Modified On July 5, 2004
Over the cybertransom comes a press release with this lead paragraph:
Mac King, headlining comedian and magician on the Las Vegas Strip, launched his comic strip “Mac King’s Magic in a Minute,” a weekly comic being syndicated by Tribune Media Services (TMS). The comic first appeared in Las Vegas Review-Journal on July 4.
Brilliant, yes? A nice comic strip, you know… for kids! What with all the edginess on the comics page these days (Boondocks, Doonesbury, etc.), editors are no doubt itching to include more comic strips that are actually for kids. When Jim Davis, the creator of the benign strip Garfield, got heat for creating an even benigner (if that’s not a word, try “dumber”) strip called US Acres, he defended it by saying (and we’re paraphrasing here), “even the simpletons need a comic strip.” Not to say that Mr. King’s strip is for simpletons. It’s for, you know… kids. However, in the rush to appear hip, even Nancy started getting complicated once in a while! There’s a lot of cash to be made by syndicating a strip that is innocent, simple and non-offensive. (Let’s just hope that King doesn’t get reamed by his colleagues for revealing too many secrets like that guy on Fox with the satin bag on his head!)