Purple Prose's Majesty
=v= This is nominally about comics, but it's really about writing. The Baltimore City Paper runs a column named "Funny Paper," whose authors read and review the funny pages. They can get smarmy and nasty, but they do it well.
The June 30th Dennis the Menace strip was penned before the recent Pledge of Allegiance controversy, but printed in the midst of it. One panel has Margaret saying "one nation under God," to which Dennis adds, "He's the HEAD HONCHO!" Funny Paper remarks, "That'll show those treasonous pagan bastards of the Ninth Circuit!" And then:
Somewhere, six feet under the fruited plain, the corpse of Hank Ketcham stirs from its fitful dreams of Swiss mountain sunlight and rolls over in dismay. Its dead bony hand scrabbles restlessly at the earth, fumbling for a chilled martini.
Truly inspiring. I'm left with chills, shaken and stirred.
=v= By the way, I think writing something along the lines of "Funny Paper" would be a dream job. If anyone's hiring, drop me a line. :^) I'm totally qualified: I live near the Cartoon Art Museum, I've actually been a comic strip character, and I've even written a column with a very similar name.
Posted by Jym on July 17 2002 10:59
I'm mostly impressed with how awful Baltimore's comics selection is.
Posted by Timprov on July 17 2002 16:32