« Future Goggles: The Stantis-less Edition | Main | Hey, Does Anybody Know If Prickly City Has Guest Artists This Week? I Sure Hope Someone Tells Us If they Do Every Day, Because I'm Too Stupid To Know Otherwise »
December 18, 2006
Buckethead
Another week of a trip down replacement lane!
Just a reminder:
From Dec. 18-23, six other cartoonists will each do one "Prickly City" installment. They include five Universal creators -- Don Asmussen ("Bad Reporter"), Mark Tatulli ("Lio"), Phil Dunlap ("Ink Pen"), Paul Gilligan ("Pooch Cafe"), and Rob Harrell ("Big Top") -- and Greg Cravens, who took over Stantis' previous strip, the United Media-syndicated "The Buckets."
After a careful analysis of all the above-mentioned strips, and a handful of Advil to soothe my aching head, and a shot of morning bourbon to wash down the Advil, and then another couple of Advil to deal with the mid-afternoon hangover that is sure to come from the morning bourbon, and a cool glass of water to head-off the dehydrating effects of drinking, I think I've figured out that today is Greg Cravens from The Buckets.
Note the similar signature ("GREG" -- I think) in panel three of PC and panel two of The Buckets. There is also a similar handwriting style for the dialogue.
For those of you who don't know this Greg Cravens character, he was the Toby on one of Stantis's earlier strips, The Buckets, one of the worst-drawn, cringe-inducing strips known to man. (For those of you who don't know, Toby is one of Stantis's errand boys for Prickly City, Inc. Toby also doubles as co-host on the Not Updated Since September Prickly Podcast.)
Once Stantis lost interest in The Buckets -- and for good reason...it was so painful to read I can't imagine what kind of chunk it took out of his soul to write -- he handed over the reigns to Greg Cravens. I'm not sure whether or not the strip improved once Cravens took over. By that time, The Buckets had become so god-awful that my hometown newspaper had kicked its ass to the curb. I'll never forget the mixture of joy and pity that day, that day when I opened up to funnies for my daily Buckets torture to see that it was gone.
And that brings us to today, where Cravens's former master needs a little pick-me-up. And instead of fetching Stantis his coffe, Cravens draws what is probably the best-executed Prickly City in its history.
It's subtle but not obtuse. It references Wile E. Coyote without a double-underscore and bold letters. It also is self-referential -- rotator cuff mention -- without being lame about it like last week. The art is good too. Just look at Carmen sneaking away in the last panel. There is NO WAY that Stantis would be able to capture sneaking away.
I'm impressed, Greg Cravens. Not so much that I'll seek out The Buckets on a daily basis, but perhaps I won't be so dismissive of that strip in the future.
Comments
One of the guest-cartoonist this week is Rob Harrell of "Big Top"
Interesting to point out that "Big Top" ALSO had a guest artist-week few months back (Harrell underwent treatment for eye cancer).
Scott Stantis was one of the contributing guest-artist. So I'm guessing Rob is drawing one of the "Prickly" to return his favor.
(Oh, and BTW, tomorrow's strip is...drawn by Kramer from "Seinfields"! Seriously!)
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at December 18, 2006 09:02 AM
