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September 13, 2008
Are Those Chopsticks?
ADVENTURES IN COMICS: PRICKLY CITY'S EPIC ADVENTURE
August, 2008. Comic strip "artist" Scott Stantis undertakes his greatest challenge ever: devote an entire month to one gigantic storyline that would take his characters from Prickly City to China for the Olympics and then Denver for the DNC. It would be full of drama and suspense - a new character would have to play a vital role, and Vaughn was the right armadillo for the job. Carmen would undergo a major transformation from a neo-conservative princess to communist queen. Winslow would fulfill his Olympic ambitions, sort of. While Stantis had devoted a week to storylines in the past, this would be monumental. Epic. The defining moment of Prickly City, and Scott Stantis' signal to the world that he could take on the biggest issues of the day - China, the Olympics, Democrats - and make it both thought-provoking and hilarious.
September, 2008. Exhausted, Scott Stantis reflects on his month-long adventure. Never before had he worked so hard on a comic strip. The stress of meeting deadlines and looking forward so far into the future had taken its toll. His source of relief? Why devote a week of strips to his plight, of course! His surrogate Carmen would be subjected to a similar struggle - work work work, no rest for the wicked (wickedly funny, that is!), with an eye towards a Saturday wrap-up where she (and he) can finally rest easy with a bowl of donut holes and ice cream. Delightful!
It's easy to envision the man himself, Scott Stantis, sitting by himself, bowl of sugary sweetness in his lap, reflecting on this amazing journey. Are there things he would have done differently? Possibly. Maybe Winslow should have participated in something other than an event that was only for women and ended over a decade ago. Maybe he shouldn't have slapped together that one strip that seemed to feature Winslow in a running event, even though he was there to swim. More time could have been spent than one panel explaining how Carmen snapped out of her brainwashed communist phase. And looking back, it doesn't really make much sense that Carmen wouldn't want to go with Winslow if Winslow is a Democrat and the Democrats would supposedly love and embrace a communist at their convention. And it was pretty dumb to have Winslow yell at Carmen that she had to do all this work on Monday, only to turn around and be the one to say she shouldn't work so hard.
But that's all in the past. Sure, mistakes were made. Lame jokes were told. It's all part of the struggle to put together a comic strip. Lessons have been learned (well, hopefully), and while he might not be the best artist, or the best writer, Scott Stantis can proudly say that yes - he too can tell a story that lasts more than a few strips and can address the major issues of the day. Maybe next he'll tackle Sarah Palin and her lies. Or John McCain and HIS lies. Or the Republican party as a whole and all of their lies.
Or maybe he'll talk about pop stars in thongs. Either way, it'll be pure Scott Stantis. And he has a comic strip, and you don't. Deal with it.
