2012 – Page 17 – Wis[s]e Words

Gary McCoy shows how shitty cartoonists can find work too

Published on September 10, 2012Leave a comment

It must be hard to be a rightwing cartoonist trying to cover the Democratic convention. Your Democratic and neutral counterpart had a field day with Clint Eastwood’s senior moment talking to an empty chair doing his best grandpa Simpson imitation, but what can you make fun off? Sure, there’s Clinton, but we’ve all long since grown tired of cigar jokes. So what else can you do but lie?

Another hilarious Gary McCoy cartoon about Sandra Fluke

It’s not the first time shitty cartoonist Gary McCoy went after Sandra Fluke, nor the first time he lied about what she said, how she looks or what her intentions are. Just watch her short speech, less than seven minutes and see if you can find out how McCoy goes from that to what he shows in his cartoon. That’s what you have to do if you have no talent but a burning desire to bless the world with your shitty opinions: lie, bear false witnes, iterate.

Sinfest

Published on September 9, 2012Leave a comment

Sinfest is a webcomic that got started back in the stone age, in 2000 and quickly gained a lot of buzz amongst the kind of people who read Userfriendly or Sluggy Freelance. It was funny enough, well drawn, much better than the standards of the time, but it never struck me. I read it, but didn’t really follow it. One reason for this is shown in the strip above; it was somewhat on the sexist side, with the main character being a self proclaimed pimp.

But now look below for a recent strip; something has changed. Over the last couple of years Tatsuya Ishida has slowly evolved his comic to the point where he now can make jokes about white knighting and mansplaining. His art has gotten better, his writing has deepened but his politics really have changed and for the better.

I would like to see some more mainstream attention for Sinfest and other web comics like, those that have been slugging on for a decade or more, and how they changed and evolved over the years, or not. Shaenen Garrity already devoted one column at TCJ to it, but I’d love to see a proper interview done, like one of those monsters Tom spurgeon tends to do on Sundays.

Let’s not even mention race

Published on September 8, 2012Leave a comment

The U.S. Tennis Association doesn’t want “the world’s No. 1 junior girls player, the reigning junior Australian Open singles champion and the junior Wimbledon doubles champion” playing tennis because she’s too fat:

But unbeknownst to everyone outside her inner circle, the USTA wasn’t happy to see Townsend in New York. Her coaches declined to pay her travel expenses to attend the Open and told her this summer that they wouldn’t finance any tournament appearances until she makes sufficient progress in one area: slimming down and getting into better shape.

“Our concern is her long-term health, number one, and her long-term development as a player,” said Patrick McEnroe, the general manager of the USTA’s player development program. “We have one goal in mind: For her to be playing in [Arthur Ashe Stadium] in the main draw and competing for major titles when it’s time. That’s how we make every decision, based on that.”

Ten months on

Published on September 7, 20121 Comment

Vice president Joe Biden lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident in 1972, shortly after he was first elected as an US senator. Here he talks about the grief and anger and pain he felt, at the 18th Annual TAPS National Military Survivor Seminar, which is held each year on the Memorial Day weekend. It’s honest and moving and entirely apolitical.

The Jewel in the Skull — Michael Moorcock

Published on September 6, 2012Leave a comment

Cover of The Jewel in the Skull

The Jewel in the Skull
Michael Moorcock
175 pages
published in 1967

The Jewel in the Skull is another of Michael Moorcock’s seemingly endless number of fantasy series, the first in the History of the Runestaff quartet. It’s also part of Moorcock’s overarching Eternal Champion mythos, with the hero, Dorian Hawkmoon, being yet another reincarnation of the Eternal Champion. Not that this is important in this book, which can easily be read as a standalone adventure. A such it fair zips along, having been published at the tail end of the era when fantasy and science fiction books were considered long if they managed 150 pages.

It’s also a very blokey book. There are only two female characters of note in it, one of which in the role of the hero’s reward, the other a damsel in distress for the hero to rescue. If you don’t notice or can live with that, the Jewel in the Skull is a clever, fun adventure story. It’s set in a far future Europe, some thousands of years after the Tragic Millennium ended our own civilisation. Much of Europe now is under occupation By Granbretan, a tyrranical empire ruled by an immortal corrupt emperor, a tightly controlled, cruel and strictly hierarchical society. Dorian Hawkmoon, the duke of Köln was the last hero to resist their advance, rising up in rebellion against them, and failed. Now he’s a prisoner in Londra, his fate to serve as entertainment for its rulers…