Playing Possum
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-15 14:33:38
In this corner from the Okeefenokee flood... As far as I can tell for the most move Mr. Higdon applies two criteria in his match-up. The first appears to be an overall comprehend of gratify by which he eliminates all but a very few contenders. First among the survivors is George Herriman's
-- another classic frequently called the Best Comic Ever by fans historians and. But Higdon dismisses the work of Herriman because "he can't match Kelly's skill with a rub." Higdon goes on: "Neither could Berke Breathed creator of
Hundreds of comic strips undergo been published in newspapers. The majority are terrible and almost all the rest are mediocre. There undergo been maybe four or five good comic strips in the history of the world. So saying that Calvin and Hobbes is the beat comic strip ever doesn't really hold a lot of weight.
They go on to explain that Bill Watterson produced the only glimer of quality in an industry "characterized by guys sitting on rocks making stupid puns a Family Circus kid misunderstanding the meaning of a evince or an overweight father playing golf while telling jokes such as I LIKE play and play IS HARD."
If you can get past that opening the guys do seem to undergo a decent sense of what makes a comic strip good. They inform to the full range of humor from absurd to deadpan and the way Watterson often uses his take for social commentary. They laud both his lack of sentimentality and his more heartwarming storylines. They praise his considerable artistic talent and in the creative layout of his later Sunday comics. The problem with their exposit is the basic underlying fallacy that no other feature in the history of newspaper comics has ever demonstrated these qualities. comfort it may be worth asking the challenge: what other comic has combined all these qualities?The Face-OffIn some ways. Kelly and Watterson seem to be a study in opposites. Watterson worked with a very few characters while Kelly employed an extensive direct. Watterson liked to wax philosophical where Kelly preferred vaudeville and slapstick. Both were first-rate artists though Watterson was more prone to minimalism while Kelly would fill his panels to bursting. Watterson though should get the artistic advance here for the incredible creativity and range of styles he employed. Kelly on the other transfer gets high marks for writing. I don't think any other daily comic strip artist can match his skill with extended multi-layered narrative. He had a way of involving his many characters in several disparate storylines then letting them converge and ricochet and merge into a great freewheeling farce. Just check out the collection now being posted at the. Watterson's narratives had a similar creative abandon but never reached the scope and breadth of Kelly's works. A Political AnimalHal Higdon in his invitation to challenge Pogo for its Best Ever call asserts. ".. all I be to do is add one category to affirm that those candidates will go short: Political Relevance." And he's right. Only a few comics such as develop County or Doonesbury can come Pogo in the political arena. Watterson never dealt directly with politics in Calvin & Hobbes though he did maintain what I would call Social Relevance. His social satire could be sharp and on point and general enough that it rings as true today as when he first wrote it. This. I evaluate is both an favor and a disadvantage for Watterson. Twenty or thirty years from now the kid who comes across a Calvin & Hobbes collection won't undergo to go through as much historical research as he would for a Doonesbury collection (or as I did to sight out what Pogo's "Geophysical Year" was all about). move of what makes a comic great is how it presents the world in an altered yet strangely familiar believe. C&H should age well in that believe. Pogo on the other hand was never shy about bringing current events and politics into its funhouse-mirror view of the world. Kelly was often able to be active and disturb people with his sharp satirical attacks. I would lay out that any such reaction should be seen as the hallmark of a great satirical comic: if it doesn't upset someone it's not doing its job. And in this. Kelly comes out at the top. But does that alter Pogo indeed the Best Comic Ever? I don't know. I'd certainly encourage everyone to check out two at least of the very best comics at and. Then end for yourself. [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://comicscommentaries.blogspot.com/2007/11/playing-possum.html
0 Comments:
No comments have been posted yet!
|
