Attention Twin Cities DU'ers!

The Star Tribune is looking for a comic to replace "The Norm", and they're previewing that piece of conservative schlock "Mallard Fillmore" until December 5th.

It's quite a conservative strip that usually makes jokes at the expense of liberals. (He even quoted Frontpagemag.com in a sunday strip once, and the "facts" that the cartoonist quotes were not even true!)

I know there's going to be at least one person who says "what about free speech, DemXCGI?" (I really should change my screenname. I hate it.) I would be all for free speech for this strip if a) Fillmore was funny b) he was fair and c) the artist had a hard time getting in the papers. (he doesn't)

Y'all can check it out here: www.startribune.com/stories/389/5070831.html

(Use www.bugmenot.com to get in)

comics@startribune.com comics@startribune.com comics@startribune.com

Here's what I complained about:

He ran a series of strips from Oct. 18 through Oct. 23 with this message: DON'T VOTE. It was a solid week of direct attacks on GOTV campaigns. This is not a good message to put in the paper.

The Rathergate series ran Oct. 4 through Oct. 16. It wasn't funny; it was just unhinged rants against the media. Mallard Fillmore doesn't bring a unique perspective to the issue; I could get the same information by reading an article on the controversy. When I read the comics, I want to be entertained, not subjected to another damn anti-media screed.

The strips on Sept. 27-30, and then again on Oct. 17, were unfunny crap focusing on a study regarding TV viewing and sexual knowledge/activity. The punchline of the strips was that the duck called people "stupid." That's not entertainment.

Doonesbury ain't that funny (IMHO), but at least Trudeau goes to the effort of creating unique and distinct characters and a coherent storyline. But in Mallard Fillmore, Tinsley has no story and has no characters beyond a one-dimensional duck who, week after week, does nothing more than call people names and whine. It's not funny, it's not entertaining, and it's kind of insulting that someone at the Strib thinks anyone, regardless of political orientation, would be amused by this tripe.

I'm still writing mine, so I'll post it in this thread when I'm done.