Off The Beaten Path

In response to a question raised by a faithful member of our community, I thought I'd discourse a bit on "Prickly City," a comic that I don't think has made it to the pages of the Chronicle.

What it basically seems to be to me, is political cartoon in which the girl represents the right, and the dog the left. I think. I haven't read it faithfully enough to back this argument up that well. The person who draws it certainly owes a debt to Bill Watterson in terms of the pacing, the phrasing--up to the standards of 'MD420, I'd say--and the general wistful/droll tone of the proceedings. Even the art, to a certain extent, although whoever draws it is no Watterson (not even a Brady/Wimmer in my opinion).

I'm not sure whether the girl is supposed to be black or not, but um, let's charitably use the word 'refreshing' to see a child of color repping the Right's political ideals on the comics page.

Sigh.

I just looked at Wikipedia, I promised myself I would finish writing the post before I checked what limited exposure I've had against the world at large's impression. Apparently this is just a right-wing comic, plain and simple. The following is from a strip published during the Terri Schiavo controversy, apparently Carmen was upset her womens' NCAA team lost so the dog took her food away:

Carmen: Stop denying me food, Winslow!

Winslow: I'm doing it to stop your suffering, Carmen. Besides, suicide and euthanasia are cool now. Hunter Thompson, Million Dollar Baby. It's all the rage.

Carmen: But my parents want to take care of me. They love me and don't want me starved to death!

Winslow: Well, don't come whining to me because you're not a cool dead person.

I know that I sure wanted Terri Schiavo's family to pull the plug back in those heady days of 2003: all my "cool" friends were saying Terri Schiavo would suddenly become "cool" too, once that happened, and I still have my Terri Schiavo pillowcases and action figures that we're all so familiar with, because man her popularity just went off the charts when she died, right? Comedy and salient, relevant political commentary, working together to bring the funny: THAT'S how it's done, you Trudeaus, you Wileys and McGruders and dudes who draw Pearls Before Swine. Look no further than within the limits of one Prickly City, AZ.

Speaking of politics and comics, I wiki'd GARFIELD the other day and was amused to learn that in 1978, Garfield briefly touched on the topics of inflation and labor unions, but such references were "ultimately pruned from the strip to give it a more universal appeal."