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October 28, 2007
Somebody Please Tell Stantis To Take A Vacation
I feel out of sorts when it comes to Prickly City lately. I get the sense that Stantis cares even less than usual. His experiment in giving his characters a long, involved storyline - Winslow running for president - showed that while he could give them an arc that lasted longer than a few days, his approach was still to slap together something at the last minute and just insert it into the storyline. Hence lots of references to unfunny dancing llamas and no realization that the Republicans have primaries too.
This week he took a few shots at Fred Thompson and even referenced that Winslow is (apparently) still running for president. Does this mean we'll see more of Winslow on the campaign trail? I doubt it. Hence why we got a throwaway jab at Al Gore yesterday and today's goofy strip that would have been timely about a year ago when people were sick of everybody saying "____ is the new ____."
One would think that Stantis would be re-energized by the upcoming primary season (only 67 days away!). And it's not like there isn't anything for him to write about - telecoms wanting amnesty for illegally spying on us, the neo-con quest to invade Iran, Israel bombing Syria and the media shrugging their shoulders, etc. - plenty of things for Stantis to talk about. Instead, it's clear that Stantis doesn't want to do Prickly City anymore. He's bored with it, and isn't even slamming the Democrats running for president anymore. How long ago did Hillary's laugh become a big story? It's been over a month since her cleavage was front page news for Republican bloggers. Instead, we get Carmen endorsing Mike Huckabee. Zzzzzz.
Time to pack it in, Stantis. Let your editors know that you're done with the strip, and hand it over to someone who actually has something to say (and who can actually draw). You tried, you failed - move on. We'll understand. And be grateful.
Comments
I thought today's strip was some type of critique of the reaction to his "honky" editorial cartoon recently, you know, something about black being the new white. Or something.
Posted by: FredN. at October 28, 2007 12:24 PM
Today is probably what Stantis views as comic relief from a long week of serious political discussion.
And what, exactly, was that serious political discussion, that Stantis allowed us to read?
MONDAY -- Hillary will revive the era (or error, get it?) of big government, because the Bush administration totally didn't govern like that. At least, not in the world Stantis likes to think that he lives in.
TUESDAY -- Carmen endorses Huckabee for president. She implies that anyone who doesn't agree with her is childish. Hmmm...sounds like a child is telling the vast majority of American adults that they are childish. Does that make sense? You should only answer "yes" if your name is "Scott Stantis."
WEDNESDAY -- Now Stantis seems to be saying that even though he supports Huckabee, the guy doesn't have a prayer of getting elected (pun very much intended). Now there's a good way to rally support for the candidate you support, Stantis: tell people that he has no chance.
THURSDAY -- Stantis shows us that Fred Thompson is a bad choice for president because he can't read and/or is stupid. Probably the strip is not meant to be taken literally, but if one was to take it literally, that's what I would call libel.
FRIDAY -- It's an encore criticism of Thompson, this time saying he has poor credentials, because the only important thing he ever did was "bag" hot chicks. Well, actually Thompson has served in the senate for a few years, which is about the same amount of political experience that fellow actor Ronald Reagan had when he was elected. And according to the previous day's strip, Reagan is "holy." So, what makes Reagan's pre-presidency lack of credentials so much better than Thompson's, Scott?
SATURDAY: The intense discussion continues as Stantis lashes out at former VP Al Gore for apparently not taking the whole global warming thing very seriously. Yeah, Stantis, he doesn't believe it himself, so he's spending all his time trying to convince others to believe it. Why does such stupidity make sense to this cartoonist?!
So finally, the political discussions conclude and Scott Stantis gives us a strip which he probably thinks is a funny non-political strip. Well, it's non-political; I'll give him that much. But funny? No. Not at all. It just shows you how out of the loop Stantis is that he thinks that that is a cliche in October 2007.
And Fred, I don't think he's commenting on Honky-gate this time. Winslow says purple is the new black; there's no such thing as purple people so I don't think that is the case.
Posted by: Chris at October 28, 2007 01:29 PM
To clarify:
1) Reagan served as governor of California, not a Senator; my meaning was that both had brief political careers after long acting careers before they decided to run.
2) It may seem from the way I was writing that I support Thompson. That is not the case. I merely intended to discredit Stantis, not to boost Thompson's image.
3) Al Gore just won the Nobel Peace Prize, which is why Stantis was ranting on him.
Posted by: Chris at October 28, 2007 01:35 PM
The first four panels have kind of a half-rhyme scheme going, for what that's worth. But I wonder what "Boys are the new girls" is supposed to mean. Something to do with the varying differences between the genders in academic performance(I think that girls have been improving and boys declining in some subjects)? Or just because it (half) rhymes?
Posted by: Antenora at October 28, 2007 05:11 PM
