Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for May 21, 2017

Too easy to pick on Pastis.

If Trump really did read Walt Kelly, he would know that the enemy is not the Mexicans, it is us.

Best of luck, Wiley.

Humor in AmericaHA! Intelligent writing about humor and stuff

Walt Kelly’s phrase, “We have met the enemy and he is us” derives from braggadocio during the War of 1812 in which commodore Oliver Hazard Perry reported, “We have met the enemy and they are ours” to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie. That phrase stands with John Paul Jones’s “I have not yet begun to fight,” and Julius Caesar’s “Veni, vidi, vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered) as one of the most famous battle reports in history.

Walt Kelly did not originate “We have met the enemy and he is us” in a cartoon strip. It was first used on a poster to promote Earth Day in 1970. Later, the artist put Porkypine and Pogo into a strip and attributed the phrase to Pogo as seen below.

https://humorinamerica.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/the-morphology-of-a-humorous-phrase/

A list of great cartoonists past, and none of Schulz, Larson, nor Watterson are on it?

Add George Herriman and Winsor McCay.

You can’t have great strips like those of the past with the modern constraints of modern newspapers. I think comic strips on the internet may return strips to former glory, since the artist can do what he wants, without a corporation forcing him into a box.

And it’s on with Pastis…but I do like Breathed bringing back Bloom County on-line, so NO EDITORS to deal with!

He’s talking about a time when comic strips were for entertainment purposes, and not used as political platforms……then came Doonesbury, which our local paper carried only on the Editorial Page………and still does. .

@night-gaunt49: thanks for the info and the link. Led to an interesting read and a reminder of just how good Walt Kelly was – and still is, as I have a collection of the Pogo books. Still read them, and I appreciate them even more during election cycles like this last fiasco.

Bill Holman (Smokey Stover) or Jimmy Hatlo (Little Iodine and They’ll do it Every Time) And boy, am I showing my age!

Fascinating Fact: Before he became famous for the long-running comic strip Pogo, Kelly work as an animator for another famous Walt…Walt Disney.

Wouldn’t it be funny if they gave the award to the wrong cartoonist? I thought it was hilarious when I heard about the Hollywood Hucksters show.

Alexikakos and others: Neil Wick came up with the above patch in Dick Tracy. It does fix most – though not all – of the problems.

I tried to post that fix to Endtown, but Go Comics kept breaking my line right at the “f” making it look like a space was needed – which it is not!

Don’t count your Pastis prize until the match.

Tried Pearls Before Swine and never liked it, not even once.

A few years back they made the Rubens award a once in a lifetime

Wiley and the Mastroianni boys should be right on top……..!!!

I would have voted for Stephan Pastis a few years ago. I think his strip has gone downhill a bit, but maybe it’s because of the discouragement of not winning this award. Give him a pity Reuben, and see if it gets better again.

I’m with Bernie’s plan, anyway. If they come for the swine, they may leave with the pearls.

Its all political. Just like the Oscars.

Maybe they should promise Pastis the award provided he no longer writes those agonizing pun strips.

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride…

Pearls is a sight better than Wiley when it comes to humor not stolen from some political rattrap.

Pastis DID win in 2018. Finally, a comic strip that’s actually funny without being backbiting.