From Bringing Up Father. The comical Irishman's dowdy ballbusting wife threatens to crowd into his workplace, so he sets to work covering up evidence that he spends his workday in a drunken stupor. I mean, you could get offended by something like this, but it might be healthier to just stand back and marvel.
2 comments:
I'm on the side of standing back and marveling but I know what you mean about looking back on comic art from a very different point of view. Crazy Cat and Ignatz were very offensive to each other but hilarious to read even now so long as one isn't too judgemental.
Of course there were lots of newspaper cartoons that were barely funny at the time. I never could make much of Beetle Baily or Lil Abner. On the other hand there were some that haven't ever become less relevant - like Pogo, and more recently, Calvin and Hobbes.
George Herriman was an interesting dude. He was a New Orleans Creole, which essentially meant that he was a black/biracial man who could pass, sometimes. I wonder if that had an effect on Krazy Kat's themes. It was definitely a good example of making the most of minimal elements (three characters, geometric backgrounds.)
Calvin and Hobbes is certainly missed. Although maybe Watterson got out at the right time, if keeping on with it would have meant turning in work that he wasn't feeling. Cul de Sac was pretty delightful too, in more recent years.
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