Matt Bors for April 08, 2013

Har!

“But why take it out on the deceased?”

This isn’t uncomplimentary to the dead celebrity, but to the living cartoonists.

Obit ‘toons generally ARE knee-jerk, overly sentimental, and obvious. The two “types” shown here are well-represented among those which have appeared since Ebert’s death.

Celebrity deaths too often make for lazy cartooning. I hope that the Thatcher death MIGHT spark some original treatments, but I also expect a dozen “Maggie arriving at the Pearly Gates” cartoons from those who liked her and “Maggie facing the pitchforks and fire” from those who didn’t. (Either treatment will probably have her being welcomed by Ronald Reagan.)

This has been a strange day for me.Earlier I read Suzy Lee Weiss’ essay complaining about why she didn’t get into the college of her choice. Now this head scratcher.

Dammit, I accidentally deleted my earlier post.

The quotes from Ebert given were not kind, but they were honest. Bors is applying Ebert’s criticisms of two bad movies to the two stereotypical Obit Cartoons shown: overly sentimental, trite, unimaginative, lazy. Were Ebert alive to comment on the quality of cartoons his passing has inspired, his own critical standards would (presumably) elicit responses similar to the quotes cited.

Again, this cartoon is not uncomplimentary to Ebert; rather, it is complimentary of his willingness to call out sloppy artistic efforts. The target of Bors’ satire is his fellow cartoonists, not Ebert.

There’s not much point in critiquing a spoiled kid, but it is embarrassing that she published her envy. Too bad she didn’t get into an Ivy, but there are a lot of good schools that aren’t in the Ivy League. Maybe if she gets over her envy and studies hard in whatever college she got into she’ll learn something.

Update on the Thatcher cartoons (once again, I deleted my previous comment while trying to reply to it):

After yesterday’s initial three “Maggie and Ronnie Reunited” cartoons, that’s still the prevailing theme of her obits, although there’s been one meeting with Churchill as well, and a rather odd one of the women in Heaven awaiting her arrival as a Female Icon (some would object to the term “Feminist”, while others would object to “Feminine”). A couple have shown St. Peter’s/God’s ambivalence about admitting her through the Pearly Gates, but no one has yet shown her cast into Hell (of course, Ted Rall has yet to weigh in).

A respectable number of cartoonists have NOT jumped on the “Maggie’s Arrival in Heaven” bandwagon, so there are still a few cartoonists who chose not to take the easy path.

Nothing so far featuring Annette Funicello, except in “The Doozies” on the other list (next-day coverage in a daily strip – impressive!). It’s possible that Thatcher’s death will crowd Annette off the pages entirely (particularly coming so soon after the Ebert obits).

Actually, I’d like to see somebody do a mash-up, with Ronald Reagan saving a seat for Margaret Thatcher so they can watch old movies (starring Annette Funicello) forever, with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel sitting behind them explaining how silly and unrealistic those movies are.

The only pearly gates cartoon I ever liked was the one for Charles Shultz that had a “No Dogs Allowed” sign and St. Peter telling Snoopy “We’ll make an exception.”