Last week we covered the very lame duck, Mallard Filmore, whose right wingnut and unfunny creator Bruce Tinsley had been arrested, yet again, for drunkeness (in this second instance, while driving).

But there was more news of note last week from the rightwing comic strip world as Prickly City's creator Scott Stantis has been recuperating from rotator cuff surgery and Guest Cartoonists have been taking his place.

Here's how things began last week as the strip was taken over by centrist --- and apparently Democratic --- editorial cartoonist Matt Davies...

While Prickly City is nowhere near as strident, cloying, obnoxious, and irrelevant as Mallard, it also has the added benefit of being interesting and even mildly entertaining on occassion. Last week, however, with Davies at the helm, actual humor managed to find its way into just about each day's strip (even if by Thursday, they had gotten a bit knee-jerk.)

Credit is due Stantis for allowing a less-than-Republican to take things over, even if his strip had already become far less Republican-ish over the last year or so. Monday's toon is above, the rest of Davies' strips from last week follow below. The best one --- for our money --- was Wednesday's...

No worries. After the pathetically unfunny Mallard Fillmore is eventually put out of its misery, we're certain that intimidated newspaper publishers will work hard to find another unfunny "conservative" "comic strip" to take its place. Lest they be accused of not being "balanced" in the funny pages and all...

Seriously, are there any Republicans left out there who don't suffer from blatant and utter hypocrisy?

Other than that...What are you thankful for this weekend? Consider it an open thread...

(Here's a good place to start. Though, NOTE TO CIO Insight: they weren't "glitches," they were failures.)

...With a huge nod to Tom Tomorrow who presented a similar toon a full three years ago...well before many of us even understood how scary these things are...

(Hat-tip to BRAD BLOG emailer Melisa U.)

Kudos, btw, to Candorville cartoonist Darrin Bell, who has had his sharp eye on this issue for a while. His strip is widely syndicated (it's in our copy of LA Times for one), so his coverage of "Liebold" should be receiving quite a few eyeballs today.

He contacted us this morning to alert us to today's toon, along with the promise that "there will be more to this storyline as the election approaches."

He asks that we also point folks to the main Candorville website. We're happy to oblige!

(Hat-tip to BRAD BLOG reader Martin T.)

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

by David Horsey, from the September 3rd Seattle Post-Intelligencer, via Bartcop, via my science advisor (who loves Bartcop!!)

Please consider this an OPEN THREAD!