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the breakfast table: An e-mail conversation about the news of the day.

Ted Rall and Steve Brodner

the breakfast table
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from: Ted Rall

More Comics, Less Sports

Posted Thursday, Oct. 14, 1999, at 5:23 PM ET

Dear Steve:

Thanks for the encouragement to remain graphically inept. I've always theorized that cartoonists' drawing styles tend to suit their temperament in the same way that singers' voices reflect their own messages. I mean, what if Johnny Lydon had wanted to become a lounge singer? Or what if Jewel was one angry bitch with a bad hair day and a gun to use on any guy she despised? So maybe my workaday "style" fits my cranky, as you put it, outlook on life, I dunno. But I still would like to draw better, if for no other reason but to like the way my stuff looks more when I see it in print. Anyway, I suspect that maybe you're just trying to keep all the primo drawing gigs with yourself ("And another thing, Rall can't draw for shit!" Brodner told his editor over drinks at the 21 Club).

I'm glad you mentioned The Simpsons, which is hands-down the best thing on TV ever. It's so great that it's amazing that it was ever broadcast, much less promoted to the point that it was permitted to gather an audience and eventually become successful. But don't diss Fox--I thought Married ... with Children (a live-action cartoon, really) was pure genius. The X-Files, well, obviously is great, though this business of preempting the season premiere in favor of baseball is stupid. Why can't baseball games be played and broadcast during the middle of the day, like in the old days? Any station that preempts news or other prime-time programming for sports is irresponsible as hell. More to the point, spectator sports don't deserve coverage in any newspaper so long as they're cramming comics into one tiny page and skimping on the international coverage. Why they merit TV coverage at all is beyond me, but running baseball games on Sunday nights is sheer lunacy. Back to Matt Groening, I was initially disappointed by Futurama, but now I realize that it's not written for adults; it's really more for kids. The humor is more downscale than The Simpsons, which is fine for its intended audience. I guess I'd have to ask a kid whether they like it in order for me to form a decent opinion.

I like your Phil Harris theory of sexual politics a lot. It's true, you imagine that George Quincy is getting good sex--he certainly appears relaxed for a guy who signs more death warrants for his state's citizens in a day than I drink cups of coffee--but one wonders whether it's with his wife. After what we've just been through post-Monica, I certainly hope so. Speaking of which, I know it's a little late, but I'd just like to say that I still think Clinton ought to have resigned the day in January 1998 that the Lewinsky story broke, and definitive proof that I'm right was the sinking of the test-ban treaty that you like so much. No sitting president would have taken such a beating on a foreign-policy front without having lost all political credibility to the extent that Bill Clinton did after being impeached. He may have remained in office, but at what cost? He crippled Gore's chances of defeating Bush--who as a Republican is destined to lead America into its next recession or depression, as the GOP always does--and he squandered two years of economic expansion during which really great programs might have been enacted while we had the cash lying around. To those who say that private consensual sex is nobody's business, they'd be right if not for the fact that Clinton perjured himself under oath, which is obviously impeachable, and more important, unforgivable. Anyone who's ever sat in a courtroom and watched some dirtbag lie with a straight face knows of what I speak.

As for Clinton, it's not too late to quit--dash off that letter to Albright now, for Chrissake!

If this is it for this week's Breakfast Table, Steve, then it's been a pleasure solving the world's problems with you. And if this is not it, see you tomorrow!

Very truly yours,
Ted

the breakfast table
entries
123456789101112131415
from: Ted Rall

More Comics, Less Sports

Posted Thursday, Oct. 14, 1999, at 5:23 PM ET
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Ted Rall is a New York-based political and social-commentary cartoonist and opinion columnist for Universal Press Syndicate and the author of Revenge of the Latchkey Kids (click hereto buy it). Steve Brodner has been a satiric illustrator for 27 years and has contributed caricatures of political and pop figures to a wide variety of publications.
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Some reactions from readers:

Steve asks if the whole hoo-ha over at the Brooklyn museum is about captions... And the answer is, of course it is.

I have yet to see anyone substantially refute Tom Wolfe's theory, back in The Painted Word, that today's art has devolved into being illustrations for the catalog. Take away the catalog, and there's no there there. One or the other of the fellows cited Serrano's Piss Christ--it's the perfect example. I doubt many people have seen it in person--it's a huge 6-foot-by-4-foot (or so) chibachrome--and more than anything else comes across as a modern chiaroscuro photo-mural. It's reverent. Right up until you read the title, and figure out just how Serrano got those gorgeous tawny reds and burnt umbers. But it's only the title--or the catalog--that fills you in.

The whole Virgin Mary thing is much the same--I doubt there's any way to tell just how the image was made, elephant dung or not, except through the catalog. To be sure, I haven't actually seen it (this summer I've been seeing the Van Gogh, Sargent, Ingres, and Diego Rivera exhibitions as I travel), but that's my bet... Though I'll cheerfully defer to a real live witness.

(To reply, click here.)


Dear Ted,

I agree wholeheartedly with you in regards to the death of the comic strip, and glad to see someone else who views the Peanuts as melancholy. As a former illustrator (I know--do not call me bitter just yet) I think that the entire world of illustration is a rotting cadaver. Working now as a web designer I can't help but feel sympathy for my friends who valiantly try to establish careers in this former occupation. Many believe photography has killed the illustrator, and to some extent I agree, but I think the true blame falls upon the state of art education within our country.

Art schools have become a haven for the untalented and unimaginative, upper-middle-class would-be rebels more concerned with looking the part than being. Instructors, often failed artists themselves, so afraid of offending these cash cows offer no realistic criticism or advice. Since "all art is good art," students who would have been laughed out of my 2nd grade arts and crafts class are encouraged to pursue their "style." After graduating art school, it took me 2 years to enjoy drawing again....and I am not alone. Keep up the good work my brother!

(To reply, click here.)


People always feel that to say things like, "theater is dead," or, now, "the comic strip is dead" raises them to the level of philosopher. So, when someone has some silly stuff to say to seemingly back up such an impossible phrase, they get excited and say it all over the place and as loud as they can.

The comic strip isn't dead. New and great cartoonist will come in great forms no one can predict and, therefore, it's amazingly arrogant to predict the death of an art form. The Internet provides all sorts of new room for artists (this includes cartoonists) to work and spread around their wares.

(To reply, click here.)


Hey Ted Rall,

Yeah, your comic strips are great, but you made a big mistake in your blanket dismissal of all the comics in the comics page (save Peanuts). Your glaring omission: Mutts by Patrick McDonnell. This guy can DRAW! His comics are funny, sweet, and compassionate without being treacly--no mean feat. What's more, he takes a strong and unapologetic stand on animal rights, which takes guts in a nation of necrophages.

McDonnell's a genius. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go pray with Johnny Hart.

 (To reply, click here.)


What do you guys think of Tom Toles? His cartoons single-handedly got me through the Reagan/Bush years.

 (To reply, click here.)


I think it's a bit too early to say the comic strip is dead. I think Robotman, Non Sequetor, and Mutts are some of the great comics in the papers, but for the rest I don't bother. It seems true that, in newspapers at least, comics are resorting to simple puns.

However, on the Internet the art of the comic strip is still alive. Some of the best, in my opinion anyway, are Ozy and Millie and Freefall, which are genuinely funny and entertaining. While the newspaper comics may be reverting to single unfunny puns, the Internet may be a place where the art of the comic strip is still living.

(To reply, click here.)



--Michael Brus (10/14)

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