new events for 2014. I am surprised that windshield scraping didn't make the cut."

"They rented the podium."

"I heard Minnesota is suing over the Southeast's sweep of winter."

"It's about 'wheather' or not you're a good sport."

"The Summer Olympics have added Tanning, Cruising and Funneling."

"It's FoxTV's alternative version of those elitist games on NBC."

"These were the only tickets Bill James could get me."

"Don't you think the media is overplaying a Charlotte snow just a bit?"

"It’s the South’s answer to the Jamaican Bobsled team. "

"After snowboarding, I knew this day would come."

"You have a very competitive family."

"The Charlotte Winter Olympics get better and better each and every year."

"It's the new 'Anything-Else-You-Could-Possibly-Do-In-Winter' category."

"I knew the IOC made a big mistake awarding the Winter Olympics to Charlotte".

"The thrill of victory just isn't what it used to be."

"'Deer Hunting' was fourth and 'Watching ACC Basketball' was fifth."

"Everyone loves a winter."

"That's what happens when you leave the judging to a political cartoonist."

Join us again Monday, March 1, for a new cartoon caption challenge.

Your new challenge: Feb. 22, 2010

Welcome to You Write the Caption, the Charlotte Observer cartoon caption contest, an opportunity to test your wit and win a prize. Each Monday, Observer editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers will post a political cartoon that needs a caption and invite readers to write one.  To learn more about our contest and see our caption writing guidelines, please click here.

Submissions must reach us by noon, Wednesday, Feb. 24.

Enter as many times as you wish.  To submit your caption on-line, just click here to e-mail us.  (Or address your e-mail to caption@charlotteobserver.com)  Please include your mailing address and daytime phone number. To mail your caption to the Observer, address it to You Write the Caption, Editorial Department, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308. 

  For a discussion about last week's winners, please see the "Comments" section below the previous post.

The new cartoon caption winner: 02/19/10

The winner:

“I think having a communications director shows he takes the job seriously.”

-- Mike Monroe of Charlotte

The runners-up:

"As 'communication aide', my first challenge will be to explain my exorbitant salary."

-- John Bradey, Matthews

"Someone is wasting taxpayer money, but I can't put my finger on who it is!"

-- Doug R. Cox, Albemarle

“I would never sound bite the hand that feeds me”.

-- Charles Smith, Charlotte

"Now, all I need is a 'right-hand' man."

-- Curt Lord, Charlotte

Thank you for all your entries. As usual, feel free to discuss any of this in our "Comments" section.  Just click the blue link below this post and add your observations or additional captions!

Here's a selection of some of the other lines we received:

"Thank you, Keith Larsen!"

"As usual, the mayor has something up his sleeve."

"It's not easy being screened."

"This announcement about responsible government is brought to you by my $70,000 dollar sock puppet."

"Due to budget concerns, I will be taking over as communications director."

"What's $70,000 when we have a $16 million deficit?"

"Who just called me a knucklehead?"

"No comment."

“It’s hard for me to function without strings attached.”

"Sock it to me!"

"Talk to the hand."

"Read my lips."

"It's another government hand-out!"

"They wouldn't give me the $70,000 so I had to come up with another solution."

"This is a $70,000 cashmere sock!"

Please join us again Monday, Feb. 22, for a new cartoon caption challenge.

An Inbetweener post: 'Judge Parker' artist 'gravely ill'

If you noticed the sudden, dramatic difference in the art of the 'Judge Parker' comic strip this week, there's a sad explanation:  Eduarto Barreto , who has drawn the strip since 2006, is seriously ill.

Barreto is "gravely ill. He has told us he will not be able to [draw the comic for] the foreseeable future." says Woody Wilson, the longtime writer of the strip (and also of 'Rex Morgan'), according to Michael Cavna, who writes the "Comic Riffs" blog for the Washington Post.

This also from Cavna's blog:

King Features Syndicate, which distributes "Judge Parker," says that Barreto is sick and that there's "a temporary replacement" artist.

"We are, at this moment ... conducting a search for another artist," Wilson says by phone from Phoenix. A family member says that Barreto, a Uruguayan resident who is in his mid-50s, has meningitis, Wilson says.

