Shot In The Dark: Off On Assignment

September 16, 2005

Off On Assignment

I will be off on assignment tomorrow, all day - so Ed will be filling in on the anchor desk.

Ed, John and the Fraters will have a great show for you. They'll be doing the usual Week in Review thang, plus interviewing Chris Muir of "Day By Day", the semi-official comic strip of the center-right, a guy who is doing what Gary Trudeau hasn't for 25 years; providing a tart, cutting view of current events and politics in four-panel comic strip format. Chris should be a great interview - don't miss it!

Plus the Third Hour of Power!

Join the Mitch-less (and King-less) NARN tomorrow, noon-3PM on AM1280, or on the web!

Posted by Mitch at September 16, 2005 12:22 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Only 25 years? Come on, man, Trudeau's been around a lot longer than that.

The only thing that isn't cool about Chris Muir's site is the advertisement for footwear from the Joe Sandalhippie (TM) Collection. It looks like something Zonker Harris would wear.

Posted by: Dave in Pgh. at September 16, 2005 01:16 PM

Muir and Trudeau are two sides of the same coin. At least Doonesbury has an actual cast of three-dimensional characters with personalities that affect each other and interact with current events. Muir's photocopied ciphers are talking heads delivering punchlines in a claustrophobic vacuum full of furniture store props. Since Muir doesn't lampoon the powerful, I'm looking forward to the ensuing hilarity when Day by Day becomes pro-Walmart and pro-Microsoft. Edgy!

And that's Garry with two Rs.

Posted by: Ernst Stavro Blofeld at September 16, 2005 02:31 PM

Honestly, it is exasperating to see how many people are so consumed by politics, politicking and political politcsness (I made up a word) that they completely lose the ability to judge a particular creative output based on its' own merits. I'm sure that DBD, compared to other "blog cartoons" (I haven't seen any others, to be honest) is probably not bad. But holding it up to Doonesbury is like comparing Ted Rall to Al Capp. To hear Hugh Hewitt say that DBD belongs in a newspaper is to hear the sound of Walt Kelly spinning in his grave and to invite Hewitt to a big frosty mug of SHUTTY. Readers! Some advice; when it comes to art, put your political leanings aside and enjoy/hate it for what it is, not for what you perceive the views of the artist to be.

Posted by: Tim at September 16, 2005 08:06 PM

The moment you start analyzing comic strips as "art" is the moment you divorce yourself from the reality of the medium. The success of Day by Day, and the appreciation of it from folks like Hewitt (and me), is based on it's ability to entertain and amuse. That it does exceedingly well. And that's all it takes. Whether you like it or not, this is a popular medium - and the tastes of the masses will decide it's fortunes. You want to apply some rigid, arcane standards of subjective artistic quality before allowing other to appreciate humor, go back to graduate school, you elitist wankers. I bet you'll get A's. More's the pity, I'll bet you think you that means something.

Posted by: Saint Paul at September 17, 2005 11:01 AM

Revised last sentence from previous comment:

"I bet you think that means something."

Forgive me, I've been shooting smack all morning.

Posted by: Saint Paul at September 17, 2005 11:05 AM

SP: The moment you stop analyzing the aesthetic merits of a comic and value it primarily for having compatible politics is the moment you become a complacent partisan wanker.

I admit Muir's got something, but his stylistic chops suffer in comparison to his forbearers.

Posted by: Ernst Stavro Blofeld at September 18, 2005 11:03 PM

Muir's style is still developing. He has admitted as much, in a comment he left on this post...

http://www.shotinthedark.info/archives/000637.html

...which is unfortunately lost, as I converted to MT.

Trudeau's style has been static for a quarter century. And he hasn't really been interesting - in any way - in about that long.

Posted by: mitch at September 20, 2005 05:40 AM

Posted by: Clark Boggart at May 3, 2006 07:07 PM