AKA, according to Wikipedia, the "Great Comics Switcheroonie" or the "Great April Fools Day Comics Switcheroonie." I don't think i need to further discuss how violated i already feel to have to include the word "Switcheroonie" twice in a blog just to maintain journalistic accuracy.
The story behind this shit that some of you may or may not vaguely remember depending on whether you were an avid comics reader in the spring of 1997, is that tonight i was over at an ex girlfriend and good pal of mine's house and i noticed she had an extremely yellowed comic hung on the side of her fridge with magnets. Upon closer inspection, it was a Zippy strip entitled "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!" from 4/1/1997*.
If you don't know this pretty awesome tale already, the kicker of the seeing it was that it was also very obviously drawn by Bill Amend, and not William "Bill" "Griffy" Griffith, as said strip usually is. An unmistakably Amendian Jason-head-on-Zippy-like-body and Peter-without-a-hat-head-on-Griffy-like-body play video games (looks like an NES from the controller design, IMO) much in the same way the Fox brothers have been known to be shown doing. the refrain "Bling! Bling! Bling!" repeats through each of the 4 panels of the strip from the pretty much undepicted TV** they are playing said video games on, and in the last panel one of the Fox brothers says "Are we having a punch line yet?" (which, if you are privy to the whole Zippy-vs-Garfield "Are we having fun yet" brouhaha, is a pretty decent nod to Griffy's coining of the phrase, in my opinion.)
i couldn't find this shit online, but you're welcome to search for yourself -- a more patient webman than i would probably be able to cull at least a few of the strips from somewhere or other. I remember, back in the day, that I found Amend's take on Zippy one of the Switcheroo's weaker japes, and seeing it now just backs up the suspicion I had back when i saw it for the first time: Bill Amend has no fucking idea what makes Zippy what it was. It is basically just that seeing it on the fridge of my long-ago ex girlfriend, with whom I was going out on 4/1/1997 in fact, that made me remember the as since unrepeated glory of that day in Mixtual history, the day a whole shitload of comic strip artists decided that they would all draw each other's strips for a day and turn them in for publication without the knowledge of their editors.
Beyond that I don't remember a giant amount about the specific strips and their respective Switcheroos (let alone -Roonies), but i do remember that this thing nonetheless happened and was something that was pretty amazing for the time it happened, let alone any time at all, when you really think about it. check out the woefully few examples they have linked on Wikipedia*** and if you are tickled do some digging for yourself and see what you can find. At this point I suppose they've missed the 10 year anniversary, but i'd settle for an 11.
*(For the uninitiated, Zippy masthead includes a title for the specific strip on the same line as the title of the strip itself and authorial credit.)
**but in a last-panel twist the noise is revealed to be coming from Quincy, the beloved Fox Trot iguana
***Also, the one of these that Jim Davis evidently drew is probably the best proof that I've ever seen of Jim Davis not having had anything to do with the creation of a comic strip in approximately 15 years
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Back in the 'mix
Be forewarned:
My keyboard has some sort of junk up in it and the following keys are inoperable: numeral five, apostrophe, dash, quotations. Some NUM LOCKing and some cutting and pasting and some using of different computers could probably help me solve this problem, but if you notice some grammatical wonkery, it could be due to that state of my keyboard.
So, sorry I like, never blog about the comics. I could make various excuses, but they would be just that, excuses. I know, I've let my public down. Consider me back in business, please.
What better way than a brief tribute to a perennial favorite?
GET FUZZY: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
ONE: Satchel's eating disorder is fucking adorable.
Look at that guilty expression! Lordy I want to cuddle with that cartoon dog!
TWO: Extreme close ups:
The skills that Darby acquired as a fine arts student at Amherst college (nerd alert) are in clear evidence here. Did you know he also worked as a bicycle repairperson (crush alert) before becoming the greatest living comic page contributer? Thanks wikipedia!
THREE: The implication of curse words:
Hilarious!
Man, all blogging really requires of me is cutting and pasting stuff. I should do this more often, it's totes NBD.
AND SPEAKING OF BLOGGING...
