CSotD: The Cosmetics of Comedy
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Ann Telnaes' new comic, Mo, posted its second edition yesterday, as scheduled, but we were back in 1918 yesterday, so I held it.
I also clipped it, because the format is ginormous enough that you should go read the whole thing yourself.
Constant Readers will know I'm a longtime fan of Telnaes's work, but this new thing appeals to me specifically because, while the Bartender (who will need a name at some point) is typical Telnaes, the title character and protagonist is not unattractive but not the perfect, put-together heroine so often cast in the main role.
It's not unprecedented: Lynn Johnston's Elly Patterson and Terri Libenson's Jill Kaplan are deliberately "average" women. This leaves them open to the hands of fate, as well as making a simple bad day more visually credible than it would be if they were drawn as "pretty girls."
And even that's not unprecedented, because Lucille Ball began in Hollywood as a chorine and had to dowdy-down for the role of Lucy Ricardo, which gave her a lot more space within to mess up in a believable way.
By contrast, Mary Tyler Moore, in her role as Laura Petrie, had every hair in place and was so doggone cute that she could only mess up in a doggone cute way. (Oh, Rob!)
Heroes can be perfect — Juliet Jones or Rip Kirby or Mandrake or Brenda Starr. And, when they're in peril or just frustrated, a hair out of place indicates it, but we know they'll come through triumphantly.
By contrast, a character like Mo carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, and needs to be average at best and perhaps a little less so, in order that the reader can both identify and, to a small extent, feel superior.
As said, Telnaes didn't invent this concept, but it's interesting to see her apply it, if only because her graphic universe seems divided between very attractive Good Guys and extremely unattractive, toadlike villains.
We'll get back to that particular toad in a minute.
By contrast, Doc and Raider is, while consistently thoughtful, also a constant stream of eye candy.
The other contrast is that, while the characters are sometimes foolish or ill-fated, they generally rise above, or at least manage somehow to sail above it all, a perfect example being the current storyline, which began back here when this chap found himself the recipient of an unexplained $130,000.
Sean Martin specializes in characters who are street smart but utterly clueless on the larger scale, and this political spoof is a perfect application.
The above is actually yesterday's installment, and you should click here to read today's.
(Warning: The characters in this cartoon are blatantly, unapologetically Canadian and occasionally even bilingual.)
Elsewhere in the Funnies
Nobody is going to accuse Agnes and Trout of being too glamorous for their roles as hapless pawns of fate.
It struck me this morning that it hasn't been that long since cartoon characters were not allowed to fart, nor could dogs drink out of toilets, and now those are so common as to qualify as lazy, not edgy, gags.
I suspect this cartoon will not likely touch off a storm of angry protests, but, then, I suppose the readers of any paper that carries Agnes have either embraced the strip or have lost their capacity for outrage.
Or maybe they would have called to scream, back in the days when people answered telephones, but now get lost in the maze of "please listen closely as our options have changed."
The intensely dark humor of this strip plays upon the grim reality that kids accept the world we give them. Even when life hands them something obviously unpleasant and wrong, they assume the grown-ups are aware of it and that it's supposed to be that way.
In the strip, Agnes is much more hovered over by her grandmother than she realizes, nor does she understand the sacrifices being made on her behalf. And, meanwhile, Trout is in the unenviable position of being an abandoned child who still lives with her mom.
If Tony Cochran weren't so good at using despair as a source of humor, this strip would make Dondi and Little Orphan Annie seem like Hi and Lois.
And if you don't get a laff out of it, you must have lived a charmed freakin' life.
Or you haven't yet escaped.
Juxtaposition of the Day
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(I don't know how much sense it even makes anymore to ask "What if a Democrat had done this?" but it's asked and answered in this pair of cartoons.
We can put aside the spin and blather and deliberate deceptions over what Clinton had on her private server, and what she should have known that previous Secretaries of State had not.
Because, jumpin' jeezus on a pogo stick, not only has it since been known, and admitted, that this lack of security was a very, very bad idea, but — for all the many things of which he is cheerfully, willfully ignorant — Dear Leader has addressed this exact topic in loud, hostile, repeated attacks on Clinton.
As John Cole notes.
And Clinton's electronic correspondence was within her official capacity: She wasn't using it to reach out babbling on a daily basis to the world at large.
It's like attacking her for leaving her wallet in the glove compartment of an unlocked car while you're strolling down dark alleys in bad neighborhoods with $20 bills hanging out of your pockets.
Still, I'm less appalled by Dear Leader's arrogance than I am by the continued loyalty of his "Four legs good, two legs better" sheep.
It makes you wonder if he could do anything that, if it came to impeachment, they would accept as a crime, or even as a fact.
Imponderable
Knight Life borrows enough from family that I don't know if Keef, his wife or one of his boys asked this.
I just know I can't answer it.
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