Why are second-tier comics so bad?
- From: "JGM" <jgmclean0@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 29 Nov 2005 08:50:40 -0800
Warning: bad-attitude rant ahead.
Every so often the cry goes up here about statsis on the comics page
and the lack of opportunity for new strips to break into syndication;
the clear implication is that there is a whole farm-league of strip
creators just waiting for their chance to make the bigs.
With the recent re-formatting of Chron.com, I've added a bunch of
strips to my daily view that I had seldom looked at before. I think
most of these are safely classified as second-tier syndicated strips,
often in the Far Side-wannabe mold. After nearly two full weeks of
daily perusal, I can say that I am shocked at how really and truly
awful most of these strips are. I'm speaking specifically of:
* Real-Life Adventures. Simply lame, generic faces with text balloons
routinely taking up 2/3 of the panel. Harmless at best, possibly
designed to be shrunk down to 1-inch squares without losing anything.
* The Other Coast - when a comic resorts to recycling dumb urban
legends stories as "original humor" you know it's lame (compare
http://tinyurl.com/8ebum to
http://www.snopes.com/crime/clever/cigarson.asp )
* Quigmans - grotesque and unfunny, a bad combination:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2005/11/25&name=Quigmans
.. Often this looks like Easter Island Comix.
* Ballard Street - a very interesting (though sometimes
incomprehensible) drawing style in the service of not much. Consider
the gag here:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2005/11/26&name=Ballard_Street
.. Nothing we haven't seen a million times in Marmaduke, but we never
had to stare at a Marmaduke panel for three minutes to figure out what
we were supposed to be looking at.
* Strange Brew - the opposite of Ballard Street. Sometimes mildly
funny, but looks like it was drawn with a Bic pen for a high-school
newspaper. Consider today's:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2005/11/29&name=Strange_Brew
.. Okay, the basic gag is an OK if uninspired bit of absurdity. But
what is with Abe's hands and arms? And what's that thing in the center
of the middle shelf supposed to be?
* La Cucaracha - this actually looks like it may have some potential,
but is wildly inconsistent, both in content and visual style -- a few
character-based gags, some lame Duck-like political commentary, and
often a high "what the. . ." factor i.e.:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2005/11/26&name=La_Cucaracha
And, most of all:
* Dinette Set - I simply can't imagine how this panel could have
reached syndication. The worst aspects of Zippy, Sylvia, and various
underground Comeeks, all apparently drawn by an 8-year old. Here's a
week's worth:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2005/11/22&name=Dinette_Set&week=1
-- can anybody explain *any* of these, or propose any redeeming
qualities for this thing?
Of course the beauty of the Chron page is that I can take these off my
list at any time, and to some extent complaining about these feels like
picking on the disabled, but really: if these are these the best comics
"waiting in the wings" for widespread syndication when Lynn Johnson
retires, Scott Adams decides he has enough money, or Johnny Hart is
raptured away, I say bring on the replacement artists.
JGM
.
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