Actually, the Death Cat is quite appropriate for Chopin's Marche funèbre.

Utterly outrageous. Mash-ups, as a form of parody, are completely acceptable. Still, the deepest pockets always prevail in these cases, and we all suffer diminished freedom thanks to these corporations and their heavy-handed claims. If I was an intellectual property lawyer, I would defend you gratis.

What's "Peanuts Tall"?

Dean.. It's amazing how you can continue to amuse and entertain use with all of the lawyers and their baseless threads breathing down your back.

They know they are not right, but they know you don't have the cash to fight them.

Damn. 9 Chickweed Lane, too? So now there's really no reason to submit myself to that crap, knowing you won't be able to make the nightmares go away anymore.

This reminds me of an anecdote that Gary Larson once relayed in one of his anthologies. He had written a "Far Side" cartoon in which there were two apes, apparently a married couple. Mrs. Ape is picking through her husband's fur and says, "Another blonde hair? More 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" Not long after, Larson got an indignant letter from Goodall's lawyer, expressing how inappropriate it was to characterize his client as a "tramp."

Larson was mortified. He wrote the cartoon harboring nothing but respect and affection for Ms. Goodall's work, and the last thing he wanted to do was to offend her. He immediately composed a long letter explaining this, begging her not to take offense. Goodall got back to him after a long while. She'd been in Africa, researching apes, as usual, so communication took some time. She told Larson that someone had shown her the cartoon, and that she'd been amused by it, and certainly did not harbor the resentment that her lawyer imagined. Larson was invited to visit Goodall when she next went to Africa, and I'm sure he went.

I guess my point is that lawyers don't always know what's best. They seldom do, and they more often than not seem to overreact when it comes to, well, to anything. The inclusion of "Pearls Before Swine" on the forbidden list convinces me that it's not the creators who are grousing, but the lawyers, whose number is so great in this world that they're going to spend the rest of the history of the world de-funning the place, constantly looking for more work to keep themselves busy, doing things that no one needs to have done for money that no one really feels like paying them, and do so because they're convinced they have no choice.

In this case, Dean, I don't suppose writing directly to Jane Goodall--the cartoonists, in this case--would do any good. The interdiction's coming directly from the suits at the syndicate. I'm sure that most cartoonists have had to tangle with that crowd, themselves, getting their cartooning wings clipped by overly nervous legal advisors.

Carry the fire, Dean, as much as you can. I enjoyed your "Scary Gary" work, but I think I'll miss your "Marmaduke" cartoons most of all.

Like a great chef, Dean, you've taken what you can use/what's available and worked with it magnificently.
Keep up the good work, and those lawyers can all go have a liquid lunch together
(take that as you will).

Thank gawd Mary Worth and The Family Circus are still available.

Yeesh. I suppose they're worried about the competition, in that your re-takes are often far funnier than the originals!