Do you like food and people who are total sweethearts? Go here.
K thx bai!
My keyboard has some sort of junk up in it and the following keys are inoperable: numeral five, apostrophe, dash, quotations. Some NUM LOCKing and some cutting and pasting and some using of different computers could probably help me solve this problem, but if you notice some grammatical wonkery, it could be due to that state of my keyboard.
So, sorry I like, never blog about the comics. I could make various excuses, but they would be just that, excuses. I know, I've let my public down. Consider me back in business, please.
What better way than a brief tribute to a perennial favorite?
GET FUZZY: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
ONE: Satchel's eating disorder is fucking adorable.
Look at that guilty expression! Lordy I want to cuddle with that cartoon dog!
TWO: Extreme close ups:
The skills that Darby acquired as a fine arts student at Amherst college (nerd alert) are in clear evidence here. Did you know he also worked as a bicycle repairperson (crush alert) before becoming the greatest living comic page contributer? Thanks wikipedia!
THREE: The implication of curse words:
Hilarious!
Man, all blogging really requires of me is cutting and pasting stuff. I should do this more often, it's totes NBD.
AND SPEAKING OF BLOGGING...
Do you like food and people who are total sweethearts? Go here.
K thx bai!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Aren't-Buckle
I can't believe it took me this long to notice, but those reading who are not from Boston, nor periodically in the area, might be interested/outraged/confused to learn that Garfield is no longer running in the Globe.
That's right-- let it sink in. No more Garfield in the Boston Globe. The very reason I started reading comics of any kind in the first place is not available for Bostonians to read, on newsprint, anyway.
Amazingly, we've still got:
-Mallard Fillmore, this week taking a break from mocking the oh-so-current trend of baggy jeans to hilariously lampoon the supermodel industry with the slyly named character "Purge Daley" (get it??? neither did i, so here's the scoop: evidently, some people who are very thin stay thin by making themselves throw up, this is called 'bulemia' or more casually, 'purging.' and one assumes that for a supermodel, bulemia would be a full-time job!! hence the clever name! Bruce "DUI" Tinsley: one, modelling industry/womens' health: zero!)
-Prickly City, that lazy liberal scotty is attempting to woo Leona Helmsley's rich dog-heiress this week... to his don't-tread-on-my-nebulously-centrist-views girl sidekick's exasperation. Whee!
-Heart of the City, taking the pandering pop-culture 'geek' references of Fox Trot and commingling them half assedly with the elements of Calvin and Hobbes that are easiest to ape, like it does.
-Red and Rover, gentle boy-and-his-dog fluff and the second contribution to the MP from the guy who draws Adam@Home.
(Also, dude is still lapping from the years-dry well of the utterly deplorable Adam@Home, spinning his wheels for the past several weeks by doing a seemingly neverending run of strips about Adam watching TV*. It's not even an HDTV!!!)
-The MacPaint-level artistic stylings and Gary Larson content-ripoffery of F Minus.
-Harry Bliss's New Yorker rejects, the inaccurately titled "Bliss" (for those of you who would say, "That is a single panel cartoon and Garfield is a 4-panel strip, it wouldn't fit there anyway": they have started running Arlo and Janis in a 2 on top, 2 on bottom** square format)
All this garbage and plenty more that I can't think of right now, and no Lord of Lasagna to reign over all of it.
Say what you will about Garfield--- Lord knows I have. But it is a classic strip, the most classic our generation has, in fact, and that should guarantee it a permanent stop on any self respecting MP as long as it is available for publication. Hell, it isn't even in the Sunday 'mix any more. And PAWS, Inc has really been trying these past few years... unfortunate forays into espresso bar humor forgiven.
This. The painful mixtual evidence that even Bill Griffith and Berke Breathed are getting old. The looming end of FBFW (enough with the god damn super teddy, get back to Liz and Anthony already gals. If you are blocked here is a hint: have them get married)
Who is left to carry the torch? Darby Conley and Garry Trudeau? Good, because I love those guys. Hilary Price, you are also welcome to keep on doing it to it.
