Me and John were having this discussion about how cartoonists come up with an idea and think 1) wow, i’m a genius, this is hilarious! (and then laugh to yourself for a while), or 2) ugh, this isn’t funny, but i’ll write it anyways. I think it’s the latter like 60-90% of the time. In the case of the Family Circus or Marmaduke, 100%. Though I understand that it’s difficult to be consistently funny, when I made those little webcomics last fall I realized there was no way I could keep those up [so props to those who do it on a regular basis, ie Sean and Chris].
Seriously, I don’t understand how the Family Circus is still carried. Like, the only way this makes sense to me is if Bill Keane has down syndrome and is the son of some newspaper magnate so all the newspapers decided to have pity and humor him and give him a strip. That is the only acceptable explanation.
Here’s the crazy thing about Marmaduke: it has been running for 53 years, and still, nothing ever happens. At least the Family Circus has a few different characters. They can always bring in Not Me and Ida Know in an emergency, or talk to Dead Angel Grandpa, or bring in Young Billy to make terrible puns about celebrities on Sunday. Maramduke’s cast is just the dog, his beaten-down co-dependent owners, and on rare occasions, the beleaguered mailman, and yet Brad Anderson soldiers on, bringing laughter and joy to millions of readers long since dead of old age.
I sometimes pretend (AKA, lie to people) that Family Circus auteur Bil Keane is my dad’s distant cousin. People usually believe me, because it explains why I always take such indirect routes to get places.
