Conservative Comic Strips

The City Journal has a great article about the rise of right-leaning comic strips: Mallard Fillmore, Prickly City, and Day By Day (available on the web only) are mentioned by name. It's a wildly interesting story, entertaining and well-written. I thought I'd copy a few paragraphs here not because they're representative of the whole article (which really is all about the rise of conservative comic strips), but because they represent my political beliefs!

Stantis’s aim with Prickly City, now running in 75 papers, is to “turn against liberals the tools they’ve been using to batter conservatives for decades—irony, sarcasm, humor, and belittlement.” He adds: “It’s wonderful how much it pisses them off; they just go nuts—I get hundreds of vicious e-mails a week. I mean, the crudity and intolerance of the Left these days is unbelievable; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called a Nazi. But that’s what happens when you don’t have any ideas and the only thing left is anger.”

and

But the tenor of the strip tends more to be gentle than angry, reflecting none of the bitterness so common today on the Left. Indeed, Muir’s girlfriend, the primary model for one of his characters, “is a total liberal.” As it happens, the same holds true for Mallard creator Tinsley, whose wife is a civil rights lawyer. There’s perhaps a lesson here. “It’s a funny thing,” Tinsley says. “All her liberal friends are incredulous that our marriage works, but none of my conservative friends have any trouble with it at all. They understand you can think differently about things and still be civil to one another.”

Almost immediately, this observation leads Tinsley to reflect on something else. “You ever notice how often liberals seem to think that, because they hold these lofty social views, it excuses them from having to be civil to bellboys and cabdrivers? I really think that by and large conservatives are just much nicer.” He pauses, thinking it over. “One of these days, I’ve gotta do a cartoon about that.”

I've often expressed similar views. Glad to see someone's got my back!

Oh, and notice that word Tinsley used in the quote above. Civil. Root word of civility. For those of you who read the comments on this blog, you know how much I insist on civility in discourse here. Based on what's written above, I wonder if that isn't a basic conservative trait? :-)