Stripping down the comics blogs
One of our oldest mass-media entertainments intersects with one of the newest in the colorful world of comic-strip blogs.
Whether they’re snarky (often) or celebratory (sometimes) in covering topics ranging from “Beetle Bailey” anachronisms to “For Better or For Worse” angst, most of these bloggers share one thing in common: an affection for the comics more passionate than any “Apartment 3-G” tryst.
Blogs such as The Comics Curmudgeon deepen and enrich the quick-fix experience of reading a daily strip. When young Jason Fox of “Fox Trot” poked his pet iguana up through a disco shirt and proceeded to ask his mother for a date as “Don Iguan” last Tuesday, I logged on for instant analysis from Curmudgeon Josh Fruhlinger and his merry band of regular commenters.
They did not disappoint. “The interlinked man-woman symbol pendant is a nice touch, and the ‘beetle music’ line is groanworthy,” Fruhlinger wrote, “but neither should distract from the fact that Jason is using his iguana as a prop to hit on his mom.”
Chimed in a commenter, “Which is more disturbing, Jason hitting on his mom, or Jason’s mom telling him to hit on his sister instead?”
Permanent Monday, FOOBIverse Journal, Strippy Tickle, Big Al’s Comic Blog and The Silent Penultimate Panel Watch join the two-year-old Curmudgeon site in making strips fun again for readers wearily wise to Garfield’s tricks, Dilbert’s quips and the 75-year-old Dick Tracy’s gadgets.
Meanwhile, syndicate editors have been revamping soap-opera strips to blow ironic kisses to hipster audiences without giving up meaty plots aimed at long-time fans.
“Mary Worth” recently featured a storyline in which the meddling widow was stalked by a character drawn to resemble Captain Kangaroo, for instance. And Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich regularly drops sly pop-culture references into the “Brenda Starr” strips she writes.
“I would liken it to the ‘Batman’ TV show,” said Jay Kennedy, editor-in-chief of King Features Syndicate. “As a kid, I had no idea it was camp.” With well-placed winks and nods, a good comic strip is similarly “capable of reaching multiple audiences who bring to it their own perspective,” he added.
Kennedy regularly reads several comics blogs. “I’m interested in what they have to say,” he said, even though they represent “a fraction of the audience.”
While a top comic book might sell 200,000 copies, a popular strip draws millions of eyeballs every day. But bloggers provide a useful perspective because they’re “more educated about the strips” than casual readers, Kennedy said.
The editor takes the bloggers’ ironic commentary and kvetching with a grain of salt, however. “Their snarkiness comes from having a fixed notion of what a comic strip should be,” he said.
“Brenda Starr” scribe Schmich started reading online comics commentary only a few weeks ago, after the husband of artist June Brigman pointed her to an analysis of the strip.
“I’m thrilled that anyone would be discussing ‘Brenda,’ on blogs or anywhere else,” Schmich said via e-mail. “Better than having it wither on the comics vine, which so many of the old strips have. I’m delighted when people get the winks and amazed when they read far more into it than I intended.”
No one in the blogosphere seems to take the funny pages at face value. “The curse of any comics reader under 35 is having to ask, ‘Am I really enjoying this strip or am I enjoying it ironically?’ ” admitted Fruhlinger, a 32-year-old freelance editor in Baltimore who dreams of taking over a venerable soap-opera strip.
But at least those younger readers are sticking with the medium. Several of the Curmudgeon’s 13,000 daily visitors have told Fruhlinger, “I never would have read ‘Mary Worth’ if not for this blog.” Me, either.