Archive for January, 2008
I Forgot How Warm You Were…
Sunday, January 27th, 2008
It seems like this strip would be a fantastic opportunity to talk about Superman.
It really does.
But I already wrote about that and even though we’re not against redundancy here at the show, Dan & Stevedores, I am not supportive of graititous redundancy.
Before I write about something different and of little to no consequence to anyone, I want to dedicate the last shoot we had to our producer in exile, Vicente. Things just haven’t been the same since you left us for Kazakhstan, you bastard; we shot 8 strips in 7 hours. Our previous best was 6. We miss you, Vin.
But I have been thinking about my assertion that “comics” means “funny” and while I stand by that assertion, I think it merits discussion and clarification.
If I say that comics by nature are funny and, therefore, if they are not funny that they are not comics, that’s okay and true, but in doing so I relegate an entire medium to being a descriptor.
What, then, is the medium?
I think the medium is strips, pages, or books.
I’m just winging it here, so, any input is great and discussion might help.
This seems to work in terms of strips and pages; comic strips, comic pages… I’m becoming attached to the idea of drama strips or mystery pages, but it seems to fall apart with books.
Perhaps it’s too inclusive and I should just accept that comics has simply come to mean comics and that’s that.
Comedy is not always ‘funny’. Not even delving into the ideas of irony and sarcasm that are not necessarily designed to cause outright laughter but generate a more melancholy reflection, I would say that a comic’s aim should be to provoke thought or emotion.
Comic’s is the name of the medium, but as with any art form it cannot limit the way in which it is presented, or what emotions it is allowed to illicit.
All this aside, my personal favorites are sketches that have an underlying social commentary. Not only are you giving new light on topics of the day, but you are helping to create, merely by contributing, a record of what is running through the minds of people of your generation, albeit a humble few.
Oh yes, and Vinnie, we miss you, and the backhand slaps that I wanted you to issue to the rest of the cast may never be filmed, and for that I shed a tear.
Comedy is funny, comics can be funny, they can be comedy. Tell me where the mutual exclusivity is. I maintain that true humor is me bitch-slapping, you boys like ho with down-syndrome. But to reference Christopher Hitchens, if everyone is laughing, it was not a good joke. Therefore my inability to create laughter makes me awesome. But yet I rarely find the point of humor anyways. And for the last time I am not a robot.