Give It Up Already!

I don't normally read the newspaper comics these days (I get my news, like I get my daily comics, online), but whenever I'm around physical newspapers I feel compelled (as if by demonic possession) to read each strip. While I always find myself saying, "Arlo and Janis... fantastic!"the act of reading Ernie Bushmiller and Mort Walker never fails to upset me. I mean, how do these people have jobs? How have they not been stoned to death in the streets?

That's why things like Marmaduke Explained and the Dysfunctional Family Circus delight me so. If the original strips are supposed to speak to the child in me, it's the puerile adolescent that responds. Of course, there's also the brilliant, subtler protests of works like 5-Card Nancy and Garfield Minus Garfield.