Blog Archives
Lay, Carol – Strip Joint
To be totally honest, I pretty much only read political strips. I don’t know why I have the prejudice, as I read pretty much everything under the sun when it comes to regular comics, but with weekly strips I stick to stuff that has a current political message. That’s why this book comes as such a great surprise. There’s all kind of relevance here, it’s just not the kind that comes from yelling a viewpoint from a soapbox. The premise here is simple, and obvious to everybody who’s been reading this for years, but bear with me: Carol sets up a premise every week, makes a story out of it and brings that story to a conclusion, usually in 12 panels. The stories are about all sorts of things, but the one thing that brings them all together is that things are always brought out to their logical conclusion, even when that conclusion isn’t very nice. Overpopulation, good, evil and love are some of the more consistent themes. The best part about this strip is that she avoids ever being preachy, which is a difficult thing with her wide range of topics. Looks like I have another strip to read every week on Salon, which brings my total up to three out of five. Maybe I should give the other two a chance, as they seem to have pretty good taste. Check out her website, all kinds of strips to convince you with there…
