Letters to the Editor
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Machine gunning whales for religion and profit
This might be good fodder for a a young edgy cartoonist to tackle:
The 1,000 member Native American Makah tribe demands and receives a dispensation for killing endangered whales because they claim it's part of their cultural and religious heritage.
So they just got caught by the U.S. Coast Guard using a war-surplus .50 Cal machine gun to riddle a poor whale which swam off to the deep, mortally wounded.
Some culture. I'd rather they just get a casino license and debase themselves that way.
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Well Done, I say
Hey Garry, a bunch of mediocre stand-up comics called. They want their "somebody just called" routine back, or at least a little credit.
I thought this comic strip did a remarkable job of lampooning the entire sham that is about to be played out once again. It will play out exactly as written last December when Bush decided to tell the Iraq Study Group to go fuck themselves because he was going to have another go at pretending he wasn't a total moron: "See, here's the plan. Everyone wants me to get OUT of Iraq, so I'm going to send MORE troops just to let everyone know that I've got the only say in the country that matters. Now, General Petraeus, that's where you come in. In September, see, you'll just say my plan is working -- even if it's not, all you have to do is SAY IT -- and then we'll get to stay even longer. Because I'm the decider. That means I'm a person who decides things. I'm a deciding maker."
To me, the horror of the whole situation is summed up in the Gene Kelly lamppost homage: "Petraeus! Say it loud and the troops are staying!"
The relentless propaganda campaign is about to pay off. Bush will have his way, yet again. No one will oppose him. As millions of homeowners in America face losing their homes, we will give Bush another bazillion pounds of dollars to play with, and the troops WILL be staying; more troops condemned to death to support Bush's lie, more troops to be maimed and returned to an overburdened healthcare system, more soldiers like Jamie Dean to be marginalized and forgotten until they have their final tragic meltdown.
You did so well in your letters regarding the Jamie Dean story. If you weren't so obsessed with your weekly mocking of "Opus," I think you'd see, in this strip, a better outlet for your anger.
Cheers! Maybe Sparky will be making another guest appearance in this evening's Tom Tomorrow!
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funny ain't new.
"Garry: dead on with the criticisms regarding Mad (though i don't think that Don Martin was its primary song parodist) and Jules Feiffer."
A wise comic once told me "There are only three funny ideas. All we do is change the delivery." Plenty of others have parodied song lyrics. I"m sure the first human to do this wore fur pelts and slept in a cave. And dancing comic characters? I'm thinking Jules Fieffer owes Charlez Schultz a "thanks for the idea."
Lord, nobody better make a fart joke, a gay joke, a dumb blonde joke, a lightbulb joke, a lwayer joke ... it's all been done.
Or, we could enjoy the humor we are presented with.
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Perfection
In every aspect from the artistic to the political, the best Opus ever!
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Berkeley Breathed isn't Jim Hatlo
Most of original entertainment is inspired by others' work; footnotes belong in graduate theses and non fiction books. Using the 'Maria' number from West Side Story to mock the Bush/Petraeus PR campaign is a very original idea. Broad ideas can't be copyrighted or owned. I'm sure parodies of popular songs, with or without dancing, were in the comics long before Feiffer or Martin first sold a drawing.
If 'Opus' is derivative of anyone it is the late Walt Kelly's 'Pogo'... a noted commentator on a previous speculative war of aggression. I don't think a footnote is necessary for that, either. This very funny strip is a career highpoint for Breathed.
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Opus One
What a clever strip; I'm constantly amazed at the inventiveness of cartoonists and their ability to conceptualize and convert a complex idea into a colorful and visual analogy.
I think the central idea worth evaluating is: did Breathed capture the essence? Anything else is of secondary concern. Look at it this way. If you love apple pie or rare steaks or chocolate chip cookies the only test is does it taste good. It doesn't have to be the best steak ever eaten - it just has to please your palate.
That's the test most of us apply to things we like; originality and uniqueness are not usually the most relevant issues; execution is.
Breathed did not invent every aspect of his cartoon, but he gets an A+ in my book for one simple reason: he nailed the concept and he did it in a very clever fashion.
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Boy, talk about Rehashing
Lovely, Berkeley and Opus!
Really now, G. O. just likes to look at letters to the editor and see his old complaints reprinted out there for the whole Salon viewing/Breathed reading world to see. Nothing new about that, just the date and occasionally maybe a slight variation on themes as old as his postings.
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Remember that the first two panels of a Sunday strip are throwaways
because a lot of newspapers don't print them, depending on space available. So cartoonists learn not to put anything in them that's crucial to your understanding the punch line. If the first two panels here seem unnecessary, it's because they are.
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As Predictable and Tiresome as Ever
Garry, that is, not BB.
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I guess I must just be stupid
I didn't know it was Bush until the last panel.
Bush isn't the only person it could be. There are several bloggers and pundits and assorted other liars who will be echoing this very sentiment. Bush is not the only one. Therefore, it is not automatic that this must be Bush singing the song. Until the last panel I saw him as a generic Lying Mindless Supporter of the Glorious War, not any specific individual.
It must hurt a lot to be so smart that it takes only the slightest hint to fully understand every concept. Some of you must be "ouch"-ing all the time.