Real quality

[The Fenske's]

At 02:06 PM 12/6/02 +0100, sigvald at duckburg.dk wrote:

>"Donald D. Markstein" wrote:
>
> > Calvin & Hobbes comes about as close to "objective"
> > quality as it's possible to come. It has the unique
> > distinction of having won two Reuben Awards in its
> > first three years, and is almost as popular in reruns
> > as it was when it was first coming out -- and that's
> > VERY popular.
>
>Off course it is popular. That is (I think) because it
>is seen as "correct" by many young people who often are
>more or less unfamiliar with the high quality comics
>traditions from the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's and
>the early 1970's. I have even heard such "correct"
>people say that "Bah! Donald Duck is just for kids".

What do you mean by "correct?"  Surely you don't
mean politically correct, as that just doesn't fit.
Calvin & Hobbes is popular because it's
both very funny (not at all a bad thing), and it makes
observations about us (life, family, friendship, interactions
with peers, the world of the imagination, etc.) that are
both poignant and accurate.  It creates characters that
we come to love and care about.

I have a large collection of Disney comics from the 60's,
when I was young.  Many contain great Barks stories,
but there are a lot of rather juvenile (and totally shallow as
far as reflections on life are concerned) Disney comics that
function as filler in my opinion.  Stories that are eminently
forgettable.


> > For that matter, I'm a big fan of Ernie, too, and
> > Beetle Bailey often gets a laugh out of me as well...
>
>Exactly!!! These comics seems to be about one thing
>- humor. Unfortunately some people seems to believe
>that short humor gags is all that comics should be
>concerned about.

But a comic like Calvin & Hobbes, or Bloom County, is
about so much more.  Sure, the humor is there, thankfully,
but those comics also contain a lot of insight, political
commentary, etc.


>Well, I am different, I prefer long comics stories
>with an intelligent plot. So I very seldom read
>modern humor gags comics.

Well, you'll only get those from Rosa, some Barks, Gottredson, or
the better super-hero stories (of which there are a few that
are worthy of consideration).   Maybe the situation is better
where you live, however....

Dave Fenske

>Sigvald :-)
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