Outland: Thirty Years Later, Still Blah

 

As much as I love Bloom County, Outland just isn't there.

And I know this review is more than 30 years late. It's taken me that long to sit and read an entire Outland collection -- a find at a local thrift store. I know a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since 1992, and Bloom County has actually come back.

But Outland was pretty blah.

Who is the "Loser" in Peanuts? Might Not Be Who You Think.

A few Christmases ago, I got several pounds of Peanuts comic strips in three bound volumes. Finally managed to work my way through the set covering the 1960s, and I learned something startling:

Linus -- grounded, studious, intelligent Linus -- may be just as bad a student as Charlie Brown.

In reading the dailies (before the strip ended in 2000; I am old) and in reading the much smaller collections I gathered over the years, I always assumed that Charlie Brown was the more lackluster student, particularly when it came to not finishing book reports until 3 am the night before they're due. (The strip below is from 1965.)

But the 1960s Peanuts are rife with such comics as above (I'm not sure when this is from, but I suspect it's later than the 1960s) Linus shows some habits of procrastination that I thought were much more Charlie Brown-ish.

Maybe this is Schulz just populating his strip with characters of ordinary mein (except for the Beethoven prodigy Schroeder). But even Schroeder has his faults.

But ask anyone to identify the "loser" in Peanuts and it's Charlie Brown, all the time, hands down.

Maybe it's a message to look past the stereotypes and see people for what they are. Or something.

Stan Lee, Who Helped Introduce Me to -- Comic Strips

As a kid, the closest I ever came to liking your traditional superheroes came thanks to the Spiderman segments on The Electric Company.



My older brother Jeff had many of the comic books. I remember glancing at a few (the one that sticks out most in my head features Iron Man locked in his outfit, with people using hand grenades to try to get him out for some reason). And I only recognize him as Iron Man now – had no idea who he was then, nor why anyone would want to blow him up in such a useless fashion.

There were other comic books in his collection – notably B.C. comic strips – that more fully engaged my attention. Somehow it was easier to relate to and understand cavemen, or the denizens of the Kingdom of Id, than it was the people who inhabited the Spiderman universe.

But still, to hear of Stan Lee’s death today at 95, takes me back to my childhood.

Superhero comics could have been my window into the comics world, had it not been for BC and Thor and Clumsy Carp. Looking back, I’m glad I chose the path I did. My personality lends more to the silliness and whimsy I find in comic strips, rather than to the more serious storylines to be found in superhero comics. And maybe there’s silliness and whimsy there too; I’m just glad I took the path I did.

I’ve come to enjoy the fringes of the superhero universe, though I’ve never seen much to draw me into the center of it. Things like The Incredibles, The Iron Giant, and such were to my liking. And the LEGO Batman Movie? Best Batman movie ever made.

One thing always confused me about those comic books though. That name. Stan Lee. Was it a guy being funny with his given name of Stanley? For a kid encountering the two-first-name phenomenon for the first time, it was confusing.

The Memes, not the Meaning

Controversy in the comic strips takes two forms (and I'm not talking Doonesbury here):

• Upon the death of an artist, the syndicate (said here in an evil voice meant to conotate money-grubbing, for the lack of a better word, bastards) hires a scab to continue making money, er, drawing the strip.
• Your local newspaper decides to drop Alley Oop or Beetle Bailey in favor of some other strip.

Here's a third. It's not quite a controversy, but it is worth talking about: Having guest artists take on your work while you deal with something else but are in any other respect quite alive.

That's what Richard Thompson is doing right now with his comic strip Cul de Sac. Thompson himself is grappling with the early onset of Parkinsons Disease, which shouldn't be wished upon anyone. For the past few weeks, he's had guest artists -- today's example is from "Big Nate's" Lincoln Pierce -- doing his strip as he deals with what life has handed him.

While I'm grateful to see the art coming, I've got to say that only Thompson has the flair for Thompson's work. And this isn't just because I don't much care for Big Nate.

I've said before that Thompson, like Charles Schulz, has a unique window into the lives of his subject matter: children. He can make Alice and Petey and their parents do and say things that make me think, yeah, this is real. This isn't made up, this is life coming at me through the comics pages. The little annoyances: Petey lamenting that his assorted jellies caddy is sticky before he gets to it, that he has to sit under a Tiki head at the restaurant, that Ernesto is the only guide he can find to get through the maze of portable classrooms to find his own.

