This week's comic!
Month: September 2009
National Parks and You
One more thing about my experience with the National Parks (I was at Yellowstone and Grand Teton with my family last week).
I was privileged to attend an advance screening of Ken Burns's upcoming PBS documentary on the National Parks ("America's Best Idea") in Jackson, WY. Many of the interview subjects and quoted historical figures, including Teddy Roosevelt, kept coming back to the notion that setting aside these great lands to be owned by the People of America played to our most noble impulses as a democracy. How democratic to have all citizens own the land, and give them equal access to it, rich and poor alike.
Wait a minute… the people owning something, and the government administering it for their benefit… that's not "democratic" anymore… now it's some kind of commie, fascist, Hitler-face scheme.
Teddy's already got the mustache.. we just have to shave off part of it…
New Name: “AAATom the Dancing Bug”
At first I was enraged to find "Tom the Dancing Bug" near bottom of this list, Tom Spurgeon's choices for the best comic strips of the 21st century.
* Cul-De-Sac, Richard Thompson
* Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau
* Dykes to Watch Out For, Alison Bechdel
* Ernie Pook's Comeek, Lynda Barry
* Fair Game, Stephanie Piro
* Fleep, Jason Shiga, East Asian Week
* Franklin Fibbs, Hollis Brown, Wes Hargis
* Ink Pen, Phil Dunlap
* Life in Hell, Matt Groening
* Lio, Mark Tatulli
* Maakies, Tony Millionaire
* Mike Luckovich's Editorial Cartoons, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
* Monkeyhouse, Pat Byrnes, LATS
* Mutts, Patrick McDonnell
* Non Sequitur, Wiley Miller
* Opus, Berke Breathed
* Pat Oliphant's Editorial Cartoons, syndicated
* Pearls Before Swine, Stephan Pastis
* Pooch Cafe, Paul Gilligan
* Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles, Neil Swaab
* Rocky, Martin Kellerman
* Speed Bump, Dave Coverly
* Steve Bell cartoons in the Guardian
* The Boondocks, Aaron McGruder
* The Pain: When Will It End?, Tim Kreider
* This Modern World, Tom Tomorrow
* Tom The Dancing Bug, Ruben Bolling
* Tom Toles' Editorial Cartoons, Washington Post
* Zippy, Bill Griffith
* Zombies Take Toronto, Chester Brown, NOW
Doesn't this guy realize that "Tom the Dancing Bug" is the "Best Comic Strip Ever"?*
Then I noticed that the list is not actually a ranking, but is in alphabetical order, so you're off the hook, Spurgeon.**
* – The Internet
** No, I wasn't really enraged — that's a damn good list to be included on.
I’m back!
Hey, I've taken two or three weeks off on the blogging plenty of times, and I never heard a word about it. This time, I got lots of emails complaining about the lack of posts. Either I've been doing something right on the blog recently, or you guys have just gotten awfully starved for "entertainment."
I was out in the wilds of Wyoming, communing with nature, tracking a pack of wolves, trekking through forests and over mountains, and sampling both micro- and macro-brews. One thing I noticed in the national parks is what beautiful job the Dagburn Fed'ral Gov'mint does in maintaining and operating these places. These parks are overrun with tourists, yet everything runs not only efficiently, but with a wonderful balance between preservation and use. Even the aesthetics — from the architecture right down the the font on the signs — are pitch perfect, and done in a way and on a scale I don't think I've ever seen private enterprise match.
Anyway, here are links to the last two comics:
and Louis!