{"id":721,"date":"2007-06-12T11:36:05","date_gmt":"2007-06-12T15:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.benzilla.com\/?p=721"},"modified":"2007-06-12T11:37:11","modified_gmt":"2007-06-12T15:37:11","slug":"in-defense-of-lio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benzilla.com\/?p=721","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Lio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Various local bluenoses here in Winston-Salem got worked into a froth a while back when our local paper, The Winston-Salem Journal, rearranged the comics page, dropping Peanuts<\/em> reruns and adding Lio<\/em> to that prime spot on the front page of the comics section. Relentless griping ensued, and as a result Beyond the Hedge<\/em> was dropped, Peanuts returned, and Lio <\/em>moved into the interior of the comics section.<\/p>\n

That hasn’t appeased these grousers, however, and there’s been a steady stream of complaining about the continued presence of Lio<\/em>. My favorite letter, is the following, which was a response to Lio<\/em> cartoonist Mark Tatulli’s spot-on parody of the inexplicably well-loved strip For Better or For Worse<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The March 25 comic strip For Better or Worse was a blessing to me as a subscriber to the Journal and an avid reader of the Sunday comics.<\/p>\n

Lynn Johnston, its creator, is to be commended for putting forth a family-friendly feature. I was especially touched by its final frame, in which John and Elly Patterson pledge, after visiting her elderly parents, to keep falling in love with each other if one or the other of them loses his or her memory.<\/p>\n

Unhappily, I was not blessed to read Mark Tatulli\u2019s Lio, in which John and Elly\u2019s family was spoofed. The family-friendly behavior of Lynn Johnston\u2019s creation was reversed to portray the very opposite, all in the name of entertainment. Fie, for shame!<\/p>\n

WILLIAM K. ACH<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the strip in question:<\/p>\n

\"i070325lio.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, you think I was just being a jerk when I used the term “bluenoses” now? You gotta love that last line: “Fie, for shame!<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

WON’T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!<\/p>\n

Anyway, given that people apparently like to write to papers to bitch about this kind of stuff, and that comics editors are notorious for responding to said bitching by dropping the strips in question (a situation which obviously leads to a comics page noteable mainly for being bland, innocuous and insipid) I thought I’d further my newfound role as a letter-writing crank, by writing the editorials page in support of Lio<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s well known that folks are quick to complain, yet slow to complement, and certainly this propensity has been in clear evidence since The Journal had initially dropped \u201cPeanuts\u201d and added Mark Tatulli\u2019s \u201cLio\u201d to the comics page. <\/span>I\u2019d like to buck this trend, however, and voice my wholehearted support for your addition of \u201cLio.\u201d Tatulli\u2019s strip is visually challenging, innovative and quite funny. Aside from \u201cMutts,\u201d it\u2019s just about the last bastion of quality cartooning evident among current offered newspaper strips. <\/span>As for those folks who have complained that the strip is \u201cmorbid,\u201d they need look no further than a strip or two to one side of \u201cLio\u201d to witness true morbidity: strips like \u201cBlondie\u201d and \u201cDennis the Menace\u201d which continue to shamble on lifelessly, decades after their creators have shuffled off this mortal coil.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Various local bluenoses here in Winston-Salem got worked into a froth a while back when our local paper, The Winston-Salem Journal, rearranged the comics page, dropping Peanuts reruns and adding Lio to that prime spot on the front page of the comics section. Relentless griping ensued, and as a result Beyond the Hedge was dropped, … <\/p>\n

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