I know I harp on this a lot, but if you want to write a comic strip with political content, you should under no circumstances allow your political interests to overshadow your focus on your characters. Candorville, like Doonesbury, is a good comic not because of its political slant, but because its characters are recognizable and specific and funny and human.
I am a fan of the quiet-loud joke construction. It's basically the comics section equivalent of the quiet-loud-quiet song format Nirvana made so famous.
There's so much funny in this Bloom County rerun that I hardly know where to begin. But let's run it down:
This is a very effective tonal shift.
The shift from detailed background to blank white background is a nice effect and does a good job of illustrating Caulfield's dilemma.
Today's Doonesbury is just a good, solid example of the character-based humor that Gary Trudeau can do in his sleep. And this kind of thing is the reason the strip is so good. The political humor is fine, and I agree with most of it, but it's the impressively textured world that Trudeau has built that really makes the comic go.
The main source of humor in this Pearls Before Swine is the tonal shift that occurs between the second and third panels. This is reflected in the writing, obviously, with Billy's serious narration giving way to the pure absurdity of "What can me staple?!!" But it's also reflected in the art, with darkness giving way to the light.
