Through this interview with the programme’s art director, Annette Cate, we enjoyed this revisit of Dr Katz Professional Therapist and how its pacing and narrative-voice have an outsized legacy for cartoons for adults. Finding a niche for unscripted animated interstitials, collaborators Tom Snyder and former student Loren Bouchard enlisted the vocal talents of Jonathan Katz, Laura Silverman and H Jon Benjamin with celebrity guest stars to re-enact sessions, which eventually developed into its own show in 1995. Snyder’s loop-based technique involved retracing the outline of each cell loosely to make for the vibrating effect—see also—as a way around budgetary constraints and resulting in a signature style (see also), originally gleaned from the limitations of Autodesk Animator made for MS-DOS, which the duo had previously used to make maths edutainment software. Much more from It’s Nice That at the link above. You know what the music means—our time is up.
Sunday, 7 September 2025
squigglevision (12. 707)
Friday, 5 September 2025
cartooner (12. 700)
Another fun juxtaposition from ibฤซdem, is this single panel comics caption swapper that draws the extensive archives of Gary Larson’s The Far Side, Bill Keane’s Family Circus, George Gately’s Heathcliff and Hank Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace—the franchises in syndication taken up by other artists. The comic strips of themselves aren’t terribly humorous on their own (exceptions for Larson’s work) but in this form do elicit a laugh and a moment more of study and worth cycling through to find the correspondence and sheer wealth in the way flipping the script as it were works.
Saturday, 16 August 2025
7x7 (12. 652)
tariff tango: Canada’s claymation response to Trump’s thirty-five percent levy on exports and other affronts
modulator-demodulator: a tribute to AOL’s decision to discontinue its dial up service and how technologies gradually fade out rather than disappear overnight

a sunday in the park with georges: the symbolism of class and segregation on display in Seurat’s Bathers at Asniรจres—see previously—via Damn Interesting
koล jaki jest, kaลผdy widzi: the Polish language’s first encyclopaedia was an eccentric compilation that didn’t have time for the manifestly obvious
silicon doodles: a gallery of microchip art added by engineers for fun and whimsy—see also
comprehensive internal review: Trump orders Smithsonian museums to highlight American exceptionalism
synchronoptica
one year ago: a gallery of images that look like AI but are not (with synchronopticรฆ) plus the proposed state of Absaroka
twelve years ago: ligature letters
thirteen years ago: auspicious births, WWII week: D-Day, more Wikileaks extradition manoeuvrers plus plumbing and public conveniences
fourteen years ago: a balance siphon coffee maker
fifteen years ago: Lutherstรคdte
Wednesday, 6 August 2025
10x10 (12. 639)
we don’t serve their kind here: “clanker” from the Star Wars franchise has become a universal slur for robots
jeanine, you’ve changed: a thread about how a consultancy firm in 1987 was responsible for making late 80s and 90s cartoon characters bland and unanimated—via Super Punch
retrospective: an interview with photographer Dennis Morris whose expansive portfolio of music royalty and documentation of the East End offer a correspondence and symmetry
do you take this burger to be your dinner: the return after a long hiatus shows that King of the Hill was always about food
regolith: former reality TV star, Fox News anchor and acting NASA administrator (plus also US Secretary of Transportation) announces the acceleration of the building of a lunar nuclear reactor, as well as freeing commercial drones from line-of-sight supervisor requirements
รกsatrรบarfรฉlagiรฐ: the resurgence of Norse paganism in Iceland
bakeneko: superstition and myth regarding cats in Japanese culture—via Nag on the Lake and Everlasting Blรถrt—see previously, see also
hamburger royal ts: some facts about the McDonald’s Quarter-Pounder
just another way to claim our attention, so that beautiful certainty we had starts to fade: set in 1984 California during Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign, the critically polarising 1990 Vineland by Thomas Pynchon (previously) speaks to the present
flivverboob: a 1922 slur for a careless driver that didn’t not seem to catch on
Saturday, 2 August 2025
medicare bears (12. 628)
The latest syndicated comic from Rubin Bolin for the CBS Saturday morning line up gets on notes and perfectly encapsulates the network’s obsequiousness to the regime in order to secure a merger between the Paramount and Sundance catalogue, welcoming in a demerit system for content that does not reflect its values and a hall-monitor for reporting in order to vouchsafe its capitulation in terms of journalistic integrity, targeted by the Trump administration’s federal communications commission (FCC) following allegations of editing an interview with candidate Kamala Harris as news distortion and paid a nominal settlement, even though the segment in question was not a debate and subject to standard practices of cleaning up prior to air. In addition to monetary concession, the network agreed to install an ombudsman to monitor CBS news for bias. Prior to the deal, the media clearinghouses had joint stakes in franchises like Star Trek and Mission: Impossible and Transformers, but Paramount wanted assets like Nickelodeon and SpongeBob to include derivative spin-offs. Critics have decried this blatant act of bribery for an acquiescent parent company (it seems a bit preferable when American TV was controlled by defence contractors and were capable of push-back.
