Candorville (11/9/09)

I use AT&T as my cell phone carrier, and have heard horror stories about massive bills people have piled up while on vacation. This seems to hit iPhone users especially hard, what with the international data charges piling up exponentially as they mindlessly check e-mail, surf the web or update their Facebook status. (Jane Q. Public is…having the time of her life in the south of France, not knowing that she’ll come home to a $5,000 phone bill!) Anyway, it would be a good idea for me to adjust my data plan before embarking on my Italian honeymoon early next year, even though Italy is not known to have a particularly bad wolf problem.

Candorville (10/14/09)

Judging by the number of people I know who have called in sick to work, flu season is now in full swing. The epidemic has even hit the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have three players suffering from “flu-like symptoms” going into their Nation League pennant series with the Philadelphia Phillies. I’m hoping those players recover fully before taking the field, lest they wander the outfield in a hallucinogenic state, taking orders from their snot.

Candorville (7/10/09)

I haven’t spent much time thinking about Michael Jackson since he passed away. I haven’t bought any of his albums (not even Thriller), haven’t watched clips from the memorial service and have only read one newspaper obituary, published the day after his death. But today’s Candorville puts the whole sad spectacle of his passing in perspective. The image of Jackson shedding his contemporary exterior and returning to the joyful promise of his youth is grotesque and moving all at the same time. It suggests that underneath Jackson’s troubled (and to some people, freakish) exterior was a genuine human spirit, and that his death, however tragic, might set that spirit free.

Candorville (6/25/09)

While I’m certainly not an expert on the subject, I have been following the debate over the proposed tweaking (and expansion) of our current healthcare system with some interest. A number of pundits have expressed concern over the inclusion of a government-run insurance plan that would compete with private plans. According to their logic, the government plan would be priced so low that it would put private insurers out of business. I find that scenario to be highly unlikely. Look at higher education, for example, where private universities, private trade schools and large state campuses have thrived alongside each other for years. If the government can’t carve out a monopoly in higher education (despite the amount of money it spends) then why would we be worried about the government dominating the healthcare market? If anything, the inclusion of a “public option” to compete with private plans might just keep everyone honest.

Candorville (5/10/09)

Like a lot of Americans, I was relieved when President Obama authorized a team of Navy SEALs to rescue the captain of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship from a trio of Somali pirates. The rescue came as a clear-cut victory for the good guys over the bad guys, especially given our military’s difficult and seemingly intractable assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. And while I imagined there was more to the story of modern-day piracy than I had seen in my local newspapers, I didn’t come across any meaningful context until reading today’s Candorville. This strip serves the same function as an informative and passionate op-ed article. It’s even reminiscent of the best of The Boondocks, which also presented pertinent facts and unpopular perspectives that were sorely lacking from the news and opinion pages.

Candorville (5/3/09)

I’ve heard of people throwing salt over their shoulder while standing in the kitchen or by a dining room table – places where salt would be readily available – but I’ve never heard of anyone doing it while walking down the street. Such an person could be described as hardcore superstitious, but I suppose everyone has their own curious habits such as walking around ladders. I’ve never heard of anyone nuzzling a Buddha belly for luck, but I can see the appeal. Of course, my favorite Chinese restaurant tchotchke is the golden cat statue with its perpetually waving paw. I don’t think they’re particularly lucky, but I do think they’re cool to look at.

Candorville and Pearls Before Swine (4/27/09)

It’s always interesting to see cartoonists draw characters from other comic strips since it offers readers a fresh take on a familiar drawing style. Today’s Candorville features an homage to Rat, the surly lead character in Pearls Before Swine. It’s a nice approximation of both drawing style and attitude, and comes across as a friendly shout-out to another fine comic strip.

Of course, there are also examples of cartoonists coordinating their crossover strips so that they appear on the same day. That may be the case here, given that today’s Pearls Before Swine blatantly poaches a Candorville storyline from December 2008, when bailout strips still seemed fresh.