Funnies
I just got back from the Bay Area where I primarily went to help out Wendy's Girly Fries table (and GR) at the Alternative Press Expo, but also to take her to the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. Maybe you read about it in Giant Robot 29. It's basically Snoopy Mecca, where a rotating number of the world famous cartoonist's original strips are shown, as well as works from others (Bill Watterson and Christo!).The current show is an overview of the treatment of females in Peanuts over the years. The first two girls, Patty and Violet, basically terrorized Charlie Brown, Shermy, and the other boys. When Lucy arrived on the scene, she was even worse, physically, psychologically, and emotionally scarring Charlie Brown strip after strip. When Sally arrived, things changed. When she caused trouble, it was due to being young or naive. Pepperment Patty arrives as the strip's most complex character. Although she was a terminal D- student, she was capable, athletic, and sharp--capable of having her own comic. By the end, Lucy started to show weaknesses, and we even the butt of jokes now and then. It all seems obvious now, but when I read the strips every day, I never saw the development.
Driving back, I realized that this was a true comic nerd trip, but I never even read the comics in the newspaper anymore! There was a time when that was the first thing I'd look at: Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side. They're all gone and the newer ones don't do it for me. Neither does Doonesbury. Was I just lucky enough to be there for a golden age of comic strips? To me, Schulz, Watterson, and Larson are up there with anything like Little Nemo or Krazy Kat. Are comic strips just over?
It's like Saturday morning cartoons these days. Kids watch crap and don't even know it.
posted by gr at
5:27 PM
My thoughts exactly; All the interesting cartoon work is being done in indie/alt comics.
Most good animation isn't even on Saturday mornings anymore; It's found in prime-time, so I guess that's an improvement...? (and to be fair, we all watched TONS of crap cartoons in the 80's and we sure loved 'em. Still do.)
There's crap now and crap then (hanna barbera?)
Actually there's some good stuff now on Nickelodeon.
I used to clip out the Far Side everyday and save them before the books were published.
Yeah, Hanna Barbera was definitely weak. Although I like Hong-Kong Phooey. Was Scatman Crothers' voice foreshadowing for the dubbing of Attack of the Gas Station by hip-hoppers, etc.?
I saw Gary Larson speak at UCLA when I was a student there and it was great. He had a slideshow with panels that got censored!
Remember, guys: Cool stuff like DEXTER'S LAB and POWERPUFF GIRLS came from Hanna-Barbera in it's last days. (and to some extent, SAMURAI JACK) Say what ya will about their '70s stuff, ya gotta admit H-B's early stuff like HUCKLEBERRY HOUND, YOGI BEAR, etc. was pretty cool.
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