"Two weeks ago -- this came on suddenly -- he had to go to the hospital" in Montevideo, says the writer, adding: "Eduardo sent us a note saying he wouldn't be able to continue."

Barreto, one of the comics page's flashiest stylists, has also drawn for DC Comics, Marvel Comics and Oni Press. Among his recent releases is the Dark Horse Comics graphic novel "The Escapists," created with Brian K Vaughan, Philip Bond and Steve Rolston. He is widely known for "The New Teen Titans," as well as "Superman" and "Batman," "Marvel Knights" and Dark Horse's "Aliens vs. Predator" and "Star Wars."

Barreto took over artistic duties for "Judge Parker" from Harold Ledoux in May 2006. Shortly after, he spent some time in the hospital after a very serious car accident and the strip needed to get a "ghost" artist during that period, Wilson says. The replacements included "Rex Morgan M.D." artist Graham Nolan and John Heebink.

"It's a sad loss for all of us," not having him do "Judge Parker," Wilson tells Comic Riffs. "Eduardo brought a sex appeal and panache to the strip and that was needed. ... It's all we can do that the person who takes over 'Judge Parker' will be able to do what Eduardo has been able with this strip. It's really come alive. It's really what these continuities need. The artwork has to be beautiful and appealing and to draw people to the page and be able to tell a story." Wilson, who inherited the strip decades ago from creator Nicholas Dallis, adds of Barreto: "His love of drawing beautiful women brought something to the strip -- like in a story last year involving Dixie Julep [a murderous topless dancer]. He drew so appealingly, every woman would get more voluptuous."

Cavna has a lot more info on "Judge Parker" and Barreto (including a interview [in Spanish] with the cartoonist) on his blog.

Your new challenge: Feb. 15, 2010

Welcome to You Write the Caption, the Charlotte Observer cartoon caption contest, an opportunity to test your wit and win a prize. Each Monday, Observer editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers will post a political cartoon that needs a caption and invite readers to write one.  To learn more about our contest and see our caption writing guidelines, please click here.

Submissions must reach us by noon, Wednesday, Feb. 17.

Enter as many times as you wish.  To submit your caption on-line, just click here to e-mail us.  (Or address your e-mail to caption@charlotteobserver.com)  Please include your mailing address and daytime phone number. To mail your caption to the Observer, address it to You Write the Caption, Editorial Department, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308. 

  For a discussion about last week's winners, please see the "Comments" section below the previous post.

The new cartoon caption winner: 02/12/10

The winner:

"I am sure it is just CMUD telling us the problem is still on our end."

-- Steven Meckler of Charlotte

The runners-up:

"Two-for-one coupons!"

-- Bolyn McClung, Pineville

"They'll use any excuse to raise the storm water tax."

-- With variations, from a multitude of readers

"Our mortgage is really underwater!"

-- From many, many readers

"I hope this isn't a recall letter."

-- From several readers

Thank you for all your entries. As usual, feel free to discuss any of this in our "Comments" section.  Just click the blue link below this post and add your observations or additional captions!

Here's a selection of some of the other lines we received:

"These recent weather reports are for the birds."

"If you don't enter, you can't win."

"I forgot my iPhone."

"We're getting internest reception again."

" I'll have to read between the lions."

"It's a tweet."

"G-mail!"

"What does PETA want now?"

"It must be from Obama -- apparently he can't walk out here, after all."

"Move to Charlotte you said, the weather is better."

“I won the Super Bowl pool.”

"Fan mail from some flounder?"

"Well, that's one way to get captions in when the server's down."

Your new challenge: Feb. 8, 2010

Welcome to You Write the Caption, the Charlotte Observer cartoon caption contest, an opportunity to test your wit and win a prize. Each Monday, Observer editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers will post a political cartoon that needs a caption and invite readers to write one.  To learn more about our contest and see our caption writing guidelines, please click here.

Submissions must reach us by noon, Wednesday, Feb. 10.

Enter as many times as you wish.  To submit your caption on-line, just click here to e-mail us.  (Or address your e-mail to caption@charlotteobserver.com)  Please include your mailing address and daytime phone number. To mail your caption to the Observer, address it to You Write the Caption, Editorial Department, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308. 

