Halloween should be a dream for cartoonists, but, while the graphic potential is high, there are only so many gags: Parents eat the candy, kids try to amass great quantities of candy, kids eat too much candy, etc. And then each year, there is something trendy to work into the strips -- bankers and OWS this year.
I don't know that any one strip is poorly done, but, as you go through the variations on set themes, the effect is kind of deadening, and each undermines the others. It's kind of like those "public service" days when cartoonists all do something about hunger or cancer or homeless pets -- there's something forced and flat in the overall experience. The creators have all felt compelled and constrained and it shows.
Still, if you stay within your characters, and if you've got characters who happen to be consistent with the pre-determined theme, you can do some good work.
F'rinstance, Jim Meddick used today's Monty to play on an established theme, that Monty is a lousy party guest, whether he is invited or crashing, and then adds a mixed geek/nerd* theme -- also established -- that goes from believable to stupid to wonderfully goofy in the space of three panels.
Of course Spock takes Kirk's side in the squabble, while the plain vanilla costumes of Moondog and the woman in the fourth panel strongly suggest that these three idiots are truly alone in the crowd, not simply in their love of Star Trek but in their unmodulated passion for dress-up and in their utter inability to just stand there and have a drink and enjoy the party.
There are any number of strips that feature the misadventures of a loveable loser, but Meddick brings a level of derangement to "Monty" that really makes it stand out.
* It is possible to be a geek without being a nerd. It is also possible to be a nerd without being a geek. But comedy only occurs in the spaces where the circles of the Venn diagram cross.
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