Yahoo Maps me to your leader.

The last time we looked at Lio by Mark Tatulli he was using Mapquest, though it was for purposes of space travel.  Now he's using Yahoo Maps.  Of course this one is from June of 2006 and the other example was from May of 2007.  So maybe Lio switched browsers during that year.  The additional joke in this, if you can't see it, is that Lio is getting directions to Washington D.C. for these visitors.  Get it?

Why any of them thinks a 2D map is at all useful for space travel is beyond me.

Electoral College

This Bizarro strip by Dan Piraro ran at the end of November 2008, during the aftermath of the historic 2008 presidential election.  This is the well drawn low-hanging-fruit pun off of the term "electoral college".  This map takes many of the terms and phrases which became prominent during that long, long election cycle, mostly terms that came from the GOP side of things... mostly from Palin actually.   Click on the image to see a more legible version.

You have humans

Eric Lewis had this cartoon published in The New Yorker in October of 2002.  If that's Saturn playing the doctor she/he might want to be careful.  Saturn's moon Titan is right now the solar system's next best candidate for life.  If it doesn't watch out Saturn could get itself infected with life, then maybe it'll eventually have humans too

A-F Street Map

Cartoonist Ciaran Ryan gives us this oddity.  The man is holding an "A-Z directory", which is the ubiquitous British equivalent to a street guide, only this guy's directory ends at "F", thus explaining his trouble getting to "G Street".

I'm lost shirt

I'm lost. I have a problem.  Where am I now?  Which is north? Someone do something. Help me.  I can't walk more. 

This is a photo of a t-shirt from Engrish.com, a site dedicated to publishing images of badly translated text.  This shirt may have been made to be intentionally funny.  It may have been worn to be intentionally funny.  It's still a bad translation. 

Drive me to the moon

Getting lost in a car on the moon has been done.  This time it's by Chris Madden.  Turns out, however, that "Marius" is, in fact, a place in Lancaster, England. And this guy is trying to blame it on the GPS, or Sat-Nav as the Brits call it.

New York City GPS

Dan Piraro's Bizarro gives us GPS a la New York City.  Spot on, eh?  The sentiment of missing a turn has been done in other comics.  So has abusive GPS (also here, and here, and this entire story arc starting here). Also, this may be a personification of this New York City GPS.

Sav Nat

Here's a cartoon by Wilbur Dawbarn about Sat Nav, the British term for GPS. It's possible to do the dyslexic thing with GPS too.

No streets

This is a Family Circus strip by Jeff and Bill Keane from February 2007.  Billy seems rather overly angry about this rather mundane discovery.The reason for his ange could be related to the scale of the map he's looking at, but Jeffy was already in a funnier joke about that

Too soon

As far as I'm concerned, we didn't get out a moment too soon. 

I had to change the comments on this one.  I set these up to publish before my father died a couple weeks ago.  It's odd that so many of these are Heaven-related.  However, in reference to this one, I think my dad did get out too soon. 

This is from Arnie Levin in The New Yorker in February of 1990. 

Stranger in Paradise

Here's another cartoon by "Kes".  The stranger gag has been done.  Map-related angel comic has been done.  Even lost in Hell has been done. 

Mapquest X

Dan Piraro's Bizarro does another pirate mapping gag.  I wonder if that's the same pirate? Mapquest does, however, give a location that matches "X",  It appears to be a restaurant in Germany.  I have no idea whether there's any treasure there.

When doctors navigate

When Doctors Navigate

Tony Zuvela gives us this cartoon about doctors navigating, giving turn-by-turn directions.

Homeland Security

Here's a strip from June of 2007 from New Adventures of Queen Victoria by Pab Sungenis. It's a strip that uses actual photos as its primary medium.  While it occasionally gets into modern political commentary, it's more often absurdest humor, almost in the vein of Monty Python animations, with Queen Victoria being the main focus of humor.  This particular episode focuses on current events, namely the work of the newly created U.S. Department of Homeland Security to apprehend terrorist suspects.  The "Secretary" in question in this strip would be Michael Chertoff.   Other cartoonists have made the Google Earth-terrorism connection. 

