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December 19, 2006
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
At least it's funnier than when Pauly Shore pretended to be Michael Richards.
My first reaction when reading today's strip: what the hell is this crap?
Now it's not because it's a terrible comic or anything. Granted it's a dated Michael Richards reference, but that's in keeping with normal Prickly City SOP. It would have been nice if Winslow's little expletive-filled tirade had been framed in some way - maybe "You don't think Prickly City's funny because you're a ******!" Then maybe it would have made sense, but whatever.
(Oh, by the way, CJo pointed out to me this morning that the artist behind today's strip is actually Mark Tatulli. His entry for today's Lio is actually really good - better than anything Stantis has done.)
What's irritating me about all of these guest appearances is that none of them seem to have any BALLS. Yesterday the guy tackled Winslow's lame attempts at flying, with decent results. But is that what Prickly City is known for? Is that why it's even on the funny pages? No. It exists simply as "balance" for all of those stupid stinky smelly liberal political comic strips that are out there.
So where's the political humor? And please don't tell me bringing in a "liberal" artist to draw Winslow as one of the worst liberal Winslow stereotypes ever is supposed to count. A liberal making fun of liberals? How droll - and completely unfunny. And here we are two days into the week, and it's looking more and more like none of these guys will have the cajones to call Stantis and the Republicans out as the unfunny flip flopping hypocrites they are.
Can we get at least ONE joke about Carmen's political views? Please? Is that too much to ask for this holiday season?
What I find interesting is that it seems as though the guest artists are afraid to tackle the political views of the PC author. Or maybe it's because Stantis has so completely destroyed his own characters that it's impossible to ridicule only one of them as a conservative since their politics switch whenever it suits Stantis. Then again maybe they just want to make it clear to the world that, "Hey, I'm not the regular guy that sucks so bad - this is my own thing - so please be gentle. It's not my fault the strip is never funny, and I can't turn things around in a day."
Can we at least get one guy to do a roll call of all of the Prickly City characters that have vanished off the face of the earth? Like at the end of "Animal House," we can see what happened to Shelly, Kevin the Apocalypse Bunny, Dio, and anyone else that's shown up for a week because Stantis thought he came up with a clever idea but it ended up sucking just like everything else he touches.
At least the drawing is better this week. And Winslow is fat again.
Comments
I just assumed that Stantits was still authoring the dialogue, and having someone else do the scribbling. That's why the jokes are still lame and none poke fun at Carmen.
Posted by: FredN. at December 19, 2006 09:42 AM
Mark Tatulli also draws "Heart of the City."
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at December 19, 2006 09:43 AM
I dunno - there are little hints here and there that the dialogue is by the artists (especially the "liberal" one), but you might be right - maybe Stantis gave them an outline of what the strip would be about and they just had to finish it for him.
Posted by: The Furnace at December 19, 2006 09:46 AM
I think Mark Tatulli is conservative. He had a religious strip back in the day called "Bent Halos."
I'm not saying that anything religious = conservative, but there's a big chance Mark is.
Some of the early "Heart" strips also had some Catholic themes.
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at December 19, 2006 09:47 AM
Today's Guest Artist commented:
"The idea behind the "guest strip" concept was to help Scott Stantis in
a time of need. He's recovering from surgery and we were asked to fill
in for a day. To use his own strip to make fun of his politics while
he was recovering, to me, seemed like kicking a man while he's down.
That said, I recognize my contribution as pretty lame. But what do you
want? I have two other strips and I'm running on "E"
-MT"
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at December 19, 2006 05:19 PM
That is totally awesome! I can't believe he felt the need to explain himself. What makes it great is that instead of saying "we could have done political stuff but it's hard when you've only got one day to do it," instead he says it's because they didn't want to kick when he's down. Yeah, because Stantis would never make fun of someone when they're down. Unless it's Sandra Day O'Connor when her husband was dying. Or everyone involved in the Terri Schiavo case.
The point is clear: while most people would know if they made jokes about Stantis's politics the average person would take it in stride and that it's all in good fun, Stantis is a big baby and would whine and cry if anyone dare make fun of him and Carmen. Boo hoo.
With that said, get well, Stantis. I wouldn't want to kick you when you're down. Oh wait, I already did. Baby.
Posted by: The Furnace at December 19, 2006 05:27 PM
