November 8, 20168:36 am
Today’s Jimmy O’Hair comic strip with Hootie and Jimmy encapsulates probably how we all feel – ready for this presidential election cycle to be over! Considering that the presidential election campaigns for both parties really got underway in early 2015, then Americans have been dealing with this for a long, long time. It is something we need to take seriously, as we live in a democracy and have the cherished right to vote. However, with the incessant media coverage that grows larger and larger each election cycle and various platforms to receive the new news, fatigue finally sets in during the waning days and months. That’s why Election Day is such a relief – finally the time to go to the polls and make our voices heard! It’s especially welcome in this year, where negativity has been at an all time high with the presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And for those worried about the future whatever the outcome? Don’t despair and look back to the words of Winston Churchill – “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing. After they’ve tried everything else.”
February 2, 201611:40 am
Though Jimmy O’Hair is a college student and a retail worker at the Bookrazy with limited funds, that doesn’t mean he is ignoring the stock market. To the contrary, he gets more than enough investment advice from his compulsive stock trading buddy, Hootie. Of course, Hootie is the nervous investor who wants huge returns and more often than not, must be willing to wait out the ups and downs of the market. Patience, when money is involved, is not Hootie’s strong suit! A lot of us are similar in this way – we want instantaneous results and big returns when we invest. However, as the recent market turmoil has shown us with falling oil prices and the fallout from China, there can be bear markets and the wise investor knows how to navigate through tough times. But somehow that probably isn’t much of a consolation to Hootie, who always wants to see his stock prices going up, up, up … or else, heartburn!
October 29, 201411:44 am
As today’s Jimmy O’Hair comic strip illustrates, television screens are no longer the only outlet for video content. Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices enable us to watch videos whenever we want. YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, Maker and other online video portals give us unlimited opportunities to view content, and have allowed film and TV shows to be viewed whenever possible and created entertainment stars with “viral” videos. Who would have thought that 15 years ago that we could watch in a phone in our hand the latest movie from James Cameron, switch to a short dancing cats video just a few seconds later, and then tweet about it afterwards? The Jimmy O’Hair comic strip between Jimmy and Lola catches the satire in having to watch ads before a streaming video starts on Lola’s smartphone. We cannot escape ads in what we watch even moving online away from the television set. Video is a very important means of reaching an audience, and we will continue to see it evolve in the different mediums. There have been animated video shorts made for Jimmy O’Hair that have yet to be posted, but they will be in the near future. Whether or not they will have ads in front of them that would annoy Lola? We will have to wait and see!
September 29, 201411:02 am
It’s National Coffee Day and that means something to all artists. Need a start to the day – coffee! Want to get work finished late at night – coffee! Getting writer’s block – coffee! Want a source of inspiration for new ideas – coffee! You get the point … coffee is a stimulant, and this is the day that recognizes it. According to the Huffington Post, coffee is responsible for 75% of the caffeine consumption in the U.S. So Americans are not letting up on their coffee! A few Jimmy O’Hair cartoons are focused around coffee (and tea), because I suppose the characters of Jimmy O’Hair like their caffeinated beverages (and I haven’t even gotten into alcoholic consumption yet – that is always big on St. Patrick’s Day, the holiday for a good Irishman like Jimmy O’Hair). So here’s another Jimmy O’Hair coffee related comic strip for you to enjoy today while brewing your own roasted beans or pulling up to the storefront counter for a cup of Joe!
September 8, 201410:47 am
It almost seems like a bygone era now when hearing stories of how the first section one would snatch out of a newspaper was the funny pages. Even the 40th President of the U.S., Ronald Reagan, stated publicly the first thing he read in the paper was the funny pages. Can you imagine trying to grab that section before a President of the U.S.? That’s how big a deal newspaper comic strips were in the heyday of newspapers, especially the separate color section in the Sunday paper. Newspaper comic strips haven’t disappeared, but newspaper subscriptions have declined with all the information on the Internet. As a result, comics have had to find new outlets on the Web for audiences. In a way, it has been an exciting development to give a whole new generation of cartoonists exposure that they would not ordinarily have had, since newspapers mainly run comic strips from the major syndicates. It has also given fresh new voices to comic strips, and allowed them to go places that they wouldn’t have had the freedom to explore in the newspaper. However, comic strips are built on having loyal audiences who read them, and it is much tougher to separate from the pack or have that daily portal to viewership that once was found in the daily newspaper. It is thus increasingly important to have a new media presence, not only through a website and apps, but also through Facebook and Twitter. The web is the main vehicle for this comic strip, “Jimmy O’Hair” (jimmyohair.com), and connecting with the audience remains the goal. People want humor and the web makes it easier to share material, so instead of passing around the funny pages at home, now it is passing comics around via e-mail, messaging, or social networks. So go grab the comic pages … online!
