# Mallard Fillmore's favorite duck pond **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2006, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866 "2006-05-23T04:27:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/21 "2006-05-24T21:58:03Z")
From the [Wikipedia Entry on Berke Breathed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berke_Breathed): > [@](#): > > In the beginning, the strip’s style was so close to that of another popular strip, Doonesbury, that creator Garry Trudeau wrote Breathed several times to point out the similarities. Breathed has acknowledged that he borrrowed liberally from Doonesbury in his early career. In the Outland collection “One Last Little Peek,” Breathed even puts an early Bloom County side-by-side with the Doonesbury it obviously took its idea from. Trudeau has also criticized Breathed for copying other cartoonists works. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/22 "2006-05-24T22:07:27Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] In a few strips, Breathed also took shots at Charles Schulz while he was alive for the way he let his characters be used to sell anything (in particular, Metropolitan Life Insurance). Granted, it was an obvious target for criticism but you still don’t often see one cartoonist publicly take another one to task (especially someone who was regarded as a titan in his field like Schulz). It seems to be an “11th Commandment” among cartoonists and Tinsley violated it even more flagrantly. [/QUOTE] According to Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s _Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz_, Al Capp poked fun at _Peanuts_ in _Li’l Abner_, particularly the way the children and Snoopy act and talk nothing like little children. This would have been in the early 1960s, when Schulz was at the height of his early career, receiving various awards and magazine coverage. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/23 "2006-05-24T22:36:29Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] Patrick Kennedy’s recent crash gave Mallard a chance to dust off his favorite sharp stick. [/QUOTE] Aw c’mon, let’s cut Tinsley some slack. He wants to be topical and edgy…but he can in no way say anything that reflects badly on conservatives in general or the Bush Administration in particular – which means he has practically zero material to work with. Having a Kennedy in a car crash was a godsend…otherwise he’d be reduced to creating another “Education Establishment” strawman and hitting it with a stick. (I notice that it’s been several months since he drew one of his worshipful portraits of G.W. Bush gazing steadfastly into the future with flags and eagles in the background…for Tinsley, this absence amounts to a scathing condemnation.) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/24 "2006-05-25T14:28:27Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] Al Capp poked fun at _Peanuts_ in _Li’l Abner_, particularly the way the children and Snoopy act and talk nothing like little children. [/QUOTE] Chester Gould also made fun of _Peanuts_ and the general Schulz style in _Dick Tracy_. He created a cartoonist character in the early sixties who drew a strip called _Sawdust_, which consisted of two little piles of schmutz having weighty conversations. Dick and all the other cops followed it religiously. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/25 "2006-05-25T14:57:14Z")
[QUOTE=Ukulele Ike] Chester Gould also made fun of _Peanuts_ and the general Schulz style in _Dick Tracy_. He created a cartoonist character in the early sixties who drew a strip called _Sawdust_, which consisted of two little piles of schmutz having weighty conversations. Dick and all the other cops followed it religiously. [/QUOTE] And Al Capp did “Fearless Fosdick,” which was pretty vicious about Dick Tracy. Actually, Capp in his later years was a lot like Tinsdale: virulently conservative and unfunny – plus he repeated the joke all week. “Pearls Before Swine” takes potshots at a lot of strips, but it’s less vitriolic. I have seen other strips (Jane’s World) shoot right back. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/26 "2006-05-25T15:13:02Z")
