Portables

This is another fun episode of Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson. I found this particular item funny for 2 reasons (which are actually the same reason from 2 different perspectives):

1. I went to elementary school in the Las Vegas, Nevada area.  During that time it was in a rapid growth phase.  Every year it seemed there were another crop of portable classrooms going up at every school. Towards the end of my senior year I found out that there were about 6,000 people moving in to the city every month.  The school district didn't have a prayer of keeping up with that pace.
2. Just a few years ago I was working on a project that involved finding up-to-date maps of school attendance boundaries, i.e. maps that showed which school a child would attend based on where they lived.  It was very hard to find school districts that had such maps.  Clark County School District had them, which is where las Vegas is.  Those maps were being updated online every week.  

So there could be more truth to Petey's dilemma here than his mother realizes.

Second Earthly thoughts

Mick Stevens had this in The New Yorker in February of 1991. There's a lot of similarities in both style and the actual gag between this one and one he did 12 years later about Mars' close-up with earth.  There've been several posts here about UFO's, but this one comes the closest this this same gag.

Fore!

This is from Danny Shanahan, from The New Yorker in December of 2004.  I'm not a big fan of golf.  This is part of a decent-sized grouping of map-related comics that deals with God on a cloudy perch interacting with and/or contemplating His Earthly creation. I didn't notice at first that it's a lightning bolt on the tee.

Eat your heart out Tracy

This is from a February 2009 Sunday Foxtrot, by Bill Amend. I love this kind of joke. And I love Foxtrot and wish it'd go back to dailies.  Can you hear me Mr. Amend? This does remind me of this Dick Tracy post from a while ago (not actually from the Dick Tracy strip).

War With New Jersey

This is another Saul Steinberg cartoon that was published in The New Yorker in February of 1987.  Steinberg, of course, was the guy who inked the classic and much imitated map cartoon cover of The New Yorker in 1976.

New Jersey doesn't often fare well in humor... not even map humor.  But it could be much, much worse, as South Park showed.

Should be here

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

Napquest II

This is Roz Chast in November of 2004 in The New Yorker doing effectively the same gag as 's Napquest.  This comes from the category of indoor GIS map-related comics. It also fits into the grouping of "turn-by-turn" directions jokes, as well as Mapquest jokes.

GPS-in-law

It has been a while since we first saw some of Jeff Stahler's work here.  This, like the last one, is from his single-panel comic Moderately Confused that runs in newspapers.  He's also a prolific editorial cartoonist for the Columbus Dispatch.  I'm not entirely sure whether this qualifies as a "spouses arguing about directions" gag... methinks it's about to be.  It could be an abusive GPS gag. 

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?

Mars calling

Mick Stevens made this cartoon for The New Yorker in September of 2003 when Mars made some headlines for its unusually close call to Earth.  So far, posts from cartoonist Mick Stevens have been planetary in scope.

Amerigo for the steal

 

 In this episode of the webcomic Sheldon, by Dave Kellet from December of 2008, Arther the Duck and Grandpa mull over the oddity that is the naming of America.  The thing is, No matter how bummed Columbus may have been about the naming of the continent, I suspect the Native Americans were rather less happy about things. 

And, by the way, here's another webcomic which plays with the naming of Amerigo's America, map comics about the various Americas (North, Central, South), and Bugs Bunny's hilarious take on the Columbus story. 

Almost all mine

This item by Gahan Wilson was published in The New Yorker in June of 1987.  Greedy guy, this king is.  Quite a bit like this one about Queen Elizabeth. It's kind of like the "view-of-the-world" map cartoons that have been posted here, here, here, and here.... and kinda here. 

GPS - Global Parental Supervision

Calvin Grondahl is one of my more favorite editorial cartoonists, but this particular cartoon doesn't fully engage me.  However it's nice to see him use a GPS theme.  It presents a concept similar to this one in Wales.

I'm not sure when this ran, but it may have been in connection to this system or systems like it which use a DVR technology to record activity inside and/or outside of the car and, if the system notices a sudden change in acceleration, like an accident, or erratic driving, the device keeps the video record of the events.  Insurance companies like it.  Some parents think it's great.  Personally I think it's a good idea.  Progressive has a program that puts a little device is the insured car that monitors driving habit and gives a discount for good driving.  It's not as sophisticated as the camera system linked above. In the 1990's, towards the beginning of the advent of the "1-800-How am I driving" bumper stickers, there was a group of parents which got an 800 number and bumper stickers and put them on their family cars once their teens started driving.  The teens hated it.  Then the calls started coming in... mostly on times the parents were driving.  The teens suddenly thought it was fantastic.

There's probably a few dozen parental supervision apps available by now.

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. 

UPS Strike

In August of 1997 UPS workers mounted a major strike and, after 15 days, won.  Roz Chast got this take on the strike published in The New Yorker soon after.  I think The Easter Bunny here would be getting the easiest route... though Superman may have the least populated areas.

Fork in the road

 Chris Grosz gives us this item about a fork in the road.  His last one was about a fork in the road too, though it was more theological. 

You are crushed

Carroll Zahn gives us a much better rendition of the obvious "You are here" gag than Chris Patterson did in the post from a couple days ago.  Although, that looked a little more like a cross than an "X" to me when I first saw it.  I thought the guy might be clergy at first.

Free atlas

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis has always been a bit punny, but sometimes it gets rather thoroughly out of hand.

You are unimpressed

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

Drabble GPS 06

Last one in the GPS story arc from Kevin Fagan's Drabble May 2008.That felt long to me.  Did it feel long to you?

Drabble GPS 05

More of the GPS story arc from Kevin Fagan's Drabble May 2008. And now we get to the part of the story arc where the father turns out to be right all along.  I've never been a big fan of Drabble.