Got a brief note from the Globe ombuds in response to my letter about Mallard:

Thanks for your comics comment. That makes me feel better about the attention
paid them.

Best,

Chris Chinlund
Globe Ombud

My initial email to her read:

I posted the below rant to my blog, where I have generally
noted the mediocrity of the Globe’s comic strips. Also, I don’t see why you seem to want to avoid “another column about
the comics.” Quite frankly I subscribe to the Globe on paper for the
comics.

The bastion of right-wing comic mediocrity, Mallard Fillmore, is finally taking heat from readers of the Globe who expect comic strips to be actually, well… funny.
The controversy started on Monday with conjecture from the Globe
ombudsman, Christine Chinlund, that Mallard may soon be replaced by Prickly City, a “conservative” strip with a fresher and funnier perspective than the duck. Chinlund quotes two readers in her piece:

But some say the The Duck has a more fatal flaw: “It’s just not
funny,” said reader Michael LaVigne. “He can have his opinion, fine,
but it needs to be funny, too.”

Reader Kathy Tappan asks why the Globe wastes precious space on a strip
that is “usually hateful, nasty, ill-informed, or mean-spirited…”
If the strip was also funny, she said, “you might have an excellent comic on your hands.” But, she said, it’s not.

Exactly.

The letters on the editorial pages, pro, con, or flip-flop (plus this letter
from just before the brouhaha), generally seem to miss the point:
Mallard Fillmore lays eggs as a comic artist. Let’s review some recent examples of what passes for
humor in Bruce Tinsley’s hackneyed world:

• Using an elipses to create comic timing… for a one-liner that isn’t funny! Ha!
• Making opponents out to be idiots by drawing them
  cross-eyed.
  I remember doing that… in third grade!
• Earnesty. Oh, and a duck thrown in to remind you that it’s a comic strip.
• Pimping out the tooth fairy for a joke.
• Anger.

Not that Mallard is alone on this score. One Mallard preservationist went after a similarly humor-challanged strip:

Why not drop “Doonesbury”?

Some would argue “Doonesbury” has certainly lost its relevance.

Amen,
brother. (I remember attracting some dirty looks for criticizing Gary
Trudeau at Brown’s 2004 Commencement, where he was receiving an honarary degree. Lighten up, liberals!) Jonathan Franzen summarized the problem with Doonesbury in a sentence:

Garry Trudeau is essentially a social novelist, his topical satire and
intricate family dynamics and elaborate camera angles all serving to
divert attention from the monotony of his comic expression.

Sack ’em both, I say! And take the cat with you!

Benjamin Walker emailed me today…er, yesterday… about his piece for NPR’s On The Media about the apparent “renaissance” in comic strips. I’ll have to listen to it at work, since it’s in RealPlayer format. (Oh hey, check it out: a transcript. Well, now my excuse is: it’s 1-frickin’ 30 in the am!)

Thanks for the tip, Benjamin!

On Monday, Rachel objected to the scatology of Arlo & Janis,
which (to its credit) is one of the most adult comic strips in
newspapers today. Despite ample warning from Janis, while I was away in
Texas Rachel did indeed proceed to flush twice… with predictable
results.

Addendum from 1/31/05: Jimmy Johnson wrote back to an email I sent him on this topic:

Gene,

I
don’t know why it seems to make perfect sense to flush a toilet AGAIN
when it obviously isn’t draining, but it does. Maybe it indicates an
optimist, if not too bright an optimist.

Thanks for the message,

Jimmy Johnson