Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Lio's Comic Cameo List

This was indeed the week for comic strip cameos. Lio embarked on a quest to find his missing pet squid. Each day in this pantomime strip Lio encountered a different comic strip character as he tracked down another false lead.

Creator Mark Tatulli makes some mordant comments about the industry along the way. Some of the appearances aren't quite as effective as they could be. His Dick Tracy is adequate (for some reason, many artists have a hard time drawing Chester Gould's creation), but his Dagwood Bumstead was not convincing at all. (He wisely kept Chic Young's characters off-stage in his previous reference "Pearls before Lio")

I did like his take on Charlie Brown, though. (click on images to enlarge)


Tatulli raises a point I agree with. Why is this dead strip cluttering up the comics pages. Is there anyone on the planet (who's interested, that is) who doesn't have all this stuff in a printed collection -- or has read it several times already? Let's make room for a new strip, please!

And I like this end of the tour through comics.



A reference, of course, to not only Opus (the penguin pictured in the flyer), but Bloom County as well. Although Berkeley Breathed's strips have finished, his creativity and willingness to push the limits of the medium continue to inspire.

As Tatulli's homage attests.

No comments:

Post a Comment