The Smashing Cartoons
Smashing Cartoons is a regular section on Smashing Magazine. Every Friday we publish a new cartoon created by Ricardo Gimenes, the creative mind of Behind the Websites.
The cartoons are dedicated to design and Web development, but also have a comic twist about everything happening around the Web as well as give you some insights behind the curtains of Smashing Magazine. Also, on this page we will be collecting all issues of the Smashing Cartoons for your convenience. You will also find the latest cartoon on the sidebar of our pages.
We are looking forward to your feedback and your ideas!
Cartoon #61: Sluggish Computers
Cartoon #60: Back To Home
Cartoon #59: Last Minute Ticket
Cartoon #58: Access Restricted? VPN Is Your Friend
Unfortunately, today the Web is not as open as it used to be. Access to some websites (especially website offering video and audio content) is restricted due to licensing constraints. This is especially annoying when you are on vacation and would love to use the services that you have paid for in your country. There are workarounds to make all services work from anywhere. The solution is VPN, Virtual Private Networks.
Cartoon #57: Tyranny Of The “Like” Button
This cartoon is referring to the article The Insidious Evils of ‘Like’ Culture in which the “Like” culture in our society is criticized. The article discusses how in our age of online view counts and retweets, conformity is unfortunately becoming the rule.
Cartoon #56: “Exclusive” Social Network
Cartoon #55: Responsive Design By Default?
This cartoon is referring to the observation which Vitaly, the editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, has made on one of his trips. You can follow the discussion which inspired the cartoon below.
Cartoon #54: UX Design
This cartoon is referring to the discussion in the community about the meaning of terms ‘UX’ and ‘UX Design’. Andy Budd presents an interesting perspective on this issue in his article “What’s in a name: The duality of user experience”.
Cartoon #53: The Interface
This cartoon is based upon Oliver Reichenstein’s article “*Why and how Google+’s interface is kicking ass” in which he discusses the qualities of a good user interface and how they are applied in the Google+ design.
Cartoon #52: Back Button
This cartoon is based upon Jared Spool’s presentation “The Secret Lives of Links”, as summarized in Luke Wroblewski’s conference notes.
Cartoon #51: Mobile First
Cartoon #50: Making The Web A Better Place
Cartoon #49: Users Don’t Read, They Scan
Cartoon #48: They Just Don’t Care
Cartoon #47: Online Reading Experience
Cartoon #46: Mobile Design Strategy
Cartoon #44: Responsive Web Design
Cartoon #43: Web Design Trends
Cartoon #42: How To Start a Blog and Make Money
Cartoon #41: The Fleaty: Relations With Clients
Cartoon #40: The Fleaty: The Geek Bug
For previous cartoons, check our Smashing Cartoons Archive.
The Smashing Editorial loves high-quality content and cares about little details. We also believe that content and design are crafts worth sharpening.
-
1
IE9 may not like a geek bug but I bet it’s riddled with other bugs…
-
2
This is pretty cute and very funny. I enjoyed this a lot.
There should also be a girl geek bug too. ;) -
3
Of course you can post content fom our website when you make sure that everybody is informed where the original content comes from. Please set a link to smashingmagazine.com and the specific cartoon.
-
4
bree font
-
5
I don’t think so…
Last time I looked at this page there was some objective critcs from some people. They had nothing to do with spam and are all gone now…
-
6
Fleaty, sorry man, not a fan of the comic. The only thing talked about are things that are blatantly obvious and true, but not particularly interesting, insightful, or funny. It’s like a soap opera with no humor or drama. After reading 7 of these in a row, I have failed to have any type of emotional reaction, positive or negative, toward any of the characters.
On the up side, I like the clean visual style, character design, and color choices. All flash, no feeling.
-
7
The ‘like’ culture is insane. There were some idiots who ‘like’d an obituary notice posted in my facebook wall to inform that one of my colleagues have passed away!!!!! Holy @!@#$%!
-
8
The Clients Don’t Care was quite realistic :)
Love the series and looking forward to upcoming ones. -
9
#44 is killing me, because that just happened to me a couple weeks ago. Helvetica, though, not Tahoma, was the fallback. Ugh.
-
10
Nicely done comic series and well drawn. One thing that would be nice is to see each comic in its own post, rather than consecutively on one page, though the new archive helps. It would make it a bit easier to share one specific comic as well. Just a thought at this point, but again, nice work!
