Recent Comments

1. over 14 years ago on The Meaning of Lila

   Amazing. You ‘tolerance’ types certainly are intolerant. You scream, shout, and pout at every sign of criticism.

   Looking through the comments, I discovered that JWF has a blog. Tsk, tsk. Seems that any sign of criticism, however minor, is interpreted by you and your followers as a ‘right wing Christian plot’. Get real. This comic simply isn’t that important. You’re not oppressed, any of you, you just want to be.

   Well, I’m through with this strip now. JWF, I would have posted this on your blog, but, given your response to criticism, you now strike me as the type to scream ‘harrassment’, so I’ll put it here.

   You, in my opinion, are listening to the wrong people. You like your pom-pom girls here, but they aren’t the ones who are paying or would be paying for your strip. If you want to make your strip successful, why don’t you follow the money? Note, again, I pay for my subscription to GoComics, but most, if not all, of your cheerleaders do not. Think about it.

2. over 14 years ago on The Meaning of Lila

   Maizing,

   I never thought that a cartoonist or anyone else could please all the people all the time. The point I have been making - and the one that JWF has made - is that he isn’t pleasing enough people to make the strip pay and there has to be a reason for that. You see, indulging himself isn’t going to pay the bills: that’s the reality of life, including life for cartoonists.

   As for dealing with it - your way of saying, go away if you don’t like it - I am. I will be dropping the strip. I just wanted to be polite and see if JWF had anything else to say in light of my response to his response.

   Before I dropped it, I wanted to let JWF know why I was dropping it. If I just do it without saying, which I know would have made you more comfortable, then he would never be able to learn anything.

   Feedback, you might have heard, is about more than just pom-pom girls cheering from the sidelines.

   I note, though, by the way, that the majority of the pom-pom girls don’t have ‘Genius’ by their names. If you are all so fired up about this strip, why not pay to subscribe to this site like I do?

3. over 14 years ago on The Meaning of Lila

   Hello, JWF,

   Thank you for taking the time to read my post and respond to it.

   Yes, I pay for my GoComics subscription, a year in advance, and so does my husband (we each have a subscription). That’s what the ‘Genius’ by my name signifies. So, if GoComics puts money your way, then you have been getting a bit of ours.

   As for newspapers, I can’t read your strip in them, or any other strip, for that matter as I don’t live in the US (or Canada).

   At one time, I had been considering asking whether there was to be a collection, but as it is, if it included the recent stuff, wouldn’t buy it. The early stuff, yes, but not that.

   As for gay characters, I can’t say I really like what I see as the advocacy part of the strip. I don’t like strips that try to preach to me or try to present role models to me. I find it boring and tedious. I have the feeling that I am being pushed to like Boyd because he is gay, to show that I am ‘right on’ or something and I don’t like that at all.

   I can’t say that I am surprised that American newspaper readers aren’t that thrilled with the strip, as they are a pretty conservative lot. That’s their right, of course, and should be respected.

   The problem is that I suspect that these readers do not feel respected by anyone. Every time they turn around, they are having some politically-correct statement shoved down their throats. Mustn’t say this because it might offend that group. Must profess to liking that because it makes some other group feel better. Must feel guilty about this, that, and the other.

   They may view the comics page as their last refuge, and then comes along a controversial strip with gay characters… And not just any gay characters at that, but ones that have adopted a little girl. How would you feel in their place? Don’t they have a right to a point of view? Or is that just reserved for ‘minority’ groups these days?

   You may think I am over-reacting, but, until recently, I lived in Britain. People have been arrested in Britain for making mild jokes that simply make a bit of fun about gay lifestyles - unless they are gay themselves, of course, and then they have carte blanche. How fair is that?

   People’s lives have been ruined by political correctness. One wrong step, the wrong person overhears something you say, or misinterprets something you have done, and you can be banged up in a cold police cell in the middle of winter, with no blankets, no food, inadequate water, and bright lights on all the time. They will then interrogate you for several hours. They might charge you, they might not. They will certainly try to get you to accept a caution (a type of conviction). But whatever happens, your name will go on a list and you will likely lose your job and probably your home. If you have children, they may be taken away from you.

