The Comics Curmudgeon

25 responses to “I just flew in from Albuquerque, and boy are my arms tired! Er, I mean wings. Wings! Ha ha!”

1. Monkeys Uncle
   October 25th, 2005 at 7:54 pm [Reply]

   Yikes! Welcome back Josh. How was the family barbeque this weekend?

2. Sheila
   October 25th, 2005 at 7:55 pm [Reply]

   Second! Again!

3. Lauffly
   October 25th, 2005 at 7:58 pm [Reply]

   3rd yesssss!!!

4. Sheila
   October 25th, 2005 at 7:58 pm [Reply]

   I never liked Shoe.

5. Muffin
   October 25th, 2005 at 8:10 pm [Reply]

   Is Jeff MacNelly dead? Or what’s the deal with Casset & Blahblahblah? Why does no one complain when their favorite comic turns to rubbish? How is that favorable over cancellation?

6. Shannon
   October 25th, 2005 at 8:20 pm [Reply]

   Shoe: Pogo for people who don’t like to think.

7. rich
   October 25th, 2005 at 8:41 pm [Reply]

   It would make more sense if it was at least an “Animal Advice” column. Except – they’re all animals too. Ohhh…now my head hurts. You know, this guy Brookins has made quite a career out of his hacklike ability to ape the late Jeff MacNelly’s style – he also inherited the similarly anthropomorphic and illogical “Pluggers” strip.

8. Some Guy Here
   October 25th, 2005 at 8:51 pm [Reply]

   Hi. It’s me. You know me from the boards and even before then. Anyway, Josh, I really like you. I really do.

   I generally like to think of myself as a quite thick-skinned person. And, to emphasise, I’m not truly offended. But as a Korean national and as someone who if it weren’t for the repulsion of North Korean forces to their side of the 38th parallel probably wouldn’t have been born, I will say….

   lay off our fucking nation dude

9. comics
   October 25th, 2005 at 8:59 pm [Reply]

   Hi Some Dude-

   Wow, sorry if my screed came across as actually being about Korea or Koreans per se. In fact, it in my US-centric way, it was (rather tastelessly) about American vets of the Korean War, and I only picked that war because, at this point in time, they’re the ones who are of the right age to make these sort of rambly old-guy statements (WWII vets mostly being too old and/or too dead at this point), plus they actually were strafed by the Red Chinese, which I think is a funny old-guy thing to say in the context of complaining about the removal of Shoe from the paper.

   I realize, of course, that there are lots more Korean vets of the Korean War than there are American vets of the same, but as a self-centered American my intended image here was a cranky doddering old white guy.

   If I’m missing the point of what I’ve said that offends, feel free to enlighten further.

   jf

10. Some Guy Here
    October 25th, 2005 at 10:33 pm [Reply]

    Like I said I like to say I wasn’t actually offended, although at the same time I guess that’s like Bush saying there were WMDs in Iraq ;)

    Anyway, we Koreans (or at least me) like to view even the American vets as one with Korea, i.e. honorary Koreans since without them our butts would be Commie-Red, Mental Lee Ill-worshipping Toast.

    Either way we Koreans tend to be very sensitive about it (I guess it’s like asking a ‘Nam war vet about his experiences, or asking Ann Coulter about the inevitable spasms she experienced when Prickly City was dropped [Mallard Filmore you're next]) but I suppose in this context I was overreacting anyway.

    Either way it’s great to see the webmaster respond so pleasantly and immediately, and I must say this is one of the very few web sites where we Cardinals actually get to experience niecities like this. Like I said in my first post I really, really do like you Josh – and this is just one of the reasons why.

    Anyway, keep up the good work! (goes for the rest of the Cardinals too!)

11. heynoni
    October 25th, 2005 at 11:09 pm [Reply]

    I’ve only recently discovered Shoe, and I gotta say the characters always look bored with the whole concept themselves.

12. Adam-12
    October 25th, 2005 at 11:49 pm [Reply]

    Josh, you forgot to add: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

    Nice rant otherwise, though, and I think I speak for most when I say: “Ditto.”

