Sunday, January 27, 2008

Long may he flap

I see the Gazette has brought Mallard Fillmore back, although with diminished billing in the classified ad section.

Mallard Fillmore was a discredit to the entire conservative cause when it appeared next to Doonesbury. If one knew nothing of liberals and conservatives except what appeared in those two strips, one would presume that conservatives are humorless, obtuse and draw great ducks.

But it is hard to say that Prickly City has been an improvement. Mallard Fillmore may have been obvious and predictable, but at least it had usually had a point, and that point usually was detectable. If Prickly City has a point, I haven't yet uncovered it.

But at least that puts it a cut above other new strips that have made their way to the Gazette, which uniformly strike me as dark, crude and unpleasant. Am I old enough to be nostalgic yet for Lil Abner and Pogo? Maybe not, but give me a couple of years.

1 comment:

Chuck Rightmire said...

Mallard Fillmore not only maligns an already much maligned president, but is mostly mean-spirited. People who find humor in it would probably pull puppy dog tails. Prickly City doesn't have either the political savvy or the kinowledge of
Doonesbury, which is in a class by itself. I'd like to see pogo come back (I still mention that most months, Friday the 13th comes on a different day, like a Tuesday. Non Sequitor, Rose is
Rose, Zits, The Born Loser really tickle a sense of humor that hasn't been crusted over by age.