The guest artists, try as they might to mimic the form and memes of Thompson's Otterloops, just don't have that same window into their world, and it shows. This doesn't mean their art or story is bad, but it does mean it's all different enough that I know it's not Thompson's work without having to look at the name scribbled in one of the panels.

It's like Johnny Hart's grandson taking over BC. He's grown into to the strip, I'll give him that, but reading Johnny's strips and reading his grandsons, you can tell the one from the other, and that's even after the grandson's art has grown to nearly mirror his prececessor's. Each has a different narrative take on the story and characters, and though the successor/replacement echoes the memes, the same feeling isn't there.

Fare thee well, Mr. Thompson. Come back when you can.

Comix Artists Take Note

Though at times I think Scott Adams of Diblert fame is kind of a goober (sock puppeting certainly comes to mind), I have to admit that one of the things I admire most is that he’s allowed for the finest comic archive ever conceived by a comic strip artist.

I wanted, for example, to find two comic strips related to Dilbert’s company’s business plan being in complete disarray. Ordinarily, with comics like, well, any of them, I’d have to swim through years worth of archives if they’re offered online at all to find them. Not at Dilbert.com. I plugged “disarray” into their comics search engine and had the two comics pulled up in no time flat.

I don’t know if this comes through Adam’s genius, his clout in the industry letting him convince his publisher to offer all these goodies in an easily-searchable online database or if it’s something to do with the world ending in 2012, but I like it. Kudos to whomever came up with the idea.

Oh yeah. He’s got strips with “kudos” in them as well.

A New (to Me) Comic: New Adventures of Queen Victoria

How might the staid Queen Victoria react to, say, George Lucas’ latest batch of edits to the classic Star Wars films?

Thanks to Pab Sungenis and his funny comic New Adventures of Queen Victoria, we know. Like this (and, frankly, not at all well):

I have to wonder – how does Mr. Sungenis get away with this? Well, part of it’s easy – the illustrations (and, I can assume to some point) the personas involved are in the public domain. Kinda sorta on the personas, definitely on the illustrations. The rest is just a few deft strokes with what I assume is a computer stylus, combined with a lot of wit on the part of Mr. Sungenis, and there you go, that’s how he gets away with it.

The humor is contemporary, but always focused through Victoria’s Victorian lens. I’d like to think royalty is as human as he makes them out to be, but part of me also wants to be able to flap my arms and fly to the moon as well.

Sungenis is liberal and not afraid to share that in his comic, so true conservatives beware. For those of us who sag in the middle, it’s pretty good entertainment.

Here are a few more recent ones that tickled my funny bone:

A New Comi: Buni

I kind of the like off-beat. That probably why in the corner penthouse of conservative Madison County, I’m a Democrat. Or at least a wishy-washy independent with leftish socialistic commie leanings.

That’s probably also why I like Ryan Pagelow’s Buni comic strip.

Reading Buni is almost like watching those silent movies, where the actions have to speak louder than words because the words have to be written out on a card and pasted on black pages between the action. It adds that bit of Chaplinesque humor mixed with a bit of surrealism, as in the following examples.

The rainbow unicorn one while he’s riding the broken-down kid toy in the slum is my favorite. I like the drunken bum bear especially.

This is Why YOU Can't Be President

This is Why YOU Can’t Run for President

Or me either, for that matter.

It’s not that we don’t have good ideas. It’s not that were’ not electable.

It’s because we’re dumb as rocks.

That’s probably a bit harsh. To the rocks.

I have no idea how to solve the jobs crisis aside from putting forth a catchy slogan. I’d have to rely on the advice of experts, and we’ve all seen, since 2008, what happens when politicians rely on the advice of economic experts.

This all reminds me of, what was that movie, with Kevin Kline, in which he is the doppelganger to the president and becomes the president after the president suffers a fatal boner? Don’t remember. I do remember Charles Grodin is in it. He’s the expert Dave the President brings in to solve the budget crisis. Which they solved in an afternoon poring over the nation’s budget. And the plan for which he got shoved through Congress in a manner of minutes.

This is why I will not run for president. I’d be scribbling doodles in the budget margins. I don’t know any financial experts I could smuggle into the Oval Office. And those Killbots, they do have some pretty good ideas.

A Great New (to Me) Comic: Brewster Rockit

This world has long needed a comic strip that combines the optimistic, 1939 Chicago World Fair Buck Rogers chic with a character dumber than a box of rocks. Looks like Tim Rickard's Brewster Rockit is going to fit that bill nicely.

Got an introduction to Mr. Rockit thanks to another of my favorite comics, Basic Instructions, where Rickard recently did a guest strip. Wonderful stuff at both places if you ask me.

