Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Great moments in comic-strip history

No, you haven't clicked on The Comics Curmudgeon by mistake (though that would never really be a mistake).

It's a slow news day, so I figured I'd take this opportunity to mark the first time since roughly 1968 that Family Circus has triggered a reaction of any kind -- beyond, "What, 'Not Me' again?"

In today's Kennebec, Maine, Journal, an upset reader lashes out at the March 8 installment (at left), in which the obviously hawkish Billy declares, "We'll be the good guys and you're the insurgents."

It's not the poorly constructed sentence that troubles Sophia Starrett, but the political view expressed by the strip's oldest child:
I am writing about the Family Circus comic in your March 8 edition.

The comics should not be a place for politics, but a source of entertainment for children. Bill Keane's Hitleresque view on society is not only an insult to all intelligent humans, but also to your journalism.

The Family Circus
is a disappointment to society at large. We kindly ask that you remove this offensive comic from your paper.

Sophia Starrett
Students Against Offensive Literature
Hallowell