Fortunately or unfortunately, cartoonist Mary Fleener's own memory of the Bad Taste decade is all too sharp. Fleener was in the optimum place to observe the excesses of the time, since she lives on the coast of Southern California. The lackadaisical sound of the Eagles dominated the radio during those immemorial years, just as the slack morals of the Southern California style ruled our consciences. And you missed out on it all. Her characters sometimes look as if their heads were about to burst with neurotic energy.
Cartoons are perfect for capturing the frenzy of the moment.
They caricature the social distortion of the '70s, and the format easily telescopes time. Some of Fleener's stories cover 15 years in four pages, showing us how easily today's party girl can become tomorrow's Republican realtor. Unlike so many other observers of the times, the Jay McInerneys and Brett Easton Ellises, Fleener doesn't see the end of Western Civilization reflected in her every hangover. She turns her gossipy, sometimes cruel satire on herself. There's never a sense of bitchiness or that patronizing, lecturing tone that marks so many current sendups of the '70s.