CSotD: Those aren’t Big Shoulders, they’re holster bulges
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When Scott Stantis posted a link to his latest ChiTrib cartoon on Facebook yesterday, I commented that he needs to save this one for his portfolio. It is a keeper.
Yes, I know, I just went all fanboy on him the other day, and here he is again already. But the blog is called "Comic Strip of the Day.com" and, well, this is that.
And not just because we're deep into "beartrap in the fireplace" seasonal cliches, though it's true that crappy, formulaic Christmas story arcs do narrow the competition this time of year.
But there are many reasons to like this piece, starting with the fact that he isn't on a soapbox, or, at least, not a partisan soapbox.
If you missed it, the news hook is that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Illinois's law banning all concealed weapons is unconstitutionally broad, and, saying that self-protection is a right implicit in the Second Amendment, gave the state 180 days to amend the law to be more specific.
I'm sure we will, over the next few days, be swamped with pro- and anti-concealed weapons cartoons, and pro- and anti-gun cartoons in general, given the questions being raised in the wake of some particularly unjustified deaths-by-gunfire in recent days.
But they're going to have to go some to surpass this cramped vision of paranoid people packing heat.
It's not just the eyes or the hands-at-the-ready. His choice of a crowded L made even more claustrophobic by tight framing results in a picture of a society that is incredibly ill at ease, and the baby in the Umbroller is the cherry on top.
It has the feel of a New Yorker cover, which is compliment enough, but in the context of Chicago, and, in particular, the gritty, down-at-the-heels conservative Trib, it's better than a New Yorker cover.
That is, New York City has a wide variety of neighborhoods, and Rick Blaine famously advised Major Stasser that "there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn't advise you to try to invade."
But the New Yorker doesn't invade those neighborhoods either, only recalling Harlem through a mist of Cotton Club/A-Train '30s nostalgia. The New York celebrated — and heavily advertised — in its pages involves designer furniture, designer clothes and designer lifestyles.
Chicago, by contrast, has been (accurately) described as a large collection of small, blue collar neighborhoods, where the ghost of Mike Royko continues to have conversations with Slats Grobnik while Mr. Dooley holds forth at the other end of the bar.
On the cover of the New Yorker, this would be a picture of "them."
In the pages of the Trib, it's a portrait of "us."
That makes all the difference in the world.
Stantis isn't a Chicago native, but he gets it.
If you're not in the mood to stick around for the music, just check out this Chicagoan's affectionate intro to see what I mean:
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