{"id":3214,"date":"2007-02-28T16:23:46","date_gmt":"2007-02-28T23:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/02\/28\/can-you-be-a-genius-if-your-dog-doesnt-talk\/"},"modified":"2007-02-28T16:23:46","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T23:23:46","slug":"can-you-be-a-genius-if-your-dog-doesnt-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3214","title":{"rendered":"Can you be a genius if your dog doesn't talk?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post was originally posted on September 6, 2002. It disappeared from the archives at some point or other, so I’m now reposting it. –Amp]<\/em><\/p>\n

\"pogo.gif\"
\nThe excellent legal blogger Sam Heldman<\/a> writes “It’s easy to disprove the thesis ‘all daily strips with talking (incl. thinking) animals are pure genius’. (Garfield<\/em>. QED.) But is it possible to disprove the thesis that ‘no daily strip without a talking (incl. thinking) animal has ever been pure genius’?”<\/p>\n

I got into an argument with Scott McCloud<\/a> about this years ago; Scott had made some sort of compendium of the important comics genres, and although he included “superheros,” he hadn’t included funny-animal comics. Yet if you consider artistic worth, funny-animal comics – Krazy Kat<\/a>, Pogo<\/a>, Mutts<\/em>, the Barks Uncle Scrooge<\/em><\/a>, the Gottfredson Mickey Mouse<\/em><\/a>, Art Spiegelman’s Maus<\/em>, and if you stretch the genre a bit Barnaby<\/a>, Bloom County, Peanuts<\/em> and Calvin and Hobbes<\/em> – have been at least as important as superheroes in the history of American comics. Even my current favorite daily, the perennial exception-to-the-rule Bruno<\/a><\/em>, has a cat that thinks aloud.<\/p>\n

\"calvinandhobbes.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Anyhow, to answer Sam’s question, there’s a lot of non-talking-animal genius if you include soap opera and adventure strips. There were no talking or thinking animals in Terry and the Pirates<\/a>, for example, or in Little Orphan Annie<\/a> (I don’t think Sandy saying “arf!” counts). Truthfully, though… as brilliant as the classic soaps and adventures were, they also generally suffer from clich\u00e9d, stock characters. The best strips feature a level of humanity and characterization which the soaps and adventures strips – due, I think, to their extreme emphasis on plot – can’t match. I think Sam could argue that none of these arise to the “pure” genius level.<\/p>\n

There’s Little Nemo in Slumberland<\/a>, of course – but that’s a weekly, not a daily.<\/p>\n

I’d argue that at its best, Polly and Her Pals<\/a> is as good as any comic strip ever done – but Polly’s best was always the Sunday strips, not the dailies.<\/p>\n

Some folks would argue for the original Dennis the Menace, but I’ve always thought Dennis was overrated (although undeniably beautifully drawn).<\/p>\n

\"maus.gif\"Still, there is one strip – kinda halfway between being a gag strip and an adventure – which inarguably had “pure genius” in its peak years. And although I can’t say for certain, I don’t recall any talking (or thinking) animals. Thimble Theatre<\/a> (which most folks think of as “Popeye”) is about as good as comic strips get.<\/p>\n

There’s one more strip I’d argue for – the perennially-underestimated Doonesbury<\/a>. It’s now past its prime, but at its peak (which lasted a couple of decades) Doonesbury was consistently fresh and funny, with excellent characterization and reasonably good drawing (Trudeau isn’t a natural at the drawing board, but he works hard, and has his own distinctive style). It doens’t rise to Pogo<\/em> or Peanut’s<\/em> level, but it deserves more credit than it generally gets.<\/p>\n

I know there’s stuff I’m forgetting; I’ll probably get tons of emails pointing out this or that classic daily with no talking animals. But for now, I’ve gotta say – damn<\/em>, Sam’s question is difficult to answer! The heirarchy of daily strip genres is now clear. All other daily strip genres must bow down (chanting “we’re not worthy! we’re not worthy!”) before the talking possums, kats and beagles.<\/p>\n

(Edited long after the fact to correct my embarrassing reference to Sandy saying “woof,” when everyone knows Sandy mainly said “arf.”)<\/p>\n

\"krazy_kat.gif\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post was originally posted on September 6, 2002. It disappeared from the archives at some point or other, so I’m now reposting it. –Amp] The excellent legal blogger Sam Heldman writes “It’s easy to disprove the thesis ‘all daily … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}