I’m old enough to remember the taste of real dairy butter and 25-cent a gallon pump prices, a time long before fax machines or computers when black & white television was brand new, when cell phones and speech police were science fiction, when schools actually taught the 3 R’s. I grew up savoring a few uniquely-gifted cartoonists who wove puns and freehand drawing talent together to produce clever and amusing panels and strips, some painting real artwork on newsprint canvas at least double or triple the size of today’s diminutive thumbnails. Life’s diversions kept me from paying much attention to comics this past decade plus, so when I recently poked my nose in to see how things have changed, I was taken aback – the great ones gone or jumped the shark. Sad to learn of Hart’s passing, dismayed at how much BC has morphed. Am I the only one who thinks the chronic reliance on incongruous modern day items and topics make the strip unrecognizable? The Flintstone’s incorporation of modern tech was as amusing sop to kids. Hart did the same for adults long ago in subtle ways, e.g. the venerable golf clubs, for one; but are references to AOL, Internet, Doritos, Palin and Pokemon apropos? IMHO, no. I’m not a troll nor opposed to poetic license, just an anachronism who misses what came before.
I’m old enough to remember the taste of real dairy butter and 25-cent a gallon pump prices, a time long before fax machines or computers when black & white television was brand new, when cell phones and speech police were science fiction, when schools actually taught the 3 R’s. I grew up savoring a few uniquely-gifted cartoonists who wove puns and freehand drawing talent together to produce clever and amusing panels and strips, some painting real artwork on newsprint canvas at least double or triple the size of today’s diminutive thumbnails. Life’s diversions kept me from paying much attention to comics this past decade plus, so when I recently poked my nose in to see how things have changed, I was taken aback – the great ones gone or jumped the shark. Sad to learn of Hart’s passing, dismayed at how much BC has morphed. Am I the only one who thinks the chronic reliance on incongruous modern day items and topics make the strip unrecognizable? The Flintstone’s incorporation of modern tech was as amusing sop to kids. Hart did the same for adults long ago in subtle ways, e.g. the venerable golf clubs, for one; but are references to AOL, Internet, Doritos, Palin and Pokemon apropos? IMHO, no. I’m not a troll nor opposed to poetic license, just an anachronism who misses what came before.