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October 09, 2005
Harriet the Spy
I admit it: I don't get today's Prickly City.
Maybe CJo can help out since he's got a photographic memory when it comes to previous PC storylines. Was Winslow at one time a Supreme Court nominee? Or was he angling for the job? I do remember Stantis having Carmen dance on the soon-to-be-dug grave of Sandra Day O'Connor's dying husband when she decided to step down to care for him, but I don't remember Winslow asking to be nominated to fill her spot. But then again I try to block these out as soon as I read them.
Anywho, Winslow is trying to sell a Supreme Court justice's robe by putting it on a cactus. It's not a hot seller though, so Carmen suggests it'll sell when the next justice is appointed.
Now I know Stantis is a few weeks behind the news curve. But it's obviously not a reference to the Chief Justice role now filled by John Roberts, since it doesn't have those bad ass racing stripes previously sported by William Rehnquist.
So I'm guessing he wrote this knowing that Bush was ready to appoint someone to fill O'Connor's robe. His choice: Harriet Miers.
Since so many conservatives are hating on W's decision to appoint his best bud, I'm curious to see where Stantis goes with her eventual storyline. Does he support the President and his choice? Or is he siding with Pat Buchanan and is furious with the decision? It's hard to say, and knowing Stantis he might skip the whole thing and talk about Howard Dean instead.
Not sure who Miers is like the rest of us? Here's a snazzy photo of Harriet handing her best bud in the world W the Presidential Daily Briefing on August 6th, 2001.
In case you were wondering, that PDB's title is, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." Yup, they're that close.
Leaving that out of the equation though, I wonder if Stantis realizes how insightful today's single panel really is. For one the robe is on a cactus, showing how "prickly," if you will, the choice for a Supreme Court justice can be. Just as Bush 1 and his appointment of Souter - you never know what you're going to get. There's also the idea that Winslow is trying to sell the robe - is he saying that a spot on the court can be bought by the highest bidder? Mind you this is the second trial lawyer Bush has nominated, meaning they love the corporations over us private folk - but didn't Bush say over and over on the campaign trail that he hated trial lawyers?
In any event, after all that today's strip still doesn't make any sense and it's still not funny. Just like every day in Prickly City.
Comments
This is off topic, but in Sunday's Los Angeles Times review of "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes" collection, there's this little gem:
"Although some good strips have appeared in recent years, notably "Zits," "Mutts," "Get Fuzzy" and "Frazz," Watterson left an enormous hole in the comics page when he retired, a hole no strip has filled. Though many have tried to produce "a new 'Calvin and Hobbes,' " none have succeeded. The excellence and originality of Watterson's work becomes clearer when it's juxtaposed with a derivative strip such as Scott Stantis' "Prickly City." Watterson's crisp brush strokes delineated characters that were solid, dimensional and alive. His captionless strips of Calvin and Hobbes dancing were funny because the poses captured their movements so vividly. Similarly, when Calvin sulked or was forced to eat a dinner he didn't like, his expressions told the story. In "Prickly City," Winslow the coyote often has no legs; his lumpy body just sits on his puffy feet. Carmen's scribbly, misshapen lips appear on the bottom or the side of her blobby cranium, like a Mrs. Potato Head gone wrong. More significantly, Winslow and Carmen have no personalities: They're ciphers who exist to promulgate Stantis' right-wing diatribes."
Posted by: jackmac at October 9, 2005 08:20 PM
The "bad ass racing stripes" line made me completely crack up. Haha, and that is the best review of the complete Calvin and Hobbes collection ever.
Posted by: JB at October 9, 2005 09:34 PM
