Anyhoo, I love comics, and I kinda like the funnies. Honestly, once you've read original Sunday pages of "Little Nemo" at 18"x 24", it's hard to care about Garfield at a 2"x 6" strip of talking heads. I know there's art in it somewhere, but the way the newspaper comic business is failing (heck, the newspaper business PERIOD) is taking a toll on the quality of comic storytellers. It's all gags and small spaces and stuff. There's art in economy, but c'mon, there's a limit to what you can do with a panel the size of your thumb.
But "Zits" totally changed my mind. I mean, it's still small and dinky, but Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman are incredibly talented. I used to only apply this kind of art-talk to Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes," but seriously, I read one panel that was just beautiful in how it communicated. If I can find it.
Okay, didn't find the one I was looking for, but this one is good too, if only because I connect to it. The art style is that scratchy, textured kinda thing I like a lot. That's a personal preference. But there's definitely a personality to every line, and certainly a reason. The mix between exaggeration (both in the people and their dialogue balloons) and "real life" is almost perfect. There's the cliche kind of interaction between parents and their children, but the freshness comes from the fact that Jerry Scott never forgot what it's like to be 15. Heck, it was only three years ago, and I want to forget. It wasn't that bad, but there's no nostalgia, lemme tell you. And here's the reason why.
I could rant about how high school has invented the term and practice of "academic abuse," but that's another entry. Today, we have to admire Jerry Scott never letting go of all those beautiful, funny, and equally terrible things about compulsory, "lowest-bidder" education.
And look at that linework!
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