When the Comics Curmudgeon Josh Fruhlinger takes a vacation,
Uncle Lumpy spells him as the comics’ caustic commentator.
Yet, Lumpy continues to see in the form he takes to task the potential to transcend its role as a mere diversion from the day’s news, “When it’s done really, really well,” he observes, “by developing and exploring characters like Ruthie Lombard (One Big Happy) or Janis Day (Arlo & Janis), comic strips have an economy of expression that’s close to poetry.”
It’s challenging, however, for Lumpy to crack wise about such sympathetic characters and the well-written strips in which they appear. As he explains, “it’s really hard to trash a strip that has characters you really like, which is why you’ll see Crock and Funky Winkerbean a lot more often than One Big Happy or my personal favorite, Arlo and Janis… I’ve tried for years to make fun of Arlo and Janis, but it always feels mean-spirited.”
This past week saw Uncle Lumpy taking a turn as comic strip critic,
so the Shepherd Express talked to him about the art of snark.
