Ruben Bolling has drawn some hilarious, insightful, and often cutting stuff in the years I've enjoyed reading his comic, but the "James Poult" bit takes the cake! This single frame is a small rectangle of unadulterated genius.

The comic on which this riffs smells to high heaven, in my opinion, and deserves to be lampooned. That straw-man-happy, uber-conservative duck could get a large anvil to the skull and still not get a clue, but I applaud Bolling for calling his creator out anyway.

I've always wondered why whenever comic artists need a rude, obnoxious character without two brain cells to rub together they pick a de-pantsed duck. Mallard Fillmore is just another in a long line stretching back to the 1930s.

James Poult has him sussed.

The problem with Mallard Fillmore isn't that it offends my political sensibilities, but my comic ones. Is the bar so low for conservatives that their flagship resembles nothing so much a two-month-old Leno monologue, but less biting? Characterization, dialog, and storytelling aren't required; heck, they're discouraged.

And satire? Satire is the pearl of exaggeration around the grain of truth; Mallard Fillmore is a faux pearl.

There are periodical dustups in The Boston Globe about MF's placement, and it all boils down to:

BG ombud:

We want to represent all viewpoints in topical comix, and MF represents the conservative viewpoint.

Bulk of BG readers:

This is the best they can do?

"Liberals think Mark Foley is bad, but Bill Clinton!"

Doesn't that blow your mind? Why aren't you laughing?

Please feel free to do more James K. Poult, Sr. Bolling.

If you climb 897 steps three at a time, the number of steps will be divisible by 13 or 23, but no other whole numbers except 1. I know that because I tried every combination last time I was in Washington (not that I'm O/C or anything...).

sdurf, I wondered about 897 / 3 too - but I bet that "triple-step" means take three steps for every, uh, step.

I too hope we see more of "James Poult". The only flaw in today's strip is that the artwork is much too good to be confused with the dreck that is "Mallard Fillmore".

And I can't wait for his next "Lucky Ducky" strip.

I love it. Mallard Filmore is so frigging retarded. On top of being complete right-wing lies and propaganda, on top of being mean-spirited and stupid, it's not even funny. Even B.C., besides being a pulpit for Johnny Hart's Bible-thumping, is at least funny a lot of the time.

I've considered Super-Fun-Pak Comix as Bolling's highlight, and have encouraged him to publish a compendium of them. I hope he pursues the Classic Comix motif to exhaustion, as there is no foreseeable end to 3 panel synopsis' of great lit. As for the 'hilarity' of Mallord Fillmore, my local rag is running Prickly City, which seems to aspire to be a funny neo-con strip, and it succeeds only if you count a 1 in 25 chuckle as more worthwhile than the 0 in 25 ratio of MF.