Current MM newspaper strip

David A Gerstein David.A.Gerstein at williams.edu
Fri Feb 4 23:00:48 CET 1994


	Dear Folks,

	I was away for a week's vacation, visiting a school friend of
mine in Framingham, MA and, while at her home, observed the MM Sunday
color strip in the local _Middlesex News_.

	Fer gosh sakes, it's *awful!*  Halfway decent artwork, but
nothing to shout about.  Sure a heck of a lot better than the 1970s
examples that appeared in the MM Gladstone jubileum issue, though.
But basically, the plots could have been written for any cartoon
characters.

	Plot #1:  Goofy imagines himself a spaceship commander flying
through the cosmos, to eventually be awakened from his daydream by
Mickey -- who reveals that Goofy is imagining this because he's riding
a phony spaceship at a carnival.

	Plot #2:  Mickey and Goofy prepare as if they're going to go
to the Super Bowl, when in fact they're merely watching it on
television.

	What a letdown.  I know I could write better MM strips than
this!  Plot #1 is a cheap ripoff of Calvin and Hobbes, whereas Plot #2
was just banal.  I laughed at neither of them.

	The strip is still stuck in the 1970s -- I swear, Mickey wears
the full suit of clothes, the whole shebang.  Nearly all of Disney's
products in the last few years have switched over to a modern MM in
the 1930s costume -- but this strip is just stuck behind.  As are,
strangely, many of the products aimed specifically at kids.  Yet I've
never known a kid who preferred the fully-clothed MM to the
shorts-only one.

	In any event, is it any *wonder* that this isn't in more
papers?  The daily allegedly has adventure stories again now, but the
_Middlesex_ doesn't run that.  Has anyone seen it?  Is it perhaps any
better?  It feels so awful to see my favorite fictional character
treated this way...

	Just thought I'd pass it along.  After choking over Plot #2,
I opened WDC&S #590 and got back to some *real* MM newspaper strips.

	Another MM product-review in my next letter, also pertaining
to comics.

	Your friend,

	David Gerstein
	<David.A.Gerstein at Williams.edu>



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