THE MORNING LINE:
The quickie a.m. roundup of today's toons, from all the major food groups...

'AGNES' (Creators)Enlarge Image

FAVE BALLOON OF THE DAY: Something about Agnes using "odd meats" as a grand metaphor is so bizarrely bold, it's to be applauded. Though I'll never eat lunch in this strip again...

'FRAZZ' (UFS)Enlarge Image

FAVE M.I.A. STRIP: Hankering from your daily "Frazz" just because it's gone AWOL from your Saturday Post? Well, this one's for you...

'JUDGE PARKER' (NAS)Enlarge Image

MOST CURIOUS: After what feels like months -- and too many moons -- of this Evil Cheerleader Mom storyline, I've nearly forgotten: WHO are we supposed to be rooting for in this big, sloppy melodrama? At some point, I just don't feel compelled to root for some dude who breeds Arabians...

'RHYMES WITH ORANGE' (KFS)Enlarge Image

FAVE VISUAL: Because sometimes, when life gives you lemons, make --- well, make a call to your attorney, 'cause you're only chance at leaving the casino ahead is by a juicy settlement. Then again, the House always wins, soo...

If there are cartoons you particularly like -- or dislike -- today, you've invited to share them links.

'CALVIN AND HOBBES' (UPS)

Talk this week of redheads -- er, orangeheads -- in "Cul de Sac" has got me to thinkin': The funnypages love a good carrottop. (Not to be confused, puhleez, with the Carrot Top.) From strawberry blondes to rooster-red moptops, the comics have been very, very good to the character Clan That Sports the Red and Orange.

What's the reason? "Mom says redheads have fiery, uncompromising temperaments!" Petey exclaims in "Cul de Sac." So is it a cartoon-stereotype personality thing? And Petey's sis says: "Your hair's so orange that it's distracting." So maybe it's a visual thing -- our eyes can't resist such colors in the Sunday comics.

So from Calvin to Hagar, Petey to Little Orphan Annie, Foghorn Leghorn to, well, Red, the Official 'Riffs Question of the Day: Who is your favorite cartoon redhead?

You're invited to share your brightly belocked picks.

'RED ROVER' (WPWG)Enlarge Image

Scratte (left) and Scrat in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs." (Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox)

"Coraline," "Monsters vs. Aliens" and "Up" have all delivered brilliant 3-D effects this year -- each offering its own visual strengths -- yet for especially impressive facial close-ups rendered in 3-D, one film steps up front and center of the others: "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs."

Manny the Mammoth's wheat-field fur, Scrat's eye-popping google-eyes and all those ginormous-jawed dinosaurs whose mouths open so wide, you can count even the farthest molars -- which gleam onscreen like a fat row of IKEA showroom chairs. Visually, this is the best "Ice Age" yet.

To discuss the joys and challenges of making this sequel, Comic Riffs recently caught up with CARLOS SALDANHA, who has directed or co-directed all three "Ice Age" films, as well as "Robots" and the Oscar-nominated short "Gone Nutty." The engaging, Braziian-born Saldanha, 44, shares his thoughts on creativity, family and the reason why he knew he needed the voice of Queen Latifah.

"Ice Age" director CARLOS SALDANHA. (Kevin Estrada)

MICHAEL CAVNA: After making two successful films in a franchise, is making the third "Ice Age" movie easier, or does the pressure to follow up just keep growing?

CARLOS SALDANHA: The pressure keeps increasing. It's more of an internal pressure. The first time, we went out blind -- we had nothing else to compare it with. We thought about it, but didn't overthink it. On the second one, we have something to compare it with, but it was great. I had pressure on myself to make it better. I didn't want to let the audience down, but for myself, I had huge expectations for the second one.

Going into the third one, there's the added pressure of: What are we going to do? I know that always in movie franchises, you've got the stigma of the third one. They need to be better, bigger ... you have to push as far as you can. But you can never think about [how do I top the last one?]. You cannot think about it that way.

MC: So when did you first get into creating cartoons, and how did that evolve?

CS: Growing up, I was always into drawing and [reading] comics and watching cartoons. Back then, I loved "Tom and Jerry" and Chuck Jones and the classic Warner Bros. stuff ... and also Speed Racer. I have such a nostalgia for the old times. ... Now, I like "SpongeBob," but when I watch a lot of the new Saturday morning cartoons, I get a headache. I switch to old cartoons.

But as a boy, I always drew. I'd be in the corner with a pencil and paper. I knew I wanted to be an artist ... and had to make a choice. Computer animation wasn't so big in the '80s and I wasn't aware of it. I thought: I'd be this starving painter. My perception of it was as a hobby -- I never had awareness of art as a career. But I was drawn into computers and went into computer science.

MC: And how old were you when you left Brazil?

CS: I was 21 or 22. I went directly to New York to study.

MC: And what happened next?

