one silver lining in the dark cloud: the demise of Diversity Lane

Cafe Society
#1

To his credit, he didn’t use his farewell address below to blame the liberal-controlled media directly for his failures, or indirectly for wrecking the economy.
Dear Readers:

*It was a great experiment, but unfortunately Diversity Lane has been unable to bring in enough money to support the time I was putting into it. Were we living in a healthy economy this cartoon series could have been a hobby for me, but since my freelance work has taken a major hit these last few years I had been hoping to turn this project into something profitable. Alas, as of this month I have been unable to procure syndication for the strip from any of the several houses to whom I submitted samples, and that pretty much ends my hopes of getting a sustainable paycheck out of this thing. Thanks to all who enjoyed the drawings, your enthusiasm kept me going with the project far longer than I would have been able to otherwise.

–Zack Rawsthorne*

#2

Who the what now?

#3

Since this is about a comic, I’m going to move it to Cafe Society.

#4

I’ve never heard of this before now and it appears that’s because it’s terribly drawn, not funny and the creator doesn’t understand how to make the internet work to his advantage.

#5

Which wouldn’t be a problem except Mallard Fillmore is already filling that niche in the newspapers.

#6

I read some of his samples. Uniformly terrible. The comparison to Mallard Fillmore is entirely apt.

#7

Wow, I just looked at the samples and those are dire. Out of fifteen comics, a third were about racism? And three of them were the exact same joke – “No African-American toys”. Way to explore the comic medium there, buddy.

Edit: Oops… six out of fifteen were about racism, not five. That’s not counting the mosque one.

#8

Mallard Fillmore is higher quality.

#9

Wow, that would have to improve significantly to rise to “mediocre”. Bil Keane was a genius by comparison.

And no, it has nothing to do with his politics. I am a big fan of P. J. O’Roarke, and though our politics couldn’t be further apart, he’s funny.

#10

The comics are well-drawn in a style that I usually associate with advertising art of the '60s. But good grief, they are so unfunny it’s painful. The jokes are like something my uber-conservative colleague (an amateur cartoonist himself) would come up with, were he to impersonate, Sacha Baron Cohen-style, a liberal humorist. They’re only funny if you already subscribe to the worst, and stupidest, stereotypes of liberals.

#11

Actually, one of them was kind of cute:

(butch-ish lesbian holding up child’s ruffly party dress)

“I’m fine with Jayson wanting to be a girl, but why does he have to be this kind of girl?”
Mostly, though, yeah, pretty hopeless. The cartoonist needs to learn that the key to making fun of something is being actually amused by it, not just obsessively bitter.

#12

Egad, that’s bad. Now I get the thread title.

#13

Jesus what a GHASTLY comic, I first thought it was a work of satire on some kind of uber progressives, I mean explain this:

http://www.diversitylane.com/images/samples/diversity%20lane_devon%20angry%20over%20doll%20wedding_2.jpg

Yes exactly that is what progressives do, force little girls to play with black Ken dolls.

#14

I like the way it is drawn.
The rest is total shite.

#15

Yeah. One gets the impression that he’s never spent a moment with a real progressive in his life. So instead of his jokes being grounded in reality, they’re weird bitter fantasies.

#16

Speaking as the token SDMB voice of the Right…

I never heard of this guy or the strip, so it’s all the same to me whether he continues or not.

#17

I didn’t think it was possible to write a strip less funny than Mallard Filmore.

Ignorance fought.

What a dire, unfunny example of “satire.”

#18

It’s the same with Mallard Filmore. In addition, no one in either strip shows the slightest sign of having a personality.

The gold standard for political humor in comics, Pogo, did more than just political jokes and was filled with weird and wacky characters whose personalities stood out. The political targets also had personalities (consider the final “appearance” of Simple Joe Malarkey, who was completely recognizable even though his face wasn’t shown). Neither of these strips showed any life in the characters, nor did they exist except to make political comments,

#19

Even when Al Capp turned Dogpatch all weird and bitter, he continued with the characters and humor.