-
11
Owesome.
I love the CLIENT DON’T CARE part -
12
The art is gorgeous.
Unfortunately, the writing definitely needs improvement. A couple of the comics just drag on with no real point or humor to them. #49 is a good example of this.
On the other hand, #57 is written very well. I hope that this is a sign of good things to come for this part of SM. I would really like to look forward to seeing these.
-
13
While I can follow the comics, the writing does need some work, I agree. Everyone started somewhere, though, and this comic -has- improved over time.
They’ve deleted all the constructive criticism comments, though, leaving only the praise; this sort of kills any positive feelings I had for this comic. I’m very disappointed in Smashing Mag.
-
14
Very Creative!!
amazing collection…..
I like it..
Thanks for share…. -
15
just loved it ….. amazing work guys …. keep going ….
-
16
Smashing Cartoons amazed me so much. I love the colors used and the Illustration. Great job!
-
17
Love the cartoon. Especially First one :)
-
18
Love the fonts used! Anybody know what is the font used in the captions? Love the cartoons too, by the way.
-
19
Very Creative!!
I like it..
Keep it up…Waiting for Surprising Cartoon!! -
20
Why do you actually promise to publish a new cartoon each week if you can’t hold that promise?
No one forces you to… -
21
this is so badly written :( it reminds me of Kartoonist Kelly from The Onion, but this seems to be serious. I lost it at the crying Fleaty in the last panel of a particularly ham-handed strip… This would make a great parody if it were meant as such
but the art is cool!
-
22
Great series of cartoons..nice style…the geek bug reminds me of the Squander Bug from WWII
-
23
Love the cartoons. specially First one :) awesome
-
24
I really like the “lady bug” in the “Best design innovation award”. If design ideas could really get girls to run around web designers… :-D
-
25
Funny stuff, specially “Relations with Clients”.
-
26
“I don’t care for the design. Just give me a big shiny button to click on”.
Ya, I know that one :)The the new toons are really great and funny.
Who thought a bug could be that great. -
27
Illustrator
-
28
Good work Awesome!
-
29
Great Stuff…. loved it very much. Keep up the good work!
Also give some proper reply to people who say that you guys have deleted negative comments! If you haven’t, you should convince them with it.
And shouldn’t let anyone spoil your image.
-
30
ha ha ha :D i love the way they illustrate things, nice colors and story boarding, enjoyed.
Leave a Comment
Yay! You've decided to leave a comment. That's fantastic! Please keep in mind that comments are moderated and rel="nofollow" is in use. So, please do not use a spammy keyword or a domain as your name, or it will be deleted. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation instead. Thanks for dropping by!
Hillary Hopper
April 8th, 2011 9:47 amThis is pretty cute and very funny. I enjoyed this a lot.
There should also be a girl geek bug too. ;)
bluepicaso
April 8th, 2011 9:52 amOwesome.
I love the CLIENT DON’T CARE part
Elliott
April 8th, 2011 10:07 amIE9 may not like a geek bug but I bet it’s riddled with other bugs…
Therese
April 13th, 2011 4:34 amHaha!
Ingvi Jónasson
April 8th, 2011 12:18 pmFunny stuff, specially “Relations with Clients”.
Thomas McGee
April 9th, 2011 9:41 amNicely done comic series and well drawn. One thing that would be nice is to see each comic in its own post, rather than consecutively on one page, though the new archive helps. It would make it a bit easier to share one specific comic as well. Just a thought at this point, but again, nice work!
Monit
April 9th, 2011 10:59 amLove the cartoon. Especially First one :)
Earl
April 9th, 2011 2:57 pmLove the fonts used! Anybody know what is the font used in the captions? Love the cartoons too, by the way.
Ricardo Gimenes
April 10th, 2011 2:18 ambree font
Girish
April 11th, 2011 1:13 amThe Clients Don’t Care was quite realistic :)
Love the series and looking forward to upcoming ones.
Kuswanto
April 14th, 2011 6:20 amThe blog comic is very true :-)
Dipesh
April 14th, 2011 9:12 amVery Creative!!
I like it..
Keep it up…Waiting for Surprising Cartoon!!
Roberto
April 14th, 2011 10:10 amGreat Job.
