Wednesday Overnight Open Thread - August 20, 2025 [Comic Rex]

Good evening Horde. The time has come for mid-week shenanigans of the overnight variety.

Welcome to the Wednesday night ONT. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors.

"See you in the funny papers..."

Has anyone under the age of 29 ever heard that way of saying goodbye? Does anyone under the age of 29 even know what that means?

There was a time when comic books captured the imaginations of youth. There was also a time when comic strips were the best part of a newspaper. (Does anyone under 29 know what a newspaper is?) Comic strips are an extraordinarily difficult dance between visual art, story telling, and clever humor.

Sadly, many were more interested in edgy social commentary that showed they were on the correct team and got them accepted into the correct social circles.

These aren't the "best" or the "funniest," but a few samples to give the commenting Horde something to digest.

Which comic strips were or are your favorite?

Three stand out as the kings of the category for TRex. Each brilliant, but each unique and compelling with an incredibly deep portfolio of work.

Calvin and Hobbes

The Far Side

Dilbert

The Peanuts gang elevated themselves beyond the comics and embedded themselves into popular culture in so many ways. No single panel can adequately represent the breadth of characters and story lines, but Snoopy carved out his own following.

Honorable mentions:

How to make a pillaging Viking endearing. (Maybe a Club ONT reference??)

Has anyone ever actually seen Beetle Bailey's eyes?

Cathy did the challenges of single female adulthood long before it became a thing on TV and social media. Ack!

Nancy and Sluggo:

The Family Circle was about as wholesome as humor could get:

Opus and the gang from Bloom County deserve a mention. The cartoon had a wide range of absurd characters and story lines and riffed on public characters and news, but I can't recall how much it was infected with woke. I fear the woke disease may have simmered beneath the surface and emerged at times, but the Horde can opine.

A young TRex was enamored with Garfield at one point, but in reviewing material for this content, I'm not sure why.

"Life in Hell" from Matt Groening preceded the Simpsons. It was irreverent and weird and unique and deserves a mention.

What else is out there? Wizard of Id? Prince Valiant? Dennis the Menace? Marmaduke? Li'l Abner? Ziggy?

Wholesome (but distressing) content:

Its the most wonderful time of the year!

Cinema news: Joe Caroff, Designer of the James Bond 007 Logo, Dies at 103

Joe Caroff, the unheralded graphic designer whose iconic creations included James Bond's 007 gun logo, posters for West Side Story and A Hard Day's Night and typography for Last Tango in Paris, Manhattan and Rollerball, died Sunday. He was 103. Caroff died one day short of birthday No. 104 in hospice care at his home in Manhattan.

Tributes paid to the James Bond 007 logo designer Joe Caroff

Joe Caroff designed the famous logo - which features a gun as the 7 - for the first Bond film, Dr. No, in 1962. He was paid $300 and it was originally meant to be used as a letterhead for the studio's press release. But it has gone on to be used in every subsequent Bond film, albeit with minor adjustments.

Last night's ONT was outstanding (well done Doggo!) and the comments were en fuego. Two of my favorite comments:

Maybe not EVERY photo, but you don't know if you don't check...

The Pittsburgh Police Scanner: The Pittsburgh police scanner keeps giving. Thank you people of Pittsburgh!

and the grand finale:

Just roll with it. Life advice for the big ONT finish:

Written correspondence can be sent to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. Are you lurking ?? Thank you for your attention to this matter.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:59 PM

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