Sorry, but huh?? The comic strip Mary Worth has always been a headscratcher for me. I've always been interested in comics. I used to read "the funnies" voraciously when I was little, and though I even managed to read (notice I didn't say enjoy) Dagwood, I always avoided the bizarre newspaper soap opera that is MW.Maybe it was the yawn inducing blandness of the story. Perhaps it was the awkwardness of the art, with people's mouths randomly hanging open, and entirely unnecessary hands lurking in the frame like lost birds. It also could have been the stilted, unnatural dialogue, I suppose. Nobody in Mary Worth really looks like a real person, and certainly no one talks like one. Below, Captain Kangaroo offers Aunt Bea's evil twin a little help with the groceries. 
Amazingly, Mary Worth has been in newspapers since the 1930s. I've known of its exisitence since I was little, I suppose, but it wasn't until just a couple hours ago that I came to appreciate just how creepy and entertaining this comic could be. The reason for my enlightenment was this.
The link goes to a little film series on Zerotv that recreates to the tee about a month's worth of Mary Worth strips. Seeing the scenes recreated and voiced by real people underscores how freakish the strip actually can be. Prepare to be confounded yet inexplicably riveted.
2 comments:
Good post, Steph! Remember that hideous "Cathy"... or preachy "Family Circus"... or the snooze-worthy hijinks of Beatle Baily? And to think I actually subscribed to the Archie Fan club! Now that I think about it, a regrettably huge part of my childhood was taken up with reading really un-funny comics.
Okay, that has just about got to be the best Internet find ever. Awesome, awesome, aweomse.
And I agree with Jane: I really can't believe I ever thought Garfield was funny.
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