Sachin
April 17th, 2011 11:16 pmI really like the “lady bug” in the “Best design innovation award”. If design ideas could really get girls to run around web designers… :-D
Chanaka S Irugalbandara
April 18th, 2011 3:02 amLove the cartoons. specially First one :) awesome
zayeem
April 22nd, 2011 5:45 amha ha..really nice..love them all..but my fav “Cartoon #42: How To Start a Blog and Make Money”
Miriam
April 23rd, 2011 11:04 amso cute loved them keeps me happy whilst up designing, designing…
Jack Starr
April 25th, 2011 1:11 amVery cute…LOL.
Prabaharan
April 25th, 2011 4:19 amReally! these are all what happening in designers or developers life, who love to use new technologies. Because the client and testing department are still using lower version of IE. Finally removing all new technologies are removed to ensure its working perfect in IE 6 or 7…..So sad :( .
engiguide
April 26th, 2011 12:35 amI like this one How To Start a Blog and Make Money. nut all are amazing
Jon
April 26th, 2011 8:41 amVery funny stuff. Keep em comin!
Crazy J
April 27th, 2011 1:35 pmWhy do you delete all the negative comments people leave here?
Smashing Media Customer Support
April 27th, 2011 2:58 pmDear Jeph,
We never delete negative comments. We just sort out comments with keywords or domains as names, spam and advertising.
Best regards,
Helen
Christian
July 19th, 2011 2:29 amI don’t think so…
Last time I looked at this page there was some objective critcs from some people. They had nothing to do with spam and are all gone now…
Stephano
April 28th, 2011 12:27 pmHaha very cool!
Droidsid
April 29th, 2011 4:01 amHaha… the second one was pretty funny!! :D
Droidsid
April 29th, 2011 4:03 amAlso the third one.. how to start a blog!!
Rafael
April 29th, 2011 4:30 amHahaha. Very good
Arash Miani
May 1st, 2011 1:29 amlol :D very nice work… keep it up SM
Saeed
May 3rd, 2011 3:21 amCool….. thanks so much!
Kreviii
May 3rd, 2011 2:49 pmNice one, how we can all relate so well.
big up yourself Richardo and them skinny-leg styles.
Gregor
May 6th, 2011 9:24 amHey guys,
just a heads up: you’ve use #43 twice.
Lee
May 6th, 2011 9:29 amThese strips are great fun to read!
Cheered me up, the art work Is fantastic.
schua_ozven
May 6th, 2011 9:41 amSmashing Cartoons amazed me so much. I love the colors used and the Illustration. Great job!
Adam
May 6th, 2011 10:46 amFunny. Something that I guess most of us can identify with. The #42 actually is depressing me a little – all that effort just for nothing ;(
Mainual
May 7th, 2011 11:31 pmReally funny stuff!
Adam Kayce
May 9th, 2011 6:58 am#44 is killing me, because that just happened to me a couple weeks ago. Helvetica, though, not Tahoma, was the fallback. Ugh.
Ben
May 11th, 2011 4:55 pmLove the new comics :)
NK
May 14th, 2011 4:03 amThe funniest! Thanks!
Karan
May 14th, 2011 11:10 pmjust loved it ….. amazing work guys …. keep going ….
kasman
May 15th, 2011 7:32 amgreat, but how to see the previous edition ?
ciara luke
May 15th, 2011 11:32 amreally like this! good stuff
Chase
May 19th, 2011 2:05 pmLove where you guys are going with these! Keep it up! Thinkin’ maybe a site solely devoted to these might be proper (do it like The Oatmeal site and everything will be right in the world)
Ezgi
May 24th, 2011 10:48 amThe talented bug seems so miserable…But I like it;life is life:)
mahen23
May 25th, 2011 8:45 amNo matter what you are using, wordpress or Drupal, Linux or Mac, the client just want their website to be online, beautiful and working. Nothing else matters to them
TJ
May 30th, 2011 3:06 amHI,
Pretty cool ones, can i uses these cartoons on my website?
Smashing Media Customer Support
May 30th, 2011 6:07 amOf course you can post content fom our website when you make sure that everybody is informed where the original content comes from. Please set a link to smashingmagazine.com and the specific cartoon.
