CSotD: This and that, mostly that
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Nothing on the political scene strikes me as remarkable today, except for the can of worms Ed Hall suggests we open and dig into.
That is, there are a lot of political cartoons based on Trump not paying taxes, but there's nothing much new to be said about it, which is part of his Teflon campaign: His response is "So what?" and his followers respond "So what?" and it doesn't leave a lot of room for debate or discussion.
Hall raises the issue of how you calculate profit when you are stiffing your subcontractors, which appears to be at least common if not routine within Trump's operating procedure. I don't know how much of a wedge it is for cartoonists, but, if I were shooting TV ads for Hillary Clinton, I'd be delighted to find some of these folks to explain how not getting paid worked out for them.
I remember getting stiffed some 30 or 40 years ago on a project, at a time I couldn't afford it. They owed me a few grand, but, when I tried to collect, they made all sorts of phony claims about the quality of my work and countersued for about 10 times the amount.
It was intimidating, but I persisted and eventually got the money, minus 33% for an attorney who had taken in on contingency.
It wasn't the money, though I needed the money. But I'd have survived the monetary loss.
It was that I didn't want to be sitting on the porch at the Home one day, thinking that I shouldn't have walked away from it. But plenty of people do give up, willingly or not, and I think a few ads telling their stories might be effective.
Something I do remember about my early days in freelancing was that you couldn't claim losses beyond material costs, which made it virtually pointless to try to claim a loss when somebody stiffed you for an article, unless it had involved a lot of travel for which you have receipts. As I recall, your time and talent didn't come into it, and you were pretty much left with the value of the paper and postage.
Which reminds me of the time a small soccer magazine on the West Coast published an article I'd written and then ignored my requests for payment. I eventually contacted a college buddy who was practicing law in the city and he sent them a nastygram, whereupon they paid up. I sent him a pint of local maple syrup.
I remember that the fee for the article was $35, so, between long-distance phone calls and the aforementioned syrup, I probably lost money on the deal.
But not pride.
I can't be the only person who hates cheaters and bullies, though perhaps I'm in the minority when it comes to being quite so stubborn about it.
Pickles is exploring the world of commercial DNA analysis, and this is a variation on an old gag but darned well done.
I'm more familiar with DNA analysis when it comes to dogs, where it is mostly a ripoff, since the accuracy of the analysis depends on whether they have sufficient data and they tend to have data on breeds like Labrador Retriever and Beagle. If your shelter mutt has some Skipperke or Basenji or Norwich Terrier, it's not likely to get a hit and it's not like they're gonna say, "Couldn't find it. Here's your money back."
But the dog can't talk, which makes DNA analysis sensible even within its considerable limits. I'm more puzzled by people who believed they were French but found out they were Greek or whathaveyou. Maybe my family just spends more time reminiscing and making lists, but there isn't a lot a DNA swab could tell me that would upset the apple cart to that extent.
Granted, those whose backgrounds include adoption and involuntary servitude may not have those stories at hand, but I think a little time with the microfilm could yield more reliable information than a Q-Tip on the inside of your mouth. Even Alex Haley leaned as heavily on the Mormons as he did on his aunts' stories, for however accurately he traced his lineage.
Shopping yet?
Amid the cartoon strips complaining about Christmas being already in the stores comes a list of newly-published collections, courtesy of Tom Spurgeon at Comics Reporter, and it is, after all, time to start thinking about such things, particularly if you don't live near a for-real book store with a graphics section that goes beyond Marvel.
This is a case where your mileage may indeed vary: I really like Alex Raymond, but I'm not sure I need an entire volume of "Tim Tyler's Luck" even if he was basically ghosting it by the end of this new collection. Then again, I felt the same way about a Flash Gordon collection: It was interesting, but more as a marker of how the medium, and Raymond's own work, were progressing. Didn't need the whole book.
On the other hand, a nice volume of Rip Kirby could make for fun. Spurgeon cites the latest, Volume Nine, but that's the work of John Prentice. Raymond's work on the strip had ended with his death considerably earlier. For his work, go back to Volume Four and earlier.
There's also this: Not every comic strip reads well collected into a book. I enjoy the daily pacing of the Vintage strips at Comics Kingdom.
Still, if you've got comics fans on your holiday gift list, no, it's not too early to start thinking about this stuff.
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