What I Taught Myself....September 27, 2011

So if you really know me, you already know that I love comic strips.  I'm talking about the ones that are printed in the daily newspaper: Garfield, Zits, Baby Blues, etc.  In fact, I always wanted a career in cartooning, yet I lack the daily creativity and the position is too competitive.  Instead, I'd rather make strips for myself or family to enjoy.

But today, I got upset when I read a classic, but in my mind, overrated, comic strip Family Circus.  Family Circus is a strip that started in 1960 and drawn by Bil Keane.  It is based off of Keane's life as a cartoonist/father with his wife and four kids.  It tends to use a "cutesy family" type of humor, which I don't care for since I come from a smart ass family, which is represented more in Baby Blues and Zits (both written by the famous Jerry Scott).

So why did I get upset, you're wondering.  I feel that when a strip is based off of real-life events, it should represent real-life events, as Family Circus regularly does.  But every once in a while they throw in something that no child would ever say or do.  Today the strip had Jeffy with a box of cereal poured all over the table.  Jeffy is seen saying "They forgot to put raisins in my cereal!" REALLY???  Am I reading this wrong?  Or is the kid seriously upset that he has no raisins in his cereal??  Is he going to eat more cereal because of the mishap or was he searching for the raisins that NO KID likes?  Clearly this strip isn't believable.

Maybe its just me, but Keane is just losing it.  That's what happens when a cartoonist gets old or passes the inking pen to another cartoonist, which happens quite often.  But don't even get me started on how terrible Dennis the Menace is getting....

That's it for me!

Bobby P.