*i am trying to forget the disturbing week where his nose grew like pinocchio's because he lied about paying a bill
**I like to think that Jimmy Johnson would snicker when he read that
That's right-- let it sink in. No more Garfield in the Boston Globe. The very reason I started reading comics of any kind in the first place is not available for Bostonians to read, on newsprint, anyway.
Amazingly, we've still got:
-Mallard Fillmore, this week taking a break from mocking the oh-so-current trend of baggy jeans to hilariously lampoon the supermodel industry with the slyly named character "Purge Daley" (get it??? neither did i, so here's the scoop: evidently, some people who are very thin stay thin by making themselves throw up, this is called 'bulemia' or more casually, 'purging.' and one assumes that for a supermodel, bulemia would be a full-time job!! hence the clever name! Bruce "DUI" Tinsley: one, modelling industry/womens' health: zero!)
-Prickly City, that lazy liberal scotty is attempting to woo Leona Helmsley's rich dog-heiress this week... to his don't-tread-on-my-nebulously-centrist-views girl sidekick's exasperation. Whee!
-Heart of the City, taking the pandering pop-culture 'geek' references of Fox Trot and commingling them half assedly with the elements of Calvin and Hobbes that are easiest to ape, like it does.
-Red and Rover, gentle boy-and-his-dog fluff and the second contribution to the MP from the guy who draws Adam@Home.
(Also, dude is still lapping from the years-dry well of the utterly deplorable Adam@Home, spinning his wheels for the past several weeks by doing a seemingly neverending run of strips about Adam watching TV*. It's not even an HDTV!!!)
-The MacPaint-level artistic stylings and Gary Larson content-ripoffery of F Minus.
-Harry Bliss's New Yorker rejects, the inaccurately titled "Bliss" (for those of you who would say, "That is a single panel cartoon and Garfield is a 4-panel strip, it wouldn't fit there anyway": they have started running Arlo and Janis in a 2 on top, 2 on bottom** square format)
All this garbage and plenty more that I can't think of right now, and no Lord of Lasagna to reign over all of it.
Say what you will about Garfield--- Lord knows I have. But it is a classic strip, the most classic our generation has, in fact, and that should guarantee it a permanent stop on any self respecting MP as long as it is available for publication. Hell, it isn't even in the Sunday 'mix any more. And PAWS, Inc has really been trying these past few years... unfortunate forays into espresso bar humor forgiven.
This. The painful mixtual evidence that even Bill Griffith and Berke Breathed are getting old. The looming end of FBFW (enough with the god damn super teddy, get back to Liz and Anthony already gals. If you are blocked here is a hint: have them get married)
Who is left to carry the torch? Darby Conley and Garry Trudeau? Good, because I love those guys. Hilary Price, you are also welcome to keep on doing it to it.
*i am trying to forget the disturbing week where his nose grew like pinocchio's because he lied about paying a bill
**I like to think that Jimmy Johnson would snicker when he read that
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
For Better Or For Worse
I know it's an obvious post title but I found it apropos to my feelings on the evolution of FBFW as it appears to be developing.
Now forgive me if this sounds extreme, but this shit offends my artistic sensibilities. Lynn's early work--Jules Feiffer-influenced, in my opinion--is some of the charmingest comic art around from the late 70's* that I could think of, which may mean that it's some of the charmingest comic art around, period. Look at its contemporaries, for Christ's sake. Cathy, Garfield, Andy Capp? Fred fuckin' Basset? The fact that this strip was in the paper I think was probably if not a big deal at the time it first appeared, at least a perhaps noticeably different deal...particularly as time passed and it became apparent that the characters were aging at a real-world rate. (Garfield's birthdays notwithstanding.)
