Mapping hell

This is from the webcomic Pibgorn, by Brooke McEldowney, who also does 9 Chickweed Lane. Pibgorn is actually the fairy dressed as death (not the hell beast) in that middle panel and is looking quite unlike herself. Of course Geoff there is completely out of his element... or is he? Pibgorn storylines tend to be ridiculously long and protracted... or at least ridiculous. But entertaining. Brooke did a Pibgorn adaptation of A Midsummer's Night Dream a few years back that was fun.

But Pibgorn story arcs very often end up in hell and so here we are again, this time with a map theme.

The next installment in this particular story arc arguably also continues the mapping hell theme, but I'm not entirely convinced that it does. You decide:

Just the address ma'am Two-fer Tuesday

From Randall Munroe's XKCD.  Usually the only time this happens to me is with older people. The only other time this sort of thing happens is in situations where the basemaps for the GPS unit are wrong:

At the actual webcomic, hovering over the image reveals this additional message in the "title-text":

Yes, I understand that the turn is half a mile past the big field, but my GPS knows that, too. This would be easier if you weren't about to ask me to repeat it all back to you.

Welcome to Mississippi y'all

Dan Piraro's Bizarro making fun of that most useful of contracted pronouns: y'all. I use it all the time and have less than no connection to regions of the country that use it.  It's a perfectly reasonable word to use.  It's been part of Spanish and other romantic languages for centuries.  I wholeheartedly support it's comprehensive adoption into standard English and common use.

And hey, there's Mississippi featured right there on the cover.  That brings the total number of state featured in this blog to 19 (although the Mississippi River has already shown up).

Too bad for Norfolk

I'm not sure what's so bad about Norfolk but cartoonist Clive Goddard is obviously thoroughly unimpressed.  This, by the way, is referencing the county in England, not the Norfolk in Virginia, or Massachusetts, or Connecticut, or Nebraska, or New York, or Canada, or  New Zealand, or Australia... not that any of them is particularly more interesting than the others... at least I wouldn't know, having not visited any of them myself..

You are another unamused camel

Hey, it's hump day again! Let's do another camel joke. Despite the fact that this cartoonist, who goes by the moniker "Angonoa", has a very different drawing style, the camel seems to have almost exactly the same facial expression as last week's example.  The problem here, of course, is that this is obviously a Bactrian Camel in the company of a character who stereotypically should only be found hanging out with Dromedarys. At least I'm confident this isn't a Wikileaks comic.

You are unamused camel

Hey, it's hump day! Let's do a camel joke. Here's a simple "you are here" gag by Hagen.  Turns out this guy does TONS of camel-themed cartoons.  The featureless "you are here" sign in the middle of the desert is common enough.  This one on a desert island isn't much different.

Driving in circles

Mike Baldwin gives us another "married couple arguing about directions" gag.

Told you so

Artist Graham Waters gives us this "spouses arguing about directions" + GPS gag.  It's pretty bland, though.  Not a lot of humor in the depiction of a simple "I told you so".

Sat' nav', by the way, is the British term for GPS, because GPS is the term specific to the U.S.'  NAVSTAR GPS satellite navigation system.  GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) is the term that covers all of the technologies. GPS is the only fully-functional global satellite navigation system. Galileo is the Euro version and is in the middle of its deployment phase.  The Russian version is called GLONASS, but it's currently only regional, though it's global deployment is planned. The Chinese are working on expanding their regional Beidou navigation system into the fully global Compass navigation system.  There was a years-long negotiation/fight between the U.S. and the Europeans about whether and how to make GPS compatible with Galileo.  In the end they were made to be compatible and most new GPS and sat. nav. products will use both.  I think I read that the GLONASS will also be compatible. India and Japan both have smaller regional systems.  So does France.

Of course the original cartoon up there still isn't very funny. Sorry.

You are there

Here's a surrealist take on the "You are here" gag from Marc Tyler Nobleman. In case you can't see it, where the mall map on the actual directory says "You are here", the mall map in the reflection in the window says (in reflected backwards type) "You are there". 

Is it possible that the guy is Conan O'Brien?

Should be here

Here's a "You are here" gag by Mike Baldwin's Cornered strip. It's most like this one from

You were here

Clive Goddard gives us what appears to be a reincarnation version of the "You are here" gag.  Is that a Buddhist temple or a stupa in the background there?

You are basic

Canary Pete gives us this fairly standard "You are here" gag.  This is the basic model.  Most other versions of this, especially the lost in the desert versions,  have a bit of a twist... even if it's just a little something...often involving penguins for some reason. 

You are unimpressed

Chris Patterson, gives us this rather obvious "You are here" gag. There's a better way to do this particular joke.

You are island

Here is another "You are here" gag by Roy Nixon.  Same guy each time?  Probably.  Roy does a LOT of these.  More to come.

End of block

 This cartoon by Shannon Burns is only map-related if one thinks of the sign as information about location rather than a dire warning.

Deadwood

Charles Barsotti had this published in The New Yorker in March of 2005, at the height of the popularity of HBO's "Deadwood" show which, if you don't remember it, became known for it's foul language.  But the language is also rather well written, or so I'm told.  I never actually saw the show.

You are mountain top

Cartoonist Dave Parker gives us this "You are here" gag.  It potentially ties in to the mountain-themed map/GPS comic from last week.

Roadmap for AIDS

So several years ago, when the powers that were put together the ill-fated "Roadmap for Peace" in the Middle East, editorial cartoonist Shamsudin Ismail made this suggestion for a different kind of roadmap.  This was not the only cartoonist who tried to get the Roadmap for Peace concept applied to a different cause.

You are too bad

Joseph Farris gives us another "You are here" gag. This time with the "lost in the desert" theme.

Nirvana

Take a right to Nirvana, by Chris Grosz