Three years and 1107 posts later ...

As CSOTD marks three years and starts a fourth, this Jeff Danziger classic is a good way to open up a post marking the event with some favorite cartoons and a smattering of reflection.

The blog began mostly as a reaction to snarky cyber-bullying blogs that tear down comic strips for the amusement of a depressing number of fans. They say it takes three years to establish a blog and so here we are and, based on comparative numbers, it's pretty clear that snark sells better.

Which should not come as much of a surprise, but, while it's fun to quote Mencken, there isn't a lot of point in dwelling on it.

There is stuff that makes money and there's stuff that you do for yourself, and, while it's glorious when the two meet, part of finding your voice -- as a writer or as an artist -- is truly knowing (not just saying) that there is no real connection between artistic merit and either popularity or obscurity.

A point made here by a strip that, if popularity and artistic merit were linked, would have lasted a good deal longer than it did:

You do what you have to do to keep your art, and yourself, alive.

I seem to have assembled a group of people who like what I do, and who like comics, and it's entirely possible that some of them read this and then go off to read yet again another formulaic bashing of Mark Trail, Rex Morgan, Mary Worth and Apartment 3G.

But I suspect quite a few of them don't, and -- what matters more in terms of keeping things rolling here -- enough of them hit the Amazon widget in the margin that, unlike the gang in this Kevin & Kell, I'm not looking under sofa cushions to pay my hosting fees, for which I am honestly very grateful.

I also appreciate the fact that the comments I get here are thoughtful, which, dear lord, is hardly the norm for the Internet.

This Guindon was on the wall by my desk for years, back when I was trying to be JD Salinger. (I got the obscurity and being left alone parts down perfectly, but somehow the rest never quite happened.)

You'll note that the date is 1980, long before anyone observed anything about dogs and the Internet, but the reminder to try to stay somewhat on topic -- and to write about something that someone other than your dog might actually give a damn about -- remains valid, though I take it as a nudge and not a commandment.

When the blog began, it was basically, "Hey, look at this one!" but I gradually found my voice and began using cartoons as a jumping-off spot.

There have been times I've worried that I was reducing the chosen strip to an illustration, but it's not like I come up with a posting and then seek a strip to illustrate it.

There are some editorial pages that do that, matching up a column with an editorial cartoon on the same trending topic, but it rarely works because they almost never actually match much beyond being either basically "for" or "against," and that's thin conceptual gruel. 

When I sit down at 4:45 in the morning and start going through strips, I have no idea what I'm going to write about, and a major operating theory here is that a good comic can, and should, touch off a lot of thought, even discursive thought.

I do occasionally have to hit the delete key when things get too discursive, mind you. This 1975 Doonesbury also hung over my desk in the olden days, as a reminder to wrap it up while I was still coherent:

Incidentally, if you haven't seen it before, I have an obscene rejection slip that I got in 1971 from the real Duke framed on my wall today, and it provided me with a brief spin in the barrel of online viral-ity when it was published at "Letters of Note" and then picked up by others. 

The letter came in response, I might add, to a humor piece that had earned me a fellowship to a writer's conference and high praise from Harlan Ellison in 1970, but was so much a product of the moment that the snarkers feasted mightily upon it in 2011. Sic transit Hispanus haesit in apparatu.

And so, having returned to the tiresome topic of Those Who Do Not Get It, let us close our service today with a reading about a much more adorable example of that, from the book of Richard:

Comments

[Sherwood Harrington]

Hippo birdie two ewe, deer CSOTD, and thanks for all the fish.

[Bill J]

Congrats on making it 3 years, Mike! CSOTD has been one of my daily reads for a while now. I never miss it!

[Dann]

Despite my many contrarian thoughts offered in the comments, I thoroughly enjoy what you do. Congrats and keep it up.

B/R,
Dann

[Maggie Z.]

I found this blog a good while ago from a comment by Jimmy Johnson in his Arlo 'n Janis blog, and have enjoyed it every day. Keep up the good work!

[Jerry Fisher]

Can you really say this broadly, Mike?

"...there is no real connection between artistic merit and either popularity or obscurity."

[Tim]

Happy anniversary, Mike. I think I've been here from nearly day one, after I read your invitation in rec.arts.comics.strips. Keep up the great work.

[Brian Fies]

Any writer who can spew Latin crap at 4:45 a.m. has earned my readership, though what you have against Spaniards escapes me. I love what you do, please consider this encouragement to continue indefinitely.

[Mike Peterson]

Actually, Jerry, it's a pretty broad statement to begin with, and you know how much I love pretty broads.

But, yes, the fact that something is popular doesn't automatically mean it has artistic merit -- but it is also true that a lack of popularity does not mean you're just too good for the bozos to appreciate.

You may apply various converses to that. Both good and bad work can end up on either end of the popularity stick. It's not random, but neither is it indicative of anything except perhaps degrees of luck, timing and market savvy.

[Mike Peterson]

Oh, Brian, there is nothing like using Google Translate on a pun to confuse matters. It was an obscure enough reference in its own write.

[Mary in Ohio]

Feliz cumplenos and less than a week until pitchers and catchers report!

[Mike Peterson]

Didn't Felix Cumplenos get sent down to the White Sox's Triple-A team?

[Lori in PDX]

While I read CSOTD religiously, it's rare that I can offer anything of value in a comment. But this is a heartfelt thank you for the many times you've made me think, (guess it's never to late to learn!) and a big Happy Anniversary!!

[Geoff]

Mike--I'll take your blog and your brand of writing over pseudo-intellectual, snarky graduate school postering anytime.You pick comics you like and tie them to real world problems, the issues of the day that affect us all. I've found more than one terrific comic through your blog and had more than one interesting and engaged discussion after reading one of your essays. And you keep me coming back. Thanks for everything--see you tomorrow!

[Mike Peterson]

Thanks all around to those whose comments didn't call for a specific answer as well as those who don't comment because commenting isn't their thing.

Here's to another three years.

[Mark Jackson]

When you celebrate your next anniversary we can all chant "Four more years! Four more years!"

Looking forward to it.

[Lost in A**2]

Jerry, all I can say is, "Dan Brown."

I've enjoyed reading this blog, I've enjoyed commenting on it, if only in a limited fashion. I don't shop at Amazon, but that shouldn't stop my clicking through to it, now and again. :)

[Mary in Ohio]

Felix is in the the Green Grass League now, (his manager is Joe Shlabotnik) but he has NEVER been linked to PEDS!

[Mike Peterson]

Those little socks that don't show over the tops of your tennis shoes? No, I would hope he wouldn't be!

[gezorkin]

Well, let me be the last to congratulate you, at least so far.

Thanks for the daily philosophy, articulated so effectively.

And thanks for recommending LSOS.