Sreenath H B
May 31st, 2011 12:45 amLoved the sweating cool working guy cartoon in all of them with that “oooo” expression on the face. Wish you had a Facebook Like or Share button on individual cartoons. :)
evan
June 1st, 2011 10:42 amThese are just stunning!!! Well done
Ching Ching Yao
June 2nd, 2011 9:28 amCool !! Funny, nice and working. i like it. May i uses these post on my web? ^^
Thank forward ^^”
Ching Ching Yao Fm Thailand
Daryl
June 4th, 2011 6:38 amAn RSS feed of the cartoons would be cool, so I know when to stop back!
Ferdous
June 6th, 2011 9:53 pmI like the cartoons very much. But sometimes they take a little bit time for me to understand. Is it just me for being a non native English speaker or anybody else also think so? Sometime I think a little bit intro on what the cartoon about might help. Just sharing my thought….
Sebastiaan Stok
June 10th, 2011 6:18 am“I don’t care for the design. Just give me a big shiny button to click on”.
Ya, I know that one :)
The the new toons are really great and funny.
Who thought a bug could be that great.
Rachel
June 14th, 2011 4:40 amI love it! Thank you for presenting this information in such an interesting way!
Robin
June 14th, 2011 11:04 pmThese cartoon illustrations are really awesome…
AgungO
June 20th, 2011 7:22 amWow, this is awesome!
hw did you make it? Phtoshop/ Corel?
Ricardo Gimenes
June 20th, 2011 7:29 amIllustrator
joey
June 22nd, 2011 6:53 pmi <3 that its so so relevant..
smitha
June 24th, 2011 1:51 amWOW really admire the series & the presentation…
Meharwade
June 30th, 2011 3:39 amAmazing… liked overall. collective info….
bunny
July 4th, 2011 10:53 pmnice! good job~~~
sangeeta
July 5th, 2011 8:59 pm#52 cartoon really is funny, sarcastically though.. with no offence to the marketing managers out there such suggestions and unbelievable tips are much frequent on the discussion board for any marketing strategy or project and sometimes just seems uneasy to be dealt with.
Pedro Picado
July 12th, 2011 1:42 amGreat fun and humour, also quite informative for some neub webdesigners like me!
Christo
July 15th, 2011 4:47 amThis is brilliant! =D
Hemang shah
July 17th, 2011 8:28 amGood work Awesome!
ted
July 19th, 2011 12:48 pmPlease let us know what typeface you’re using for your speech bubbles…it is gorgeous
Anna
July 19th, 2011 10:09 pmWhy isn’t there a single character that is a woman?
Mick
August 2nd, 2011 6:48 amThese seem to be getting worse and worse.
Not only are a lot of them confusing to read, but the latest one on Social Media “Exclusivity” just makes no sense, I don’t get the point you guys are trying to make here.
I would prefer if you guys just focus on quality content.
(also where has all the constructive criticism posts gone?)
Steph
August 8th, 2011 1:54 pmWhile I can follow the comics, the writing does need some work, I agree. Everyone started somewhere, though, and this comic -has- improved over time.
They’ve deleted all the constructive criticism comments, though, leaving only the praise; this sort of kills any positive feelings I had for this comic. I’m very disappointed in Smashing Mag.
Vitaly Friedman
August 9th, 2011 8:45 amWe never delete comments with constructive criticism or a negative opinion.
Steph
August 10th, 2011 5:23 amWhere did the comments go, then? Folie à plusieurs – I and others clearly remember them.
Ben
August 10th, 2011 6:44 pmYep – few of mine have been deleted too :\
Domi
August 19th, 2011 12:37 pmThat’s for insiders. Google made their social network “exclusive by invitation”: only invited people are blessed to be the first ones who try the network out. But once they achieved this “exclusive” membership, they’ll find out, that there are millions of other “blessed people”.
This trick actually makes a network popular in a faster way rather than it would if it was open as from the beginning. They catched it up from women who play “hard to get”…
Shageevan
August 8th, 2011 6:39 amThe ‘like’ culture is insane. There were some idiots who ‘like’d an obituary notice posted in my facebook wall to inform that one of my colleagues have passed away!!!!! Holy @!@#$%!
Mohawk Kellye
August 8th, 2011 11:17 amThe like thing can be stupid but at the same time I don’t think it’s completely killed people actually writing thought out responses. My friend write thought-out comments all the time. But at the same time if I “like” a photo I don’t have to say it, I can just click a button. I don’t arbitrarily “like” things, though.
