Remembering Sunday

just before Monday

I’ll be honest with you. It’s becoming harder and harder to draw a (hopefully) funny little comic strip that does not contain any political commentary either deliberately or by inference.

Many comics contain political content. I read and enjoy them and feel that they are doing a good enough job. I can’t add to what CANDORVILLE, one of my favorites, is doing. So I keep playing for laughs without malice. My characters are generally very kind (except for Optima “Poppy” Populare, who is needed for story conflict. She is not a nice character, but is just a cartoon actress with a very limited range.) However, perceptions can vary, and you find this out P.D.Q. when you have an online strip where people can comment in real time.

One commenter on the GoComics site accused me of including political references in a strip that showed Sirius the puppy getting his tummy rubbed by college students during finals week back in April. I’m a retired college professor. This cartoon was based on an actual event that occurred in a Gesture Drawing class I taught in Rochester, many years ago. Therapy dogs, and puppies, were used to help relieve student stress on more than one campus that I taught at. Only the students’ hands were shown in the strip. You didn’t see the campus. The prominent caption reads “Happy National Therapy Animal Day” It is one of my favorite strips from this year. Here it is. I’m submitting it as part of my Reuben Award application in January. So, there.

FurBabies, April 30, 2024.

I made two exceptions to the ‘no political content’ rule.

This strip ran in December, 2023. It is a political allegory and can be applied to the conflict of your choice, although I did have one specific one in mind. I somehow managed to keep it funny.

FurBabies, December 10, 2023. The season of peace and brotherly (and sisterly) love.

Last year on November 11 I ran a strip for Remembrance Day featuring poppies (and puppy, and kitten.) The characters appeared in silhouette. Funny characters had no place in a strip with somber content. I had the kitten and puppy asking questions that young human children might ask about this day, which commemorates the death of millions of soldiers in the First World War and many more. They cannot understand why there was more than one. They are not seeing things from a human viewpoint. Cats and dogs fight over food, territory, and mates, never for ideologies.

I was not sure how the strip would be received. It turned out to be one of the most popular ones of 2023.

FurBabies, November 11, 2023.

This year’s November 11 strip will feature Kate with two poppies. One of them is white, the other is red. The red one commemorates the soldiers who died in war. The white one is the Vancouver Peace Poppy, which commemorates the civilian dead from all wars. Civilians have always suffered in war but prior to the advent of mass media their casualties were rarely reported. The advent of mechanised war meant that many more civilian deaths occurred. When I was young I saw horrific pictures in LIFE magazine. Electronic Mass Media now shows civilian tragedy as it is happening. Civilians had, and have, the worst of both worlds in wartime. They lost, and lose, sons, daughters, families, homes, livelihoods, mental health, and their lives.

The Vancouver Peace Poppy movement began in 2009 (* The British White Poppy movement dates from 1933) and I believe that it needs to be better known. Civilian deaths now make up the greater proportion of war deaths, as they explain on their site.

https://peacepoppies.ca/

Happy Remembrance Day. Do not forget the others.

The complete November 11 strip may be viewed here.

https://www.gocomics.com/furbabies/2024/11/11

Kate Buffet wears two poppies in FurBabies, November 11, 2024.