Reading: The New Andy Capp Collection Vol. 1
Music: Motion City Soundtrack - "Let's Get F&cked Up and Die"
TV/Movie: Futurama movie #3 - Bender's Game
Link o' the Day: The Internet Review of Science Fiction

So yeah, I picked up a headcold while working the polls. My landlord was pretty sick that day, and he worked alongside me all day, so it's no real surprise. I'll pull through. I have all the necessary supplies and a copy of the newest Futurama movie, Bender's Game. I tried watching it all in one sitting last night, but passed out midway through. It looks pretty good so far. I'll chime in on it more in a day or two after I've had a chance to watch it a couple of times conscious.

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I make no secret that I'm a huge fan of cartooning. This goes way back to my childhood where I had amassed a decent collection of comic strip books--Peanuts, Wizard of Id, BC, Doonesbury, Andy Capp, etc. Recently I found, at a used bookstore, a new collection of Andy Capp cartoons published in 2004. Ones done by other artists and writers after the strip's creator Reginald Smythe passed on in 1998.

Uf.

What happened, Andy? In the entire collection, I counted only a total of seven rosy noses (the comic strip indicator of inebriation) and two black eyes--both received off-camera, one of which was from a football incident and the other an accident. Andy and Flo don't scrap anymore. They go to marriage counseling. Andy doesn't smoke anymore. I guess the bill collector who was always hitting on Flo either died or retired as he doesn't appear in the collection at all.

Andy Capp, somewhere in the past couple of decades, lost his balls--and I'm not talking billiard balls. Yes, yes, yes... domestic violence, smoking and drinking are all terrible subjects for comics strips that could be read by kids. But didn't Andy, who had been doing all this since 1959 kind of have a grandfathered exception? Wasn't he the one and only place where this could happen and we all understood it and didn't take it too seriously, but just enjoyed the inappropriate humor of it all?

Compare:

and

Fairly representative, I think. Sure, the laziness theme is still there, as is the theme of going to the bar, but no more boozle bubbles, black eyes, or smokes.

What a world, what a world. Yes, we all have to grow up, but I think it's okay for comic strip charactes not to.

Okay, so this isn't much of a rant. I'm sick. Go make me some soup or get me a blanket, dammit.

WAAACHOOOO!...sniff

And it seems Pretty Maggie has it now too. Time to stock up on sucrets.

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Today's link goes to one of the best Science Fiction-related pages on the internet: The Internet Review of Science Fiction. Feature articles, essays, reviews, interviews...loads of stuff for writers and readers alike.

Cheers!