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December 20, 2006
The Ink that Stinks and Winks
Today's Prickly City was brought to you by Phil "Slim" Dunlap author of Ink Pen, which seems like a mildly entertaining strip, but one I wouldn't read unless it were right under my nose in the morning paper. In fact, the only strip I would actively seek out online if my local paper didn't carry it? Arlo & Janis, a great though under-heralded strip. Plus, l'auteur -- Jimmy Johnson -- has a blog-ish website in which he frequently discusses his craft.
It's funny. Scott Stantis has/had a podcast which I used to pore over every Saturday looking for clues into his process of "writing" Prickly City. He may have been the first comic strip writer to offer that kind of access. And you know what I learned about Stantis and his work in all those podcasts? That he's a jerk.
But anyway. Today's strip. We can't forget about today's strip or my esteemed colleague Sacki will take me to task in his once-weekly forum entitled Taking My Esteemed Colleagues to Task, Or: Why I Too Would Like to Punch Grandmothers.
I'll give Dunlap high marks today. There's no self-reference. There's no, "Hi, We're the Replacements" blathering. It's business as usual: Winslow seems like Winslow and Carmen like Carmen. AND, on top of that, Dunlap makes a pretty potent point about politics, as well as a stinging rebuke of Republicans and their campaigns.
There are differing opinions as to how a guest artist should handle politics. Mark "Lio" Tatulli said yesterday, "to use [Stantis's] own strip to make fun of his politics while he was recovering, to me, seemed like kicking a man while he's down."
I, myself, prefer the argument once proffered by the late great Joey Ramone: "beat on the brat, beat on the brat, beat on the brat with a baseball bat, oh yeah."
Comments
I'll say one thing about Arlo and Janis...they must be the only comic-strip couple with open sexual-relationships.
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at December 20, 2006 09:19 AM
I don't get today's strip. I'm happy that it's politically motivated, but I don't get why Carmen says the Dems did nothing right and Winslow agrees with her. Maybe my brain isn't working right this morning because I've got Bush blathering on in the background saying he doesn't know what he's doing or when he's going to tell us when he knows what he's doing. Maybe today's strip is so clever that Dunlap realizes both Winslow and Carmen are Republicans and that's why they both slam Dems. Hmm.
Posted by: The Furnace at December 20, 2006 09:35 AM
Furnace, it made a little more sense after my morning coffee. I think what he's doing is making fun Scott's own pun in the Prickly City summary (As Carmen might say, "We may not be correct but we will always be right."). So they succeeded without any of the underhanded tactics the republicans would use, and that just blows her conservative mind. I also like how he's got the cliff about to give away in the last panel there...
Posted by: Anonymous at December 20, 2006 10:06 AM
Exactly. The Democrats won without doing anything "right" -- right being defined by the GOP playbook: trample constitution, violate civil rights, selling access to power, court the extreme base of their party, use fear to intimidate.
Posted by: CJo at December 20, 2006 10:14 AM
Ohhhhhhh "right" as in Radical Republican Right. Gotcha. Thanks guys. My mind was still blown that the guy who drew yesterday's strip actually took the time to respond to my post via Charles's email.
Posted by: The Furnace at December 20, 2006 10:57 AM
