Comments on: The Saddies

The Saddies

oneswellfoop — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:52:02 -0800

The Center for Cartoon Studies (previously), in association with the National Cartoonists Society, has assembled The Cartoon Crier (pdf), a 36-page collection of comics being intentionally NOT comical, including newspaper strips old-school and new, alt-comics, webcomics and even a few editorial and magazine cartoons. Plus Shaenon K. Garrity writing about the saddest comics ever. Some will make you cry, others will make you go 'eh', some will make you chuckle very guiltily, but altogether an impressive collection. (Originally in dead-tree form handed out at MOCCA)

By: Shepherd

Shepherd — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:03:17 -0800

Shaenon K. Garrity is great and everything she does is great. That is all I have to say on the subject of Shaenon K. Garrity.

By: Corduroy

Corduroy — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:04:20 -0800

Thanks for posting this. There is also a documentary film about the Center being screened around the country.

By: John Cohen

John Cohen — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:15:30 -0800

The Cartoon Crier (pdf), a 36-page collection of comics being intentionally NOT comical Huh? A lot of these are funny, e.g. robot sitting on a psychiatrist's couch says: "And I don't even have a childhood to blame it on."

By: Melismata

Melismata — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:16:47 -0800

Was surprised it didn't include the Funky Winkerbean breast cancer arc.

By: item

item — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:19:33 -0800

Or any Cathy strips.

By: dlugoczaj

dlugoczaj — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:24:17 -0800

Oy. Haven't made it all the way through yet, but so many dead pets. Obviously cartoonists know what pushes my buttons.

By: mhoye

mhoye — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:29:44 -0800

Or any Cathy strips. Were you so surprised that you said "ack"?

By: zamboni

zamboni — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:33:42 -0800

I feel better now.

By: livinglearning

livinglearning — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:35:16 -0800

Thanks for sharing this-I also feel better now.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:45:24 -0800

The Wizard of Id hasn't been funny in 35 years. I guess the sad part is that it's still being published.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:46:52 -0800

Seeing so many crappy mass-market comics makes me sad.

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:51:47 -0800

...so many dead pets. Glad it included FBOFW's Death of Farley. As for any 'obvious' omissions, everything in there was volunteered by the creators, so anyone not represented either was unaware of the project (maybe not a member of the two sponsoring organizations), disapproving of the concept, or blissfully unaware of how sad their creations are. Seeing so many crappy mass-market comics makes me sad. charlie not noticing the gems among the crap makes me sad. Remember Sturgeon's Law; something about comics raises the crap ratio above 90%, but there are still good things.

By: mkb

mkb — Tue, 08 May 2012 08:58:12 -0800

Oh god, that Rhymes with Orange on page 19 is AWESOME.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:07:42 -0800

charlie not noticing the gems among the crap makes me sad. I saw the gems. But a full page of Momma or 15 strips of For Better or Worse that takes up a page and a half, I look at that and can only see the missing gems that deserved those spots. Embedding gems in a pile of excrement doesn't make them shine brighter.

By: KokuRyu

KokuRyu — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:13:51 -0800

I guess "comics being intentionally NOT comical" is another way to say "maudlin", although as a child of 1970s and 80s Canada I cannot resist FBOFW.

By: hellojed

hellojed — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:20:52 -0800

Was surprised it didn't include the Funky Winkerbean breast cancer arc. If you include Funky Winkerbean then this handout would probably be ~100 pages long. See also: Funkywatch

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:27:00 -0800

hellojed: "If you include Funky Winkerbean then this handout would probably be ~100 pages long." Damn. I was just about to make this joke, almost word for word.

By: octobersurprise

octobersurprise — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:29:48 -0800

Chris Aubry's "I still think of you, Jim Henson" is the saddest comic I've ever read.

By: beaucoupkevin

beaucoupkevin — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:48:44 -0800

My collaborator Max Riffner is in there with "Your Search Did Not Match Any Results" on page 27! (We're starting a new comic next month: egregious promotional link right here.)

By: zamboni

zamboni — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:35:29 -0800

Good grief, charlie. Instead of complaining about the output of the National Cartoonists Society, perhaps you could provide links to these missing gems of melancholy genius?

By: JHarris

JHarris — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:38:03 -0800

1. Alice's mom: "You fussed so loud the tide went out." Alice: "I did? I control the tide? I thought so." I love Cul de Sac. 2. Oh god the For Better of For Worse sequence with Farley again. Yeah, if I were you guys I wouldn't read that one in a public place. 3. The letter describing that Animal Crossing comic is also something to avoid if you're sitting at a Panera Bread or around a sarcastic roommate who will only see you crying at a screen full of funny papers. 4. I note they don't include the infamous Garfield sequence. You know the one I'm talking about.

By: kjh

kjh — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:47:27 -0800

I enjoyed reading this. Thanks.

By: mkb

mkb — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:05:53 -0800

JHarris: "4. I note they don't include the infamous Garfield sequence. You know the one I'm talking about." You mean the one where we discover Lyman's fate? I thought all copies had been burned.

By: barrett caulk

barrett caulk — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:27:23 -0800

Man, it's always cool when you see IRL friends end up on the blue. One of the editors is a friend, so I will drop a link to Cole Closser's site right here.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:37:34 -0800

You mean the one where we discover Lyman's fate? I thought all copies had been burned. Yeah, when Lyman hanged himself after his HIV+ diagnosis, and Jon found the body. That was a depressing week of strips. But JHarris could also have meant this.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:53:34 -0800

Oh, man, I saw a different set of "The Death of Lyman" strips. Jon goes away on vacation leaving Lyman to "cat sit" Garfield and Nermal for a week. They play a prank of Lyman where they lie at the top of the stairs to trip him ("This is hilarious with Jon, watch" says Garfield) but Lyman breaks his neck. After two days with no food, they eat his face. The last strip of the week is three panels of Lyman's feet with Odie curled up in front of them look despondent. The Sunday strip for that series was one where they're visiting Lyman' grave and Jon comments about how it must be a miracle that the flowers around the headstone are so much healthier than any other flowers in the cemetery. We see in the last panels that the flowers are healthy because Odie is there every day slobbering on them.

By: mkb

mkb — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:22:29 -0800

On a related note, somebody found the rare Mary Worth in which Mary counsels a friend to commit suicide.

By: plinth

plinth — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:40:34 -0800

The FBOFW gets me. Not for the obvious reason. When I was about April's age (a little older), we had a Kerry Blue Terrier with a mean disposition. I hated walking him and always looked for better ways. One day, I tried walking him while I was on my three speed bike. It was a little unsteady, but I liked it and he liked it. On the way back to our house, he spotted a man in a horrible plaid sport jacket on the empty lot adjacent to our house. He was a realtor looking over the lot. Kasey spotted him and took him as a threat and bolted, yanking me off my bike onto the pavement and he pulled the leash off my wrist. He attacked the man, biting ripping his jacket and biting his arm. We had to euthanize the dog and replace the jacket which hung in our hall closet for no reason that I could comprehend. Like April, I lived with the knowledge that I was instrumental in killing our dog.

By: Lou Stuells

Lou Stuells — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:30:42 -0800

Why did I click this? Can we have some adorable puppy videos or something?

By: Lou Stuells

Lou Stuells — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:31:00 -0800

ALIVE puppies?

By: Quonab

Quonab — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:36:00 -0800

We3 has a puppy in it, no?

By: localroger

localroger — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:35:52 -0800

What happens after we die, if nobody wears shoes big enough for us to fit in?