CSotD: Winners by Default
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Joe Heller gets top spot today for not over-reaching with his commentary on the Cincinnati gorilla story. Sometimes the simple statement is the best, and there's no need to go beyond the basic observation that the Internet allows for people to be more openly vicious, judgmental and unfair than they might be in person.
A lot of people use their real names on-line, but I hope they don't use their real personalities, because they probably wouldn't get far being so openly hostile and unpleasant in person.
A drawback of living in a small town — and I mean "Mayberry small" — is that you don't have a lot of secrets. However, the balancing factor is that neither does anyone else, and, since everyone knows who the truly vicious gossips are, their venom can only have so much impact.
Not true in the Global Village, where we suddenly encountered a flood of parenting experts, animal behavior experts, first-responder experts and random torch-and-pitchfork wielders, delighted to share expertise that, back in Mayberry, would have been greeted with a shake of the head and "There she goes again."
The challenge being that, if you consider yourself one of the "decent people," you shouldn't speculate about how many of these parenting experts will one day have to bail their own kid out of jail, or get that call from the hospital, or discover themselves abandoned by children raised to be equally heartless.
And you could write a book on the evolution of zoos from the days of "stamp collecting" where the goal was to have one of everything to the current tense mix of aiding preservation while educating the public, but those who think "Bambi" was a documentary would not read it, much less engage in a constructive debate over the issues.
But I'm content to simply sigh over how many (more) cartoons we'll see over the next week in which Donald Trump drags either the nation or the GOP around in a pit.
Meanwhile
Matt Bors comes up with a surprisingly solid look at the Democratic race, though I suppose it's a backhanded compliment to express surprise when someone doesn't simply pursue a single-minded hobbyhorse.
But if I can praise Heller for being the cartoonist who didn't over-reach, I can praise Bors for not continuing the litany of stereotyping and demonizing that has so far dominated this topic.
He's right about the passion, and I think (god, I hope) he's also right about the pragmatic, sensible resignation at the end.
We can have the same discussion over Bernie Bros and Hillary Bots that we're having over heedless parents and heartless zoos, simply by holding up and distorting the worst possible examples.
Bors doesn't discount the passion, but he also doesn't let that tail wag the dog.
And also …
Another cartoonist earning praise for base competence is Signe Wilkinson, who lays out the confrontation between Trump and the press with clarity, rather than crafting a self-indulgent dig at how Trump behaved at the news conference.
The problem with the "Trump Blows Up At the Press" cartoons is not simply that they preach to the choir, but that, for those who support Trump, they have the unintended consequence of re-inforcing his reputation for "telling it like it is" and going after "the lame-stream media."
In fact, I've seen at least one conservative cartoon in which that was clearly the point, and another more centrist panel in which it was hard to tell which side of the confrontation the cartoonist was criticizing.
By contrast, Wilkinson puts aside the journalist's personal baggage and focuses on the story: Trump made an empty promise and refused to come through for the vets until the press held his feet to the fire.
I would suggest that any cartoonists who are hoping to avert a Trump presidency focus less on his pomposity, his arrogance and his goddam hair and put more effort into exposing his lack of support for veterans and for the working class.
You might as well argue with True Believers over the dangers of GMOs and vaccines as try to persuade Trump fans that he's "wrong."
But if you point out when he's lying and cheating people, you might have a chance of getting through at least to some of them.
Back to the Shadows Again
If cartoons about the present are depressing you, this is a good day to head back into the past, starting at xkcd with one of Randall Monroe's Big Giant Compilation Projects, in this case a chart for telling the age of a particular map, of which (to be fair to him) I'm showing only a clipped section.
You really should go ponder the entire thing, which is a combination of true history and pure whimsy. Much of the fun at xkcd is that he teaches you things you didn't know but also assumes that you know something to begin with.
The same, on a more conversational level, can be said of Frazz, who also ferrets out odd facts and strange vocabulary, though he takes a bit of a chance here of someone bringing up the (alleged) flinging of infected corpses into beseiged cities.
Still, he generally captures the mood of what we study when we study history, which brings to mind that Tolstoy could have adapted the first sentence of "Anna Karenina" as an opening for "War and Peace" had he written them in that order.
And Pearls Before Swine offers a gag that doesn't break a lot of new ground — this book belongs in every history buff's library — but made me laff nonetheless for, if nothing else, inspiring the question: "If you wanted to confound future archaeologists, what two items would you carry to your grave?"
A chicken and a toaster oven is a pretty good choice.
And finally
If you aren't following "Thimble Theater" over at King Features' Vintage Comics section, you're about to miss the December, 1929, introduction of a highly memorable character.
That's the kind of history I can get behind!
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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