Thursday, 17 July 2025
paris-flash (12. 586)
Via Messy Nessy Chic (whom has found an assortment of travel-related items including a bit more information on l’รฎlot rocheux de Nichtarguรฉr) we are directed to the premiere animated short from Champeaux Studios—the founder in collaboration with Jean Image, stage-name of Imre Hajdรบ, also responsible for France’s first full-length animated film, Jeannot l'intrรฉpide, Johnny the Giant-Killer). This satiric cartoon about a group of tourists, foreign visitors and one provincial, from 1958 but with a thoroughly contemporary style would have been screened in cinemas, like Looney Tunes, with newsreels before the feature. Sparse commentary by chanson artist Jacques Baudoin—unnecessary to enjoy the animation and visual presentations of the behaviour of tourists (we especially liked the montage of snapshots with the American party posing for selfies)—this portrait of Paris in the late 1950s won numerous accolades with its commanding audience-share. There are some light stereotypes, mostly to do with travellers abroad, which dates the work but don’t detract from the fun.
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
bears will be boys (12. 563)
Via Waxy, we found this meta-analysis from the Pudding of gendered characters in children’s literature to be quite engrossing and seeing the stereotypes anthropo-morphised reveals deep and engrained associations we find not only in the first characters that many of us were exposed to (see also) but also in myth (think of all the women in Greek legend who get transformed into birds) and in language, pet names for one another and some fossilised but still carrying a lot of cultural currency. Much more on the data and methodology, including some surprising exceptions to the prevailing, at the link above.
synchronoptica
one year ago: the 1948 London Games (with synchronopticรฆ) plus the Thirteen Colonies’ attempt to avoid open conflict with Britain (1775)
thirteen years ago: a classic car show tradition plus Jack of All Trades (1900)
fourteen years ago: German austerity policies plus the loss of a flagship for space exploration
fifteen years ago: getting ready for a trip to the Baltic Sea
Saturday, 5 July 2025
9x9 (12. 559)
the coffer illusion: studies in cross-cultural perception have insights behind their controversy—see previously
rolling stock: new homeowner shocked to find a hidden model train alcove in the basement and has a new, unexpected restoration project—via Nag on the Lake
reading the minutes: AI note-takers outnumber human participants in virtual meeting spaces
remastered: British Film Institute hosts a rare screening of the original 1977 Star Wars on Technicolour reels
no undo button for our fallen democracy: a chorus of responses to the cathedral-, not-in-our-lifetimes thinking that has replaced American exceptionalism
hello stranger: a signature work of scrolly-telling from The Pudding of people who don’t know each other holding conversations—via Quantum of Sollazzo
they’re all good boys: the golden retriever, Gilbert, assassinated along with the state congress representative and her husband lay in state at the Minnesota capitol
heaven and earth magic: a 1962 cutout animation short by avant-garde filmmaker Harry Everett Smith made in residence at the Chelsea Hotel
static spin: a superlative optical illusion
synchronoptica
one year ago: returning via Switzerland (with synchronopticรฆ) plus a new Labour government for the UK
twelve years ago: the US Mail-Cover Programme, Stars Wars as written by Shakespeare plus America policing the world
thirteen years ago: a geography challenge
Sunday, 18 May 2025
the bronx is up and the battery’s down (12. 469)
Reminiscent of this other etiquette campaign for the metro’s ridership, we enjoyed this exhibitions of the mock newspaper editions of the Subway Sun that lined cars from 1936 to 1965, featuring the illustrations of Fred Cooper (among the inaugeral inductees of the Society of Illustrators and also know for his miniatures and illuminated drop-caps for Life magazine and letterer behind the Cooper Black typeface) and Amelia Ross Opdyke “Oppy” Jones, who together promoted polite and considerate behaviour (the latter coining the word litterbug as a play on “jitterbug”) and NewYork City’s museums and special events as an enticement for residents and visitors to use the Interborough mass transit system. Much more from Hyperallergic at the link above.
Tuesday, 6 May 2025
cog in the wheel (12. 435)
Whilst apologists and Trump’s re-shoring spokesmen declares that new US factory jobs will make up for redundancies manufactured elsewhere (despite the fact that even if heavy industry enthusiastically embraces the chaotic invitation, most labour has been automated and manpower replaced by machines), we were quite enthralled by this resonant 1925 parable endorsed by Lenin and Stalin for the potential for counter-messaging with children’s literature and adopting a method of propaganda reputedly employed by the bourgeoisie. Vintik-Shpintik (The Little Screw, ะะธะฝัะธะบ-ัะฟะธะฝัะธะบ) by Nikolai Agnivtev was agitprop for young readers, the best seller, quickly adapted into an animated short, relating how a factory is kept chugging along only with the cooperation of its smallest members. Much more from Public Domain Review at the link above.
