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Cathy, 1/27/07

Dilbert, 1/27/07

Kudzu, 1/26/07

Some comics get trapped by success. They build a big audience with a new message – professional women are insecure, cubicle life is tough, Southerners are people too. But their audiences develop expectations the authors are afraid to disappoint. So they stop taking chances. Creatively, the comics stop growing and die, often at the peak of their popularity. But they don’t go away. They keep going and going and going and merciful Heaven why don’t they stop stop just freakin’ STOP YOU HEAR ME CATHY I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU!

Ahem.

Everybody admires giants who walk away at the height of their game: Gary Larson, Bill Watterson – have there been any others?

But credit two authors trying to revive franchises that died long ago:

Garfield, 1/27/07

When he gives Jon Arbuckle a life, Jim Davis pushes Garfield out of the frame. And that could cost him a lot of desk calendars, Mylar® balloons, and suction-cup car toys. I don’t like Garfield, but I’m not the one keeping Davis in lasagna. So: bold move, pal. Way to go.

Mary Worth, 1/27/07

I owe Karen Moy a debt. I have followed Mary Worth since the freaking Kennedy administration without seeing a centimeter of character development. Now, in just six months, Mary is the center of the story, out of Charterstone, and showing the faint beginnings of self-awareness – even self-doubt. Baby steps, maybe – but steps. Thank you, Karen Moy!

OK, blah, blah, blah. Where am I going with this?

For Better or Worse, 1/27/07

Trapped between a huge, dim, slavishly-devoted audience and a self-satisfied, ham-handed Stalinist author, this strip is creatively as dead as they come. Yet it will run on and on as a Frankenstein’s monster stitched up from Mike’s mewling brats and zombies from the Good Old Days, glued up with glop from that “novel.”

But suppose somebody wanted to make it good — and without losing the current audience. Could they do that? How?

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The Phantom 1/26/07

Trouble in Bangalla – Old Man Mozz has been captured by Smurfs!

Funky Winkerbean 1/26/07

Sorry, Cancer Gal, but here in Funky Winkerbean we roll with no hope of any kind.

Curtis 1/26/07

Hey, Greg – you’re lucky you’re not in Funky Winkerbean.

Sally Forth 1/26/07

Oh, Lord – not again.

9 Chickweed Lane 1/26/07

Yes, you can draw. No, you can’t write.

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I’m thrilled Josh asked me to serve as Curmudgeon-in-Residence while he and the lovely Amber take yet another well-deserved break – full details on the previous post. Of course, there’s no replacing Josh, and I won’t even try. But as gracious reader and fellow Uncle Remus suggested, perhaps I can aspire to be the Scaduto to Josh’s Hatlo, or the Jeffy to his Bil:

Then again, perhaps not.

Anyway, I’ll try to make myself useful around the Cathedral while Josh is in Arizona – file the encyclicals, dust the cobwebs out of the collection box, take down the Christmas lights, that sort of thing. Oh, and MonkeyHawk, could you come get the Pacer? It’s blocking the driveway for the hearses – I’ve given up on Walt and Grampa Foob, but Rachel and Cancer Gal have been looking pretty pale.

If you’re new here, be sure to check out the comments threads – that’s where the best fun is. And everybody – when I screw up, your comments get stuck in the spam filter, or you need to contact me for any other reason, you can reach me at uncle.lumpy@yahoo.com – suggestions are particularly welcome!