Saturday, December 27, 2008

CARTOON CRISIS

Hi, I'm Bo Lumpkin and I've been thinkin'.
Ole R.E. Cline, our couch potato reporter read my article "Learnin' To Read" lamenting the demise of real "Comic Books". He says they ain't all that todays younuns are missin'.
COUCH POTATO REPORT- CARTOON CRISIS
I can remember when Saturday mornings and every afternoon TV was geared to children. There were cartoons, real cartoons, not this Pokemon and Digimon garbage. What's up with all the people having pointed chins and ears. Haven't their artist ever seen normal people.
Network television is almost completely devoid of real cartoons. Theirs are all dragons or characters that look like they were made for Public Broadcasting.
What happened to "Bugs Bunny", "Tom and Jerry", "Popeye" and all the other good stuff. I know you can find some of this on the Cartoon Network sandwiched between the twenty four hour marathons of "Scooby Doo", but why should parents have to buy cable or a satellite for their children to get to watch decent cartoons.
This is America People, we are supposed to own the airwaves. Just because cartoons can be seen on expensive cable and satellite stations does not mean that the major Networks don't have an obligation to provide decent cartoons for the rest of us.
I miss "Yogi Bear" and especially "Boo Boo." I may be a couch potato without cable but that doesn't mean I should be discriminated against. I would sit down and write a letter to the FCC and complain about the situation but that might make me miss the next infomercial on my favorite network.
I'm R.E. Cline with the Couch Potato Report.
Since I haven't been able to post much the last week I am adding a comic today too. Check out the one below.
Thank ya'll so much for the comics and the feed back. When I get a chance I want to share some of the feedback with ya'll so keep checking.
Write me at bo@bolumpkin.com

Sirens and Excitement


Monday, December 22, 2008

LEARNIN' TO READ

Hi, I'm Bo Lumpkin and I've been thinkin'.
I hear people talkin' all time about younguns not being able to read. Not only are they not able to read when they are in grammar school (I don't think they call it grammar school anymore because they don't teach that much grammar) but they can't read when they graduate from High School.
I've always said that not reading is just as bad as not being able to read. I have always loved to read and I can trace my love of readin' all the way back to when I was a youngun. I loved comic books. My uncle worked for a 5 and 10 cent store,(they ain't none of them around no more). They were sort of like dollar stores are today, they were filled withe a big assortment of cheap stuff.
They sold comic books in the 5 and 10 cent store and when they would bring in the new issues they would tear the covers off the old ones and throw them away. My uncle would get the old ones and put them in a box and bring them to me. I would love to see him coming with a box of comics. I would read them all, even the ones I didn't particularly like. Back then there were the 10 cent comics which were your regular price and the 25 cent comics which were thick and were special issues.
Most adults felt like you were wastin' your time readin' them ole comic books. Maybe so but I learned a lot of words and most of all I learned to love readin'.
When I was a youngun they had comic books in all the 5 and 20 cent stores, some grocery stores, and in all the drugstores. You could find them almost anywhere. I was in the bookstore yesterday and I went lookin' to see if I could find some comic books. I found 'em.I was sorta shocked and it shore saddened me.
They had books they called comic books, they was all fancy bound and the cheapest one I saw was about $14.99. (As spoiled as younguns are today they still can't afford that). Most of them were of characters that looked like little foreigners like you see on Saturday mornin cartoons. Some looked like heavy metal lookin' characters and I didn't see a talkin' dog or duck among 'em.
What happened to Donald Duck, Sad Sack, and Combat? Where are the cheap little books on cheap paper that younguns can afford and that they enjoy? They seem to be gone and I don't know where or why.
I'm Bo Lumpkin and I've been thinkin'. No wonder younguns can't read. No one is publishin' anything that they want to read or that they can afford. Whatchall think?
Ya'll send me an e-mail to bo@bolumpkin.com or just click on the comments below. If ya'll run up on any comics or as we used to call them funny books how about letting me know.
Ya'll check out my comic strip below. I posted twice today because I have a new character for the comics.

Sarge Retired