Technically, I know this has got kind of a Space Ghost Coast to Coast vibe, but that's just fine with me. I really miss Zorak and Brak.

Death of the Mouse?

So, according to TIME magazine’s Techland blog, the mouse is doomed.

Doomed, I say, doomed. Just – dare I say it – like these guys:

Because of Apple, of course. Everything that is dooming computer technology as we know it is either due to texting or Apple.

I’m a bit skeptical about all this touch technology they’re touting. You know, I like my iPod Touch. I like tapping on it, not having to have a keyboard or mouse attached to it. I like the pinching and other touchy-feely things I can do to manipulate text, games and such. To a point. Playing Galaga or Dig-Dug on these devices is crap. The games beg for a joystick. Maybe someday somebody will be able to wire an old Atari 2600 joystick to an iPod Touch, and I’ll play those games again. Don’t ask me to tilt the thing to get things to move. My geriatric brain – a match to the photo of the age-spotted hand Techland includes in their story – just doesn’t work that way.

I have a laptop that has a touchpad instead of a mouse. I don’t like it. When I type on the keyboard, my wrists brush against the touchpad and bad things happen. Now Apple wants to sell us something (surprise, surprise) called a Trackpad. Techland uses the word “magic” to describe the Trackpad. I’m not sure if they’re poking fun at Apple for their overuse of the word or just in awe of Apple’s overuse of the word. Doesn’t matter.

Jason Fox, I think, illustrates the pitfalls of changing from a simple directional pointing device like the mouse to anything more complex.

Though it’s inevitable, as Zits point out.

Okay, Apple. I’ll send you my wallet. Again.

First Day of Summer Vacation, or Can We Kill the Kids Yet?

NOTE: Thought I’d blog this email I got from Michelle this morning, in reaction to this comic which I sent to her earlier in the day. Names have been changed to protect the, well, perpetrators.

This is precisely how I feel this morning. Dottie [the dachshund puppy] had me up until nearly 5:30, then up again by 7:10. Child No. 1 came in at 7:15 to claim her -- that's good, right? Wrong. For the next 45 minutes, every five minutes the kids had to come in with a report:

Child No. 1: "Mom? I took Dottie outside. She went pee twice and poop twice."
Child No. 1: "Mom? Dottie wants you." (followed by dog scrambling around on bed and biting me on the face.)
Child No. 1: "Mom! Mom! Child No. 2 keeps putting Dottie under Child No. 3's box and she doesn't like it!"
Child No. 2: "Oooooooooooooooooh! Ooooooooooohhhhhh! My stomach hurts! Oooooooohhhhh!"
Child No. 2: "Mom, I sat on the potty, but I still feel sick. Ooooooohhhhh!"
Child No. 2: (now 'resting' on our bed) "Mom, I know how to spell sneeze. S-N-E-Z-E."
Child No. 2" "Mom? How do you spell 'Chris'?" (followed by Child No. 2 attempting to spell several versions)
Child No. 1: "Mom, Dottie wants you." (followed by dog once again scrambling around bed)
Child No. 2: "Mom? Can I hold Dottie? Pleeeeeeeeeeeaze?"
Child No. 2: "I think using the potty might have helped a little bit."

None of this dialog should be confused with Dottie scraping at the cardboard in the kitchen and yelping and whimpering, or the three doors the kids slammed, or Child No. 3 singing in the kitchen and at some point yelling "[Child No. 2]” or the kids having various squabbles about Dottie in general.

I started breakfast at 8 a.m.

Sort of makes you jealous you didn't take another day off, doesn't it?

"I'm Really Full of Hooey"

It's not often I find a comic strip that so succinctly encapsulates my personality. But when I do, it's a doozy.

National Cartoonists Day

It's to surprise to my readers that I like my comic strips. And while it's true that my tastes have evolved over the years, two things have remained constant: I've always liked Peanuts, and I've always disliked Alley Oop. Not that I didn't try awfully hard as a kid to like Alley Oop. It just never caught my fancy.

It's the same with Pearls Before Swine. Really trying to like it. I come close several times, but most of the time, no, it's just Alley Oop all over again. And I can't really put my finger to why I don't much care for either of those two strips, either, though Swine's awful puns and plays on words are a big turnoff for me. Never much liked puns as a kid. Except for those that appeared in Wiley's Dictionary. Something about that disembodied, authoritative voice just made the awfulness come to life for me.

