RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Cathy: when mediocre cartoonists try and understand technology

So, this week in the funnies, Cathy Guisewhite has been trying to pretend her strip takes place in the 21st century (or any time past the mid-70s) by doing a plot about hubbie Irving losing his Blackberry:



Funny stuff, huh? That Irving...just another stupid man who can't do anything... what an original and funny idea for a strip. After all, it isn't like Dagwood, General Halftrack, the husband in Sally Forth and about sixty other comic strip husbands aren't also complete morons.

But this is the best part: the whole "joke" this week is about how, having lost his Blackberry, Irving can't do anything because...ha...ha...he never backed it up.



I guess that Cathy Guisewhite has never actually seen a Blackberry since, if she had, she'd probably know that the whole point of the damn device is that it constantly syncs its data with your server and, therefore is being backed up about every fifteen minutes!!!

On the other hand, maybe I should cut her some slack. After all, she's hardly the first over the hill cartoonist to think that jokes about technology that the cartoonist doesn't understand is a quick ticket to instant relevance in the modern society.

The Cathy cartoon sucks.

Feh! Most cartoons nowadays stink! The only one I look forward to is Get Fuzzy, though I will mention some fondness for the Piranha Club (formerly Ernie) as well.

I like Get Fuzzy and Foxtrot.

Lots of cartoonists seems to live in the past.

Like the guys who do B.C. and Hagar the Horrible?

Foxtrot's the best of the lot these days.

If B.C.'s a caveman, then why does he celebrate Ash Wednesday?!?

Heh. B.C. is alright apart from the (alleged) anti-semitism. I like Hagar the Horrible but it's one of those strips that reek of 1950's values (kinda like old episodes of The Flintstones).

I think my least favorite strip has to be Family Circus. Good lord, you could get diabetes from all the sacchariney sweetness dripping from that cartoon.

Old people who hate new tech will probably read that strip and say "see that's why I don'tneed any of that new junk in my life.Just give me an old fashioned piece of paper and pencil and that's all I need to keep track of stuff. Kids today don't even know what a pencil is."

"In my day, football was better, because our fields were a hundred and FIFTY yards long, not the 100-yard fields the slackers today use. And we played without pads. And shoes! We had to eat our shoes during half-time, because all the meat was being used towards the war effort. We were fightin' the Krauts back then, y'know?"

Ever since Calvin and Hobbes ended the funny pages haven't been good enough to wipe my own ass with. I can't believe people still read shit like that.

Calvin and Hobbes was the BEST daily strip, period.

Didn't he retire a few months ago?



But at least, as a Viking, Hagar's supposed to have old fashioned values.

You can't fool us, Jerry. That guy on the right is you, isn't it?

yup...

I hate Family Circus the same way I can't stand beardguy: all-encompassingly. However, his disdain for Cathy is a sentiment I can stand behind.

I don't read the paper comics anymore. I like Pearls Before Swine and Get Fuzzy. I can get those both on the internet, along with about 20 other regular comics I love to read, and avoid the paper's shit all together.

Speaking of the paper, there was an article about a guy that worked for Goldman/Sacches (an investment firm, I have an IRA with them) and made 70 million dollars a year and quit because he "wasn't being compensated enough." Mother. Fuck.

you know, i've never seen a straight man get upset over cathy. i've never seen a straight man even read cathy.



and i still haven't.

Ray, you live in San Francisco. You've probably never seen a straight man...period

yeah, and all black people live in Detroit. It's racist/homophobic comments like that that get you kicked out of all the gay black singles chatrooms.

I dunno...Boondocks was giving it a run for its money for a while there.

Boondocks suffered from the same thing as liberty meadows. people thinking cartoons are for kids...kids don't even read newspapers.

Then explain how Bloom County, which both Liberty Meadows and Boondocks have/had elements of, was a huge hit.

In fact, I'd say Boondocks WAS a hit. It only ended because McGruder realized he could make more money for less work making it an animated series.

No, no.....McGruder had many of his cartoons edited and many papers pulled the strip because it was too racy and "edgy". The same is true for Liberty Meadows.

I think even Bloom County had to deal with a smattering of it.

But that wasn't because they saw comics as being "for kids." It was because they saw the particular strips in question as being offensive to newspaper readers.

If anything, the syndicates and newspapers see the comics page as something for senior citizens, hence, the endurance of outdated crap like "Mary Worth," "Nancy," "the Family Circus" "Blondie," and even "Cathy."

OK, I'll go with that...elderly folks then...basically kids with a driver's license and a pension fund.

But being edited or pulled on any given day for being "offensive" in a free speech newspaper is the ultimate in hypocrisy...which is why many cartoonists go onto other things or arenas.

Which is why I agree that shit like Family Circus and Cathy are in papers because people are idiots apparently. Do newspapers even ask people if they like Cathy or Family Circus???

Not really. The newspaper's publisher also has a free speech right not to publish something he or she dislikes or finds offensive.

Basically, the relationship between the cartoonist and the newspaper is the same as the relationship between any creator and consumer. If the consumer doesn't like something, he doesn't have to buy it or, once he buys it, he can alter any way he sees fit. His money, his right.

The ultimate in hypocrisy would be more akin to a newspaper publisher demanding that the government censor some other person or medium while demanding free speech for newspapers (which, in fact, they do all the time--calling for censorship of TV, movies, video games, political campaigns, etc.)

G----I'm just saying that the cartoonists leave because they are edited....editors do that (edit), but they do it only when it doesn't meet their political viewpoint---their readers I suppose, yes. I certainly think it's political, but then again it's mostly the older folks that write in and complain.

I don't think we disagree as much as you are trying to fillet my sentences.

I agree with you on this.. elderly grandparents would like " The Family Circus " because the kids in it remind them of their own grandkids.


And that would explain why outdated cartoons like " Blondie ", " NAncy " and the like also because they can read them to their grandkids who cannot read.

But what about people who are from 18 to 55? WHat have they got to read in the papers ( Cartoonwise ) to appeal to them?

Zilch, now that " Calvin and Hobes " and " Boondocks " are gone.

I read the occasional Philly paper. The cartoons are horrible. If I were a kid I would not like them. The cartoons are bland, boring, and do not provoke any thought on the reader's part.

Oh look, Nancy tried a new hairstyle today.. but she hates it and it is back to the old hair for her.

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzz...

Free speech is more of an ideal in the media than an actual practice.. at least on many occasions.

Decent point, but a daily strip about a viking with values of his own time wouldn't stay published in an ordinary US news paper for a longer period. (Even if it was a Christian Viking.) The humour would be too dark.

I thought daily strips were for adults and sunday strips were for kids.