Let’s get ready to rrrrummmmble
Speed Bump, 1/28/05
Faithful readers will remember this month’s shameless swipe at Cathy in Pears Before Swine. At the time, I wondered whether this violation of the unwritten laws against comic artist infighting might unleash a wave of carnage on the comics pages likes of which we’ve never seen before. While Cathy has taken the high road (and there’s a sentence I never thought I’d type), Pearls Before Swine seems to come under a flanking attack today from Speed Bump. After all, Stephan Pastis is the author of PBS, and you’ll note the “PBS” belt buckle being worn by our optometrist patient here.
Of course, if Speed Bump is working as a paid character assassin for Cathy Guisewite revenge, she should shell out a bit more, because this joke is pretty laaaaammme. Stephan Pastis 2, Anti-Stephan Pastis Cabal, 0.
fanman
January 28th, 2005 at 6:00 pm
Take a look at this – apparently someone knows more than we do:
http://cagle.slate.msn.com/hogan/reubens/guisewite_pastis.gif
Bill Peschel
January 28th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
The guy in the chair looks like Pastis, too, if the pix in this article is anything to go by:
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/01/03/Floridian/When_terrorism_comes_.shtml
Charles
January 28th, 2005 at 6:25 pm
that strip was LAME! Pearls is WAY better
BRI
January 28th, 2005 at 6:25 pm
Dave Coverly…the artist of Speed Bump provided the back cover blurb for the first pearls before swine collection.
“If Dave Barry and Edgar Allen Poe had a love child, that baby would be….well, that baby would be a really weird miracle…but he would have a brain a lot like Stephan Pastis. Pearls Before Swine is dark, clever and absolutely fall-down funny. In fact, I think it’s quite possibly The Funniest Strip Ever…” Dave Coverly, creator of Speed Bump
I have a feeling this is more of an homage than a flanking attack. But to be really sure….send him some email at his website….
http://www.speedbump.com/
Dexter
January 28th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
Yeah, this seems like the kind of ribbing we see on the schoolyard between friends. We have evidence of ties between all three artists involved in this scandal. Which is disappointing, I wanted to see Cathy bludgeoned some more … and if they’re really pals then this is probably where it ends.
lefty von righty
January 28th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
My goodness. How deep do these inside jokes run? Maybe every unfunny funny strip is an inside joke among the artists. Perhaps the serial strip writers are in league to draft mind numbingly slow moving narratives.
I smell conspiracy and it does not smell like avocado.
Loren
January 28th, 2005 at 7:49 pm
Speaking of comic feuds, you did catch Wiley Miller’s swipe against Scott Kurtz in “Non Sequitur” last month?
http://www.pvponline.com/newspro/archives/arc11-2004.html
(scroll about halfway down)
Anonymous
January 28th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
That’s two months ago and I think the entire Internet has seen it already. FYI.
Shaenon
January 29th, 2005 at 3:50 am
Actually, I think this is the first funny “Speed Bump” I’ve ever seen.
Widely Known Secret
January 29th, 2005 at 8:57 am
Anything – I repeat, ANYTHING that:
1. Hastens the departure of Guisewite from my newspaper (Oh, happy day)
- or -
2. Ridicules Guisewite’s “I ran out of things to talk about five years ago” newspaper strip
cannot be a bad thing.
Captain Slack
January 29th, 2005 at 10:27 am
“Maybe every unfunny funny strip is an inside joke among the artists.”
That would certainly explain Mallard Fillmore. 8-P
Rick C
January 29th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
Hey, Pearls Before Swine has another Cathy reference in Sunday’s paper.
Bugger me with a fish fork
January 29th, 2005 at 11:13 pm
I hope this doesn’t turn into another east coast / west coast ventriloquist feud.
Mac Thomason
January 30th, 2005 at 12:28 am
Hey, Pastis has demon eyes. Don’t look at the flash!
Tim Walters
January 30th, 2005 at 2:39 am
The eye-chart doesn’t spell anything. What a tragically wasted comic opportunity.
Hi Rev
January 30th, 2005 at 3:20 pm
I agree with the eye chart being wasted. I looked at it for a while trying to find a joke there. It might have said Pig or Rat or even Cathy RIP.
Loren
January 30th, 2005 at 4:08 pm
That’s two months ago and I think the entire Internet has seen it already. FYI.
True, but in a cartoonist feud discussion it’s certainly relevant, and Josh hadn’t mentioned it in any post.
manfred
January 30th, 2005 at 11:33 pm
look at this
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/comics/archive/showComick.mpl?date=20050129&name=Bizarro
This is cleary Steve Patsis going in the doctors waiting room before the appoint ment
Saturday Jan 29, 2005 Bizzaro
if the link doesn’t work
WoodrowFan
January 31st, 2005 at 8:03 am
I agree with Dexter, i think it’s just friends kidding each other. I bet Coverly is kicking himself though for missing the chance at using the eyechart.
Charles
February 5th, 2005 at 4:18 am
BTW, you know how PEARLS always lampoon CATHY? Well, Pastis was just fooling around with it. He told me, saying he doesn’t really hate it.