Please kill Prince Valiant. Fiorella avoids even glancing at the Sunday strip anymore.The art is not only painful, but terribly dark, probably to to hide the fact that the current artist can't draw.
Fio has a history with Prince Valiant. Even before she could read, she was mesmerized by the art--it's one of the few strips that use an illustrative style rather than the standard caricaturing. But, like the aging prince himself, the strip is way past its prime.
Time to put it down.
Showing posts with label Prince Valiant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prince Valiant. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Comics Revue
Now is the time for all good comics readers to come to the aid of their strips, no double entendre intended.
First of all comes the woodshed, where Fio wants to haul Dagwood off to. Or maybe to the mausoleum. This strip is so old that it's into its second writer/artist and has folded back on itself and frozen in time so Cookie and Alexander are teenagers again and Daisy--does she even appear anymore?-- has no pups. Its situations and punch lines are tired and banal, usually centering around Dagwood's love for food and his laziness at work, not exactly the sort of things modern readers relate to. The final straw for Fio came a couple of days ago when the reader was supposed to laugh uproariously at the artist's ugly and insulting depiction of D&B in their seventies. Baby boomers of the world unite and KILL this comic strip!
Another woodshed item is the venerable Prince Valiant, which Fiorella has been reading since she could read, and whose artwork she soaked up like a sponge. Alas, its time has passed. Please toss the sword back to the lady in the lake again. She knows there has been a bevy of artists through the years, but the current one is the worst. He's attempted to ape the beloved old-time style, but can't seem to master the basics--the characters look like they've been drawn from poses forced on a reticulated art doll, and Valiant is beginning to resemble Bruce Jenner.
Next comes the award of excellence--to Luann, Doonesbury, and Pooch Cafe, with also-ran acknowledgements of Pearls before Swine, Edge City, Jump Start, Pickle,. and Baby Blues. (Notice how Fio prefers strips with continuing stories?)
No award program would be complete without acknowledgment of Cul-de-sac, one of Fio's favorites, which died recently before its time.
And, of course, the second Fio closes this blog off, she'll think of all the other comics she should have acknowledged one way or another. There's always tomorrow.
First of all comes the woodshed, where Fio wants to haul Dagwood off to. Or maybe to the mausoleum. This strip is so old that it's into its second writer/artist and has folded back on itself and frozen in time so Cookie and Alexander are teenagers again and Daisy--does she even appear anymore?-- has no pups. Its situations and punch lines are tired and banal, usually centering around Dagwood's love for food and his laziness at work, not exactly the sort of things modern readers relate to. The final straw for Fio came a couple of days ago when the reader was supposed to laugh uproariously at the artist's ugly and insulting depiction of D&B in their seventies. Baby boomers of the world unite and KILL this comic strip!
Another woodshed item is the venerable Prince Valiant, which Fiorella has been reading since she could read, and whose artwork she soaked up like a sponge. Alas, its time has passed. Please toss the sword back to the lady in the lake again. She knows there has been a bevy of artists through the years, but the current one is the worst. He's attempted to ape the beloved old-time style, but can't seem to master the basics--the characters look like they've been drawn from poses forced on a reticulated art doll, and Valiant is beginning to resemble Bruce Jenner.
Next comes the award of excellence--to Luann, Doonesbury, and Pooch Cafe, with also-ran acknowledgements of Pearls before Swine, Edge City, Jump Start, Pickle,. and Baby Blues. (Notice how Fio prefers strips with continuing stories?)
No award program would be complete without acknowledgment of Cul-de-sac, one of Fio's favorites, which died recently before its time.
And, of course, the second Fio closes this blog off, she'll think of all the other comics she should have acknowledged one way or another. There's always tomorrow.
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