I mean sure it's cutesy at times, but the shit is not exactly Full House either. I would call it the My So-Called Life of the comics page, in fact, if MSCL had gone on for 30 years and started when Angela was a baby and each episode was 45 seconds long. It too is about a middle-class family doing regular old shit, involving children, drawn in what can only be described as a hippie-ish style of art. Which brings me to the point-- I am really, really glad that Lynn ceased and desisted with the redrawing bullshit that was going on. I'm not sure whether that was to soften the blow with our less web-savvy fellow FBFW fans or what, but I for one found it to be a bad idea. I'm all for the 'Michael's Reminiscences' or whatever they might be called that preface these reruns, now that they're being printed with the original art. Even if they might be a little hokey sometimes, hey, it's FBFW, right? Even MSCL could be a little hokey sometimes.
But, to quote the judge in Philedelphia, "Let's see where this is going." Maybe eventually the reminiscences will not even be there and we'll have bona fide reruns-- and if they were done sequentially, I wouldn't mind that one bit. I have a suspicion that book-sales-related concerns may make that not happen and they'll do it in the randomer style that they use on the Time Travel section of fborfw.com, though. And I guess that would also be cool with me, although I never imagined this strip going that route when I thought about the possibility of it ending.
Whatever happens, let's not forget that we've got one final romance to wrap up before "time" "stops" or whatever, and evidently some Sunday newness to look forward to:
ya still got it, Lynn baby! Who needs dia-log... that strip 'leaves' me in stitches! (A one-two pun-ch for my gal Laura over at fbfw.com!)
*I know that strip's from 1981, but I think fbfw started in like '79 right?
Now forgive me if this sounds extreme, but this shit offends my artistic sensibilities. Lynn's early work--Jules Feiffer-influenced, in my opinion--is some of the charmingest comic art around from the late 70's* that I could think of, which may mean that it's some of the charmingest comic art around, period. Look at its contemporaries, for Christ's sake. Cathy, Garfield, Andy Capp? Fred fuckin' Basset? The fact that this strip was in the paper I think was probably if not a big deal at the time it first appeared, at least a perhaps noticeably different deal...particularly as time passed and it became apparent that the characters were aging at a real-world rate. (Garfield's birthdays notwithstanding.)
I mean sure it's cutesy at times, but the shit is not exactly Full House either. I would call it the My So-Called Life of the comics page, in fact, if MSCL had gone on for 30 years and started when Angela was a baby and each episode was 45 seconds long. It too is about a middle-class family doing regular old shit, involving children, drawn in what can only be described as a hippie-ish style of art. Which brings me to the point-- I am really, really glad that Lynn ceased and desisted with the redrawing bullshit that was going on. I'm not sure whether that was to soften the blow with our less web-savvy fellow FBFW fans or what, but I for one found it to be a bad idea. I'm all for the 'Michael's Reminiscences' or whatever they might be called that preface these reruns, now that they're being printed with the original art. Even if they might be a little hokey sometimes, hey, it's FBFW, right? Even MSCL could be a little hokey sometimes.
But, to quote the judge in Philedelphia, "Let's see where this is going." Maybe eventually the reminiscences will not even be there and we'll have bona fide reruns-- and if they were done sequentially, I wouldn't mind that one bit. I have a suspicion that book-sales-related concerns may make that not happen and they'll do it in the randomer style that they use on the Time Travel section of fborfw.com, though. And I guess that would also be cool with me, although I never imagined this strip going that route when I thought about the possibility of it ending.
Whatever happens, let's not forget that we've got one final romance to wrap up before "time" "stops" or whatever, and evidently some Sunday newness to look forward to:
ya still got it, Lynn baby! Who needs dia-log... that strip 'leaves' me in stitches! (A one-two pun-ch for my gal Laura over at fbfw.com!)*I know that strip's from 1981, but I think fbfw started in like '79 right?
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Sunday Brunch
Greetings, Comics Comrades!
A lot of whispers have been circulating the past few days about just what exactly a 'Butter Tart' is, because lord knows if the Pattersons love them, then we must love them too. Now 'tis Sunday brunch time, and this is a perfect opportunity to share the wealth of Canadian baking lore with all and sundry. Below is the FBorFW officially sanctioned Butter Tart recipe. Vegan adaptations are ecnouraged. Now enjoy them with the hot, caffeinated beverage of your choice while you read the glorious and colorful Sunday 'Mics!
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