Meanwhile, today Doonesbury manages to visually ref "Death of Marat" by Jacques Louis David. Compare and contrast the relative merits of each of the strips, class.
P.S. You're right about Doonesbury but keep in mind, Trudeau works in a competitive environment, where quality counts. Mallard Fillmore is published not for quality but for "balance" and quite frankly the contrast is revealin.
I agree. There are very good strips that have to compete with the "Legacy" (aka "Zombie") strips of the Walker/Browne/Hart type. "We don't have to be funny, we're dead! But papers will still publish Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, Wizard of Id because...because is because why!" But I think Trudeau is well into the "rest on his laurels" phase, when he'd be published even if he put Tinsley-level non-work into his strips. But he doesn't. Did he have to put a ref to an 18th century French artwork most people won't get in that strip? Why put a joke in every panel? How much work did he put into a strip that he could've just shrugged off? Most Sundays, Tinny can't even be bothered with more than one panel.
And I have a scenario that explains today's Mallard: Replace "waking up in bed disoriented" with "waking up on the bathroom floor caked in vomit, remembers deadline."
"But papers will still publish Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, Wizard of Id because..."
Because they're focused on holding onto Old Meeja's target audience of alter kakkers who, as Paul Riddell put it, still have fond memories of seeing their grandchildren march off to fight in the War of Northern Aggression.
"Hell is a city much like London-- A populous and a smoky city; There are all sorts of people undone, And there is little or no fun done; Small mercy shown, and still less pity." -- Percy Shelley, "Peter Bell the Third"
"There is a Castles*, and a Canning, A Cobbett, and a Castlereagh; All sorts of caitiff corpses planning All sorts of cozening for trepanning Corpses less corrupt than they." -- "Peter Bell the Third" (written 1819, posthumously published 1839)
(* "An informer or spy" according to A Lexical Concordance to the Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley.)
We interrupt Poetry Corner to note that, amazingly, appallingly, today's strip was not the dumbest, most intelligence-insulting thing on the Herald-Mail editorial page. Or, at the very least, it shared that honor with: * an editorial from the spokesobject of the Hagerstown Chamber of Commerce (which, like pretty much all Chambers of Commerce in the US since 1971, is basically a subsidiary of the Noise Machine); * a letter from someone so butthurt about the Jesus Stomp incident that they think surely the Second Coming is at hand; and * a letter so blood-stoppingly idiotic that I had to reread the paper to refresh my memory of what they were jabbering about (the phrase "What difference does it make now?", which apparently achieves scandal status when someone with a D after their name says it).
Meanwhile, the George W Bush Lie Bury is opening, in part with tax payer funds, to redundantly assist in burying his lies about Iraq, New Orleans, the fiscal collapse in 2008 et etcetera.
You know what's really redundant, Mallard? Your brain damaged-looking mug appearing twice in the same one-panel strip. But I guess your "artist" needs something to create the illusion that he's actually devoting effort to his daily brain-farts.
22 comments:
What the duck is the Sunday strip about?
Meanwhile, today Doonesbury manages to visually ref "Death of Marat" by Jacques Louis David. Compare and contrast the relative merits of each of the strips, class.
@Bill the Splut?
"Life Sux, number #1234 in a series!"
P.S. You're right about Doonesbury but keep in mind, Trudeau works in a competitive environment, where quality counts. Mallard Fillmore is published not for quality but for "balance" and quite frankly the contrast is revealin.
What sport is this referencing? It sounds like college football, or possibly basketball, but neither is in season now. Nice timing, boozehound.
@Randy Winn:
I agree. There are very good strips that have to compete with the "Legacy" (aka "Zombie") strips of the Walker/Browne/Hart type. "We don't have to be funny, we're dead! But papers will still publish Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, Wizard of Id because...because is because why!" But I think Trudeau is well into the "rest on his laurels" phase, when he'd be published even if he put Tinsley-level non-work into his strips. But he doesn't. Did he have to put a ref to an 18th century French artwork most people won't get in that strip? Why put a joke in every panel? How much work did he put into a strip that he could've just shrugged off? Most Sundays, Tinny can't even be bothered with more than one panel.
And I have a scenario that explains today's Mallard: Replace "waking up in bed disoriented" with "waking up on the bathroom floor caked in vomit, remembers deadline."
"But papers will still publish Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois, Wizard of Id because..."
Because they're focused on holding onto Old Meeja's target audience of alter kakkers who, as Paul Riddell put it, still have fond memories of seeing their grandchildren march off to fight in the War of Northern Aggression.
MONDAY
"Hell is a city much like London--
A populous and a smoky city;
There are all sorts of people undone,
And there is little or no fun done;
Small mercy shown, and still less pity."
-- Percy Shelley, "Peter Bell the Third"
"Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home."
--Woodie Guthrie
TEARSDAT
"There is a Castles*, and a Canning,
A Cobbett, and a Castlereagh;
All sorts of caitiff corpses planning
All sorts of cozening for trepanning
Corpses less corrupt than they."
-- "Peter Bell the Third" (written 1819, posthumously published 1839)
(* "An informer or spy" according to A Lexical Concordance to the Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley.)
WHINESDAY
We interrupt Poetry Corner to note that, amazingly, appallingly, today's strip was not the dumbest, most intelligence-insulting thing on the Herald-Mail editorial page. Or, at the very least, it shared that honor with:
* an editorial from the spokesobject of the Hagerstown Chamber of Commerce (which, like pretty much all Chambers of Commerce in the US since 1971, is basically a subsidiary of the Noise Machine);
* a letter from someone so butthurt about the Jesus Stomp incident that they think surely the Second Coming is at hand; and
* a letter so blood-stoppingly idiotic that I had to reread the paper to refresh my memory of what they were jabbering about (the phrase "What difference does it make now?", which apparently achieves scandal status when someone with a D after their name says it).
WORDSDAY
"Those clowns in Congress are at it again. What a bunch of clowns."
Meanwhile, the George W Bush Lie Bury is opening, in part with tax payer funds, to redundantly assist in burying his lies about Iraq, New Orleans, the fiscal collapse in 2008 et etcetera.
In commemoration, you can
* Vote up Lie Bury at urban dictionary
* Read my commentary on the Lie Bury
* Take a moment to be inspired by a Boston Marathon survivor - it's worth watching to the very end!
guess Brews figured giving even one example would have been too much work. Uh, I mean, "redundant".
You know what's really redundant, Mallard? Your brain damaged-looking mug appearing twice in the same one-panel strip. But I guess your "artist" needs something to create the illusion that he's actually devoting effort to his daily brain-farts.
[Reposted with both links working.]
"♫ I'm the government,
I'm the government,
I'm filled with bloats and perks.
I'm the government,
I'm the government,
I'm the reason nothing works. ♫"
How many strips in a row is this about needless redundancy?
Made up shit formed into a weak-ass joke! Ladies and Gents, behold the glory of 80-90 hours of research per week!
Redundant images of a duck making the same "joke" about redundancy day after day.
If I didn't know better, I'd say Bruce was trying to make some kind of ironic statement with this series. But, of course, I do know better.
SPLATTER DAY
Keep beating it, Bruce. I think there's still a gobbet of meat large enough to be possibly recognizable as having come from a horse.
"Everyone Is Stupid Except Meeeee! Number 89 in a series.
Remember: America needs a lecture, not humor.
sux
"You stupid 'Mallard Fillmore' critics just don't GET it!
I NEED to keep doing the same strips over and over again...
... because I don't CARE enough about my work to differentiate it on a day-to-day basis!"
Post a Comment