For This Day, Comics A Bit Wackier Than Usual
Attention cartoon readers: Don’t panic. You aren’t going crazy.
Check out the date at the top of this page and you’ll realize why something strange has happened to 13 of the comic strips in today’s Spokesman-Review.
It’s April Fools’ Day, and you’re caught in “The Great April Fools’ Day Comics Switcheroonie of 1997.”
To explain: Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott, co-authors of “Baby Blues,” figured it would be interesting if various cartoonists switched strips for a day. They approached their syndicate, King Features, which approached other syndicates such as United Media and Tribune Media Services, as well as other cartoonists.
The idea was accepted - indeed embraced - by the authors of 46 strips.
In the S-R, the affected strips include “Baby Blues,” “Bizarro,” “Blondie,” “Dennis the Menace,” “Dilbert,” “The Family Circus,” “For Better or Worse,” “Fox Trot,” “Garfield,” “Hagar the Horrible,” “Non Sequitur,” “Rose is Rose” and “Sally Forth.”
Because S-R readers have access to only a third of the affected strips, some readers may be confused. Because Pat Brady’s “Rose is Rose” will switch with a strip that doesn’t run locally, Brooke McEldowney’s “9 Chickweed Lane,” the joke might not work as well as the organizers hope.
“Some people might not get it because they won’t recognize a particular character,” says Mary Anne Grimes of United Media. “But most people, I think, will get the gist because you’ll see that something is not quite right that day.”
Some switches, of course, are unmistakable. Take a look, for example, at Jim Davis’ “Garfield” and Dean Young’s “Blondie.” Or better yet, look at Scott Adams’ “Dilbert” and Bill Keane’s “The Family Circus.”
If nothing else, the switch between Adams and Keane proves that Keane can appeal to an adult sensibility.
As for the artists themselves, Adams speaks for them all - but especially for Keane and himself - when he explains his reason for getting involved.
“I think we were both drawn to do the thing that is least like the thing that we’re already doing, because you know you’re not going to get another chance to do this,” he said during a phone interview.
The experience was hardly communal; the cartoonists worked entirely independently.
“The only conversation we had was on logistics about where I would mail my original so that it would get into his syndication pipeline,” Adams said.
Ultimately, though, it was liberating.
“It’s kind of a nice opportunity to get outside the box,” Adams said. “Normally, it’s just so constricted. I’ve got my little characters, and they kind of got to do what they’ve got to do. So it’s kind of nice to break free. I feel like a dog tunneling under the fence.”
What about those readers who, even after reading this story, still won’t understand what the “Switcheroonie” is all about? Well, to use terms that regular “Dilbert” readers would understand, maybe they’re good candidates for management.
“That would be one sure-fire way to weed them out, wouldn’t it?” Adams said.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Comic