Capes-n-Babes

So before I went on that trip to Virginia Beach to participate in the Little League Challengers Jamboree/World Series, I had a open call for guest strips. Last week, you got to enjoy two terrific colored strips by Donald Poquiz (more on that in a moment) but there was another guy who sent me a guest strip featuring Roy and Roni in the world of True Blood.

From time to time, a few people occasionally write me and tell me I should do something like that but I never know what to do. I enjoy the show a lot. In fact, I got a pretty big kick out of the fact that in one episode, “Bleeding Love” played in the background while the red haired vampire (I forget her name) and her human boyfriend were “getting it on”. I got a big kick out of that because a few months earlier, when I first introduced Roni to the strip, the whole reason her and Roy hooked up was because they both liked “Bleeding Love”.

Anyway, I hadn’t really thought of a good way to merge Capes & Babes and True Love – even though it seemed obvious. But then I got Chris’ strip and a bigger idea hit me… and you’re reading it now. So Chris, I hope you don’t mind becoming a Weird World News reporter in the Capes & Babes universe. Everyone, go give Chris’ strip a read. You can find it at www.adogslifecomic.com.

Now, let’s talk a little bit about Donald’s strip that I ran on Monday…

I had a little discussion in the comments section with Shadowhawk about Monday’s strip. Click the back button a couple of times until you get to Monday’s strip.
I was hoping to continue the discussion because that’s what I thought were were having – a discussion – even though Monday’s strip hit a little too close for comfort for Shadowhawk. Read the comments and you can see why.

My feelings really haven’t changed from what I wrote. I can understand how some people might have interpreted Monday’s strip as if I was implying that transexuals are somehow dirty and everyone who comes in contact with them somehow feels the need to be doused in a vat of anti-bacterial liquid. That was NEVER my intent or what I wanted the strip to convey – and let’s be clear about this… Donald drew a terrific strip from something I wrote so all of this is on me.

My personal feeling about Monday’s strip was that the dude wanted to hit on the “girl” and had all sorts of sick, twisted fantasies in his head – especially given the fact that the “girl” was buying a female super hero costume. Only when his world got turned upside down did he finally feel the need to “get clean”. He wasn’t sick or disgusted at the girl. He was sick and disgusted at himself.

Again, in my mind, I wasn’t making fun of the “girl”. I was making fun of the GUY. His limited and closed mindedness needed to be cleaned up – that’s why the tables were turned and the REAL joke was on him.

But again, as a matter of perspective, some people might read Monday’s strip and say the “girl” was the victim of the joke. I don’t really see it that way because the “girl” was completely at ease with who she was. Now, I understand not everyone is so fortunate… that many people struggle day-to-day with their own personal acceptance – whether they are a transsexual, fat, short, bald, deaf, blind, gay or straight. So what do you do about that? Do you balk at ever creating a show like Mike & Molly because you’re afraid of offending other fat people or (as happened at the beginning of the TV season) a skinny person that doesn’t want to see fat people on TV and ends up blogging about it? Do you balk at making a movie like Porky’s because it might end up being sexually offensive to some people? Do you end up deciding not to make The Rocky Horror Picture Show because it might offend transvestites, gays, sexually repressed dudes who wear glasses, professors in wheelchairs or fans of Meatloaf who can’t stomach watching his character being eaten?

From a creator’s standpoint, can a person write comedy without offending anyone? Should they think twice about whether or not their joke might hurt someone? Does Don Rickles worry about someone jumping off a Vegas casino roof because he went a little too over the line with one of his insults? Does he worry about that? Do “blue” comics ever worry about people walking out of their show because they dropped the F-bomb one too many times?

This isn’t something I’m trying to be smug about. This is something I am very much interested in discussing. When, what and where is “the line” in comedy? And should there even be one? My thought is that in some cases, yes, some things are off limits. What are those things? Well, I can’t say for sure. To me, it’s a little like the definition of pornography – I don’t know what THE line is, but I know it when I get there. There’s been MANY Capes & Babes strips I have never done simply because I thought my idea was too much or way over the line. I obviously didn’t think that was the case with Monday’s strip – and I still don’t.

But maybe “comedy” is very much like pornography. Everyone has their own level or definition of what THEY consider to be pornographic. Maybe we each have our own definition of “comedy” as well.

What do you all think?