CSotD: Do what you do do well
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As I was going through this morning's strips, I was struck by the number of cartoonists who did really good work, not by "showing up" in the sense of turning something in on time, but in the sense of simply working well within their established mode.
That is, in the sense of having a good "groove" but not allowing it to degenerate into a "rut."
It's not as easy as it sounds, but it's lovely when it happens. F'rinstance:
Nothing to add. Everything thing Bernie says about Sid is true. The final panel is why. The comic is brilliant. And the reason is that Bud Grace has created a character with consistent flaws that provide consistent laughs.
End of analysis.
On a different level, Hilary Price exercises yet again her method of translating odd elements into equally odd (but not inaccurate) insights:
A fist to the face is not the only way to inflict damage on somebody.
I've never had much patience with people who are proud of never spanking their children but who, instead, expose them to a barrage of psychological torture, and not the "I wish I'd never had you" obvious kind, but the more insidious, ongoing "I'm so disappointed" stuff or the "well, okay then, we'll just leave you here" threats that inspire terror in a child young enough to still have primal fear separation (which is to say, a child upon whom they work at all).
And among polite, well-bred, grown-up ladies, those genteel, "well, isn't that just darling!" insults are like the cartoon gags in which the assailant with the sword makes a storm of slashes and the other person says, "Ha! Missed me!" only to fall, a moment later, into a pile of neat, uniform deli slices.
None of which Hilary had to say. It's all there.
And Jimmy Johnson has been channeling my inner life so well for so long that he doesn't have to do more than continue to pop out strips, like the drop of water that hits the same spot on the rock, time after time after time:
One measure of successful cartooning in this particular bracket (for which I don't have a term, but it's something to do with families and relationships) is the number of people who say, "You must be looking through my windows!"
But we then need to subdivide that definition of success into the much wider category of "how we all think of ourselves" and the narrow one of "dear god, I've actually said that."
Into that wider category fall the less pointed and specific observations about universal topics like impossible family budgets, kids with messy bedrooms and men who procrastinate about household chores.
There are any number of people who can identify with a general gag on those overall topics, and so there are a large number of strips that work on that level and that, consequently, come on out top in the "favorites" polls.
And let us not forget that, while it's good that Baskin-Robbins has all those flavors, they shouldn't stop serving vanilla and chocolate simply because they aren't exotic. It's okay to please people by giving them something they like, especially when pleasing people is how you earn your living.
But then there are strips that work in the zone between the bland wide-spectrum area of the "old favorites" and the too-small-for-syndication niches that are the property of web cartooning.
These more finely targeted strips retain an element of the common experience, but are sharper in focus and don't simply play on themes-that-are-themes-because-they-are-themes.
Jimmy Johnson is a master at playing on strings that put A&J on a very fine knife's edge, universal enough to attract a viable audience, but with observations so specific that he inspires near-fanatical loyalty within his core readership and, as a result, has an on-line salon that Flaubert would envy.
With regards to today's strip, I used to run a high-school Quiz Bowl that brought in two dozen schools and for which I wrote the questions. 'Nuff said.
I'm flattered that he has chosen my windows to peek through, but a little creeped out.
In, y'know, a good way.
Here's a bit of nostalgia on today's theme, for people who are about my age and who hung out in bars with C&W-heavy jukeboxes and/or watched Grand Ole Opry on TV in their early to mid-teens, which is a pretty doggone specific slice of the comic-loving demographic:
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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