   My point is that political correctness isn’t just some abstract thing that is harmless. Its followers have destroyed and killed people. Putting gay characters in a strip, especially ones that adopt a child, cannot be seen as anything but political correctness, even if that is not how you mean it to be seen.

   Again, thank you for responding to my comments. I’m sorry that the story will continue because then that means I will drop the strip. At least you now know why and that may help.

4. over 14 years ago on The Meaning of Lila

   I hope that the cartoonist drops the Drew storyline. Frankly, I have been frustrated with this strip as of late. I started reading it because the characters were shallow, catty, and fun.

   It has of late been in danger of turning into a soap opera strip, though, and not a very good one at that. All I ask from a strip is a bit of entertainment, not preachiness, not role models, and certainly not the sort of drama you can find in women’s magazines. If that is what this strip turns into, though…well, I’ll drop it.

   Oh, I know. Some of you will say, ‘the cartoonist can do as he likes.’ Yes, he can. And so can I. Or are you advocating forcing people to read strips?

   Or, perhaps some of you will say, ‘go draw your own strip if you don’t like it.’ Why? Why do I have to be a cartoonist to have a preference about which comic strips I read if I don’t like them?

   Or perhaps I might be told ‘get with the 21st century’. Right, so if I don’t like something, then I’m old-fashioned. If I don’t like something, maybe I’m not politically correct. Maybe I’m a big, bad reactionary who doesn’t deserve to read this strip. Attitudes like that will really bring in the readers, I think not.

   Or, maybe some of you will say, ‘we like it, so go away.’ Fine. But the cartoonist has said he wants more people to read his strip. He has said that he needs the money. As I understand it, as a paying customer of GoComics, a little of the money they receive from subscribers of each comic goes to the cartoonist, so if I no longer subscribe to this comic, that’s less money for the cartoonist.

   The Meaning of Lila has 20400 subscribers, which is less than the number of subscribers to the zombie strips, Dick Tracy (22522 subscribers) and Cathy (27598 subscribers). Now the number of subscribers for this strip is not going to grow if they become alienated. If it simply becomes a preachy strip to show off how ‘with it’ the cartoonist thinks he is.

   In the end, as with all art, it is the paying customers who determine what they do and do not find acceptable. It is those who pay who command the piper. If the cartoonist wants more readers, and, more to the point, more readers’ money, then he should cater to their tastes. Anything else is just self-indulgence and arrogance.

5. over 15 years ago on Annie

   It’s probably been said before but that definitely look like Warbuck’s silhouette. He’s tricky and all that is Warbucks but would he be involved with something like this?

6. over 15 years ago on TOBY

   I don’t applaud this ‘effort’ at all. I see it as just one in a long string of promises, and we know how good Pandolph is at keeping his promises, don’t we?

   I, too, do not like Greene with Envy. The world does not need another strip about people living in the suburbs. The strip, at the very least, requires a drawing style that handles facial expressions better. Oh, and, better jokes. GWE is just lame. That’s why I stopped reading it.

   At any rate, I expect we are coming to the end of Barkeater Lake, Toby and GWE. I don’t read the Elderberries because I don’t find it funny. So that is the end of any support I had for Pandolph.

   Maybe someday, when no-one buys his books and no-one reads any of whatever comics he gets around to doing, Pandolph will realise just how badly he treated his former fans. But I doubt it. He will probably just play the victim and blame everyone but himself.

7. over 15 years ago on Barkeater Lake

   It’s really annoying that this strip has not been updated for several days now. As usual.

   Yes, I know, there’s this, that, and the other that keeps the cartoonist from working on it. I really wish, though, that he would either reliably produce this strip and Toby or just end them. This halfway house is no good for anyone.

8. over 15 years ago on Gil Thorp

   Even if Gil did overuse Marty, even if his advice to go professional instead of going to university was poor, Marty is an adult. Marty should get over it and stop trying to blame others for his problems. He, after all, didn’t protest. He, after all, signed the contract. His problem is not what did or did not happen in the past but his own lack of responsibility.

9. over 15 years ago on Annie

   This is why I love Warbucks! He tells it like it is!

10. almost 16 years ago on Annie

    Maybe this time Warbucks should put in place some scheme so that his double can’t take his place without anyone knowing about it. He could use a password, have himself chipped, something…