Pienso que no

Here's an obligatory swine flu map cartoon from Donna Barstow. I don't think I like this one that much though. Seems to grossly misrepresent Mexico. I've been there a few times. But it's the ADHD US media cycle so whatchagonnado.

All the world's a...

Frank and Ernest in space referencing Shakespeare. Who says the comics aren't sophisticated? By the way, this one was brought to my attention by the wonderful blog Comics I Don't Understand by Bill Bickel. It's a wonderful site for helping comics readers figure out comics that don't quite make sense.

Mapquest Moses

What else would keep Moses and his crew wandering for 40 years? 

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller 

Indoor GPS

Here is a recent (4-12-09) Betty cartoon from Gary Delainey (text) and Gerry Rasmussen (drawing). Funny, ha ha, sure. However supermarkets and big-box stores are a big market for indoor GIS, though they don't use GPS to do it.

Atlas wrestling

Bizarro is one of the best comic strips ever. Such wonderful surreality. Here's a recent (3-29-09) Sunday strip.

Steinberg Rall

Here is Ted Rall's version of Steinberg's drawing. This one is a rip on the Bush world view, as Mr. Rall's opinion of W. was quite low to put it mildly. This is the last Steinberg-esque parody that I've found, although I have plenty of other non-Steinberg-esque cartoons that nevertheless show a view of the world from the supposed perspective of various entities. If you know of other Steinberg parodies please submit them. If you know of any "View of the World" type maps, send them in. And of course if you find any map-themed comics, please share. Thanks and enjoy.

Moon Day

Poor Diana, no holiday for The Moon.

From April 26, 1999 in The New Yorker. The artist is P.C. Vey:

O, Canada! Cars?

This would be a magazine ad from 1939 the proudly proclaims the marvels of Alberta, including the newly discovered oil reserves. Brought to us by the Automotive Industries of Canada, this was designed to spark interest in Canada's great greasy province. Of course even by 1939 there weren't that many Canadian automobile brands left. But Canada remains today a central focus of (what's left of) the North American auto industry, as well as our largest supplier of petrolium products. This is another classic print ad from AdClassix.

Steinberg China

Of course The New Yorker isn't the only one to use parody the classic 1976 Saul Steinberg drawing. Here's a version for the March 21st-27th issue of The Economist. This time from the Chinese perspective (click it to see a larger, more detailed view). This one was done by Jon Berkeley.

Lost penguins

Hearkening back to Monday's post, we'll do penguins again. Some find them inherently funny. I don't. But this is adequately humorous, in a somewhat Far Side-y way. Artist Mark Lynch.

Steinberg Palin

This is one of several parodies of the iconic Steinberg drawing "View of the World from 9th Avenue" that graced the New Yroker cover in 1976. Whether you prefer this version of Palin's comment about being able to see Russia from Alaska or this version, the moment was ripe for a call back to the Steinberg drawing. This one was by Barry Blitt and was the New Yorker cover on October 6, 2008.

All roads

In the same vein as the upside-down (rightside-up?) globe from Monday, here's the Arctic explorer's mapping delima. This is from Mike Peters who does the strip Mother Goose and Grimm.

Steinberg original

This is the iconic drawing by Saul Steinberg from March 29, 1976 entitled "View of the World from 9th Avenue". This is one of the more well known New Yorker covers. When used in the poster for the 1984 Robin Williams movie "Moscow on the Hudson" it became part of a lawsuit. And it has been parodied a few times as we will soon see, here, here, and here.

South!

This is one of my all time favorites. Makes one smile and think. Why can't south be up? Imagine an Aussie-centric world, rather than a world dominated by northern latitude powers. Thanks to Leo Cullum and the New Yorker for this one from April 20, 1992.

Terraform

From The New Yorker October 16, 2006, artist: Frank Cotham




Truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised if humans started terraforming other planets before this century is out. If we can figure out this climate change thing on Earth, that might lend itself to terraforming elsewhere. And I don't know but that terraforming Venus first might not make sense. It's closer and thus presumably easier to get to, not to mention that the gravity would be the same. Could we genetically engineer some micro- or even nano- organisms that can resist Venus' 450°C weather long enough to shut down it's hyper-charged greenhouse gas atmosphere? Or will Venus' lack of a decent-sized moon make terraforming there ultimately futile? Maybe some combination of Ceres, Vesta and/or Pallas might be brought to bear to address the lunar issue, if one is needed to sustain life (as I've read in places is helpful at least). Of course one of those would probably be drafted by a Mars terraforming project.

Bush NEC map

Today's installment comes from The New Yorker's new and popular Caption Contest series. The winner of this caption contest on November 28, 2005 (my birthday) was one T. C. Doyle of Park City, Utah. The artist is Gahan Wilson:

Rand McNally's world

Yesterday I posted a link from Tanya about a classic '50's edicational film about map making. Today I'm posting an even older item, a Rand McNally print advertisement from 1922 (from AdClassix.com). This of course references that flat earth myth I mentioned last week.