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September 01, 2007
The Struggle (With Coherence) Continues
Stantis emphatically declares today that yes, this whole tug-of-war storyline is about the war in Iraq. In fact he uses several exclamation points to hammer it home as Carmen screams "surge!!!" while she pulls on the rope with renewed vigor.
Where she's on the other end. My head hurts.
It is amazing to me the way Stantis apparently writes his strip. He seems to come up with an idea ("how about a metaphor for Iraq...it's like a big tug-of-war we'll never win...") but has zero clue what he really wants to say with it all so he just makes it up as he goes along. Let's take a look back at this week and see what kinds of messages Stantis seemed to be sending:
Monday: The madness begins. Carmen is pulling on the rope, looking the same in each panel. At least Winslow is mixed up a bit. Here we discover that Carmen thinks that a mysterious "them" are pulling against her, even though apparently she can't see the other end so she really doesn't know for sure (later Stantis gives us his "awesome" reveal - it's really Carmen. But he does that on Friday, despite carrying the strip on to Saturday. Sort of like telling the audience who the killer is a half hour before the end of the movie, making us all sit around waiting for the damn thing to end so we can go home). Is she talking about the terrorists? The insurgents? The Shi'ite death squads? Democrats? Republicans? Nobody knows for sure, least of all Stantis. And he writes the damn thing.
Tuesday: The first two panels are the same, the last two mix up Winslow a bit. The first signs that this was about Iraq. Carmen explains that if she gives up "they win." Who's they, exactly? Later we learn it's...Carmen. It's at this point I think everybody realized Stantis had no clue what he was really trying to say with all of this.
Wednesday: Four identical strips. Even Winslow isn't changed up at all. Somebody went to Kinkos. The message? Carmen explains that she saw a rope and it needed tugging. That's it - that's the whole reason she's in this mess. What is Stantis trying to say here? Does he even know? Is the message that Republicans love war so much that they'll start one "just cuz?" Now she's in the middle of a quagmire and doesn't know how to get out - well, wait, she doesn't want to get out because that would mean admitting defeat. Even though nobody said she had to start pulling the damn rope in the first place.
Thursday: The controversial "peace activists give up too easily" strip. Apparently they're to blame for the mess in Iraq because they opposed it but didn't try hard enough to stop the neo-cons from starting the war. Or something.
Friday: As CJo pointed out it's two panels repeated then flipped, with the big reveal that Carmen IS in two places at once and simply pulling against herself in a lose/lose proposition. Which I'm guessing means that Carmen is a terrorist. I could be wrong there though, but is that my fault or Stantis's for not knowing what the heck he's doing?
Saturday: After two identical panels, Carmen gets the bright idea to "surge" - which means turning the other way and pulling harder. Yes, nothing like wasting more time - and lives - on something you admit is an exercise in futility.
At this point I really don't know what to make of all of this. First of all, it shows exactly how incredibly lazy Stantis is as an "artist." But secondly, I don't understand what Stantis is trying to say with all of this, and he doesn't either. Talking about the war in Iraq through a comic strip is a hard proposition, no doubt. Stantis learned the hard way that by doing so - and being a terrible writer - can get you into trouble with his lame "desert hamsters" storyline from a while back. Here Stantis is trying to be more obscure (or is the word "obtuse?") by setting up the whole tug-of-war idea, which isn't in itself bad but is made worse by a guy who has no clue what he's doing. Is he trying to say that we're wasting time, money, and lives by engaging in a war we can't win? That it's ridiculous to call for a surge knowing it's an impossible situation where there is no winning? That seems to be the case, but with Stantis it's impossible to tell.
I have to give the guy credit for at least trying to tackle the subject. But he's in way over his head with this strip, and he knows it. How does he plan on ending this? Will the rope simply snap and that'll be the end of it? If only the war in Iraq had such a simple solution. Stantis has painted himself into a corner - much the same way Bush and the neo-cons have in Iraq. The scary part is that if Stantis really wanted this to be a metaphor for what's happening in the Middle East, Carmen will see another rope on the ground labeled "Iran" and start pulling on that too. God help us that doesn't happen. Both in reality, and in Prickly City.