Absurdity, like this, I do like:

[He tries in vain to find a comic to fit the absurdity bill here. No luck. Almost all of my comic books are in storage because there's not enough room on the shelves for them. Next house will have lots of bookshelves. And a garage.]

There are better ones than this. Just don't have the time to find one tonight.

Two things started my love affair with comic strips: First, the Forbidden Books -- BC and Wizard of Id collections -- my brother Jeff had hidden on his bookshelf, but not well enough that his younger brothers couldn't find them. Second, "Barnaby," which my sixth grade teacher Mr. Loertscher read to us using what I recognize now as the voice of W.C. Fields as Mr. O'Malley. (It doesn't matter what any of my other elementary school teachers did or any of the stuff they tried to make us learn. My most lasting memories of school will always be of "Barnaby.") My dream one of these days is to find some "Barnaby" comic books in a thrift store. I love to dream that dream. I know they've been reprinted. But to find an original . . .

So who are my favorites today?

Well, Cul de Sac, for one. And Dilbert, for another. And the Dogs of C Kennel I rather enjoy. Overboard. Baby Blues. Yes, I'm a traditional newspaper comic strip fan. None of this magna or DC Comics or anything like that. No. They all appeal to the desire I have to feed the absurdist within.

New (to Me) Comic: The Dogs Of C Kennel

What’s most remarkable about “The Dogs of C Kennel,” a relatively new comic strip by the scions of the late Johnny Hart (of BC fame) is that in creating the new strip the artist and author reveal how reverently they’re treating their grandfather’s original creation.

I mean that in the nicest possible way, having been a fan of BC since my older brother Jeff introduced me to the comic way back in the 1970s when I was but a wee lad. I quickly learned to recognize Hart’s bizarre sense of humor, his wit, and his sparse artistic style before I knew what it really meant to have a sense of humor or what the words “wit” and “sparse” even meant.

The writing in C-Kennel is a bit more modern, a bit edgier than what Hart wrote in BC – there are a few more (mild) cuss words (they didn’t bother me, they just stand out in this Hartesque art milieu).

I like what they’re doing with their new strip, though perhaps they’re a bit too married to the three-panel format their grandfather used. But the characters and the writing are most excellent.

Possibly a New Funny: Dustin

On the surface, it has all the elements of cliche: Slacker son still lives with Mom and Dad -- but for the domicile, it could easily be the storyline from "Momma" -- who are wise, employed, sarcastic and lovingly if grudgingly supporting said slacker son who has a down economy and, frankly, Archie Bunker's vision of son-in-law Meathead's ambition, to blame for his lack of employment. Or maybe it is a crush on the temp agency sender-outer. Whatever it is, it's a new comic strip, Dustin.

USA Today, in introducing the strip in January of this year, brings out an interesting fact: In the 1940s, 70 percent of children Dustin's age (23) lived with their parents; that number is cut in half today. But because of the economy and the slacker nature (or stereotype) of Gen Y, the strip's creators, Steve Kelly and Jeff Parker, seem to think the strip has legs, according to USA Today.

It's one I'll watch. But I'm not exactly sure it's going to be around three or so years from now. From what I've seen, it's really playing to the older generation and their frustrations with their boomerang children, rather than focusing (as does "Zits") on the younger set and their frustrations (some real, some illusory) with their parents and elders. It doesn't bode well that the strip caused David Colton of USA Today to compare it to Family Circus, but with grown up kids in a recession. Family Circus isn't a strip that's aged well, in my opinion.

I've only been reading the strip for a few weeks now, but the characters still feel a bit flat to me. I won't make that my final judgment, as I tend to want to watch a strip longer than that in order to get a good feel for the characters.

So it's probably going to appeal to me more than "Zits" does, because, frankly, Jeremy Duncan sometimes gets on my nerves. He makes me not want to encounter my own kids as teenagers. Maybe mine will be better. But I doubt it.

Free Comic Book Day!

I'm very excited. Tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day.

What does that mean? Well, a free comic book, obviously. The tale is if you go to a comic book store on May 1, they give you a free comic book. Probably from the leprechauns, or at least the stock of stuff they can't sell.

Me, I like my free comics from the web of all places. Basic Instructions for the iPod Touch, to be specific.

I might be tempted, though, to see what a brick-and-mortar store might have to offer. Rexburg, being the kind of cowtown that Everett Ulysses McGill would find to be two weeks from everything, we have no comic book store here. Idaho Falls has two, so maybe this one will be worth checking out.

