Sky Masterson, Meet Mario Van Peebles

In the comic strip Curtis, Derek and Onion are bullies who beat up Curtis in the school yard. I think Curtis lives in the inner city somewhere -- not necessarily a bad, bad area, but I don't get the sense that he lives in a real upscale area, either. Despite all the horrible tales we hear about violence in inner city schools, these guys usually just beat him up for his lunch or lunch money. Awwww. They're like bullies from an era gone by. Speaking of:

Onion is the guy in the hood (I'm pretty sure "Onion" is his "street" name. You know when you go taking kids' lunch money, you do it under an alias). The other guy is Derek. He confuses me, to say the least. His hair-do: the fade? the . . . lines on the side of the head? (I don't know what they're actually called.) Well, it's straight out of New Jack City. Which means he should be doing worse things than stealing a kid's lunch money.

But then he speaks. "Makes poifect logic t'me!" "Poifect?"Is he from Guys and Dolls? Is he going to "The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York?"

Are they gangters or gangtas? It's so hard to tell.

Actually, "poifect" sounds more Three Stooges than anything.

Yesterday's umbrella post sparked some interesting comments. I think it's the first time we've seriously discussed how the strips are drawn. No consensus. Even our semi-resident comic artist isn't sure how this should be done. I am admittedly quick to criticize Drabble, and this may have been one of those instances. I have zero artistic talent, so maybe I should leave the art alone and should stick to criticizing the humor. By that logic, though, I'd need "humor talent," so forget it. I'll complain about what I want to complain about.

Some more votes for worst February Family Circus rolled in today. The Valentine's comic is gaining ground. I fear Emily may be running some sort of "Family Circus Veterans for Truth" campaign.