{"id":1010,"date":"2004-01-26T19:49:00","date_gmt":"2004-01-26T19:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/2004\/01\/26\/a-rant-on-bad-comics\/"},"modified":"2004-01-26T19:49:00","modified_gmt":"2004-01-26T19:49:00","slug":"a-rant-on-bad-comics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/2004\/01\/26\/a-rant-on-bad-comics\/","title":{"rendered":"A rant on bad comics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every who knows me for more than a few days will know that I love comics. The first thing I do when I'm in the metro is read the funny pages of the paper. I also follow a bunch of online comics when I get to the office (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>). I find that the 20-30 minutes I spend reading the funny pages will put me in a good mood, and that's time well spent. <\/p>\n

Here's the thing though. There a TON of good comics that exist only online, but are heaps better than some of the crap that's syndicated in print. This rant came about this morning, when I saw today's Beetle Bailey<\/i>. It's a bad comic. It's been a bad, boring, un-funny, repetitive piece of crap for years now, yet it still manages to get distributed. This morning's strip had a stupid joke that referenced Iraq. It was the first time in YEARS that I saw a BB strip that could be dated! <\/p>\n

They're generally just pointless strips that are, well, lame. I imagine the cartoonist just making a bunch of start panels, mid panels and end panels, throwing them in a sack, and just making random strips (like the SuperMegatopic Random Comic Theater<\/a>). They'd probably be just as funny as the trash that's being produced now. <\/p>\n

Now before Mort Walker thinks I'm targeting him personally, I'm not. He's not the only provider of bad comics this rant is directed against. Others are guilty of bad taste and lack of imagination. I'm thinking about you, Brian Walker, Greg Walker and Chance Browne. Your strip, Hi and Lois<\/i>, hasn't made me laugh in the years I've seen in it print. The jokes are stale, and haven't evolved in years. I mean, that kid has been a toddler for more than 15 years… Get with the program here. Is it a coincidence that both strips are made by the same people? I think not… <\/p>\n

Now I'm not saying here that since I don't like it, it's not good. There are many strips that I don't particularly like, but I can see the effort in the storylines and plot. I'm thinking of Cathy<\/i> and Doonesbury<\/i>. I might not appreciate the humour, but I give credit where it's due. They're original. The make the effort of keeping the storylines or jokes fresh. <\/p>\n

Some strips are feeling their age, and that's sad. I've never been a big fan of Peanuts<\/i>, and I think its time has passed. I'll give credit to Mr. Schultz for his quirky vision of life, and his huge amount of work. I'm just tired of seeing it in print. I used to love Garfield<\/i>. I bought all the books, had some of the merchandise, and followed the strips faithfully. These days, it's always the same things. John's a loser, mondays suck, Garfield's a fat, lazy glutton, and Odie's a lovable idiot. Lather, rinse, repeat. <\/p>\n

And now for something completely different. <\/p>\n

I feel like I've been a mite nasty, but I'm just frustrated that I have to suffer fools in my funny pages. There are a lot of good cartoons out there. I'm going to give kudos' to Lynn Johnson, whose strip, For Better Or Worse<\/i>, has been constantly innovative, thought provoking, touching, funny or sad for years. People get old. Priorities change. I'm of an age with Michael Patterson. It's funny to see how humour parallels life sometimes. Other strips, like Non Sequitor<\/i> and Zits<\/i>, are just hilarious and constantly poke fun at everyday life. Get Fuzzy<\/i> is now my strip for my psychotic cat fix. <\/p>\n

In conclusion, if you're a comics buff, get online. There are some hilarious ones. Sinfest<\/i> comes to mind. It's a bit too racy and cynical for syndication, and that's why it's been rejected 11 times. It's a riot though, and it's better than a lot of swill currently in print. Sluggy Freelance<\/i> has everything a twisted mind needs. Check out the links above. They're always good for a laugh. If you really need a pick me up, check out my archive of the funniest clips I've seen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every who knows me for more than a few days will know that I love comics. The first thing I do when I'm in the metro is read the funny pages of the paper. I also follow a bunch of online comics when I get to the office (see here and here). I find that…<\/p>\n

Read More “A rant on bad comics”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3u9vK-gi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flubu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}