Akira
August 9th, 2011 8:17 amGreat cartoons.
Though I wish that I could comment on those separately.
Allison
August 11th, 2011 9:08 amThe art is gorgeous.
Unfortunately, the writing definitely needs improvement. A couple of the comics just drag on with no real point or humor to them. #49 is a good example of this.
On the other hand, #57 is written very well. I hope that this is a sign of good things to come for this part of SM. I would really like to look forward to seeing these.
Domi
August 23rd, 2011 10:04 pmI actually like the “Like” culture. It thins out the nonsense in the internet, where just one person is writing nonsense and the others just agree-by-click instead of writing nonsense in response.
pete
August 24th, 2011 2:29 pmFleaty, sorry man, not a fan of the comic. The only thing talked about are things that are blatantly obvious and true, but not particularly interesting, insightful, or funny. It’s like a soap opera with no humor or drama. After reading 7 of these in a row, I have failed to have any type of emotional reaction, positive or negative, toward any of the characters.
On the up side, I like the clean visual style, character design, and color choices. All flash, no feeling.
rheedo
August 24th, 2011 7:20 pmits really entertaining cartoon.. :-D
kalyan pal
September 4th, 2011 11:01 pmVery Creative!!
amazing collection…..
I like it..
Thanks for share….
Brian Wiltshire
September 5th, 2011 5:12 amGreat, Thanks for keeping me busy :)
avn
September 5th, 2011 5:58 pmha ha ha :D i love the way they illustrate things, nice colors and story boarding, enjoyed.
Silvansam
September 6th, 2011 4:56 pmI love this style of cartoon. Nice work.
Graham Wilson
September 20th, 2011 9:16 pmGreat series of cartoons..nice style…the geek bug reminds me of the Squander Bug from WWII
Suhail Tk
September 28th, 2011 3:04 amAwesome creations!!!!!!!
Visitor
October 14th, 2011 3:12 pmThese cartoons are repulsive.
leandro
October 14th, 2011 6:11 pmRicardo mendes? this is a Brazilian name, you came from Brazil?
yannick
October 20th, 2011 6:08 amRicardo Gimenes :) Not “mendes”. Yes, Is Brazilian guy
Good Work Ricardo !!!
Brock Peters
October 31st, 2011 10:22 amWill you guys do a Steve Jobs tribute cartoon? Might be nice.
CapitanBollito
November 1st, 2011 12:44 pmOh so true! Really clever.
Love it!
Praveesh
November 7th, 2011 4:33 amAwesome! No words to praise… Good job :) Fleaty rocks :)
mr
November 11th, 2011 4:44 amthis is so badly written :( it reminds me of Kartoonist Kelly from The Onion, but this seems to be serious. I lost it at the crying Fleaty in the last panel of a particularly ham-handed strip… This would make a great parody if it were meant as such
but the art is cool!
leandro
November 13th, 2011 2:27 pmCool, a brazilian creating draws to a important website how SMagazine…you “Fuck Yeah” hahahaha
Uday
December 2nd, 2011 3:43 amAwesome! great work..keep it up!!
Poonam
December 12th, 2011 11:51 pmGreat Stuff…. loved it very much. Keep up the good work!
Also give some proper reply to people who say that you guys have deleted negative comments! If you haven’t, you should convince them with it.
And shouldn’t let anyone spoil your image.
Artarka
March 24th, 2012 6:58 amGreat work overall! I quite like it! But cartoon 41 have a typo you typed clent instead of client, or you mean to do it
deborah
April 7th, 2012 12:44 amI think the flea is gross. I made myself look at these just to see if they were otherwise good, but I can’t get over the flea.
samsaysyo
April 19th, 2012 6:54 pmVerrrrry cool. It’s nice to see many of our common frustrations visualized through comics. Haters just shouldn’t post here. Bravo, Ricardo!
Marco
April 28th, 2012 4:05 pmWhen people draw artworks like this do they usually scan hand drawn drawings or is it straight on the computer? Thanks
Leonardo Re
April 29th, 2012 8:35 pmWhy do you actually promise to publish a new cartoon each week if you can’t hold that promise?
No one forces you to…
Astro Gremlin
May 8th, 2012 11:56 amHow to Start a Blog and Make Money # 42 is funny. And cruel.
Corey
May 18th, 2013 6:10 pmThese are gems.. too funny!