Tube City Almanac

October 17, 2006

Funny ‘Peculiar,’ or Funny ‘Ha-Ha’?

Category: default || By jt3y

In the comments to yesterday's Almanac, Alert Reader Bill points out one of my favorite blogs, Josh Fruhlinger's The Comics Curmudgeon: "Comics are mocked regularly, including 'Mary Worth,' 'Rex Morgan, M.D.,' 'For Better or For Worse,' 'Family Circus' and 'Cathy,' among others."

Yes, indeed. Bill also mentions that "Zippy" was sent off to the Pinhead Retirement Home some time ago by the Post-Gazette A Local Newspaper.

Cue Dana Carvey as Johnny Carson: "I did not know that." That shows how much attention I pay to the Newspaper's comics pages; I get most of my laughs from the news these days.

As Bill points out, the Newspaper also tried several new strips lately in place of Aaron McGruder's "Boondocks."

(McGruder, who is my age, recently announced that he was giving up the comic strip, apparently because the strain of supervising a ghost-writer and a ghost-artist to do his work for him was just too much effort. I can understand, Aaron. Personally, I'd like to get someone to press the buttons on the TV remote for me.)

"Of the tryout strips by the Local Paper, I liked 'Lio,' 'Watch Your Head,' and 'Red and Rover,'" Bill says. "'Baby Blues' and 'Over the Hedge' are good but they are already in the Greensburg Astonisher, and in color, so I'd not like to see them duplicated in the Local Paper."

I agree with all of that, though "Red and Rover" leaves me flat sometimes --- I see it in the Washington Post. I've been following Cory Thomas' "Watch Your Head" and Mark Tatulli's "Lio" online since they debuted, and they're both wonderful.












 




 

"Watch Your Head" is set among the undergraduates at a historically all-black college, and reminds me a lot of early "Doonesbury," with less political content and more social commentary. Storylines typically take a couple of weeks to play out, but Thomas is a heck of a writer, so it's worth following.

Besides, he knows well enough to get a gag into every strip. (Like today's punchline: Ouch!)

"Lio" is a bizarre, wordless strip that's very much in the style of the old Charles Addams cartoons. "Lio" is a little inconsistent, but when it's good, it's very good. (The Oct. 12 strip really reminded me of Addams.)

Finally, today, some more recycled radio show content --- this is from back in August, and it's offered as proof that I do more than make dumb political jokes. I make other kinds of dumb jokes, too.






Your Comments are Welcome!

Google says it’s even an Elrama phone number… hm.
Derrick - October 17, 2006



Josh also has a comics forum http://www.joshreads.com/forum/index.php Several cartoonists post there, Cory Thomas posts under Planetcory, Francesco Marciuliano who does Sally Forth posts under the name Ces. Often they slip topics discussed in the forums into their strips especially Ces. It is fun to catch them when they do. Also a fellow who goes by Adam-12 is lives in Pittsburgh, he refers to The Local Newspaper as The Pest-Varmint!!
Bill - October 17, 2006



Geez, Derrick, I guess I have to bleep the phone number? You kids!

But is it 724 or 412? Ha!

Also, let me know how you’re going to get the operator to “Ring 3.”

Bill, I assume you’ve checked out the website that Ces and his wife, Carol, run at http://www.drinkatwork.com?
Webmaster (URL) - October 17, 2006



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