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June 24, 2006
A Study in Madness...or Lazi-azzness
Lately Prickly City has become a bizarre study of how a writer who's either not given enough time or is just too lazy comes up with a strip and follows through on his idea without actually thinking things through. This week let's us know that it's probably just laziness more than anything.
Let's follow the thought process. Stantis hears that Homeland Security is giving lots of money away. Now of course the real story was how NYC and DC were being told their national security money was being cut because they didn't have any historical monuments, which is just ridiculous. But instead Stantis focuses on how more money is being given willy nilly around the country. Fine. There's comedy gold in them thar mountains too. So on Monday Chertoff gives Carmen $10 million because he's crazy.
On Tuesday, we discover that our righteous conservative Carmen has refused the cash. Because, as I pointed out, lord knows Republicans don't want free money - or corporate money, or lobbyist money, or money from foreign governments like the Mariana Islands. Nope, instead "big government" Winslow takes the cash. But wait - he actually wants to hunt terrorists! Could this be possible? A liberal who hates our freedoms and wants the terrorists to win has accepted the money, something Carmen wouldn't do? Nah, it's just cuter for Winslow to be in the blimp and for Carmen to be the doubting thomas.
(A side note: I think most of us assumed that the reason Winslow bought a blimp is because it's the only vehicle Stantis can draw. I'll talk more later about how this actually backfired on him.)
The less said about Wednesday the better. Something about Burning Man and singed nose hair. This is called Stantis coming up with a joke only he thought was funny and it somehow got through.
Thursday is interesting because Stantis flipped through his calendar and realized that it was the anniversary of the eminent domain decision. He tries to shoehorn the issue into the strip and fails miserably. At least it's better than a retread of Winslow on a wrecking ball. However, keep in mind that Winslow is able to hover above the desert.
Friday the blimp crashes and Winslow talks about the bee "hating our freedom." Silly wacky liberal Winslow becomes the silly conservative because Stantis hates conservatives who don't agree with him. Blah blah blah - should have been Carmen - blah blah blah - Stantis sucks. CJo said it best - just ___ Stantis.*
Now we get to today's strip. And how Stantis, due to his laziness, has backed himself into a corner on ANOTHER issue. Winslow took another grant, but this time he built a lighthouse in the middle of the desert.
Wait a minute. Let's take the boat out of the strip for just a moment, since it's obviously just a sight gag. More importantly, Stantis HAD to include the boat. Why?
Because part of Bush's plan is to put watch towers along the border to prevent illegal immigration.
And instead of blimps (which I wouldn't doubt will be used as well), the Border Patrol is going to be flying drones to patrol the divide between the U.S. and Mexico.
Granted if Stantis lived in Kansas this week of strips would have made sense. He could have rightfully gone after the wasteful spending by Homeland Security, and he even could have bitched about eminent domain because of that monstrous inter-nation highway Bush is proposing that'll go through the middle of the heartland from Canada to Mexico. And I would have completely supported it.
Instead, without taking the time to think this out Stantis has actually gone after how ridiculous it is for us to patrol our boders, which - I'm sorry - doesn't make any damn sense. Is that what Scott intended? I don't think so. But if Scott Stantis is sending the message that we shouldn't be protecting our borders, what does that make him? Republicans and Democrats, Conservatives and Liberals, all believe we need to do something about illegal immigration. The only people who don't are the corporations who want the cheap labor and the people in Mexico who want to get better pay and working conditions than they get in their homeland.
Oh, and terrorists because they want to come over the border freely and plot to blow stuff up.
So why oh why, Mr. Stantis, do you hate America?
(*edited so Charles doesn't call the cops on me)
Comments
Okay, you definatly need to edit that one paragraph. When you say "just die Stantis," it can be assumed that you're threatening some cartoonist's life, even if done for satiracle purposes.
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at June 24, 2006 10:05 AM
Done - thanks for keeping me from being monitored by homeland security.
Posted by: The Furnace at June 24, 2006 10:26 AM
Hey, if we have to live in a corporate police state, one must be careful ;)
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at June 24, 2006 10:57 AM
One subject that hasn't come in for criticism, as far as I can recall, but should: Stantis's abysmal lettering. (I guess his terrible writing tends to distract from the fact that he literally can't write, either.) In the first panel, Winslow's "What the heog" made me wonder if Stantis had him doing a weirdly underplayed Dean Scream until I could see where he was trying for a 'c' and a 'k'.
¡Viva Todd Klein!
Posted by: Marc Heiden at June 24, 2006 03:38 PM
Hey Marc - quite a few months ago I remember complaining about it since the punchline of the strip depended on how Stantis lettered what Winslow was saying and I had no clue what the word was supposed to be. You're right on, but I guess if there's one positive about Stantis, he's consistent. Consistently bad.
Posted by: The Furnace at June 24, 2006 03:44 PM
Huh...I never had problems with the lettering. Of course, I have experience in decoding a prescription written by an average doctor, so I never noticed, I guess.
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at June 24, 2006 11:40 PM