David Malki's Wondermark uses a similar medium, though it tends to use Victorian illustrations and drawings rather than photographs and, unlike N.A.o.Q.V., it almost never uses modern images.

Have no clue

A cartoonist who signs as "Kes" created this take on the "spouses arguing about directions" gag.  Did the wife create the map? It seems like it's giving the guy her opinion of things. 

Godwin's Law

This is how I learned about Godwin's Law, an (unfortunately?) useful term in political discussions, especially online, when people bring up Nazis. XKCD by Randall Munroe is an extremely valuable webcomic for educating folks on things like this. I don't know if it counts if a person references a different person or group which held ideals and/or committed acts just as bad if not worse. 

Go to this actual webcomic, hover over the image, and there will be an additional message in the "title-text" . This one says: 

Constantly stopping these briefings half-way through is becoming a pain. 

Conflicting migrations

This is by a cartoonist who goes by S. Harris.  Migration, requires navigation, directions... this qualifies as a map-related comic, right?

Missing Mapquest link

Former cartoonist for The Wichita Eagle Richard Crowson did up this cartoon in response to the discovery in 2006 of this curious beast (thought to be a "missing link" between fish and amphibians)...:

...at about the same time that the Kansas School Board was having issues with evolution being taught in schools.  That incident, by the way, prompted quite a few map-related cartoons, like these:
Here's one, and another, and another

By the way, clicking on the image can make it large enough to see the dog in the lower left-hand corner which is saying "I doesn't matter.  The Board made reality 'opt-in'".  There's a few editorial cartoonists that used little tiny characters like that to make additional comments on the topic du jour.  Pat Oliphant comes to mind. So does Tom Toles.

Hanging Chad

Robert Mankoff had this published this in The New Yorker in December of 2000, at the height of the Gore-Bush 2000 election aftermath, with the hanging chads and ballot recount and Supreme Court ruling.

Redistricting Israel - Olmert

Patrick O'Connor drew this in May of 2006 as a commentary on both the situation in the Middle East with Israel re-drawing its borders (and putting up a big giant wall to prove it) as well as the practice of redistricting, which will get underway big time next year when this year's Census is finished.  Of course it could be argued that clumsy redistricting is what caused many of the Middle East's problems in the first place.

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.

NASDAQ, not NASCAR

Image removed.  Link here.

Dan Reynolds gives us this map-related cartoon about a couple of lost NASCAR fans ending up at NASDAQ headquarters.  I suppose both have to do with stock... or stock cars?  By the way, there is actually a globe on the store next to the NASDAQ building:

ERIF

Cartoonist Mike Williams gives us this quirky take on the practice of printing "Fire" (and "Ambulance" and sometimes "Police") backwards on emergency vehicles so that drivers can read the words in their rear-view mirrors.  The caption says "Excuse me, sir, but could you direct me to Reppeplue Avenue?"  Actually, I'm not confident that I got that street name correct.  Anybody have a better idea what it says?

Brett Farve

This is sports-oriented editorial cartoon by Joe Heller ran in September of 2007 when Brett Farve was riding high with the Green Bay Packers.  Much has changed since then.  There's no way cheeseheads would be this dedicated to Farve any more.

Pirate detection

A Sunday strip from Jim Meddick's Monty in June 200.  I've posted examples of pirates and treasure maps before, but not a metal detector.  Has the sport/hobby of geocaching expanded or contracted the hobby of metal detection?  

Go to geography

Jef Mallet again giving us another map-related Frazz strip.  This could be another fun way to teach geography, but possibly more distracting, less productive than this one.

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.

You are Mensa

 Roy Nixon gives us another "You are here" gag.  He does a LOT of these.  Expect plenty more in the future.  

 

By the way, that's a thoroughly European city layout.  Not even Eastern cities in the US look like that And Western US cities are particularly and often monotonously gridded. 