13. heynoni
    October 26th, 2005 at 12:00 am [Reply]

    AND ANOTHER THING ABOUT SHOE:
    In the absence of any action, successive panels are often just the same tableau scene shown from a different angle. That’s not overly offensive, except that the artist can’t even be bothered to keep items in the same position relative to the shift in viewpoint. Take today’s strip – Where the heck has the wastebin gone??

14. Pha-Q
    October 26th, 2005 at 7:22 am [Reply]

    Nice fire extinguisher, Josh. I almost thought we were going down the Marmaduke trail again.

15. Sourbelly
    October 26th, 2005 at 8:14 am [Reply]

    I’m sorry, but…Chia pet? In 2005?

16. Audient
    October 26th, 2005 at 8:38 am [Reply]

    this joke is, what, about 15 years late?

    Maybe they will joke about the president barfing on the Japanese Prime Minister next?

17. Matt
    October 26th, 2005 at 8:38 am [Reply]

    I celebrated when the Washington Post finally dropped Shoe– McNelley was a gifted cartoonist (IMO) but the lameness of the strip after he died gave me the creeps. It was like watching old pals turn into zombies.

18. Bill Peschel
    October 26th, 2005 at 8:52 am [Reply]

    Where’s the wastebasket? It fell off the branch, dude. That’s why birds never developed much of a civilization, everything keeps falling out of the damn trees!

    Now the Ewoks, on the other hand, came up with a lot of cool stuff, because they came down out of the trees. Shoe should emulate the Ewoks and not journalists, then his wastebaskets will stay in place.

    Shoe! Think of the ground, man!

    Historical note about “Shoe”: The character was based on an old newspaperman (now deceased) named Jim Shoemaker, who was as irascible as Shoe was in the early days of the strip.

19. Braniff
    October 26th, 2005 at 8:52 am [Reply]

    When Shoe was drawn by Jeff MacNelly, it was a brilliant comic strip. It was carried by papers around the United States and around the world; in fact, it won at least one Reuben (the equivalent of the Emmys and the Oscars for comic strips and comic panels). Sadly, Shoe should have ended when MacNelly passed away. Even the older Shoe comic strips are just as relevant and more timeless than what passes today as “Shoe”.

    If MacNelly’s Shoe can be compared to Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes, today’s Shoe can be compared to The Family Circus. MacNelly’s death was the point when the Shoe comic strip jumped the shark big time.

20. James Schend
    October 26th, 2005 at 11:27 am [Reply]

    Isn’t it interesting how phrases lose meaning? “Jumped the Shark” originally meant “the point at which the thing was SO GOOD that it couldn’t possibly get any better.” (After the Happy Days episode where Fonzie jumps the shark tank in his motorcycle.) Now “Jumped the Shark” is used to describe something that *was* good, but no longer is. Related, but entirely different meaning to the same phrase. It’s a wonder anybody knows what the hell anybody else is saying.

21. BigJoe
    October 26th, 2005 at 11:59 am [Reply]

    “Jumped the Shark” never meant “something was so good it couldn’t get any better.” It meant something was good, but eventually suffered a huge drop in creativity, quality, etc., became a parody of itself, or resorted to ridiculous premises to try and stay afloat. Fonzie jumping the shark was just that, something so incredibly stupid that the show was deemed going downhill from then on.

    (Unless you’re just pulling our leg(s).)

22. Smitty Smedlap
    October 26th, 2005 at 12:10 pm [Reply]

    Shoe jumped the shark when MacNelly stopped focusing on the title character and began emphasizing the Professor.

    And oh yes — whoohoo! Comment of the Week!

23. gershwin
    October 26th, 2005 at 12:16 pm [Reply]

    In response to the quotation with which Josh closes his comments:

    Let me take this opportunity to urge you to see “Good Night, and Good Luck.” if you haven’t already done so. Splendid film.

24. Adfella
    October 26th, 2005 at 10:46 pm [Reply]

    I agree with comment #19….Shoe was quite a good strip back in the day of Jeff McNelly, whom I believe won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartooning.

    Alas….yet another sad case of a strip continuing on in the less capable hands of lesser artists, ala Blondie, Pogo and others I can’t think of at the moment.

25. lemchast
    October 31st, 2005 at 5:04 pm [Reply]

    And BTW, why did the new cartoonists stop calling the Professor by that title?…now they simply refer to him by his name, Cosmo.

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