Last Place Wisdom: A much needed response
This has been the longest I've ever gone without a blog post. I don't even have an excuse around the fact that I have 3 kids. Despite my love and interest in the TFLOEG being as strong as ever, I just haven't felt the desire to write much of anything these days, and so it hasn't happened nearly to the extent that it once did. I've read before that in order to maintain a blog as a hobby (this is such a early 2000s thing, back when the internet was good, as opposed to today's podcast world (which is probably why we are seeing a renaissance in the TFLOEG podcast this season)), you have to really love the process of writing, and to be honest I just don't these days.
That said, given the recent drama and outlandish events that have transpired in the TFLOEG, I felt compelled to have my say and let my unfiltered thoughts be known to the rest of the league. So, to use the soapbox and platform that this space gives me, I need to set the record straight and fix the outlandish events that have come out that threaten to tear our fantasy league apart.
IS GARFIELD REALLY BEING COMPARED POSITIVELY TO CALVIN & HOBBES? Are you kidding me Travis? I'm no Garfield hater; I bought multiple Garfield Fat Pack's from Scholastic book sales back in the day. There was a time when the Garfield cartoon (and it's fantastic opening song) was my favourite show on TV. But to sit on your podcast and imply that Garfield is both the superior product than Calvin & Hobbes and somehow the original product or inspiration for it offends me deeply and can only come from a place of deep ignorance.
So, in order to fix the hurt that Travis caused, and to save the integrity of the TFLOEG in the eyes of anyone who might have been listening 2 hours and 15 minutes into an obscure fantasy football podcast; we need a Power Powell Ranking.
First, to establish my bona fides, I agree that a Garfield Fat Pack is a pretty good Christmas present. I would know, because it became a regular Christmas tradition for my parents to get me a collected book of cartoons; from basically like 8 - 30 years old, leading to a pretty decent collection. They are still one of the best reasons to get a hard copy of a news paper, despite their decline in recent years.
Power Powell Comic Strip Rankings
- Calvin & Hobbes - The only possible reason you can not have this as #1 is to be some sort of contrarian hipster. It is well drawn, deals with both serious and ridiculous topics, and maintained a consistently high standard from start to finish. Bill Watterson was concerned more about the integrity of the art than anyone else, setting it at the opposite end of Garfield and Jim Davis where there is nothing that won't be monetized (no judgement, it is what it is). My description doesn't do it justice; if you've never read Calvin & Hobbes, pick it up and enjoy the absolute pinnacle of the medium.
The snowmen strips were always my favourite - The Far Side - A trailblazer in terms of being willing to be edgy and ridiculous, and it's single panel style, has created a multitude of copycats so you can read an inferior copy in newspapers to this day. Gary Larson created a ripples in the field when he came back revitalized after 25 years with his new online comics. The simple panels and memorable jokes have stuck with people perhaps more than any other.
- Fox Trot - One of my personal favourites; this comic is your typical American Family comedy. With a nerdy younger son and a sports obsessed teenager, this strip connected with teenage me more than any other. Filled with Pop Culture references, it was perhaps ahead of it's time considering a lot of these themes seem to be staples of more recent web-based options.
- Blondie - Dagwood is an American hero and the fact is has been running for 90 years is pretty darn impressive. Also, we get strips like this out of it:
- Zits - After losing Calvin, Far Side and Fox Trot; Zits became the most recent go-to that my parents started buying for me. It's a teenage coming of age strip, consistently good but never truly achieving greatness.
- Dilbert - I follow Scott Adams more for political and current event comments these days. When it first came out, Dilbert was fresh and modern; it was truly a strip of the late 90s in my mind. Since then, it has lost a lot of it's more creative concepts, but still manages to cover office humour unlike any other.
- Peanuts - The comic was never great in my mind, but Charlie Brown Christmas is a treasure, and that probably bumps it up a few spots.
- Garfield - It's achieved incredible cultural reach, but beyond this it's not really known for a lot. Not particularly funny most of the time, it's telling that the most influential aspect of it is the memes; Garfield without Garfield, Pipe Garfield, Buff Garfield.
- Hagar the Horrible, Wizard of ID, BC - These are all throwbacks to a previous age; they're occasionally funny, never too memorable, but stable and dependable.
- For Better or Worse - I wonder if we have Can-Con laws to thank for this not particularly funny comic strip. I understand why some people might enjoy it, it was never me.
- Family Circus - Incredibly cheesy and sincere. There are certainly worse comics out there (ie all the Serious Comic strips I remember as a kid that I always skipped over), but perhaps none that have lasted quite as long.
You might have come to this blog expecting fantasy football talk...sorry for disappointing you, but after listening to the podcast you can't be surprised by tangents. Maybe you came here expecting me to stick to a theme in the style of TENET, given the previous attention focused on Christopher Nolan. While I really enjoyed the movie, I don't think I'm creative enough to come up with a theme going in two directions at once, and I'm not sure I understand it enough to go into any deep dives after one viewing. In any case, one day I will return to posting the fantasy football takes you have come to expect
On the Next Last Place Wisdom
- I have to respond to another outrageous comment made on the podcast.
- We all pick sides after a stat correction in the finals, and I assume my position of anti-commissioner due to my strong anti-correction stance.
- I bring out my own parody song
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