Comic books are the result of some Steve Rogers / Captain America level experimentations. The puny, pre-war weakling that was Daily Comic strips kept trying to be a media darling, but the big mean bully named Radio kept punching him in a nearby alley.
THEN, Max Gaines, hoping for the literal, financial translation of his name, put the scrawny yet scrappy comic strip into his miraculous machine. With bangs, flashes and steam the insignificant nerd was TRANSFORMED into Comic Books!
That’s exactly what happened. In this metaphor the super smart scientist who designed the Captain America machine, previously played by “Tony Stark’s Dad,” is played by the commercial viability of Superman.
BUT WAIT
Like a Zombie-Ghost creature scratching the outside of a window looking into a happy house, Comic Strips are STILL AROUND! BOOOOOOO! While comic books have fun winning awards, poor comic strips have to hang out in newspapers hoping someone pays them any attention.
WE at Forbidden Planet still love you, Comic Strips!
Some great, readily available comic strip collections here at the Planet include “Good-Girl” artist Frank Cho’s beloved Liberty Meadows, a relationship comic that combines/steals the formula from Berke Breathed’s SENSATIONAL Bloom County with the cheesecake of Al Capp’s Li’l Abner. Boy, Bloom County and Li’l Abner…now THOSE were some awesome comic strips.
The Planet has a pretty good compliment of Chuck Schultz’ Peanuts, WELL worth the read, as well as the brilliant work of Tony Millionaire, creator of Maakies, Drinky Crow, Dark Horse’s Sock Monkey, and more!
TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN CUTIE ISLAND, (W/A) Shannon Wheeler, BOOM!
Shannon Wheeler puts out comic strips you could set your watch too. Dependable, funny, smart, and surprising, Too Much Coffee Man is a slacker 90’s comic done right. Fans of Peter Bagge’s work should love it…but then they probably already know about it.
KIDS: If you like counter-culture, beat poetry, snark, coffee, espresso, irony, German white chocolate with almonds or low expectations, you should check out this new collection of TMCM! You should probably check out Peter Bagge’s comic Buddy while you’re at it, too.
KRAZY KAT, George Herriman, Fantagraphics Books
Some folks are going to argue that Windsor McCay’s Little Nemo has more artistic OOMPH, yet I would argue that the people who would say that are stupid, tree eating bunny killers!
Krazy Kat is beautiful, strange and endlessly absurd. It is NOT for everyone, but if you want to experience the best of the best, READ HERE!
SO THERE YA’ GO, KIDS! Why not take some of your hard earned money and explore the other types of comic art the Planet has to offer. If you need any assistance our kind and courteous staff will be happy to shove some fun comic strip books into your shopping bags.
NEXT WEEK: Nutrition and Comics, or “Which comics should I buy for reasons of entertainment and necessity if I plan on getting stuck beneath a pile of rubble with nothing but comics to eat and read till’ I’m rescued?”
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More musings from Unkiedev, Earth’s own sidekick, can be read at unkiedev.blogspot.com
