The World Bores You When You're Cool
by Turtle Jones

I have no real idea how we got here again today, but that's what's fun about LNT. We have no clue what we are doing till we hit it! Kinda exciting if you think about it. All you have to do is take two people from different coasts, mix them up and give them a deadline and see what comes out!

So for tonight's cocktail...

What is your favorite newspaper cartoon?

And to make it fun....

Which is the worst cartoon

The best?

Calvin and Hobbes

This has to be the best cartoon ever. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bagging on any other cartoon that's out there, except for the one down lower in the article, but really, anyone who puts out art in any intention to make you smile gets alot of respect from me. The second you express yourself for someone else’s amusement, you move up in my mind. That might sound weird, but really, if you take the time to do something, I'm going to look at it out of respect.

It just happens Bill Waterson was the best at putting down stuff to look at. I have no idea why this strip worked. I mean maybe it was Calvin that called to me. I have no idea. His imagination just called. Something that tugged me after years of being stepped on in real life. I had imaginary friends when I was a kid. I broke stuff. I dove off a balcony trying to fly. I did alot of the things he did and that was my mind frame. Let's do this now. Right now. We need to do this. I like Calvin.

Hobbes on the other hand would step back and think about the situation and offer wisdom about how you would get hurt and how this applies to life.hobbes-791446.gif

See, I like that about him. He could have fun with you but still tell you that you are stupid.

But, every once in awhile the classic series would come out. The big one was Calvinball. Oh god this was fun. "You missed the wicket! No goal! No goal!!" See, pretty much the ultimate in childhood imaginations. I read these and always remember that there was a time that I could think like this and it kinda makes me sad.

But everyone has to grow up.

Now that we started this, let's move on to who I don't like.

Get Fuzzy

Yes, I know I just said I respect anyone who puts down anything on paper, but I never said I have to like it. I seriously have fucking no idea why people like this. Well, not like it, love it. Maybe I don't get the humor. Maybe I missed something. See, strips like this confuse me. There is some reason why it is here. Universal bought them, so something must be working, but I don't see it. I'm not going to sit here and bag on it cause I respect the guy for what he has done, but I just don't get it. - T

michele's in the next frame:

Calvin and Hobbes

What’s not to love? cahobees.jpgA boy, his tiger and a chance to see the world through the imagination of a demented but loveable child. Was Hobbes really alive, but only Calvin could see him? Or was Hobbes just a stuffed animal given a fantasy life with Calvin’s incredible imagination? Or maybe it was a whole Fight Club type scenario where Hobbes existed in neither real nor stuffed form, but was just an extension of Calvin’s personality. Maybe Calvin was a schizophrenic.

You know, if there was a kid like Calvin in school today, they would call him hyperactive, medicate him, throw him in some behavior mod classes and stifle his imagination forever. Personally I think we should be modeling kids after Calvin. Sure, he can be a little oppositional and a bit defiant and he’s kind of a procrastinator and doesn’t always apply his genius brain power in the right places. But the kid knows how to play. He knows how to use his mind to make the world his playground. He knows how to take an ordinary day and make it all seem worthwhile.

Some days, I just want to be Calvin. Like today. Live in another world that exists only in my mind. If I could bring those worlds to life like him, I'd be pretty damn happy. Especially if I had a smart tiger hanging around with me to act as my conscience, or at least to tell me "hey, you are being kind of stupid here."

Anyone up for a game of Calvinball?

Ok, now for the easy one. My least favorite comic. Let me just say that newspaper comic strips are not what they used to be. When I was little, I would run outside and grab the paper in the morning before anyone else so I could read the comics before the paper got pulled apart. Yea, some of those comic strip heroes from back in my day are long gone (anyone remember Dondi?) some don't know when to quit (Gasoline Alley is still going on?) and some (Spidey) have gone on to bigger and better things. I don't even read the comics anymore. Most of them are just rehashing forty year old jokes. As if a new font and a few decades will make people forget that everything you are writing has been done already. Or that your comic is just not funny.

Take Cathy for instance.

I hate her.

She is a terrible role model. I know women who look up to her, who quote her and have Cathy hand towels and Cathy tote bags or whatever else Cathy type women carry around. But look at this chick: She is constantly quitting bad habits and failing; she always promises herself that she will do more for herself, like exercise or lose weight or get organized, yet fails to accomplish that because she can't motivate herself. Her life is filled with enablers that are don't help situation. nbkcathy.jpgShe spends recklessly, probably buying handbags and hats she can't afford and justifying those expenses with phone calls to family members who will just agree with her justifications. She complains constantly about the little things she has no control over.

Really, she's just one step away from a lifetime supply of Prozac or sitting in a dark room rocking herself back and forth and mumbling something about the monkey that lives in her closet.

Maybe there's a reason I don't like Cathy. She reminds me too much of.....someone.

I hope that some day Cathy breaks out of her rut and does something crazy. I'm thinking a Natural Born Killer scenario here. Cathy and Beetle Bailey would go on a cross country murder spree - Cathy exacting revenge on the world for all her weight gain, bad financial decisions and relationship disasters, and Beetle treating everyone he comes in contact with as a surrogate Sarge and finally gets to let go of the pent up violence he has been holding in all the years Sarge mentally and physically tormented him.

I'd go back to reading comics for that.

So those are our likes and dislikes. Yeah you might agree or not. I'm sure someone is going to say Hagar the Horrible or some other weird cartoon, but remember someone took the time to think these out so lets not go crazy saying Andy Capp was lame cause he beat his wife and was an alcoholic or the ants in B.C. preached more then Billy Graham with a stick up his ass.

Lets just say we want your favorite and your least favorite.

What are they?

Contrary to popular belief, Michele and Turtle do not write Late Night Typing in their pajamas. Because they don't wear any.

Archives

Comments

Calvin And Hobbes was the best strip that has ever existed in this world.. I have all of the books and dearly wish Bill Watterson had written more! So for a substitute I turn to "Buckles" and boy does it just reek of cuteness! The worst strip, Rex morgan M.D. I never got it and could never understand what was going on very well... Still One must not overlook the genious of "Pickles"! it's about time the AARP crew had something written with them in mind. What Hillarity!

--------------


Bloom County was the shit.

--------------


We are both HUGE Bloom County fans. Turtle talks about that all the time.

Somewhere in my mother's attic is my stuffed Opus. I need to find that.

--------------


From what I hear, Bill Waterson is actually going to start making new Calvin and Hobbes strips.

--------------


Bill Waterson making new C&H *swoons*. I miss them so much. The psycho snowmen, suzie & mr. bun... I have two of the strips up at my desk at work, the original from the newspsper - I think they're almost 10 years old... I had to laminate them a few years ago. (Purpose of Life & Control Freak)

What is your favorite newspaper cartoon?

Of the current bunch it's For Better or For Worse. I kno wthey're kinda lame sometimes, but I grew up with the Pattersons (and if Elizabeth gets back together with Anthony I am going to stop reading it I swear to BOB!).

Which is the worst cartoon?

I hated Cathy too, and Ziggy. But I have to say of the current ones I hate Garfield the most. There hasn't been a fresh strip for DECADES.

--------------


Calvin and Hobbes were the best. That would be great if they came back.

Bloom County was good too. There was that Bloom County spinoff too, which never really took off.

--------------


The Spider-Man newspaper comic is fucking retarded but Amazing and Ultimate are both really good right now.

PS Calvin and Hobbes is again the best comic strip in the world ever.

--------------






eXTReMe Tracker