CS: After I graduated with a computer science degree, I felt there was something missing from my life. I missed art -- it was too strong for me to let it go. ... Then I saw [John Lasseter's] "Tin Toy" on a demo reel and thought: Whoa, they did that with a computer? I was very proficient with computers. I got my master's [in computer art] at the School of Visual Arts, and that's where I met ["Ice Age" co-director] Chris Wedge, who was teaching at the school. He said: Come to Blue Sky [Studios], and we said we wanted to make a movie one day. I loved the undergod feel. The idea of fighting [for it] together. ... Everything converged to the right spot -- everything was just happening.

MC: Pixar's Bob Peterson [who directed "Up"] told us he took the same route: Going from studing the technical side of computers to the artistic side of things. Was that difficult at all for you, that evolution?

THE MORNIING LINE:
The early a.m. roundup of 'toons, from the lustful to the mistrustful...

'DAVID HORSEY' (Seattle Post-Intelligencer/Hearst/courtesy of cagle.com)

FAVORITE SCANDAL-INSPIRED CARTOON THIS MINUTE: The e-mails! The yammering! The rambling press conference as confessional performance art! South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has given cartoonists so much in such a short period of time -- practically talking scandal-mate John Ensign right off the nation's drawing boards.

From Argentina weeping to Appalachian Trail hiking as a hot-and-heavy euphemism (even hotter than "hiking on the Mark Trail, apparently), Sanford promises to keep on giving -- and talking. So it takes a sure-handed David Horsey to really catch up to Sanford's chronic verbosity. EVERYbody...warble along, won't you? ("I sneaked off to Argentina...")

'BILL DAY' (courtesy of cagle.com)

MOST ARRESTING VISUAL THIS MINUTE: Bill Day delivers this powerful image. So strong, we'll let the cartoon do the talking now. 'Nough said.

'GET FUZZY' (UPS)Enlarge Image

FUZZY ON THE BRAIN: What I most like about Francis: To me, he looks pert-near exactly how I imagine R. Crumb looked back in the day. Keep on truckin', Bucky.

What cartoons did you particularly like -- or dislike -- today; you're invited to share them links.

LASTLY...

The esteemed Harvey Award nominees have been announced, with homegrown talent Jeff Kinney ("Diary of a Wimpy Kid") among the leading nominees. (Winners will be named at the Baltimore Comic-Con Oct. 10.) To see all the nominees, go to the Harvey Awards site. Congrats to all the honorees, and here -- as a sampling -- are the nominees in the comic strip and online comic categories:

BEST ON-LINE COMICS WORK

1. BLACK CHERRY BOMBSHELLS, Tony Trovarello and
John Zito, www.zudacomics.com
2. HIGH MOON, Scott O. Brown, www.zudacomics.com
3. LEAST I COULD DO, Lar deSouza and Ryan Sohmer, www.leasticoulddo.com
4. NIGHT OWLS, Bobby & Peter Timony, www.zudacomics.com
5. PVP, Scott Kurtz, www.pvponline.com

BEST SYNDICATED STRIP OR PANEL:

1. BREWSTER ROCKIT: SPACE GUY!, Tim Rickard, Tribune Media Services
2. GET FUZZY, Darby Conley, United Features Syndicate
3. MUTTS, Patrick McDonnell, King Features Syndicate
4. THE NORM, Michael Jantze, Uclick Gocomics
5. PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, Stephan Pastis, United Features Syndicate

THE RELATED READ:

THE 'RIFFS INTERVIEW: David Horsey, on life at an endangered newspaper.

THE 'RIFFS INTERVIEW: Bill Day, on life as a pink-slipped cartoonist.

THE 'RIFFS INTERVIEW: "PvP" creator Scott Kurtz on social networking for cartoonists.

THE 'RIFFS INTERVIEW: "Brewster Rockit" creator Tim Rickard.

THE 'RIFFS INTERVIEW: "Mutts" creator Patrick McDonnell.

THE 'RIFFS INTERVIEW: "Pearls Before Swine" creator Stephan Pastis.

Yes, folks, it's time once again to play: Defend That 'Toon!

'GARFIELD' (UPS)Enlarge Image

Last week, Comic Riffs asked readers: Were you editor, would you cancel "Hagar the Horrible" from your funnypages -- and the response was almost squarely down the middle. The Vermilion Viking has his passionate detractors, but also fans of the strip seemed to man an entire wall of parapets.

So in this week's (theoretical) exercise, we now turn our attention to another lumpy, red-orange creature who grew out of the '70s: Garfield himself.

"Garfield" draws enough sharp-clawed critics that an entire cottage industry arose out of "Garfield Minus Garfield." But there are still plenty of very vocal readers -- and that's not counting the hopped-up-on-Juicy-Juice grade-schoolers of the land who practically hail Garfield as a god of the funnypages. (Though thankfully, they stop short of offering pans of lasagna as sacrifice.)

So the Official 'Riffs Question of the Day is: Were you editor, would you give "Garfield" the ol' heave-ho from your comics pages, or would you let him stick around?

If you're no fan, feel free to Impugn-That-Toon. But if you're a Garfield lover, now's the time to Defend That 'Toon!