  For a discussion about last week's winners, please see the "Comments" section below the previous post.

The new cartoon caption winner: 02/05/10

The winner:

"Kindle lives!"

-- Bolyn McClung of Pineville

The runners-up:

"Your blackberries are poison now!"

-- David W. White, Charlotte

"Show me something I haven't seen before!"

-- Timothy Busam, Cary

"Fairest?  Who's 'fair' anymore?"

-- Charles Randall, Cherryville

"The fairest of them all?  Steve Jobs!"

-- From several readers

Thank you for all your entries. As usual, feel free to discuss any of this in our "Comments" section.  Just click the blue link below this post and add your observations or additional captions!

Here's a selection of some of the other lines we received:

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall, do I need this iPad at all?"

"You've given Apple a bad rap!"

"Taylor Swift is the fairest of them all!"

"We don't have a poison app for that!"

“Google and Adobe are Grumpy!”

"Sorry my lying app hasn’t been perfected yet.”

“Who’s the fairest?!  You’re looking at it.”

"Beauty is only screen deep."

"The next generation will have wings."

"But I already bought a $%^&* Kindle!"

"My real name is  'Hal 9000'. "

"No Comment, Mrs. Gates."

"Honey, this is not what I asked you to get for me from the drug store."

“iPad, iPad on the brick; do you have more to offer than iPhone shtick?”

Please join us again Monday, Feb. 8, for a new cartoon caption challenge.

The J.D. Salinger of the comic strip world

One of my favorite images of editorial cartooning comes from a quote by Bill Watterson, the creator of the much-beloved comic strip 'Calvin and Hobbes.' Before he developed 'Calvin', Watterson worked as an editorial cartoonist for the Sun newspapers, a group of smaller Ohio papers.  He later said one reason he stopped editorial cartooning and tried his hand at comic strips was that "an editorial cartoonist has to wake up every morning foaming at the mouth" and he felt he just couldn't sustain that. 

I'm not sure an editorial cartoonist has to foam at the mouth (though some days, it does help), but the world is grateful that Watterson made the switch.  Many folks still list 'Calvin and Hobbes' as their favorite all-time favorite strip, and it was a shock to many when Watterson abruptly retired from the comic pages 15 years ago.

Even while at the peak of his popularity, Watterson was notorious for protecting his privacy, and folks have heard even less from him since then.  Now, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has published an e-mail interview with him, perhaps the first since that retirement. True to form, Watterson doesn't actually say much.  The gist is pretty much, "Thanks, but I've moved on."  That will probably keep the fascination going.

During the strip's lifetime, Watterson would occasionally talk about his vision of the comics pages.  He expressed his irritation with newspapers shrinking comic strip space, artists who would license their characters to corporations, and newspaper syndicates who would keep running strips long after their creators had anything to say (or even had a heartbeat).  His retirement was a logical extension of his strong beliefs about cartooning, and the Plain Dealer interview does reveal that he hasn't changed his mind in that regard.  He says:

"It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now 'grieving' for 'Calvin and Hobbes' would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them. I think some of the reason 'Calvin and Hobbes' still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it"

It was a salutatory gesture, but it will be a long time before newspapers find a "fresher, livelier talent."

For the complete interview, including links to some of Watterson's early editorial cartooning work, click here.

Your new challenge: Feb. 1, 2010

Welcome to You Write the Caption, the Charlotte Observer cartoon caption contest, an opportunity to test your wit and win a prize. Each Monday, Observer editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers will post a political cartoon that needs a caption and invite readers to write one.  To learn more about our contest and see our caption writing guidelines, please click here.

Submissions must reach us by noon, Wednesday, Feb. 3.

Enter as many times as you wish.  To submit your caption on-line, just click here to e-mail us.  (Or address your e-mail to caption@charlotteobserver.com)  Please include your mailing address and daytime phone number. To mail your caption to the Observer, address it to You Write the Caption, Editorial Department, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308. 

  For a discussion about last week's winners, please see the "Comments" section below the previous post.