From: dxf12@po.CWRU.Edu (Douglas Fowler)
Subject: How would you do it? (Was re: Family Circus)
Reply-To: dxf12@po.CWRU.Edu (Douglas Fowler)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 04:53:16 GMT


In a previous article, jchokey@leland.Stanford.EDU (James Alexander Chokey) says
:

>In article <Apr.7.17.14.07.1992.1764@electron.rutgers.edu> tvaughan@electron.ru
tgers.edu (Timothy E. Vaughan) writes:
>>Hooray!  Someone shares my loathing of this strip!  In college my
>>roommate and I had a contest to see which strip was stupider:
>>Family Circus or Nancy.  We each rated the strip every day for a month
>>or so, and the low score would be the stupider.
>>
>>I couldn't believe that Nancy was stupider, since I was betting on
>>Family Circus.  Maybe it was a statistical anomaly.  Anyway, I detest
>>both of them.
>>
>
>One of the best things I've ever heard about the Family Circus was a comment
>made in a Cleveland newspaper readers' poll on comic strips (from sometime
>in either January or March of 1990), wherein one reader wrote [slightly
>paraphrased]:  "I'd like to see all those obnoxious oval-headed kids shot,
>disembowled, and thrown into the Cuyahoga. And don't even ask me what I'd
>like to see happen to those stupid gremlins!"

     First of all, I'm sure this was in jest - that would clearly be abusive.
However, what is so obnoxious about them.  True, the gremlin stuff is BORING,
& - as I said in my letter to him - he needs new "cute kid stuff" material  But
cute, lovable kids are far from obnoxious.  They are an ideal.  Hey, I was
a great kid, maybe I grew up sheltered but I just haven't seen really bad
kids until recently (except for the occasional tease at school - I did get
teased a lot.)  I think they are like me in that they are ideal kids - maybe
sort of like "Leave it to Beaver."  Maybe Mr. Keane doesn't know how to handle
bad kids in a strip, but I'll tell you one thing it shows me:  Treat your
kids with respect, love, and compassion, and they'll be a little ornery at
times, but they *will* generally get along and they *will* respect you and
others!  Maybe that's what he's trying to teach.
     Would you rather see cute, well-behaved kids or unruly ones?  Which do
you want your kids to be like?  Keane is telling us that through love, we can
have good kids.
     Okay, how would *you* change it?  I'm challenging you to come up with
ways to improve it.  How would you change it? Admittedly, it's hard to do just
1 panel and have it be cute all the time - maybe that's it's problem.  Mr.
Keane could do that when it was his kids, and they were saying and doing
cute things all the time.  Maybe that's part of the problem; he needs new
material.  I've admitted that all along.   But I don't see how a person can
say such an abusive thing and not come up with ways to improve.
-- 
Doug Fowler: dxf12@po.CWRU.edu      :    "Every baby born into the world is
Real home: Canton, Ohio             :  finer than the last."--Charles Dickens
 Trying to follow in the path of our :     "A baby is an inestimable
Lord;anything close will be a success:  blessing and bother."--Mark Twain
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.strips