Comix Disaffection Syndrome

Y'all know I love my comix. I felt ill for a week when Bill Amend announced the end to daily Foxtrot strips. I mourned the day Charles Schulz died. And on the days I can find a good comic to read, I'm a happy man.

But I need to talk about something: Comix Disaffection Syndrome.

Let me explain.

Zits, for example. Lots funnier, I think, when I was younger. Now that I have kids of my own and their rooms kind of look like Jeremy's, it's not so funny. It's painful sometimes, in fact. The thought of having an ungrateful yard ape like Jeremy in the house is depressing.

Calvin and Hobbes, too. Funnier, again, when I was younger, and had that nostalgia for my younger, more carefree years. Nowadays, I re-read them and I can't help but to notice that, at times, Calvin is a sweet little boy, but, most of the time, he's a little snot. And not just any kind of little snot, but an absolutely cruel snot, rude to Suzie, rude to his parents and just downright nasty. Now, I know kids are rude and downright nasty. I've got kids of my own. But I think Calvin is just too polarized in his nastiness. Kids like the Peanuts gang, and those living in Cul de Sac, are also nasty, but in a more realistic, innocent way.

So, not so entertained by Calvin and Hobbes these days. Much more so by Cul de Sac. Still get the ugliness and innocence of childhood, but in a way that isn't as adult or as exaggerated to the extreme. Because Alice, here can be awfully sweet when she wants to be, and even sometimes when she doesn't. Calvin, on the other hand, was rarely sweet.

As you can probably tell, I tend to overanalyze these kinds of things. But it's fun.