furtech: (timesquare)
furtech ([personal profile] furtech) wrote2005-04-17 11:03 pm

Unfunny cartoons

Ducks...dogs...horses...penguins.

dumbanimals
How many daily strips would still be read if they didn't have a "crutch" animal? These are those strips that-- for no justified reason-- stick in a talking animal to get people to read 'em.

"Prickly City" is the top Weiner in this category: a "political" strip that panders to the political wind-- not funny, not cutting or insightful and poorly drawn. Coyote (more of a cuddly doggy).
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/prickcity.gif

"Mallard Fillmore": Slightly better than "Prickly City" in that it is unabashedly right-wing. Not funny, panders to ditto-heads, not particularly well drawn. Duck.
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/MallFill.gif

"Non Sequitor": Often funny without the talking horse, I think this was a sign of desperation or falling readership when he added the horse. Pitiful.
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/nonseq.gif

I'm guessing "Peanuts" started this trend (inadvertantly). Snoopy was hugely popular...but the strip would have been funny, clever and *read* without him.

There are plenty of other stips with animals-- Marmaduke and Heathcliff/Garfield, but they're gag driven and/or actually about the animal being that animal.

What strips can you think of? That-- without the animal character they would be completely ignored? Or, better yet-- strips that use animals as characters that you would never give a second glance to if they were human? ( I can think of plenty of "slice of life" strips that would die lonely deaths if they were drawn as people).