You're Invited to an Easter Egg Hunt

EASTER TIME brings with it a basket full of metaphors for cartoonists to play with, as this collection of cartoons demonstrates. Feel free to share them.


EASTER TIME is also a time for Easter Eggs, although those of a cyber nature are available all year round... but only to the inquisitive and sharp witted! Hidden throughout this website, they'll find clues to secret cartoons, treasures and interesting collections. They'll discover clues to bouquets and onions that they'd otherwise might have missed: tid bits about the cartoons and cartoonists, and other interesting facts. This page will be updated from time to time with more hints and links, some obvious, others not.

This is not the only place you'll discover hints to the many Easter eggs we've hidden. After you've found find them, please leave a comment (beneath this article) to let us know that you've taken up the challenge of our Easter Egg hunt... but please don't give away any hints that might spoil other readers' searches.

TO GET YOU GOING; here are some things to look out for...

- Follow the Rhodes to discover a century old tradition in cartooning, involving two colossal cartoonists.

- Discover a host of otherwise unpublished cartoons, Spiked with details as to why they weren't published by the newspaper editors.

- A South African word for "Bloopers" will lead you to our 'Blooper Reel" of cartoons that were published with mistakes in them.

- And if you're inclined to go back as far as 1754, you'll find the oldest cartoon in the West, drawn by none other than a founding father of the USA!

- A collection of cartoons in which two or more cartoonists have coincidentally come up with similar ideas at the same time. You know what they say about "Great Minds..."! (Clue: Now search for an acronym formed from the initial letters of that saying).

- More difficult to find are our series of re#ed (rehashed) cartoons: cartoons which we believe were influenced by others (on our site and off it). In an instance where two cartoons are (in our opinion) suspiciously similar, we've tagged them both with a hash symbol preceding the date of the earlier instance; so that you can see them together and decide for yourself.

- If you find some of our cartoons puzzling, you might prefer this fun exercise!

- On August 1, 2010 Africartoons coordinated a petition by South Africa's leading newspaper cartoonists against threats to their Freedom of Expression. It was signed by 29 leading cartoonists, with only one of the then current editorial cartoonists abstaining. Can you determine who that cartoonist is?

- Have you noticed that our website design is inspired by that of a newspaper (the traditional home of the editorial cartoon)? Note our elongated masthead, the black, white and red colours, the bold headline-like typefaces, the fact that we call our home page the "front page", the 'Read All About It!' links and a host of other design elements and features which pay tribute to the noble newspaper.

- Did you see the bigger picture behind the scenes in the pic About Us, which confirms the mental state of the folk that built this website?

- Discover the cartoonist who caused a stir by landing some powerful politicians in hot water*

- Find like minded friends (who also appreciate cartoons) at our facebook page or read our notes there for many interesting insights.

- Follow the white rabbit! If you moused over the white rabbit that welcomed you to this story, you'll note that he's disappeared. There are only two ways of finding him. (1) refresh this page - but that would be cheating. Or (2) use your inner sleuth and our search tools to discover the cartoon that he originally appeared in. He's probably returned to it!

ENJOY, but watch out for the Red Herrings.

USEFUL SEARCH TOOLS:
There are many ways to search for a cartoon on our site. You can do so via the Cartoonist's names (from the drop down list on our home page), or chronologically via the Archive. Otherwise, our Cartoonfinder search facility (also on the home page) will return all cartoons, stories and even comments that feature any given word or phrase. That search can then be refined to include or exclude any set of words. But another, very popular method o searching is via our extensive WORD CLOUD which lists popular themes alphabetically and sized according to how represented they are.

ABOUT VIRTUAL EASTER EGGS:
*WIKIPEDIA explains: "A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, in-joke, or feature in a work such as a computer program, web page, video game, movie, book, or crossword. The term was apparently coined by Atari after they were pointed to the secret message left their game Adventure.  It draws a parallel with the custom of the Easter egg hunt observed in many Western nations as well as the last Russian imperial family's tradition of giving elaborately jeweled egg-shaped creations by Carl Fabergé which contained hidden surprises.

This practice is similar in some respects to hidden signature motifs such as Diego Rivera including himself in his murals, Alfred Hitchcock's legendary cameo appearances, the appearances of Fritz in the works of Chris van Allsburg, and various "Hidden Mickeys" that can be found throughout the various Disney Parks. An early example of this kind of "Easter egg" is Al Hirschfeld's "Nina".

Posted on Apr 01, 2013 by Africartoons