Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: The lure

Skip to comments

Mike Peterson Published: April 28, 2011 1 minute 0 comments

Wiley Miller does everything right with today's Non Sequitur. He starts with a nice variation on the familiar line of increasing-sized fish eating each other and updates the metaphor so that all the victim fishes are much smaller than the big fish who is eating them.

Then he uses the bogus claim that it's going to pay off for us later (which we've all heard but have never seen happen) using the mumbo-jumbo jargon of the market in a way that we can't help but recognize — in this case — as literal and as good a summing up of the results of the deal as you could possibly ask for.

His coloring, as always, is impeccable, and, in this case, the fade at each end of the strip, and the placement of the Big Fish, means that the "back end" is not visible. If you could see the Big Fish's tail, Wiley would have had to deal with the literal interpretation somehow and it would blunt the joke.

As for the overall meaning, yes, I am still leaning towards editorial rather than gag cartoons, it seems. All that is missing is a small fish carrying a copy of "The Fountainhead" and insisting loudly, against all evidence to the contrary, that there are still many medium-sized fishes in the pond and that what is clearly about to happen isn't happening at all but that, in any case, it will result in the creation of lots and lots more medium-sized fishes.

Postscript: While the placement of the fish was (a) intentional and (b) Wiley's composition, he informs me that the coloring of dailies is actually done by Brian Whitmer at the syndicate, who has been coached by Wiley on the unique coloring style he created for the strip and that he still does himself on Sundays. So now, in addition to being impressed with the strip, I'm also impressed with how well they work together. I am given to believe that this is not the industry norm.

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.