Strip update for Wednesday, Feb 13

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I’ve got a weird feeling. I feel I should say something austere and dignified, but my mind is curiously blank. I’m not sure what words apply.

Roy Scheider just died. You know Scheider, the actor who played the sheriff in Jaws. He was an A-list leading man for a few years in the 70’s and 80’s. His presence is somewhat iconic to me, I guess because I grew up watching his movies, but also because of the type of characters he played. He was the big screen embodiment of a man just trying to keep his head above water (sometimes literally). His best characters had grit and skill but were underdogs. He was great at bursting into scrappy little rants, usually ineffectual, but always cathartic to the audience. He was easy to cheer for.

He also put together a stunning piece of work in All That Jazz, Bob Fosse’s masterful musical that opened my young eyes to new avenues of storytelling. (And I don’t really like musicals.) Death and reflection were major themes in that film. I expect we’ll see endless clips on TV in the next day or two. What stands out for me, though, is the way he (and Fosse) brought his scrappy underdog character to life in amazing new ways. Suddenly he wasn’t Roy the feisty everyman battling for his humble slice of justice. He was Roy the shining talent battling his own self-destruction. He was a genius and an asshole and he celebrated and lamented himself in his own glorious imagination. Fosse’s outstanding writing, direction and choreography brought spectacle to the story; but Roy Scheider anchored it, kept it grounded, handed it to the audience with a shrug and a wink. Roy could do that, because he was Roy. He was never far from us.

I suppose it’s telling that his death affects me so quietly and deeply. Maybe I’ve always felt like the underdog, the self-destructive talent, the little guy trying to keep his head above water. Maybe he showed me I could celebrate and lament myself and still be a decent human being.

I dunno. It’s all wordless feelings. The kind where you want to visit the old pub you haven’t seen in years, and instead of talking, just raise a glass to the man. Maybe I should do just that.

Here’s to you, Roy. Nice job.

Strip update for Monday, Feb 11

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Strip update for Friday, Feb 8

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Strip update for Wednesday, Feb 6

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To you worthy readers from StumbleUpon: Welcome to the best webcomic you’ve read in the last ten seconds! See that ad right under the comic strip? It’s one killer site. Click on it; trust me.

If you Stumbled here and are actually reading this far, I’m impressed. You’ve avoided the Stumble Zombie Syndrome. Man, when I first installed that thing, I zombied away a whole evening in handy fifteen-second slices. It’s like crack for short attention spans.

If you didn’t Stumble here (or are reading this in the RSS feed) and have no idea what I’m talking about, there’s a browser plugin called StumbleUpon. You click it and get random sites recommended by other Stumblers. Talk about a tsunami of traffic. This webcomic has been blessed with tens of thousands of unique Stumblers since last weekend. I had to punch up the site’s bandwidth limit, just in case.

Cool.

I had other cubic zirconia of wisdom to impart in this post. But I’m coming down with something woozy and prickly and the bed is calling like a siren from the memory-foam. See you next time.

Strip update for Monday, Feb 4

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