Friday, September 14, 2007

The Fay-te of Sally Forth

My friends!
A few words on the strip beloved by all (including people as far away as Iceland, according to the official website), populated by some of the most appalling (Sally's mom) and most groovy (Ted) characters on the MP. Can you guess which strip I'm talking about?? Why, it's Sally Forth, of course! I'm, just going to touch on a few issues that have been running through the ol' collective unconscious (though why I need to tell you anything when we're really just a hive mind, I don't really know).
First of all, is everyone familiar with Greg Howard? He's the lawyer-turned-'Mics-Artist who created SF in the '80s. He was some schmuck who couldn't draw:









After 10 years, he just inexplicably left the strip, turning things over to Francesco Marculiano and some artist, who never seems to get any credit. That's right, FM doesn't draw the fucking thing at all! There's a division of labor in place, because surely no human could both give voice to the divine Ted and simultaneously draw a little line on Sally's face to represent her one permanent emotion (which is.... snideness? Is that even an emotion?)

Anyway, let's talk about what's been happening, namely the decline and fall of the second grooviest character in SF, the love of Isaac Pirie's life, future mother of his children Freedom Trail Pirie and Old North Church Pirie: Faye. Faye obviously rules! Remember the rock band that consisted of Hilary on drums and Faye on drums? That would never have happened without Faye and her badass little denim vest. But lo, what is this we see on the horizon? The assimilation of our heroine of cool into the flock of sheep that is the elementary school crowd! I mean, in 6ht grade I started combing my hair so I wouldn't get made fun of so much, and the following year I bought a Champion sweatshirt to try to fit in (of course I bought a purple one, so I was mocked just as heavily as before), but come one, I wasn't as cool as Faye to begin with. She was ever the free thinker, ever the iconoclast, while I was ever the schlep in a Def Leppard T-shirt. What does this mean for the world, that one of the shining lights on the 'MP has been so callously extinguished? Or will she rise again, phoenix-like, from the ashes of complacency and a polka-dot blouse?
Perhaps more importantly, what the heck is her ethnic background?? What's that you say? It's obvious, she's white like everybody else? Well check this out:










This is taken from the Oakland Tribune, and though poorly scanned by yours truly, the fact is that Faye's skin is printed in half tone, while Hilary's is not. What gives? Is Faye a member of an ethnic minority? Does the Tribune color folks in so there'll be more black people on the 'MP? Let's just say that a little internet delving reveals that in full color, everybody looks the same: White as a sheet. In fact, I think there has never been a single black person in SF, ever. So the mystery remains unsolved. All we can do is pray on bended knee that Faye, be she black, white or greyish, be returned to us as the Queen of Cool, the Paragon of Party, the Goddess of Grunge that she once was. So say we all.

11 comments:

Micah Allen said...

"Wry" has my vote for Sally's perpetual mode of existing.

furtanic said...

am I the only one who thinks that the OG sally forth looks kind of awesome? what a wierd little person hillary is!

thera said...

maybe hillary was a dwarf in the og version. maybe sally forth was about a sideshow family.

So-Called Austin Mayor said...

I think the first strip features the SD
version of Hillary.

My understanding is that Sally Forth, SD! is very popular in Japan.

-- SCAM

Comicsgurl69 said...

yeah, those people look like freaks. also, i'm pretty sure that sally forth will wrap up with the most important life lesson of all: it's most important to be yourself. really it should wrap up with the 50 pressings only colored vinyl 7" of hilary and faye's 2 drummer band. god i bet their good.

Comicsgurl69 said...

p.s. who the heck is so called austin mayor? i get confused when anyone besides the authors, ben, and thera read this blog.

not that i'm not stoked dude...

yellojkt said...

That little line is the Sally Smirk and don't you forget it.

And Faye is just flirting with her femme side. She'll be back into her lumberjack clothes and comfortable shoes as soon as softball season starts again.

furtanic said...

did righteous dudes get linked to some bigtime blog? those two randoms (aka other people on the internet) seem to be serio-bloggers.

JJBrannon said...

"[D]id righteous dudes get linked to some bigtime blog?" Furtanic

Does the cognomen "Ces" ring a bell?

JJB

Anonymous said...

The original makes Sally look like Quasimodo in drag and Hilary a dwarf with a weird head.

The current Sally Forth is better than ever and I'm glad Hilary's hair has been updated. She looked too young for a tween in middle school until now (as of April 2008)

Anonymous said...

The original makes Sally look like Quasimodo in drag and Hilary a dwarf with a weird head.

The current Sally Forth is better than ever and I'm glad Hilary's hair has been updated. She looked too young for a tween in middle school until now (as of April 2008)