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
10x10 (12. 405)
hug, marry, kill: internet roasts muttonhead JD Vance for his audience with Pope Francis—more here
kegsbreath: US defence secretary poised to be replaced and other news and developments from Superpunch—see more
trump slump: populist politicians over the globe are distancing themselves from MAGA
yolo: search data for Anglophone texting abbreviations
oh aunt jess: Angela Lansbury in fine art—via Miss Cellania
technics: an obstacle course for LEGO walkers
zwiebelfisch: a treasury of printers’ terminology, as in the German for a character misprinted with a dif๐erent font, and more including wayzgoose
one if by land, two if by sea: Heather Cox Richardson speaking at the two-hundred fiftieth anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
education for death: Walt Disney’s 1943 film on how fascists are made
a good book can help us weather the storm: Francis’ defence of literature for spiritual and mental enlightenment—see also this papal playlist
Wednesday, 9 April 2025
jump cut (12. 378)
A rather aesthetically balanced jumble, we enjoyed this music video for the Montreal band Corridor’s new single. Incorporating collage, cut-up techniques and vintage archival footage, it is a statement on the frenetic nature of contemporary life and the constant vying for attention (see also). The effect is really quite disorienting but rollicking at the same time. See the full video and more from the collaborators at Colossal at the link up top.
Sunday, 30 March 2025
catbus and content policy (12. 349)
Though circulating for less than a week, the relatively low benchmark which has been picked up by several prominent posters, OpenAI’s latest chat-to-image feature can faithfully filter pictures in the style of Studio Ghibli. While again encroaching on a signature look without credit or attribution is hardly anything new, mainstreaming a disregard for infringement on intellectual property does seem to be an inflection point not to be celebrated—especially as it comes on the cusp of a US court decision, reversing earlier judgments, that AI works of art can be copyrighted as long as a human prompter is involved, a seemingly backchannel approach as derivative works would instantly overwhelm and bury their original corpus. Far from thrilled to see their creative process automated, the studio’s co-founder filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki responded that he was utterly disgusted with these developments that can in virtually instantaneously animate the results, something that illustrators and colourists take weeks and months to achieve. This news comes at the same time an AI voice generator, with thirty-six years of dialogue of Homer or Moe Szylak, could effective replace the actors behind The Simpsons franchise.
catagories: ⚖️, ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ณ️, ๐ค, The Simpsons
Saturday, 22 March 2025
sylvanian families (12. 328)
First eleased on the Spring Equinox in 1985 and marketed elsewhere as the most concise translation of the play-figure line, Pleasant Friends of the Forest Epoch System Animal Toy (ๆฃฎใฎใใใใชไปฒ้ใใก ใจใใใฏ็คพ ใทในใใ ・ใณใฌใฏใทใงใณ・ใขใใใซใใผใค・ใทใซใใใขใใกใใชใผ after the Roman god of the woods Silvanus), I recall that haunting refrain (the jingle now come home to roost again) from the commercials and never really understood the concept, having missed out on their backstory as presented in a cartoon series by Haim Saban exclusively on American family-friendly/evangelical programming networks a couple years after their debut. Now, however, we’ve occasion to take a peak into the rather elaborate lore and legacy, thanks to Happy Mutant contributor Popkin, who informs that there is a theme park in Osaka (see also) that gives visitors an immersive experience of the franchise, set in Shirubania originally somewhere in North America though later revised as Great Nature patterned off of Richard Scarry’s Busy Town with firmly middle class anthropomorphised hedgehogs, foxes, deer, mice, rabbits, raccoons, etc running successful local businesses or with professional callings with a certain 1960s aesthetic with their nuclear, four-member families that were never inter-species. The characters, despite the decline of the toyline has been sustained throughout with a series of video games (see above), theme-restaurants and making the discontinued family clans mascots for various corporations and events. Accessories sold separately.
synchronoptica
one year ago: truth windows (with synchronoptica), the HTML Review plus pharmaceutical contraindications
seven years ago: assorted links worth revisiting, Outlook snitching on leakers, typographer Herb Lubalin plus Biden’s threat to beat some sense into Trump
eight years ago: The End of History, an appreciation of the VW bus plus Trump dismantles NASA
nine years ago: Walk of Life improves any movie ending, algae as a plastic alternative plus a terror attack in Belgium
ten years ago: more links to enjoy
Monday, 10 March 2025
the birth of the robot (12. 291)
Having enjoyed some samples of Leonard Charles Huia Lye’s work (better known as Len Lye) in his pioneering animation studies and experimental use of rotoscope techniques, we appreciated being introduced to his kinetic sculptures and work in stop-motion short
(presented in living Gasparcolor, developed in Berlin in 1933) about an undaunted motorist (see also) suddenly caught in a sandstorm and stranded in the unforgiving desert, who despite being reduced to sun-bleached bones is resurrected (with a few drops of life-giving petroleum) as cyborg. Watch the entire film at Open Culture at the link above from the Shell Oil historical archive—which includes many other promotional pieces of iconic animation.