Al Capp’s and Chester Gould’s digs at Schulz were friendly. The only one I can think of who’s taken real digs ( besides Breathed and Tinsley) - where the bitter seemed to outweigh the funny - was Frank Cho making fun of “Cathy.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/27 "2006-05-25T15:14:31Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] And Al Capp did “Fearless Fosdick,” which was pretty vicious about Dick Tracy. [/QUOTE] “Fearless Fosdick” never struck as real insults - but I’ve only read them in collections. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/28 "2006-05-25T16:17:14Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] “Pearls Before Swine” takes potshots at a lot of strips, but it’s less vitriolic. I have seen other strips (Jane’s World) shoot right back. [/QUOTE] _Get Fuzzy_ recently did a week of strips based on the premise that the art for _Pearls_ was accidentally delivered to Darby Conley’s house. Several strips of _GF_ that week consisted of that same day’s strip from _Pearls_ with Satchel’s head superimposed on one of the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/29 "2006-05-25T16:50:24Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] _Get Fuzzy_ recently did a week of strips based on the premise that the art for _Pearls_ was accidentally delivered to Darby Conley’s house. Several strips of _GF_ that week consisted of that same day’s strip from _Pearls_ with Satchel’s head superimposed on one of the characters. [/QUOTE] True, but when the strip you’re making fun of is so obviously in on the joke, it’s a whole nother kettle. Pearls before Swine did a scathingstrip making fun of Cathy awhile ago–I think that the happy last panel had Cathy’s mouth duct-taped shut. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/30 "2006-05-25T17:00:16Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] True, but when the strip you’re making fun of is so obviously in on the joke, it’s a whole nother kettle. Pearls before Swine did a scathingstrip making fun of Cathy awhile ago–I think that the happy last panel had Cathy’s mouth duct-taped shut. l [/QUOTE] Oh, absolutely. I actually had meant to note that it was obvious that both artists were in on the joke (since Pastis had to get the strips to Conley well before they were published). ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/31 "2006-05-25T19:43:05Z")
[QUOTE=bup] Al Capp’s and Chester Gould’s digs at Schulz were friendly. The only one I can think of who’s taken real digs ( besides Breathed and Tinsley) - where the bitter seemed to outweigh the funny - was Frank Cho making fun of “Cathy.” [/QUOTE] True. Tinsley’s attack on Trudeau basically said, “‘Doonesbury’ is an irrelevant, rotting, and unfunny pile of left-wing suckitude that wastes valuable space on the comic page and is still running only because the liberals control the media.” I can’t think of another cartoonist (not even Breathed) who so harshly attacked another in his comic strip. (I also seem to recall some other strips were Tinsley went after Trudeau by way of his wife, Jane Pauley, but I could be wrong.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/32 "2006-05-25T22:49:08Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] True. Tinsley’s attack on Trudeau basically said, “‘Doonesbury’ is an irrelevant, rotting, and unfunny pile of left-wing suckitude that wastes valuable space on the comic page and is still running only because the liberals control the media.” [/QUOTE] In those words?! ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/33 "2006-05-25T23:06:11Z")
Just because I’m apparently masochistic, I’ve been looking at some of the older MF strips. Someone here used to defend it by saying that Tinsley’s a great charicaturist, but he really does a terrible job of drawing Ray Nagin. His drawing of him looks like Tina from A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. It’s on the second to the bottom strip on [this page](http://jewishworldreview.com/strips/mallard/2000/mallard020606.asp). ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/34 "2006-05-26T00:09:56Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] In those words?! [/QUOTE] Well, not those _exact_ words but that was what he meant. (Actually, it would’ve been a lot funnier if he had phrased like that. Unfortunately, Tinsley isn’t that outrageous or clever.) ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/35 "2006-05-26T16:30:32Z")
Even if MF had no obvious, tired political axe to grind, it still suffers from the fact that it isn’t even remotely funny. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/36 "2006-05-26T16:43:39Z")
Funny thing is, MF owes its syndication to Doonesbury, as near as I can tell. Only times I’ve seen MF in print was when it was right next to Doonesbury on the Editorial page, as if the editors figured that they needed to have balance in the comic-strip world. If Doonesbury ceased to exist, why on earth would anyone pay to keep MF in print? Daniel ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/37 "2006-05-26T19:06:36Z")
The existence of MF is indeed justified by the demand for “equal time” with the likes of Doonesbury, but I suspect that a lot of editors run it in order to make conservatives look bad by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/38 "2006-05-26T19:09:57Z")
So where are the _good_ conservative-oriented comic strips they’re keeping from us, then? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866/39 "2006-05-26T19:23:47Z")
I have a soft spot in my heart for _Prickly City_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mallard-fillmores-favorite-duck-pond/357866.md?page=1)