Community Organizer and Comics Collector

An Onion story after my own heart.

Spidey Helps Obama; Obama Helps Spidey

My comics retailer, COMICS INK of Culver City, was good enough to save me a copy of this past week's issue of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, which reportedly sold out the day it was released. That's because it included a backup story in which Spidey, covering the inauguration as news photog Peter Parker, springs into action and foils a (really stupid) plot by his old enemy The Chameleon. The story obviously plays off of Obama's comments during the campaign that his favorite super-hero is Spider-Man.

As an old fan of Spidey's habit of trash-talking villains, I must admit I laughed out loud at his quip as he smashed Chameleon in the chops: "Ya hear that, Chameleon? The President-Elect here just appointed me . . . secretary of shuttin' you up!"

Cabinet Priorities

Here's a sign of the economic crisis's effect: on the front page of the LA Times, Obama's pick of Timothy Geithner for Secretary of the Treasury got a bigger headline than his pick of Hilary for Secretary of State.

Doonesbury "Accuracy"?

In what appears to be a successful publicity stunt, Garry Trudeau has announced that his already-created Doonesbury storyline for next week will announce Barack Obama as the winner of the presidential election.

The Los Angeles Times, in turn, has announced that if Obama loses, the Times will not publish the strips. Instead, it will publish reprints that the syndicate will make available.

I find the Times' concern for "accuracy" incredible. "Doonesbury" is not a news report. It is a comic strip in which one of the characters is an anthropomorphic cigarette butt.

Perhaps, in the interests of "accuracy," the Times comic strip editor should note that dogs, cats, coyotes, pigs and horses do not talk; that no human being has a nose as long as Darryl's in "Baby Blues"; that the kids in "Family Circus" are now retirement aged; and that Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead are in their 90's.