Sliding into disrepair.

(Technically I'm an hour into Saturdya but I figured most of you were still living in the past and wouldn't mind so much.)

I've only sporadically been following Day By Day, and it's not because I don't see poltics in quite the same terms they do. It never quite hooked me and, today, I noticed something that might have shown me why.

Today's comic is set on a beach, with a redhead in a bikini. And I wondered 'Why?' There hadn't been any mention of beach going as far as I could tell. The characters weren't talking about beach related subjects. It just seemd like a way to get a female in a bikini onto the scene. Which isn't necessarily bad, but idicated a strange mindset to me. One of the stangest things I've noticed in newspaper comics is the strip that has a really crap pun placed in speech bubbles around a naked chick in a bath, perhaps with her man taking off his shirt as he walks in. The cheapest form of humour. It'd be sad if Day by Day was slipping into that.

Also, the time saving aspect of the art seems to me to be too clear. The characters are beginning to look like cut outs that get placed on the canvas then have words placed around them. Chris Muir does seem to be able to put together a more interesting image, but so many time saving buildings or faces that look the same in every comic are showing up that I feel a little cheated. Again, this is something that isn't necessarily bad (PVP appears to have templates, StarSlip Crisis does if I remember correctly, and Dinosaur Comics is a prime example) but it adds to the other problems I have.

Now, granted I'm not the audience for the political humour that is being dished out here, but am getting confused by some of his recent strips. I enjoy reading more conservative cartoons usually, such as Cox and Forkum, because I get the point of view even if I disagree. But I just don't know what Muir is talking about recently.

I guess I'm saying Day by Day comics is a strip that is losing what little interest I had.