In your face Garfield.

Ghastly · Post by **Ghastly** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 4:57 pm

I just found an article on how newspaper comics suck and how Keenspace represents the new underground of funny.

Note the particularly glowing terms one Keenspace comic is refered to in.

Woohoo!

Godoftarot · Post by **Godoftarot** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 5:01 pm

Uh...I dunno whether to be excited for you, or somewhat disturbed that this guy thinks that anything without nudity and perversion isn't brilliant.

Knightsaber · Post by **Knightsaber** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 5:04 pm

Urm, yeaaah what godoftarot said.

Bekka · Post by **Bekka** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 5:15 pm

Hey, that's great! Well done

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 6:12 pm

godoftarot wrote:Uh...I dunno whether to be excited for you, or somewhat disturbed that this guy thinks that anything without nudity and perversion isn't brilliant.

Ditto. The author appears to be a college student. To be more precise, one of those college students whose entire goal in life is to get plastered and laid, in no specific order. Which brings up a question, why does something that's trying to be edgy have to involved sex, kinky or otherwise?

Wp · Post by Wp » Sun Jul 18, 2004 6:20 pm

You guys should look at the title of the e-zine. The guy's trying to be subversive. But he has a point. Clean comics can only go so far. Funny involves all sorts of things, and regular newspapers can't be close to as extreme as Ghastly. There are also a lot of comics on Keenspace that are funny but don't necessarily go as far as Ghastly, and yet, I still think they would have issues the Sunday comics.

As the old saying goes: "In humor, nothing is sacred."

Ghastly · Post by **Ghastly** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 6:21 pm

It is a college newspaper.

I got a kick out of it none the less. Anything that talks about how much Garfield sucks while praising tentacled beasties is A-Okay in my books.

Godoftarot · Post by **Godoftarot** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 7:09 pm

wp wrote:You guys should look at the title of the e-zine. The guy's trying to be subversive. But he has a point. Clean comics can only go so far. Funny involves all sorts of things, and regular newspapers can't be close to as extreme as Ghastly. There are also a lot of comics on Keenspace that are funny but don't necessarily go as far as Ghastly, and yet, I still think they would have issues the Sunday comics.

As the old saying goes: "In humor, nothing is sacred."

But a comic doesn't have to be funny or perverted to be brilliant.
And I like Garfield. He's sarcastic. I like that. Granted, I don't actually pick up the paper to read it, which is probably why I can appreciate it on the rare occasion I actually read a Garfield strip.

Although personally, I think Sparks the Cat from Dominic Deegan so kicks Garfield's ass ^^

Wp · Post by Wp » Sun Jul 18, 2004 7:18 pm

I wasn't advocating perversion. I am, however, advocating the use of nonstandard humor, much of which cannot be shown in your local newspaper because of the censors. I am also advocating funny. You have to be at least amused by the comic otherwise it has to be engaging storywise. Your fondness for Garfield probably stems probably from a "heh, heh, hehe" (silent chuckle) kind of funny instead of the "HAHAHAHAHA, holy s*&!" type of funny. If a short panel comic isn't funny, chances are, it isn't a good comic.

Ruxen · Post by **Ruxen** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 7:45 pm

hey whatever the context this article may have been written in aside, congrats Ghastly for sticking it to Garfield!

Patrick_Shannon · Post by **Patrick_Shannon** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 7:56 pm

The author of the linked article had me until their alternative to the "Unfunny pages" was the online world of animated porn, but to each their own.

As for Garfield, I absolutely love the character and even though I receive the comic daily in my inbox, the comic strip (like everything else in the funny pages) is absolutely not funny. I think Garfield worked FAR better as an animated character as his specials and his Saturday morning TV show was indeed funny, had depth, and was entertaining to watch (long live Binky the Clown). Despite that bad CG animated movie, there is a side benefit to it: old Garfield animated specials have started to pop up on DVD with the first season TV show coming out sometime this month (if it hasn't already).

JexKerome · Post by **JexKerome** » Sun Jul 18, 2004 11:59 pm

Only reason really why Garfield the cartoon has always been WAY funnier than the comic strip: Mark Evanier. Jim had nothing to do with it but sign some papers and point where he wanted the networks to drop the cash.

They decided to cut him out of the picture, though, and the result is what you saw at the theaters.

And though, yeah, it seems kinda extreme to say "the alternative to Peanuts is tentacle rape" (as much as I love them hentai moves), the guy has a point: the censored "blah-ness" of the newspaper strips can never compete with the 110% free Internet Comics. We're able to say what we want and how we want, without fear of some uptight big-wig shutting us down.

And Ghastly's comic is a perfect example for this, since his comic is not only funny and irreverent, but the one attempt by big wigs to shut him down just achieved the opposite, and is earning Ghastly more money to boot.

So yay for Webcomics, let's hope someone wakes up and revives the paper funnies, and a Big Yay for Tentacle Hentai. It rules.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 3:52 am

Does this mean to be successful School Spirit has to get edgier? I don't know that I want little Casper and Cody getting up to that sort of stuff...

Oh, and Garfield is great.

Even if I only have five seconds to read the funnies in the paper, I always make sure I spend 30 reading Garfield and Snake...

Grabmygoblin · Post by **Grabmygoblin** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 4:05 am

he does have a point, many newspaper comics are the same old same old.
but I do read some of the ones he listed. for better or for worse I feel accurately portrays family life. (I pointed out a sunday strip about ants in the house the other day to my mom and she said "I swear that woman has a camera in here somewhere"), I always crack a smile when reading the boondocks or doonsbury and there is a reason dilbert is so popular with office workers.
while most are not as subversive as webcomics (I would argue about boondocks) you still find some orginality in the newspaper.

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 5:26 am

He had me until he started messing with Charles Schulz. The man is dead for Christ's sake. Have a little respect.

Ghastly · Post by **Ghastly** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:31 am

Dead or alive Charles Shultz was off his game for decades. He was such a sweet guy nobody had the heart to tell him to call it quits.

Van Douchebag · Post by **Van Douchebag** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:33 am

Charles was the Forest Gump of comic strips.

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:39 am

The earlier stuff was more cynical and bleak than his later work, I'll admit. But he still helped create a whole movement towards a minimalist style, and one that admitted kids may just be a little deeper than a softball game.

Why his strip shifted in the 70s-80s, I've no idea. I never cared for his "Spike" or "Rerun" characters, but you'll have that. Don't really need to think the guy is a god to realize that he made a lot of contributions to the genre.

Soap Soaperson · Post by **Soap Soaperson** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:45 am

Shultz completed the same mail correspondence art course I signed up for a few years ago. It's absolute shit. I mean, you learn stuff, but they say it's accredited...but it's not. FSU isn't exactly the pinnacle of art departments, and they wouldn't even accept any of the credits I'd done thus far.

I haven't even completed the courses, though it's as close to an art education as I have at the moment.

Anyway, that's where Shultz began. The school whores him out as their greatest achievement - the guy who signed me up for the school made SURE I knew that Charles Shultz did the courses.

Zhan_Dvega · Post by **Zhan_Dvega** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 6:57 am

Newspaper comics haven't really been worth reading much since Calvin and Hobbes and Far Side left us :(

Pretty much all I read comics for nowadays is to laugh at how horribly bad Garfield is... Oh Garfield, you sure do hate Mondays...