Maps in Calvin & Hobbes 05: Ant-pathy

One of my geology professors in college had a cartoon on their door showing some kids with an ant farm shaking it up and laughing about how the silly ants would simply rebuild their tunnels exactly the same way after every time the kids did this.  Then an earthquake hits, and the ants are shown to be chuckling at the sudden distress of the humans.  Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes here takes a different tack on the same theme.

Hand-drawn map of NYC

Here's a mind puddlingly detailed map of New York City by Jenni Sparks. Go to her site to see the amazing detail.

Global musical tour

Let's have today's animated map session be a visit with the kings of musical viral videos, cdza: 18 songs that round the globe with the help of Google Earth.

Break the bank

This is by Dwayne Booth, aka Mr. Fish.  This one was related to the events surrounding the beginning of the current financial crisis.  May still be apropos. .  

Christmas two-fer

Since this year Christmas falls on a Tuesday we'll do a Christmas two-fer:

First, an editorial GPS-themed Christmas cartoon by Cameron Cardow (is it me, or does that "reindeer" look like a bear with antlers?):

Then a Mapquest-swiping Christmas card from David Malki's Wondermark:

And finally, Christmas flamingos from Over the Hedge by Michael Fry & T. Lewis:

Merry Christmas y'all and may the new year find you in a geographically pleasant place.

Maps in Calvin & Hobbes 04: Yukon

Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes are about to set off on an adventure to the Yukon.  This gag about map scale has been done by many cartoonists, usually quite nicely done. .

World's end

Welcome to the end of the world...

But since I already posted that one, here's one that's kind of related by Bill Whitehead

... can hear you scream

Why am I posting this particular Sheldon comic by Dave Kellet.in the Thursday animated map slot?  Because of this short and fascinating TED video by Derek Sivers:

Getting directions from The Oatmeal

Recently I updated a post about the Travelling Salesman problem that invbolved movie theaters with an item from Matthew Inman's The Oatmeal.  Here's a new observational humor item from The Oatmeal that is part of a larger series entitled "Minor Differences":

Apple Maps fails 4

Here's another batch of Apple Maps visual jokes, just in time for Google re-releasing a better-than-ever Google Maps app for Apples mobile platforms.:

30 :sebboH & nivlaC ni spaM

The adventures Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes had with that box are epic.

Moonies

When I was littler I remember being very excited about all the images and data about Jupiter and Saturn coming in from the Voyager spacecraft.  The shear number of moons around those planets just floored me.  And the newer images coming from Cassini have only made things better.

Just go already

Recently there has been a host of people suggesting on the White House's suggestion box about states seceding from the Union... most prominently Texas (of course). That renowned explainer of things CPG Grey explains whether this is possible or likely (no and no...unfortunately?).

There and back again

With more Tolkein flooding the pop culture ocean this season yet again, let's do another instlalment from Ruben Bolling's "Tom the Dancing Bug" that uses a bit of mall map and a bucket of parody. 

Time for a change, Atlas

Here's a couple of climate change-related Atlas-themed cartoons...  

This first one might not seem like it until I mention that the shipping pallet is the topic of this Slate article about the global climate and global economy.

This Robert Mankoff New Yorker magazine cover from 1990.  We've not only had his work on the blog before, we've had an Atlas-themed piece from him before.

One dress to rule them all

Does this dress seem vaguely familiar?  That may be because we posted another one on this same theme a few months ago.

Dumb ways to die (warning: earworm)

The following is an excerpt from a darkly cute animation called "Dumb Ways to Die" made for Australia's Metro Trains Melbourne.  The excerpt features the rim of the Earth suggestive of its geography.


Here's the full video:


And, of course, a parody about NASA's Curiosity rover by Cinesaurus entitled "Cool Things to Find":

You are for nobody

Lio by Mark Tatulli with a Beatles/Yellow Submarine reference to a particular song.

Dig Dug at 30 two-fer

Over at ShiftyLook they've been posting contributions by various artists to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dig Dug, a seminal 1980s-era arcade video game.  Most of the contributions were posted earlier this year, however they recently finished up a longer Thanksgiving-themed story arc by Scott Kurtz of Pvponline.  Here are a pair of examples of some of the earlier contributors that feature maps:

This first one is by Mary Wolfman and Cat Ferris:

This one is by Dave Shabet and I'm calling that kinda-Earth-like blue-marble rim below Dig Dug in the last panel the map-related thing.

New weekly feature: Maps in Calvin & Hobbes

Quite a while ago I posted an example of college-student-era Bill "Calvin & Hobbes" Watterson's editorial cartoon work. That has proven to be one of the most popular posts of this blog, currently in solid 4th place for most visits ever.  In that post I promised that I would post more map-related Calvin & Hobbes comics in the future... and then I never did.  But now, thanks to the help of the new Calvin and Hobbes search engine developed for fun by one Michael Yingling, I was able to find virtually all the map-related Calvin & Hobbes comics that exist.  So over the next several months I'll be posting one per week on Mondays for your viewing pleasure... for a regular dose of Calvin & Hobbes is pleasure indeed.

I'll do them chronologically as they appeared in newspapers.  We'll start with this one from January of 1986: