HE COULD MAKE US ALL LAUGH. IN THIS PARTICULAR HOME, THAT GAVE HIM AGENCY: Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Gene Weingarten doesn't write** terribly often, so when he does it's usually a must read. Today's Father's Day piece on starting a comic strip with his son Dan is no exception. [A link to the strip: Barney and Clyde.]
** Clarified: doesn't write long pieces very often. There's still the humor column.
I've followed and enjoyed the first bunch of Barney and Clyde strips, hope they get some traction.
ReplyDelete(FWIW: The best strip I'd been missing is Cul De Sac - focusing on a group of four year olds, specifically one named Alice, but also including a bit of her family and her peers. Kind of vaguely reminicent of Calvin, but not in a bad way (and in agreement, Bill Watterson, who wrote the forward to the first collection.) I recently went back and looked at all of them in collections and online and some of the creator Richard Thompson's other panel strip, Richard's Poor Almanack. Recommended.)
Technically, Weingarten writes every week--he has a humor column in the Post Magazine. But his longer pieces are, in general, much better than those columns.
ReplyDeleteWorth noting. Yeah.
ReplyDeleteSecond the recommendation for Cul De Sac.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think I was going to like Barney and Clyde, despite being a Weingarten fan - it sounded like a hokey idea (millionaire and homeless guy hang out, homeless guy shares his wisdom). But it's pretty good and I look forward to continuing to read it.
As someone looking forward to kids a few years down the road, definitely an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteHaving read many things that Gene has written, including his chat, this article surprised me on a certain level. He seems very self-aware but he totally missed the boat with his own kid. As a former teacher, it's not an uncommon sight but I am still surprised when it occurs. Parents are not objective and have a hard time making objective decisions in regards to their kids. This is a great article.
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