The depressing state of comic strips

My favorite off-topic, topic. I was forcing myself to read through the comic page today and I realized why a strip like ZITS (by a very good cartoonist) strikes me as so bad. Well, not bad, more lame. Sort of uninspired and painful. I mean, it’s not like you will die when you read it. It isn’t fatal, but it is like a bad rash.The ‘characters’ in Zits aren’t characters. They are stereotypes in the worst way. They are cardboard props to hang ‘gags’ on. Gags like Oscar night filler gags. Hagar the Horrible has more depth of character. At least his relationship with his family and friends offers the possibility of surprise. But as a product that needs to be sold, I understand why it is the way it is. If you buy bologna, you don’t complain that it tastes like bologna. The strip is an easy sell as it has a ‘high concept’ and makes an effective pitch. “Teens are wacky and have big feet and eat a lot and don’t clean their rooms. Parents read papers. They will recognize this. Strips will end up on the fridge.” It usually looks great, but Jim has proven his abilities for many years. He draws damn good. And can draw funny. His Oliphant wanna-be days are long gone.But it’s a pretty easy out to develop material like this, when you have the talent and the background of those involved in it. It’s sort of like Spielberg making a movie version of the TV show Dynasty. You’d hope, maybe, he’d be a little above it. Did Borgman really need to do this strip? Couldn’t he have pushed the syndicate a bit? Anyway, it runs in like 1,500 newspapers (are there that many newspapers left in print?) so we can expect at least three TV adaptations and two movies written by the same folks who keep bringing Garfield to life, I think they are called embalmers. “Garfiled looks so good in that coffin/movie/tv show.” Yes, we all hate Mondays.