Thursday, January 04, 2007

More on Candorville and Chicago

Some mention about this on the Web. From the Tribune's Letters to the Editor section:

I'm disappointed in the Trib's decision to cancel the comic strip "Candorville," by Darrin Bell ("Meet our new comic characters," Tempo, Jan. 2). This strip was one of the few highlights of the funny pages, and one of the more consistently funny strips I've seen in almost 30 years of reading them. The characters were fully fleshed out and very relevant. Please bring it back, as I have spoken to many others who feel the same way!

Fred Nickl
Arlington Heights


That thread also includes a typical comment about how Candorville "always" attacks conservatives, which - also typical - ignores Candorville's caustic treatment of Hillary Clinton, Ray Nagin, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, etc... People all along the ideological spectrum, from left to right, have an amusing habit of ignoring countervailing evidence when it might get in the way of a good hate.

And then there are the obscure blogs (even more obscure than this one, if that's possible). From M. Rittle at Random Social Thoughts:

We are lucky if a comic strip in the newspaper depicts non-white characters, much less characters of multiple races and classes in the same strip. Candorville accomplishes this social reality with finesse. I read Candorville because the strip breaks racial stereotypes of poverty through depiction of white homeless men. I read Candorville because the highest paid character in the strip is Latina. I read the comics page in the hope to find a humorous depiction of everyday life realities, and no comic strip satisfies this goal as well as Darrin Bell's Candorville.


***Edit - Rest of the post removed for... oh hell, it's Midnight Friday after a long week, I'm too tired to keep typing. Let's just say it's been removed for the hell of it.***

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shrubville is no authority. They're zealots. Be careful who you quote.

Darrin Bell said...

Thanks, that's why I called it an "obscure blog" (though you may have started reading before I was done editing the post). And I think when it comes to blogs, the term "zealot" is bound to be a lot more common than the term "authority."

Brubaker said...

I lost respect for Shrubville long time ago, even though I'm on friendly terms with CJo in our occasional emails.

Maybe I'm biased because I like "Prickly City" (I also like "Candorville" too), but geez, some of them took joy when the strip creator had to get a surgery on his shoulder.

I recently emailed Scott Stantis (the creator of "Prickly City") about the latest podcast and his surgery, and he said that he's never been miserable before. Gotta feel sorry for him.

Oh, and one of the Shrubville posters keep referring Ann Coulter as "mAnn Coulter." While I hate Coulter, I just find that phrase discriminatory to transgendered people (seriously).

Darrin Bell said...

"but geez, some of them took joy when the strip creator had to get a surgery on his shoulder."

I wasn't aware of that. That's pretty low, even for the Internet. Points taken.