philosophical wax #1

[johncomic]

The Comics Curmudgeon sounds like a site that I shoulda launched, yet it actually is the brainchild of some whole 'nother fella. Anyhoo:

Folx gather there to snark at the shortcomings of syndicated comic strips and generally amuse themselves/each other. The denizens have, over time, developed a definite slant/fondness toward the "realistic" continuing-story strips like Mary Worth, Apartment 3-G, Rex Morgan M.D., and Mark Trail. One particular comment there lately got me thinkin'....

Someone was chewing out the drawing in Mark Trail, saying something like "the human beings in the strip look like they're drawn by someone who has never seen a real one". And I admit, I don't think the characters in MT are what I would call spectacularly rendered. [Although the guy does draw better animals than pretty much anyone else in the funnies, and the Comics Curmudgeon folx do give him his props in that regard. But I digress. Duh.]

According to the King Features website, "Mark Trail appears in 175 newspapers, reaching nearly 23 million readers worldwide." Which is not superstar spectacular, but can be enough to earn a modest living so not too shabby. And this, as I said, got me thinkin':

I asked myself, "If I were to submit a new comic strip to the syndicates, and my story and art looked like what I see in Mark Trail, would anyone buy it? Would anyone today buy that strip?" And I can't help but doubt it -- to the extreme. And yet, MT has been soldiering on in the funny pages for sixty years now with no sign of stopping. I bet you can think of your own example of a comic strip that you can't believe is still running, that you're sure no one would buy if it was trying to start up brand-new today...

And y'know, it reminded me of relationships. Not all relationships, but many....

When you first start out, damb you better put your best foot forward or you ain't gonna make it outa the starting gate. You gotta look good, you gotta dazzle, you gotta make an impression. If there's nothing special about you, what the eff makes you noticeable in a world full of a whole buncha others?

But once you get established.... you can coast. You can let your guard down, you can slack off, you can relax. So ya do. And people will accept it, simply because they're comfortable along with you. They enjoy the simple fact that you're there, like they expect. Gradually, over the years, you now look like you were "drawn by a completely different person than before" and your stories are nowhere near as interesting as they were when you first got together -- in fact they're downright lame now -- but that's okay, as long as you're there and there are no surprises.

Some people will eventually stop reading a particular comic strip -- just like some people will eventually divorce -- because they stop and ask The Hard Questions® and aren't satisfied with the answers. But a hefty percentage of folx will coast along for years because all they ask is a comfy routine. I'm not saying it's right or wrong either way, just that it's human nature, I think.

The parallels just struck me as kinda funny, is all.
Huh.