The Dave Knight Returns
Commentary: On
May 20, 2007 ~ 9 Comments
If I lavished special attention on Andrew’s guest art, it was because I’d never seen anyone put so much effort into something for me. Also, because I had a big old crush on him. Andrew was very proud when I posted his first set of Narbonic drawings, even emailing his big Italian family back in Ohio about it. (Andrew and I both grew up in Ohio. As we were soon to learn, as we visited each other in Ohio over the Christmas holidays, our parents live less than an hour apart.)
Helen and Mell have, of course, been shopping at Ellmann’s.
“On behalf of Gerbilation! The Popular Front for the Liberation ofOppressed Living and Dead Mutant Gerbils and Animals and PeopleEverywhere!, I urge everyone to strongly condemn and boycott the conceptof Alterna-Dave!!!
Dave will find true coolness only through correct understanding of classrelations that cause and sustain his alienation from self-actualizedpower. Dave cannot find true coolness in fantasy images. Those imageslead straight to self-delusion, frustration, and Dilbert-track careerpaths. The only real power comes from correct understanding of theforces of history. Um, OK, excellent code helps, and guns and handgrenades are pretty good too.
As I have argued elsewhere at greater length (Narbonic 9/3/00), inaddition to befuddling the Dave-class, such images strengthen therepressive apparatus of the Garritoonist Narbourgeoisie, andcorrespondingly increase the oppression of gerbilariat. Therefore Irepeat:
For Dave’s sake and the sake of Oppressed Living and Dead Mutant Gerbilsand Animals and People Everywhere!
DOWN WITH ALTERNA-DAVE! BOYCOTT ALTERNA-DAVE!
Prof. Andie W. Swell, Ph. C.
Assistant Professor of Reality Studies
Cartoon University, Orlando, Florida
“
—Ed Wells, 18 Dec. 2000
Sure, Andrew draws a cool Dave silhouette, but where’s the LOVE? Where’s the identification with the characters and the infinite wit that Shaenon always brought to the drawing table? Where’s the charm that, so much more than any comical eyebrow or slightly inaccurate gerbil, more than any gender-bending or robot-cloning adventure, made Narbonic what it was?
Oh, there it is. That voluminous flapping coat obscured my vision of it for a second there.
Is this the very first protest Shaenon’s characters called against the cartoonist?
Why, the very
Why, the very mutant gerbils protested against cartoonist oppression the third Sunday strip; of course they didn’t have solidarity with the readership. Look how well that worked… (Posted again to evade cartoonist censorship of links to the actual strips.)
This morning I got my Seanan McGuire sampler CD with “Maybe It’s Crazy” on it. Here, have a sample, everybody (selected from the bridge and a verse):
The perfect guy for me
In university
Was laughed at by all of his peers.
And now he’s off his head,
He’s bringing back the dead;
Been planning his revenge for twenty years!
I like a guy who breaks the laws of God and man;
Who laughs maniacally and always has to tell you his plan.
I’ll call him Master, and I’m eager to please —
I’m good around the lab and better down on my knees,
Oh, maybe it’s crazy, maybe it’s crazy,
Maybe it’s crazy, but baby, love usually is!
Ya know, Bruce Willis as Dave in the Narbonic movie would be kinda cool, actually. Well, ‘cept for him being a little old for the part, but maybe that could be allotted for in the script.
Oh wait, then the movie becomes All About Dave, hmm…..
Hey, fellow Ohioan here – I know from your past comments in the strip that you’re from Elyria, OH. I take it your husband’s family must live on the West Side of Cleveland, too? Just curious – I’m from Avon Lake, and I worked summers at EMH during high school.
Actually, I’m from Green, outside Akron. Andrew’s family is from Wellington, about an hour from Cleveland. He says his school played against Avon Lake.