Recent Comments

1. 18 days ago on Outland

   Breathed really shot himself in the foot, in my opinion. Outland did indeed morph into Bloom Countiy part 2, except it was dramatically watered down because of the restrictions he’d imposed on it. The weekly format really did him no favors. I understand he made the switch because he was feeling burnt out, but the end result just didn’t maintain the momentum that had given Bloom County its energy. There were other limitations that tied it down, but I think the biggest loss of all was Milo. Opus may have been the star and the heart, but Milo had been the glue that held the entire show together. Without Milo acting as a cohesive agent - and instigator of various projects and misadventures - everyone else felt kind of rudderless and adrift. (This was particularly felt, I think, when Steve Dallas eventually returned full-time. Without Milo to play off against, Steve’s antics had a lot less bite.)

2. 21 days ago on Doonesbury

   For real, I think what was allowed to happen to Mickey Mouse —by his own creators, at that -- is one of the great tragedies of popular culture. It was such a waste. From mischievous scrappy underdog, to straight man with a small mischievous spark, to bland suburbanite, to dowdy humorless corporate mascot - all within about thirty years. He spent several decades pretty much completely in the wilderness of being just a blank, bland mascot, his early feisty personality long forgotten. Only starting in the mid-‘90s did they finally start making scattershot, hit-or-miss efforts to bring him back to his roots. Some of those efforts have been better than others, but even with the good ones, they’re still up against about fifty years of having that bland reputation. Like I said, what a waste.

3. 21 days ago on Doonesbury

   He didn’t really start writing longer, more elaborate storylines until two or three years in.

4. 28 days ago on Peanuts

   Boy, this entire arc passes the Bechdel test with flying colors. Or at least colors that jump down from a tree.

5. 28 days ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   Any former kid who claims to not relate to this is lying.

6. 28 days ago on Doonesbury

   Sigh. Something Trudeau’s long done that I really hate is have his child characters transform from wide-eyed innocents into jaded, snarky, and kind of unpleasant teens/adults. The most extreme case was Jeff, who was a sweet-natured kid with good grades but dropped about thirty IQ points when he hit his teens and mutated into the unlikable jerk he’s been ever since, but it happened with Alex and Sam, too. Alex was a very appealing character as a preteen, but her entire personality changed instantly the day she got the “adult” eyes. And it took longer to happen with Sam, but eventually she succumbed, too. That really disappointed me because Sam in particular had always been a rather pure, innocent type, like her mother in some ways. I thought she was going to reach adulthood and retain that same quality, as Boopsie had. But nope. Eventually she got the adult eyes too, and she became just as abrasive as Alex. Though thankfully neither became a complete jerk like Jeff did.

7. 28 days ago on Doonesbury

   We both know you don’t care about the lies, kiddo.

8. about 2 months ago on Peanuts Begins

   Violet was still occasionally turning up now and then through the late ’90s. Patty too, but less so.

9. 2 months ago on Bloom County

   Trump had been a semi-regular character in Doonesbury since around 1987. In fact, Duke actually worked for him for a brief period, acting as captain of the Trump cruise liner. He would periodically return every now and then through the ’90s, retaining his connection to Duke - until, if I remember right, both found themselves as rivals early in the 2000 presidential election.

   Trump was one of the few public figures that Trudeau actually depicted full-on, as opposed to being an offstage voice or a floating icon, like many of his political depictions once were (George Bush as an empty “point of light”, Bill Clinton as a waffle, Newt Gingrich as a bomb, etc.). Naturally, his depiction of Trump has evolved significantly over the past 37 years, mirroring the real-life man’s creeping grotesqueness.

   And as others have mentioned above, Trump literally lived in the body of Bill the Cat for most of Bloom County’s final year. The comic’s ending, in-universe, was the result of Trump buying the strip and firing the entire cast. About as depressing an ending as anyone could ask for, really. Then Bill the Cat showed up in Outland a few months later as his normal self, with no explanation as to how his brain had been returned to his body or how Trump’s brain had (presumably) been returned to his.

10. 3 months ago on Phoebe and Her Unicorn

    And….my original question was nine years ago.