Blog-O-Comix

Via James Wolcott's blog I navigated my way this afternoon to The Comics Curmudgeon, which I'll probably have to add to my regular reading list. While backing up a database for the umpteenth time at the office I worked backwards a bit through the archives, until I decided I was laughing too much... Assuming you have a similarly morbid fascination with the relentlessly sub-par likes of Mary Worth and B.C., each Wonkette-style rundown of the day's comic strips is hilarious and somehow more deeply compelling -- whether it gleefully overanalyzes yet another phoned-in installment of The Lockhorns or merely records a sense of lukewarm surprise that Garfield is bothering with a long-term storyline, it leads you further than anyone should ever go into what's probably the least necessary corridor of our vast, labyrinthine pop culture. Not for nothing did Mr. Show's Imminent Death Syndrome sketch include "the man who draws Ziggy... the man who draws the Family Circus... many famous cartoonists" among the disease's most prominent, most generously humored sufferers. The level of sustained mediocrity in this artistic space is truly awesome to behold.