Made in Malaysia

Robert Weber had this published in The New Yorker in May of 2000.  It covers a lot of topics, including globalization, fair trade, manufacturing, education, etc. Actually, I think this would be a fantastic way to teach geography.  Even make it into a contest to see which kid could find the thing manufactured from farthest away, which kid had the most things manufactured the closest, put points on the map showing where all of the things come from, etc. 

Snowdon

Duncan Bourne comments on whether or not GPS units are very needful, what with all the other directions and signage available to travelers.  More specifically he's commenting on the busy-ness of Snowdon, a very popular mountain in Wales/Great Britain.

Roadside cartographer

This depiction of a roadside cartographer by Henry Martin makes me feel happy and calm.  It's such a pleasant concept.  Thoroughly obsolete today, what with all of our electronic guidence systems.  But in April of 1987 when this ran in The New Yorker, it might have almost been practical... but the only place where there'd be enough lost traffic would probably be a more urban setting.   But this did remind me of the story "The Mappist" by Barry Lopez, which I heard on the Selected Shorts program.  I highly recommend both. 

You are cubicle

Does this cartoon from Ron Therien look familiar?  That'd be because he has done almost the exact same joke before.  This "You are here" gag kind of looks like it has a more of a maze theme to it  but I may be wrong about that.

Rand McNally coasts

A print ad for Rand McNally "Auto Trail Maps" from 1922.  This ran well before the extensive well-developed road networks we take for granted today.  At 35 cents each, adjusting for inflation, that's about $4.50 today.  And far more comprehensive nation-wide maps come "free" with many smart phones today.  At some point comparing value on inflationary terms alone becomes meaningless.

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.

Coast to coast

Michael Maslin gives us another map-related cartoon in The New Yorker.  In this one I can't tell whether the couple has been arguing about directions, but they certainly went too long before asking for help. And, unlike this example from Sherman's Lagoon, the distances given are approximately correct.

Mondrian

Simon Bond did this brilliant map-related parody of the famous (infamous?) modern artist Piet Mondrian. You may be familiar with his work without being familiar with his name:

Composition 10

It's one of those iconic styles that often comes up when people are commenting on the simplicity, or over-simplicity, of modern art. While I'm not a fan of this guy's work, it's obvious that some of it can be very map-like. Take his work "Broadway Boogie Woogie":

Broadway Boogie Woogie

Of course that work looks awfully like his "Victory Boogie Woogie" so maybe it's not so map-like after all... assuming "Victory Boogie Woogie" isn't supposed to invoke the aesthetic of maps.

Victory Boogie Woogie

Winer

Stephan Pastis doesn't shy away from the pun in his Pearls Before Swine strip. This is a fairly mild example compared to some puns he's presented.

Kimosabe

Rex May Baloo gives us what appears to be the Lone Ranger and Tonto lost in the desert arguing about directions in the way spouses might.

Golden opportunity

Here's an old one from a February 1954 issue of The New Yorker by Barney Tobey.  What is hard to see is that there are other people already digging on the other side of the hill with the tree.  Bugs Bunney's encounter with maps and gold prospecting is funnier.

Lost in the ordinance survey office

Nigel Sutherland gives us this gag about the mapmakers getting lost.  In England the Ordinance Survey has long been the organization responsible for mapping.  This very old cartoon attests to that.

Pay the roofer

In this example of the webcomic Basketcasecomix by Kelly Ferguson does a good job with a Google Earth joke.  Gets the scale concept right.  And of course people have done things like this.

You are too bad

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

Change the map

Herb and Jamaal by Stephen Bentley.  Sometimes comics aren't that funny.  That's when it's time to turn to The Comics Curmudgeon to gripe about them.

New York at Night

This is the cover of The New Yorker for December 23rd, 1950, attributed to Alain.  This, of course, was before the satellite views of the Earth at night.

Under the river

Bob Krohmer gives us this take on combining the traditional holiday song with spouses arguing about directions.   I thought "the horse knows the way"... so why do they need a map?