Tag Archives: comics

The Saturday Comics: Mandrake The Magician (2012)

16 Jun

June 16th, 2012

We continue our look at past Saturday Comics features to see what they are up to now. The last time we checked in with Mandrake the Magician, I was a fan of the strip, including the art. This is what I wrote on March 26th, 2011, in the second ever Saturday Comics:

This is a classic strip that does everything right. The art is great- look at the coloring. Notice how Mandrake stands out? And the rest of the coloring works perfectly with the subject matter. The illustration is top-notch. The strip is atmospheric and moody and genuinely creepy. Even the lettering gives you an old-school vibe. That is no small feat to accomplish each day in three or four panels. And the writing? This was the first time I’ve seen Mandrake in years and it was easily accessible but got me right into the story.

It is a zippy little story that keeps the essential elements of Mandrake but successfully moved it into the modern era. Here is a week’s worth of Mandrake the Magician. Enjoy!

So what has happened in the fifteen months since? Let’s take a look at a recent run of strips.

Last year, my praise of the art brought a quick and passionate argument from the readers, especially Mac, who totally disagreed with me and violently hated it. And now, over a year, later, I agree with im. That art is pretty bad. It is the same artist and he is using the same color palate and effects but this run seems more rushed and less skilled. It really looks sketchy.

And the story? It doesn’t move. I’ve been through this before with other serials, but this is glacially slow. Remember you are seeing this all at once, but this actually unfolded over the course of six days, with a day out for an unrelated Sunday strip.  

The best Mandrake can do is a hippo illusion? This strip does not do comedy well. If Mandrake is such a great magician and illusionist I am sure he could get the information out of them some other way.

So the verdict on Mandrake one year later? This strip has gone downhill, both in terms of art and story. 

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The Saturday Comics: Popeye (2012)

9 Jun

June 9, 2012

I love Popeye. Absolute classic character, absolute classic strip. In its EC Segar heyday, it was perhaps the most well-written strip out there. Amazing adventure arcs, humor, and of course that burly armed sailor. We all know the strip: spinach, Olive, Bluto, Swee’ Pea, Alice the Goon, and on and on.

Don’t know Popeye? Before we go on, check out these past posts:

Popeye the Establishment Man
Popeye-Palooza!
The Saturday Comics: The Phantom, Day by Day (Popeye shows up at the end.)

There’s more but those should tell you what Popeye is all about. And a good thing too since the current Popeye strip is so generic as to be unrecognizable.

That’s just sad. Those could be any characters in any strip. In fact it probably was. Where is the characterization? Where are the classic tropes we all know and love? OK, maybe I just found one bad strip.

No, I found two bad strips.  And it isn’t two out of six thousand, it is two out of five, which is all King Features puts online anymore. Again, that’s Popeye? It is a generic strip. Replace those characters with any characters you make up yourself and it changes the humor not a single iota. The only sop to the old-time grandeur of the strip is Poopdeck’s cursing, which was a staple of the character way back when. But in this PC era, in this lame strip, it just seems so odd.

What the? Popeye is making a Simpsons joke? And what’s Olive doing with the Sea Hag? She’s Popeye’s sworn enemy? Oh, this hurts, deep, deep hurting.

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