I have to admit I'm a peculiar comic book collector. I'm much more into strips than I am actual comic books, so it's not likely they'll be giving away what I like -- BC, Charlie Brown, Cul de Sac. The traditional comic books I do enjoy reading are French ones -- Asterix, Tintin, and a few others, though I never did learn to like Lucky Luke.

The Only One There Is

In Richard Thompson, we have another Charles Schulz: Somebody who really understands kids, not as an adult understands them, but as they understand themselves.

Great Advice for Writers - From A Cartoonist

First of all, I have to admit I don't know much about Bill Griffith. But after reading the following quote on his Wikipedia page, I have to think I want to get to know him and his stuff better:

I also dislike Calvin and Hobbes. I think it's nothing much more than a re-hash of formula kid strips. Everyone says Calvin and Hobbes is about a real kid, but to me there's nothing real about it; it's clearly the voice of an adult in a kid's body. It doesn't make much sense to me.

So I've got some catch-up reading to do in Zippy the Pinhead. But as I do my remedial reading, you can consider the adivce Griffith recently shared with budding cartoonists; advice I think has broad application to budding writers as well. Read the advice here.

I'll comment on just a few, because, hey, that's what a blog is for, right? And then I'll go on to find something productive to do with my hands besides type 79 words a minute with no errors.

2) It can take years to find something to write about.

4) Laughter is in the eye, ear, nose and throat of the beholder.

10) Cartoon characters have souls.

I try to remind myself of this as I write. I like, however, to look at first drafts as getting the skeleton and body ready to receive the soul that comes -- mostly -- in subsequent revisions.

15) Find your writing "Voice." Try to keep it natural and conversational.

17) If you use text above the drawing in a panel or series of panels, don't make it "explanatory." Its best use is to complement the drawing -- not describe the drawing.

23) Comics can tell any kind of story. They're infinitely flexible. Comics will never disappear. New media do not replace existing media. "New" forms free up existing forms, allowing them to do more interesting, less commercially-driven things.

Thus blogging was born. I look at it all as practice.

25) When starting out, try to get into print as quickly as possible. Seeing your work in print is tremendously educational. All your mistakes leap out. Educational, but painful. If you do strips (as opposed to longer stories) try your local weekly papers first. Self-publish. Any way to get into print is good, including the web.

So true. Pity is that we don't recognize it at the time. Waaaay back in 1995, i was on the web, thanks to free web space at the University of Idaho and a desire to experiment with HTML. I left U of I in 1997 and it took me until 2007 to get back on the web. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I was in print all the time beforehand, but still, stupid, stupid, stupid.

31) Aside from trying to communicate, don't think of your readers when you create your comics. Please yourself and a few friends. Then hope for the best.

32) Don't reach out all the way to the reader -- don't worry about being "obscure" or ambiguous -- if you're sure of what you're doing, ask the reader to meet you halfway.

Ah, the constant battle here between writer and editor. I always get that -- "You're being obscure, I don't understand this." Yes, take the reader by the hand. But sometimes insist they work for what they want.

33) It's not always necessary to write out the entire strip or story before you start drawing. Many times, the story (or characters) will "tell" you where to take it. On the other hand, sometimes it is best to have everything written beforehand -- just don't set it in stone.

My bugaboo. I don't like to plan. And sometimes, it shows.

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.

BC and the Olympics

It’s good to see Johnny Hart’s grandson Mastroianni (I’m sorry; I don’t remember his first name) continuing Hart’s tradition of writing and drawing amusing Olymics-themed comic strips. I think Hart got his start with the Olympics when they were in Lake Placid, New York, in the ‘60s, near where Hart lived. This one with BC’s contorted facial expressions as he mentally prepares himself for the bobsled run is a classic example of the Hart/Mastroianni Olympic flavor. I wonder if the syndicate has an agreement with the Olympics for this kind of treatment, as they’re pretty protective of their five-ring logo. They must have.

It’s also good to see Mastroianni continue his grandfather’s sense of silliness, as in this strip:

I have to admit that this is about my limit for Olympics exposure. I will occasionally glance at the stories and photos and the medal tracking on the internet, but to say the world stops while I watch the games would be to lie. It's probably because I've got other things to do. but I'm grateful tow atch them through BC's filter, because I get the humor along with the event. Yeah, I don't really care to know who wins or loses, though it was a bit of a disappointment to see the US lose to Canada in mens hockey; a loss would have knocked the Canucks down a few notches on the ol' humility meter. Not that the US is any great example in humility, mind you, but it's my opinion that you don't beat jingoism and braggadocio with more jingoism and braggadocio. The meek will truly inherit the earth, though why they'd want it in its present condition is beyond me.