Comics: Does Anybody Read For Better Or For Worse?

[Old_Joe]

All comic strips pale in comparison to Gary Larson's The Far Side.

[Ash Wednesday]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1381893' date='Sep 9 2007, 04:03 PM']It's been many moons since I've gotten a newspaper, so I haven't followed the newspaper funnies for quite some time. I've never been much a fan of that strip, though. It was a bunch of wussy politically-correct Canadian mush. The strip never seemed to have many strongly masculine characters. Last I was reading the funny pages, Michael (I think that was his name) and his wife had had their kid. I never liked Mike much (he's around my age, the characters in that script aging in "real time") - he always was such a caring, sensitive new-age guy. I remember sort of wishing some other character would beat the carp out of him or something.[/quote]

You see, that is just it. I agree with you 100% The strip is an awful train wreck that I can't stop reading out of morbid curiousity, and it is a strip that I "love to hate." Michael is a big drip. The latest gagworthy event is that he sent his manuscript for his book in to a publishing company and within weeks he gets his book ACCEPTED for publishing PLUS a check of $30,000 as an advance. Every writer I know who has had to withstand one rejection after another just had epileptic fits reading that. Friends and I like to talk about this strip just to make fun of it and crucify it mercilessly. It actually used to be a much wittier strip when it started in the late 70s early 80s but that was a long time ago.

What I hate about the Pattersons is that nothing really bad ever happens to them. No major deaths, illnesses, rebellious kids, midlife crises -- happens to everyone else but these guys are pathetically "perfect" and in their oasis of suburbian bliss where everything goes right. *barf*

[Ash Wednesday]

[quote name='Old_Joe' post='1381923' date='Sep 9 2007, 04:26 PM']What happened to LIz's Canadian Mountie boyfriend that she met while teaching up north?[/quote]

An out-of-character crizzap job of a character assassination is what happened to him, so that Liz could be paired back up with that mustachioed limp wristed wuss retard. But the Mountie was strong and masculine, ergo he was made to be a "jerk" in the strip in the end. Just like the helicopter pilot. If you show any traits of masculinity and have an interesting job, chances are your character will be "killed off." Whereas if you are a dork with no backbone, never left your hometown, takes advantage of near-rape victims when you're still married and sell cinnamon buns for a living, then you are hailed a hero.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Socrates' post='1382130' date='Sep 9 2007, 09:46 PM']Yeah, forgot about that. A beautifully cynical satire of Corporate America (though Adams lacks any artistic drawing talent whatsoever, but somehow that works to his favor). But Dilbert's usually found in the business pages, rather than the funny pages.
Violence greatly improves the dramatic impact of any graphic narration. I'm a huge fan of Frank Miller, though I think the man's something of a lunatic, and his work has greatly deteriorated lately.[/quote]
Violence is the only way that I can make Fred Basset even remotely readable. I always envision a "missing" last panel... the one where Fred mauls his owner's face off... It's hilarious.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Ash Wednesday' post='1382437' date='Sep 10 2007, 04:18 AM']An out-of-character crizzap job of a character assassination is what happened to him, so that Liz could be paired back up with that mustachioed limp wristed wuss retard. But the Mountie was strong and masculine, ergo he was made to be a "jerk" in the strip in the end. Just like the helicopter pilot. If you show any traits of masculinity and have an interesting job, chances are your character will be "killed off." Whereas if you are a dork with no backbone, never left your hometown, takes advantage of near-rape victims when you're still married and sell cinnamon buns for a living, then you are hailed a hero.[/quote]

[Norseman82]

Two other strips worth mentioning:

1) "Get Fuzzy". Hey, I'm a pet owner.
2) "Prickly City". Good right-of-center political humor embedded in there - including swipes at cloning.

[quote name='Socrates' post='1382130' date='Sep 9 2007, 09:46 PM'](though Adams lacks any artistic drawing talent whatsoever, but somehow that works to his favor).[/quote]

Yeah, but think of the fashion trend at costume parties of the tie sticking up? Instantly recognizable.