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Thursday, November 29, 2007

That damned L'Engle

What's Mallard raving about today?

Harry Potter, Madeleine L'Engle.

Everything you need to know about Mallard is encapsulated in the fact that he cannot praise A Wrinkle In Time without criticizing something else. In this case a series of books which made reading popular again...and kids.

Don't even get me started about the egomania on exhibit.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

So if Mallard's making such a big deal about this, where was this strip on September 20, two weeks after L'Engle died?

Oh that's right, he was too busy whining about Hillary that day.

Anonymous said...

Why does mallard have on virtually the same clothes as rush (striped t-shirt, baseball cap)? He looks like a pederastic child molestor trying to gain his trust. Also, I would like to praise bruce for the excellent continuity between today and yesterday's strip.

Anonymous said...

Also, I would like to praise bruce for the excellent continuity between today and yesterday's strip.

You're surprised? I take it you haven't been reading MF for very long.

Anonymous said...

I'm not 100% sure Tinsley meant the mention of HP to be a swipe, but your point is taken. How hard would it have been to simply have Mallard say "So you actually have friends who haven't read A Wrinkle in Time?" Simple, gets the point across, and doesn't give the impression of snarkyness.
(

BillyWitchDoctor said...

Somewhere, an author's spirit is writhing in agony, screaming: Oh, you stupid, stupid git! Now people with frontal lobes will avoid my works like the plague! Why couldn't you just shill Bill O'Reilly's latest crapsplatter?

If Tinsley could hear that voice, he would respond*, No need for thanks! Happy to help!

*if sober

All that the strip is missing is Mallard in a flight suit under a "Mission Accomplished" banner. Dude, Oprah's got a smaller ego, and she gets more people reading in a day than you will...ever.

Mysterio: It's a safe assumption. Most times, if anything's popular but not Tinsley-approved, it's "moronic" at best and "a plot against America" at worst.

Anonymous said...

Did Rush steal Mallard's hat between the two panels?

Anonymous said...

Tinsley has a right to display his ego here. For if it weren't for Tinsley, Walter Williams would not have received the groundswell of support that made him the number one presidential candidate. His sway on the nation is legendary.

Anonymous said...

Also, Veronica Mars wouldn't be the #1 show on television, as it is today.

I noticed that today is L'Engle's birthday. My bet is two weeks ago, he started to do a lame Birthday Salute strip, a la the recent Bill Buckley one, looked her up, and that's when he found out she'd died. So he did a shot, scribbled the in memoriam bit at the end (thus sparing her a horrible caricature), and passed out in his own vomit again.

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

Aw fuck--I enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels when I was small, and now Tinsley goes and ruins them by association. Dick.

Word verification: "gnooor"

Anonymous said...

Typical Mallard. Kids everywhere are reading! *SLAP* READ WHAT I READ YOU DIMWITS!

Probably just jealous that J.K. Rowling is now worth more than the queen, and his opinion didn't matter. Though British, she personifies the supposed American dream where if you work hard and push for something, you can succeed. Wildly in some cases.

And if Bruce Tinsleyanonymous reads this, yes, I read ALL the books in the series when I was a kid which wasn't that long ago and other books as well, and yet I've still got liberal tendencies. I'm also sober 100% of the time because I don't like killing all those brain cells reading builds.

Anonymous said...

Oh, come on guys, give Tinny a break. He's trying to save an entire generation's souls! The wholesome, Christian messages in the Wrinkle in Time series and the Chronicles of Narnia are the only things that can save our children from the godlessness and witchcraft espoused in the Harry Potter books. I fear for some it will be too late. You can't be blind to what's happening today ... children pledging their souls to Satan, burning and defecating on Bibles, drinking chicken blood and cavorting naked in giant pentagrams.... Why, the incidence of girls under 12 giving birth to demon spawn is up 27%! All because of those Harry Potter books! Thank God Tinsley has the answer.

Michael Foley said...

Thanks Gold-Digging Nanny State, I've been wondering why I tend to defecate on Bibles! Every time I see the Holy Book now, I get a Pavlovian anus twitch. I knew it was those damned Harry Potter books.

J.K. Rowling, feel free to put the preceding paragraph on the jacket of your next book.

Anonymous said...

too bad he is wrong since I know I read A Wrinkle in Time in school and my mom just last year had her 5th grade class read A Wrinkle in Time, the book is still read in plenty of schools across the country. Harry Potter is more popular, but good lord kids are reading books why complain....

Kaitlyn said...

Why would he do a birthday strip for her?

I've only read the first one, all I remember is the kids bouncing their balls at the exact same time.

Why is it so bad that kids are reading Harry Potter and not a Wrinkle in Time? I am lost.

Anyone else love the Phantom Tollbooth?

Anonymous said...

I'm sure that back in the heyday of Wrinkle and its kin, there was some drunken old crank who bitched because kids were reading her and not ... I dunno, Lord Dunsany or something. Plus ca change.

Of course, said drunken old crank didn't have a sputtering daily cartoon in which to vent his well-marbled spleen.

Marion Delgado said...

Harry Potter teaches Satanism, astrology and witchcraft, and I have to assume liberalism, atheism, abortion, homosexuality, feminism, premarital sex, and veganism, if you read the books just right. In fact - British author! Case closed!

Madelaine L'Engle is Jesus-approved. It's like saying there's something okay about liking music that didn't win a Dove award, you atheist freaks!

Scanman said...

"Also, I would like to praise bruce for the excellent continuity between today and yesterday's strip."


Heck, Tinsley can't keep continuity with head wear from one panel to the next.

"Probably just jealous that J.K. Rowling is now worth more than the queen, and his opinion didn't matter. Though British, she personifies the supposed American dream where if you work hard and push for something, you can succeed. Wildly in some cases."

If she were American, she would not have had the time to write Harry Potter. She was on welfare when she came up with the concept, If she were American she would have been forced to work a low wage job to satisfy the Reich wing element of this country. But since England has high tax rates on the rich, she more than made up for that.