I read the news online; about the only thing in newspapers that’s worth reading (IMHO) is the comics. And then, only because there’s always a newspaper on the break table at work. Recently, the Detroit Free Press pulled the comic strip ‘Curtis’ for several days. When it returned, a day or two ago, I noticed a small blurb in the paper saying that the editor had temporarily pulled the strip because of what he considered to be inappropriate subject matter.
I prefer to make up my own mind about what is or isn’t appropriate subject matter, thank you very much. So, what happened? Last I saw, Curtis had gotten a huge patch of his hair cut off, so his buddy Gunk gave him some kind of magic potion to make his hair grow back. Now the comic is back and, as expected, something apparently went wrong. But what was it?
Hmmm. Curtis gave the potion to Michelle without telling her to use only the tiniest amount, and to wear gloves while applying it. She wanted something to set her apart from other girls auditioning for a role. What she got was a beard, hairy hands, etc. She was extremely mad at Curtis (still is, though in today’s strip her beard has shrunk to stubble). What the heck anyone could see as inappropriate about this story line eludes me.
Maybe it was the March 27th strip. Curtis finds a video game in the library computer which features "hooded klansmen launching fiery watermelons from a noose at basketball dribbling black people who scream “ooga ooga” when hit.
And to complete the trilogy of sickness, I discovered this by typing “comic strip curtis” into the Google groups search engine. The first usenet post found was in the “alt.flame.niggers” group by someone wondering if such a program exists. I don’t feel so well.
Duck and evil, I read OP to say it was last week’s strips, AFTER Gunk gave Curtis the potion, that disappeared. He’s asking about last week, you’re talking about last month.
I’d say that the late March strips were probably what nailed it. I definitely don’t remember reading those strips. The hair strips sound pretty innocent, but I don’t remember seeing anything about Michelle using the potion recently. I suppose that it’s possible that they did show those strips, and I just missed seeing it somehow. Can any Doper who gets the Detroit Free Press confirm that Curtis was/wasn’t run last week?
Curtis was run last week. The only missing strips are the three where he’s in the library and he and the librarian are talking about the game. The strip Why A Duck quoted was the first one pulled. The following Saturday strip is the one where Gunk shows up, and they haven’t cut it since.
By the way, I called up at the time and complained, although I didn’t realize it was as bad as it was when I called. Still, I’d rather they moved it somewhere less sensitive, rather than just censoring it.
The DFP pulls comics a lot, and not just for “offensive” comics. They’re doing it right now with Cathy (they claim Cathy is on vacation).
The Chicago Tribune also says that Cathy is on vacation for a few weeks and is running a replacement strip. Since they don’t have a history - that I’m aware of - of pulling comics, I would bet that this is quite possible. Either that, or whatever reason it’s not being published for isn’t just an issue with one paper, perhaps some issue with the syndicate.
I would assume the game referenced in Curtis is Ethnic Cleansing, a first person shooter. I’m sure you can find information regarding the game on google if you’re interested in this tawdry affair.
It was there, eh? Apparently, I got confused about when/how long the strip was pulled. What I think probably happened was: when Curtis was pulled at the end of March, I assumed that it had been dropped permanently, so I stopped looking for it. In the DFP, Curtis is at the very bottom of the page, so I didn’t notice when it reappeared. I certainly wasn’t looking for Why A Duck :razz:
It was there, eh? Apparently, I got confused about when/how long the strip was pulled. What I think probably happened was: when Curtis was pulled at the end of March, I assumed that it had been dropped permanently, so I stopped looking for it. In the DFP, Curtis is at the very bottom of the page, so I didn’t notice when it reappeared. I certainly wasn’t looking for Why A Duck
When I saw the article in the paper from the editor, I looked again and found Curtis, but I forgot that it had been a couple of weeks since I’d seen it. I must sound like a complete airhead, but it’s not like I live for this comic or anything. It was just one of those odd bits of trivia that you notice.
All this still leavs one anomaly: I’m sure that I remember reading the strip the day that Curtis’ hair grew back (the hair was sprouting out of Curtis’ head in two or three long strands). How could I have read this, and not realized that the strip had re-appeared? :o
Oops. Sorry Duck! :o :o :o I misread ZenBeam’s post, and I thought that “Why a Duck” was the name of that really lame strip that replaced Curtis for a few days. Can you tell that I have alot of hard days at work?
:o