Sunday Comic Deconstruction
Monday, June 21, 2010 at 9:22PM 
Youth transgressions and parental impotency. Here, in the first panel, we see the parents of an obviously spoiled youth reacting in fear to the possibility of waking their demon spawn, lest, they feel his inexorable wrath. The son, Jeremy, was out on a bender the previous evening with fellow miscreants and is sleeping off the effects of the hedonism that his parents' lack of assertiveness and discipline has bred. Their cowardice, laid bare by the middle four frames of the strip, is realized fully in the final segment. Feigning an abrupt, cacophonic awakening ceremony with cymbals and drum, they are allowed their feeble illusion that the boy's youthful strength and willfulness is not a crushing anvil to the skull of their desire to live out their geriatric inevitability with some semblance of peace and dignity. Quite simply, Jeremy has become an uncontrollable monster, born of their own weaknesses.
Keeping with the parental themes (it was Father's Day this Sunday), we have a liberal approach to the concept of Pater familias from cartoonist Francesco Marciuliano. Sally's "husband", the fashionably butch-coiffed "Dad" (love the lilt!), receives a nostalgic bit of reminiscence (a metaphorical plastic "toy") from her tomboyish childhood (the younger sister amongst seven brothers) and reacts quite effeminately in thanks to the bestowal of the wife and daughter. The roles of "bull" and "lipstick" are hilariously reversed for this mock celebration of the traditionally heterosexual holiday. I don't read this strip often. That "Father" is a chick, right?
The sad, fame-trapped doodlings of a severely retarded boy with the geographical confusion consistent among the mentally challenged idolater. Often seen watching competitive dancing and singing shows on the teevee.
Bold, daring foray into the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's on our increasingly aged populous. The Grandpa, wanting desperately to bond with his grandson, uses the convenience of an inferior species (in this case the family dog), to mask his own intellectual depreciation. The dog's confusion becomes his own as his more cognizant wife asks if he can perform a few menial tasks. His shame is palpable in the last frame as, shirt pulled over his head in adolescent denial, he has been reduced not only in the eyes of his wife and further progeny, but has relinquished his manhood as well in front of the cur, who will surely use this incident to regain alpha male status amongst the household.
Tragic retelling of the continuing powerlessness of females in our society. Devastatingly strong message on this day of all others where two females, seemingly unphased by their status as second-class citizens, drone cluelessly on and on about how far they've come. How the women's rights movement has made them equal in society. Without irony, they conveniently forget that religion, pay scales, the oppressive demand for procreation, motherhood and a manufactured sense of beauty purposely keeps them in obeisance to the dominant male pig power structure; manifested, sadly, here by the male offspring's privileged postponement of his Mother's plea to take out the garbage. Her resigned acceptance of his disinclination validates her sense of worthlessness. His power play - the seed of her enervation. Cartoonist-Author Sandra Bell-Lundy's point? You have not come a long way, Baby. You've quit smoking, coffee has become your drug and you're pumping out kids like a frontierswoman. Get back to your Shakti power center.
Obtrusive celebration of an already authoritarian holiday which exalts fathers into the role of übermenschen. "Daddy" as Superman, with the crushing results of reality disappointing all involved. Especially if Daddy hasn't worked out in a while or is having problems raising the Tonka toy around your Mother. Daddy gets tired. And since he has to wear a cape, why won't your Mother put on things he asks her to any longer?
Reader Comments (3)
Chipper,
Very funny...just have one question. How is the 'rule of law' complicit in the continued oppression of women? I'm with you on everything else, big guy!
Pots of love,
LML
I have removed it. It was a very vague attempt to include abortion law without actually saying it. It was not effective or funny. Point well taken, Alfonso.
Apparently these cartoonist don't live in a real home/life. We did foresee this parental event occurring, where the "darling" child becomes the center of the parent's universe. It's call middleclass values. My husband gets a bj without having to watch, "sex in the city." We made a concerted effort to "have fun" in our lives as well developing a thoughtful child. Not perfect, just thoughtful. Also, I don't know too many women who use coffee as their drug, but know lots of professional women who rant, "I'm not a social drinker...it's mostly work related." Who reads the sunday comics anyway?