I write a lot more about bad comic strips than I do about good comic strips, mostly because it's easier to snark than to analyze. I'd like to change that a little bit, so I'm introducing a new feature: The Best Comic of the Day. It's pretty self-explanatory. Most of the time I'll add commentary, but sometimes I might not.
This
Cul de Sac is the first entry in the feature. And it's not just the Best Comic of the Day, but one of the best comics I've seen in a long time. It's nothing we haven't seen before--a school play, proud parents, kids forgetting their lines--but it's done really, really well. The comic doesn't have a traditional punchline, but every panel is funny in its own way. The drawing in the second and third panels perfectly capture the emotions of a child standing up before what seems to him to be a large audience. The writing perfectly captures the rhythms of a child delivering his lines--"It is always winter time, wherever I may. Go!" And the final panel even gives us very specific character-based humor, with the differing reactions from Beni's parents.
This cartoon gives the impression that Billy's cult will be largely antinomian, but I have trouble believing that. Instead, I think he's testing Jeffy.
The snowman with candy cane arms is an especially nice touch.
Has Marmaduke always been a Yellow Wallpaperesque study of a bored housewife's insanity? If so, it's kind of brilliant.
This cartoon is hilarious because Jeffy does not understand that economic systems and material valuations change over time.
This comic is hilarious because Diane has selfishly tricked her child into accepting fewer presents so that Greg can afford to buy her more expensive presents.
The poorly paid, unmotivated, clearly much stupider than you service sector employee is perhaps my least favorite trope of all time.
I've mentioned this in the comments here before, but it's worth pointing out in an actual post that it's not really surprising that everybody hates the Keane kids, given that Keane Inc. seems to hate the Keane kids too. Take this cartoon, for example, in which we discover that they are a gaggle of greedy little fucks. Indeed, Keane Inc. repeatedly sides with the parents, repeatedly casts the kids as stupid, and sometimes, as seen here, even suggests that the kids represent everything that's wrong with the world. If we find the children contemptible, it's because we have been given ample reason to believe that they are in fact contemptible.
While Santa may be trying to pass this off as a time-saver, readers of The Comics Section know what really spurred this move.
I write a lot more about bad comic strips than I do about good comic strips, mostly because it's easier to snark than to analyze. I'd like to change that a little bit, so I'm introducing a new feature: The Best Comic of the Day. It's pretty self-explanatory. Most of the time I'll add commentary, but sometimes I might not.
