Sorry for the delay over the last few days. All the high demands of becoming a hugely successful blogger got to my head and I had to check myself into a home. Family members of mine considered me "a threat to myself and others around me." Go figure, right?
I know this isn't a political Marmaduke strip, but I just wanted to show I am up on Mr. Anderson's tricks. Take a look at this strip dated February 25 and then this one dated March 5. Just because one was a daily one-panel and the other was a Sunday multi-panel, he thought no one would notice that he wrote two strips with the EXACT SAME PUNCHLINE. I'm on to you, Anderson...
I hate to do this so close to when I started this blog, but as I am on Spring Break right now, I am travelling today to Boulder, Colorado. I will return Tuesday the 7th, when you can expect several new postings. Sorry for the inconvenience. -Jon
My name is Jon Katz, formerly of Kick The Leftist. And for the last eight years, I have read nearly every Marmaduke comic strip that has been published. I have not done this because I think it is a funny strip. In fact, it is not. For further explanation of this, I suggest you read my close friend Bill Benz's article So Much To See In One Panel. In it, he describes in great detail the long-standing struggle we have had with Marmaduke and his creator, Brad Anderson.
At first, I was satisfied with Bill's dissertation of the beloved Great Dane which has frustrated us for all these years. Then I came across this website, which demonstrates that the popular yet terrible comic strip Garfield is actually funny when you remove Garfield's thought bubbles. Doing this shows what life would actually be like for his owner, Jon. He does not have a witty cat, he has a regular cat. Jon is just insane.
So I got to thinking... what could make Marmaduke funny? Unlike Garfield, Marmaduke does not talk to us (though he can apparently talk to taxi cab drivers enough to tell them where he lives). Then it hit me. What if instead of being written by Brad Anderson, whose only background in comedy lies in the fact that he, too, owns a Great Dane, it was written by Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau, who has incorporated politics into his comic strip since 1970. In other words... what if Marmaduke went political??
What follows, therefore, is my attempt to answer this question. I will continue to read Marmaduke every day and, when applicable, I will update this blog with a new strip re-interpreted with a new tagline. I will preface this blog by acknowledging that I am a liberal, but I promise to be fair and balanced in my dog-based politics. Just like Fox News.
"Marmaduke Can Vote" is an unauthorized parody of the works of Brad Anderson. It is in no way affiliated with Mr. Anderson, the Marmaduke comic strip, or United Features Syndicate. But anyway, hey Brad, now that I have your attention, it's a joke. C'mon dontcha get it?
Hey, feel free to email me and tell me what you think of the strip directly. T M B Jon at gmail dot com. ;P