Terminal Kitty

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Feb 2

adamthealien:

My tumblr and Twitter feed are filling up with a new “Fuck you, Trudeau” meme. Webcomic authors & fans alike (myself included) are feeling a bit miffed at Doonesbury’s apparent flipping of the bird to online comics, today.

Now, I love Doonesbury. I also love newspapers. I don’t want print media to go away. That said, saying it’s the only way (especially for comics) is just plain insulting, and reeks of elitism.

All due respect to Gary Trudeau, whose work I adore and respect, but this strip represents an archaic, narrow-minded, elitist mindset.

I hope this meme spreads.

Sources:

The Doonesbury strip in question, as it appears in Doonesbury’s online edition. Can you feel the irony?

PvP’s Scott Kurtz tweets his insertion. (Read PvP)

Templar, Arizona’s Spike tweets the strip as it appears in The Oregonian. (Read Templar, Arizona)

The meme begins, as webcomic author/Illustrator David Willis inserts a page from Aaron Diaz’s Dresden Codak into the blank space. (Read Dresden Codak)

David Willis continues the meme with an insertion from one of his own webcomics. (Read Dumbing of Age)

Linkara from Atop The Fourth Wall inserts himself. (Watch Atop The Fourth Wall)

Gunnerkrigg Court insertion. (Read Gunnerkrigg Court)

Garfield Minus Garfield insertion. Possibly my favorite; the meme going meta, in an all too fitting way. (Read Garfield Minus Garfield)

Thanks for collecting these!

Also, I love Doonesbury, but any veteran cartoonist should really know that leaving a big empty spot is just asking for it. Filling blank spots is what cartoonists do.

The meme is funny, but damn comic creators are assholes. I don’t just mean Trudeau, either. He has made some comments in the past that have easily been interpreted as attacks against webcomics. But I’m pretty sure that strip didn’t have anything to do with webcomics.

Trudeau has been making comics about the decline of print media for a long fucking time. This is just one more joke in a long series about how newspapers are dying. He’s not saying there aren’t going to be comics at all or shit like that.

I do like that people are pointing out that the “empty space” is going to be filled with lots of comics. It’s meant a lot to my human to be able to continue their tradition of reading comics every morning, without needing to get a pile of garbage delivered every day in guise of news. The “empty space” never had a chance to actually be empty. It’s filled with so many great comics. Fuck, it’s filled with Doonesbury, since Doonesbury can be found online and probably will continue to be, even if traditional print newspapers cease to exist completely.

Actually wait.