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It’s the Robert A. Heinlein centennial or something. He wrote some good stories and books, and I think his reputation is deserved, but for the most part, Heinlein was never my cup of tea. Too weird, and not in a way I could really identify with. Everyone was so competent all the time. Stranger in a Strange Land was pretty mind-blowing when I was thirteen, though. Nipples going “spung” and all that. Or was that from a different book? (Kurt Vonnegut wrote about Stranger for the New York Times here.)

Anyway, Jesse Walker recently posted a link to a comic strip adaptation of one of Heinlein’s novels that ran in Boys’ Life magazine (the magazine “for all boys”, but really a propaganda vehicle for the Boy Scouts).

Which reminded me that Boys’ Life was one of my earliest sources (besides the Sunday newspaper) for regular cartoon reading. Most of it wasn’t very good. I never found Pedro (the magazine’s burro mascot) amusing, no matter how hard I tried. Lots of lousy camping-based gag cartoons. And Tom Swifties are not only not comics, but also not funny.

But the long-running adaptation of John Christopher’s Tripods series? That was some spooky stuff.

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Kurt Vonnegut, who sometimes wrote what he called “comic books without pictures.”

(Which isn’t strictly accurate, I don’t think, but now’s not the time for arguing.)

UPDATE: The Daily Cross Hatch has some short tributes from cartoonists.