Recent Comments

1. over 12 years ago on Alley Oop

   “Hot Diggety! I got a rubber ball! [A-hyuk, a-huk!]”On a more serious note, is it just me, or is Alley looking shorter than Ooola, in panel one? I guess girls go through a growth spurt about the age they hit puberty.

2. over 12 years ago on Cul de Sac

   Dill has attained to some wisdom: his thought processes exactly parallel my own.

3. over 12 years ago on Starslip

   Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat.Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat.Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat.Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat.Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left? Repeat…

4. over 12 years ago on Legend of Bill

   Hiking rough terrain in high heels may show good fashion sense…But absolutely NO common-sense.

5. over 12 years ago on Mutt & Jeff

   A friend of mine had no trouble picturing Mutt and Jeff with tattoos and body piercing. He’s finally out of the hospital due to his self-inflicted wounds.He’s going to keep using his white cane but the new seeing eye-dog is adorable!

6. over 12 years ago on Mutt & Jeff

   A very serious “error.”

7. over 12 years ago on Dick Tracy

   Maybe it’s the same as the “Blue Area” on the Moon, from the Fantastic Four.

8. over 12 years ago on [Deleted]

   Don’t know if you caught the reply I made to you yesterday but I’ll quote it here again. It gives a hint as to why I might have an extreme reaction to what Maeder said:“What I will say is this, though my “Hitler” comparison may be a bit over the top, and is definitely fueled by emotion, it is an emotion I have learned to listen to.True story: We were at a group one time. One of the members seemed a bit off. I couldn’t put my finger on it but he seemed slightly out-of-synch with what was going on. I mentioned before him and the whole group that I didn’t trust him. He had the odd and unexpected reaction of crying. It didn’t change my distrust and I couldn’t really base it on anything. No one else got what I was getting, though.Months later we find out the guy is now in prison for killing his wife. Seems my feeling was an instinct, and it was right on.”

9. over 12 years ago on [Deleted]

   Re your yesterdays’ comments:I think you’re very right, “Know what I think drives most of us when it comes to tastes in entertainment? It’s what we grew up with, or were first exposed to.” and “I think you are right and it is a good idea to see if something new has merit also, but we all have a special place in our memory for that first bit.”Indeed, my reaction to Maeder’s quote was fueled [very strongly] by emotion. But that emotion is founded on a strong sense of justice. I felt [very strongly] that there was a very dangerous sentiment being expressed. The problem is, that it is very difficult to bring this across to others, if they haven’t had the same perception I’ve had. Perhaps it’s better to just let such things lie [if I can’t make a strong enough case] but I chafe and champ at the bit when I do that. The conundrum is that I still stand by everything I said, but I also wish there were ways I could say those things that would be more effective [and maybe less grating?]. Ah, well. Mind you, I’m not accusing Maeder [or anybody else [except maybe my next door neighbor] of broiling babies in their backyard barbecues. But hopefully we can all enjoy these discussions here, and I’m sorry if I may have come off as extreme. Thank you for your concern. [Now, I must go back to spying on my neighbor. A number of kittens and puppies in the neighborhood have gone missing.]

10. over 12 years ago on Dick Tracy

    @DrSid1: Re your yesterday’s comment:Of course there’s a big difference between killing a fictional character as opposed to a real, live person. I still stand by my statement but I also realize it’s difficult to get my point across. [Can one really compare Jay Maeder to Adolf Hitler because he considered it compassionate to bump off Moon Maid?]I, of course, wasn’t calling Maeder a murderer. It was just his attitude that was highly suspect, an attitude that came across in his particular choice of words and phraseology [quoted here again so anyone else can see and judge for themselves.]:" "Bumping off Moon Maid was the single most loving and reverential action any Tracy devotee could have taken, and if Collins never wrote another line he would still be living in memory for having done the strip this affectionate good turn.”To me that is cold, callous, and utterly unfeeling. Yet it masquerades as being very compassionate. I see it as very similar to a Nazi praising Dr. Mengele because the good doctor always provided a seat for his elderly mother as she watched him vivesect the patients.Extreme and far-fetched this comparison may be [and I’m not accusing Maeder of anything in real life other than a very poor choice of words] but if you saw a young child viciously tear apart a doll or use an X-Acto knife like a surgeon’s scalpel, on said doll [all the while wearing a ghoulish expression], even though nothing living was harmed, wouldn’t you feel that little kid needed some kind of help?Granted also I’m reacting only upon what I read in that one paragraph. Maybe the whole book was tongue in cheek. Maybe in context I’d get a completely different impression. But I feel that if his comment was not meant to be taken seriously, then he failed miserably to communicate that. At this point I can only go by that statement, and I find that statement to be in incredibly poor taste.Some years ago I picked up a book entitled something like “How to finish your first novel in ninety days” [or something like that]. I wish I knew his name so I could hold him up as a perfect example of what not to be. The book was bad.At one point he’s describing a method of creating a character [toss in a bunch of different characteristics and a character should pop out]. He goes on to illustrate this by doing just that, and he calls her “Aunt Tillie.” Now his method wasn’t particularly bad. He could have actually made her a viable character in some story. But at the end, when his lesson is over [and he has no more need of the character] he goes, “Now let’s wad her up and throw her away.” Sure, she was only a non-existant fictional character. But to me, it was incredibly callous. He created this character to be thown away. As a writer this is something I could never do. It’s not possible to create believable, realistic characters without having some kind of feelings for them. And if you can just callously toss any kind of character in the garbage it shows there was never any feeling for that character in the first place.What I’m trying to say [though it’s very difficult to prove] is that I find such attitudes to be extremely suspicious. And that even though we’re only talking about fictional characters, I’d be really careful before I’d let any of my kids [if I had kids] around the likes of that “how to” author, or around Jay Maeder.