CSotD: Happy Holidays, dammit
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Terri Libenson's "Pajama Diaries" is about a mother who works at home, and one aspect of her life is that she is Jewish. That aspect isn't what the strip is about, but it's a key component of the family, as religion tends to be in real families that practice a religion.
And I think that, for younger cartoonists who grew up in the shadow of giants like Bil Keane, Lynn Johnston and Charles Schulz, it's common for their cartoon families to have religions and ethnicities and races that inform, but do not necessarily dominate, their lives. Not a matter of proclaiming anything, simply a matter of adding some realistic dimension to their characters.
Libenson addresses her characters' religion today in a way that I admire: Straightforward but without preaching, with a huge dose of respect for the majority community's traditions and values but a solid dose of respect for her own, and with a good sense of humor thrown in, that last being, after all, part of a good comic strip.
It's in the spirit of the holidays, and not just "my holidays" and "your holidays" but the kind that people of good will mean when they say, "Happy Holidays."
Nice work.
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