Comic Strip Artists Honor Memory of 9/11 Victims, and Then There's 'Candorville'
Like most newspaper readers, I like a good break from news coverage -- and the usual liberal biases therein -- by escaping to the comics pages. Yesterday reading through the Washington Post's comics section, I was struck by how many of the syndicated artists ran appropriate, even touching tributes to the victims and heroes of September 11 from strips like "Blondie," "Beetle Bailey" and "Hagar the Horrible."
Stan Lee's "The Amazing Spider-Man" strip was among the best tributes, with Spidey praising the "real heroes" who "gave their own lives" on 9/11 who make his "little problems seem like nothing."
"Dennis the Menace" even managed to melt the stony heart of old Mr. Wilson with his tribute to the heroes of 9/11.
And then, unfortunately, there was Darrin Bell's "Candorville."
While equally liberal cartoonist Gary Trudeau kept his September 11 "Doonesbury" strip apolitical, Bell opted to issue a screed through the persona of Candorville's central character Lemont Brown, who said that when he went to bed on 9/11 he hoped "we'd rise to the occasion and honor the dead" by "torturing prisoners, mocking the French, invading the wrong country" and "curtailing our own civil liberties."
"I like to have realistic hopes," Lemont groused, prompting friend Susan Garcia to reply, "I don't think sarcasm's allowed on 9/11 day."
Bell followed up that strip with one today featuring Lemont writing "grief," "anger," "guilt," "bloodlust," "fear" and "battered country syndrome" before burning the strips of paper and throwing them off the roof of a building.
While Bell's 9/11 cartoon is featured at Cartoonists Remember September 11, it seems to be the lone weed in the bouquet. You can find the other strips I've mentioned and many other excellent 9/11 comic strip tributes at cartoonistsremember911.com.
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Comments
Easily distinguish between
Submitted by rbosque on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:29am.
Easily distinguish between sheeps and goats.
Candorville
Submitted by Flig Narson on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 1:14pm.
I left the following comment on the Candorville web site (a few posts down from where the cartoonist had thanked everyone for their comments, apparently just minutes before I posted:
So on just one day, you couldn't keep it apolitical and honor the occasion, could you? One commenter said you said "what needed to be said." Well a great many other people said it, and said it better than you did, and did not use this solemn anniversary to do so. This strikes me not so much as a statement that "needed to" be made, but rather narcissism in its most tasteless form.
UPDATE. Response from Darrin Bell.
Submitted by Flig Narson on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 1:59pm.
In response to the comment I left on his web site, cartoonist Darrin Bell replied,
"You honor solemn occasions your way, I'll honor them my way. And I chose to honor this occasion by asking Americans to think candidly about how we responded to what happened ten years ago. If you don't want to do that, I understand."
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2011/09/12/sunday-comic-strips...
Here's a laugh for you
Submitted by LinTaylor on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 1:36pm.
Someone linked this article to the author of Candorville. His response? "That's ok. I don't really expect people who don't WANT us to heal, to like today's strip."
It's amazing the lengths to which people will go to justify their own particular worldview, isn't it?
Not only have I never heard of it,,
Submitted by NJRightWinger12 on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 1:48pm.
But I dont even know what the hell he was trying to say! Or frankly, even care!
UPDATE. Response from Darrin Bell.
Submitted by Flig Narson on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 1:58pm.
In response to the comment I left on his web site, cartoonist Darrin Bell replied,
"You honor solemn occasions your way, I'll honor them my way. And I chose to honor this occasion by asking Americans to think candidly about how we responded to what happened ten years ago. If you don't want to do that, I understand."
And apparently...
Submitted by LinTaylor on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 2:39pm.
And apparently his way of "honoring" isn't to look back with fond respect but to point an accusatory finger at a people who were still emotionally dealing with the horrible thing that happened and weren't necessarily thinking straight.
Obviously there's a reason I've never heard of this comic before today. This hack isn't worthy to lick Bill Watterson's brushes clean.
Candorville?
Submitted by buzzkill59 on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 5:52pm.
Candorville?What the heck is Candorville?I've never heard of it and wish I were still blissfully ignorant of it now!
I'm guessing this guy and Krugman are good friends.Cuckoos of a feather flock together!
I guess not everyone is going
Submitted by balboa on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:07pm.
I guess not everyone is going to act on 9/11 how you want them to act.
I'm glad Blondie and Dagwood,
Submitted by killa37 on Mon, 09/12/2011 - 11:50pm.
I'm glad Blondie and Dagwood, Beetle Bailey,and Hagar the Horrible are still around..........I can never find any comic strips worth looking at. Of course, with them we get 'white middle America', 'the military', and some 'barbarian sons of bitches'..................so you would expect them to have something classy and honorable to say on 9/11.
And this Candorville clown............he's got a problem with the TSA molesting kids and old ladies??? Maybe he ought to take it up with his frigging heroes, Boy Blunder and Janet Incompetano!!!!