synchronoptica
one year ago: 1978’s The Incredible Hulk (with synchronoptica) plus a cheese-mongers’ survey
seven years ago: a next generation scarecrow
eight years ago: bringing back the bees plus more on repealing and replacing Obama Care
nine years ago: illustrator William Thomas Horton, a fantastic projection of the Trump dynasty plus a Roald Dahl inspired font
ten years ago: an Ayn Rand film adaptation plus roving wireless
Friday, 7 March 2025
10x10 (12. 283)
subwoof: opening of Star Trek: The Next Generation but with the theme coming from the ship
sudoku: unsolvable sliding fourteen-fifteen wooden puzzles
frame-by-frame: experimenting with 3D printing to achieve a stop-motion animation effect
anglish: English without the influence of Romance languages
dead letter office: Denmark’s postal service to end delivery of letters, citing a ninety percent decline in volume
oddly compelling: underground comics and Kitchen Sink Press
rebel with a clause: the self-styled den mother of grammarians sets up a table for language advice
edelweiรpiraten: a look at the loosely organised youth group that opposed Nazi Germany—via Strange Company
๐➡️: revisiting an appreciation of how Flash influenced gaming history—via Boing Boing
cue ro laren drop: a library of audio sweeps, intros, outros and transitions for podcasters—via Web Curios
Saturday, 8 February 2025
gmod (12. 217)
Mindful of the adage that one should never make fun of a person’s pronunciation because they may have only seen it written beforehand and are saying it out loud for the first time, I was yesterday years old when I found out that skibidi (previously, this was a phenomenon that I thought I could be firm in ignoring) is spoken like a substitute for “zippity do da” and not like the historic music venue CBGB as I said it in my head. Incidentally, it has no meaning and is just a funny sounding filler word that originates from a dance song from a Russian rave group called Little Big from a 2018 track becoming a meme for an eponymous challenge to post one’s own dance video variations. Rather dadaesquely, it has become a prefix for nonsense and the surreal. A spinoff cartoon series called Skibidi Toilet by Alexey Gerasimov has been licensed for a range of products, including toys, costumes and cosmetics and film producer Michael Bay is in talks with its creator for a cinematic adaptation.
Monday, 27 January 2025
there a hole in me pocket (12. 187)
Classic clog manufacturer and popular item in this household has announced a new two-pair tribute to the Beatles’ animated feature Yellow Submarine. The dog has gotten much better about not gnawing on footwear but still goes after our Crocs and would have to have such a fancy pair of house shoes chewed up, but these look pretty fun and the contour is a perfect fit for the underwater vessel—though like with Crocs’ other brand collaborations, not sure about the accessories, the periscope and propeller and the other bedazzlers however and they’d surely prove too tempting for a little dog.
synchronoptica
one year ago: ancient piggy-banks (with synchronoptica), St Devota, a past prediction from Star Trek: TNG, a hybrid horseless carriage plus more moons of Jupiter
seven years ago: assorted links to revisit
eight years ago: omnipresent and omnipotent AI, parasitism and toxoplasm gondii plus the White House turns off its switchboard
nine years ago: more links to enjoy
ten years ago: the national assemblies of Europe, the fantastic art of Dan McPharlin plus AI and middle-management
Friday, 17 January 2025
canonicity (12. 187)


Tuesday, 14 January 2025
7x7 (12. 177)
alexiomia: from the Greek for no words for appellation, a study of the social anxiety of name-avoidance—via the new Shelton wet/dry
white knight: Bytedance entertaining contingency plans to allow Elon Musk to purchase TikTok’s US operations ahead of the expected judgment against the platform

screamboat willie: Disney begins to deal with its loss of IP—apparently a Popeye horror film is in the works too
tl;dr: AI input and output
open and shut case: the US Department of Justice election interference report suggest Trump would have been convicted if not re-elected
๐: the face of collective grief and the demands of acceptance that are far from passive
synchronoptica
one year ago: AI plagiarism and The Stepford Wives (with synchronoptica), a hands-free rosary plus Queen Margrethe II of Denmark abdicates
seven years ago: the Continental Congress (1784) plus Celtic burial mounds
eight years ago: authoritarians and the press, the former trolley line that ran between the US and Mexico, assorted links worth the revisit, Bart the Genius (1990) plus a secret WWII commando school
nine years ago: the dancing doctor plus genre blindness
ten years ago: more on the refugee situation in Germany plus an animated homage to Davie Bowie’s personae