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February 2008
Love Me, Love My Comic Strips
by
Karyl Miller, prez SCCS
Last Comic-Con I made a new friend. I liked her immediately after we exchanged a
vigorous volley of ME TOOs. Like me, she’s a veteran mom, loves laughing, shopping and
reading the funnies. Our next verbal volley had us exploring our common interests at a
deeper level (just like eHarmony). Our first loved comics were “Millie the Model,” “Nancy”
and “Little Lulu.” Yeah! Our conversation took us to the next deeper level: What were her
favorite comic strips today? I held my breath as she scored a hat trick listing “Luann,”
“Pickles,” and “Baby Blues.” Yeah! We were sisters under the skin! Maybe she could
become my new best friend.
But how, I asked her, could she have omitted from her list one of my favorite comic
strips of all time, “Zits?” “I hate ‘Zits,’ she said. I was shocked! For a second, I thought
she was kidding, hoped she was kidding, because so far we had agreed on everything.
How could we be so much the same, yet our opinions on “Zits” be so different?
I asked for an explanation – after all we had each raised a teenager. “The son is horrible!
If my daughter had acted like that I would have killed her.” “Your daughter?” I thought,
and raised an eyebrow; but due to Botox, I don’t think she noticed. “Aha,” I said to myself.
Out loud I said, “My son was exactly like “Zits” and I totally relate to the mom. She’s
exasperated by her son, but she understands that’s what teenage boys are like.” Before
abandoning all hope of a best friendship, I had one more test question - her opinion of my
beloved “Cathy.”
Did she love “Cathy” as I did? Was her refrigerator like mine, covered with yellowing
“Cathys?” “I hate ‘Cathy.’ All she thinks about are clothes and shopping!” “But WE love
clothes and shopping,” I pleaded. “Yes but nobody knows about us. ‘Cathy’ perpetuates
dated and frivolous images of women for all of America to see.”
I was so disappointed. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.
So my questions are:
Does the comic strip/joke/play/movie/sitcom have to mirror one’s own life in order to be
beloved? If it does, does that mean we’re impossibly narcissistic? Is agreeing on what’s
funny a necessary building block toward a best friendship? In other words, if one man’s
laugh is another man’s groan, can they still be friends?
Are my rules for comic strips too picky? For instance, is it okay if I’m against any cartoon
character that breaks the 4th wall and says, “We’re only a cartoon.” I’m especially against
it when a newbie strip denigrates a long-running strip for preventing a newbie strip from
getting in. They just got in. Are they complaining on behalf of their less fortunate
cartoonist brothers? Very noble, but is it really going to help? There goes my eyebrow
again (You’ll have to trust me on this). Comments? Bring them on! Karyl@MillerReport.
com
PS
I’ve been doing weekly editorial cartoons for the Writers Guild of America Strike
Newspaper “On The Line.” Here’s one…
30-
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