I've been kind of waiting for "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee" to come up with something unusually brilliant so that I could address a issue to the gathered multitudes.
And here we are, with a strip so disgusting that it would, indeed, have made CSOTD without any overriding motivation on my part.
The only thing I'll add is that, if Edison and his grandfather had thought to put some flour and cornmeal into the vacuum cleaner first, they could have just scooped it out, plunked it into some hot oil and come up with a delicious Thanksgiving treat, easily as good and nutritious as anything you could find at the county fair.
And we all owe a debt to the county fair this week, because it had to be someone from a county fair someplace who first thought, "I'll bet you could throw a whole turkey into a fat fryer and cook it that way" and transformed cooking Thanksgiving dinner into a manly endeavour.
(I believe more men would insist on taking over the kitchen on Thanksgiving if they realized that there is a system and a theory to it, and that the real trick to a meal like that is getting everything to be ready at the same time. There is something very triumphant in having six or eight apparently unrelated dishes all start at different times and then -- Alakazam! -- pop out simultaneously!)
Anyway, I'm glad they didn't use the manly Shop Vac, because, while it would have worked just as well, the special effects would have been lost, and what fun would that be?
Meanwhile, over at Arlo & Janis, today brings a repeat of a 1996 strip about giblets and cavity probes:
The connection here, however, is not to probing cavities but to marketing collections, because both John and Anne Hambrock of "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee" and Jimmy Johnson of "Arlo & Janis" have recently assembled collections of their strips and, while I'm not sure of Jimmy's plans, John and Anne are avoiding Amazon because, once the giant takes his cut, the cartoonist gets nothing and may lose money, since Amazon likes to offer bargains and discounts to move the merchandise.
In both cases, they have gone to some trouble to make the books look as good as possible, which sounds obvious until you see the results of "print on demand" publishers who not only use cheap paper that is not particularly opaque, but also do not take the time to properly adjust the X's and Y's so that the strips are in proper proportion.
Print-On-Demand has become common, despite the crappy results, and it's worth supporting the artists who break with their usual collaborators in order to improve the end product.
So the question was raised, could I add a widget to the rail to help promote collections that are not being marketed through Amazon?
There are some problems here. If I were to charge for the listing, it would seem like an unholy alliance between me and the cartoonist, in which I would feel obligated to feature their strip here from time to time in exchange for their support.
And If I didn't charge for the service, aside from the issue of my continuing poverty, I would be inundated with collections of strips that are perhaps not ready for prime time and you'd never be able to find the ponies at the bottom of the pile.
I'd like to solve this dilemma in a way that puts money in everyone's pockets, but, in the meantime, if I feature a strip and I know there is a collection out there which is not available through Amazon, I'll mention it.
You can order the new Edison Lee collection here.
Jimmy Johnson is in the process of figuring out his sales strategy, but the announcement is expected at any moment and you will find it here.
And to purchase collections of cartoons that are being marketed through Amazon, or to order a new vacuum cleaner there to replace the one that is now internally lubricated with turkey viscera, please use the Amazon widget in the siderail or by clicking here.
And if you have any cunning plans whereby I might help artists market their wares independently and end up with a little taste for myself without compromising the basic principle of the blog, please share it.
I won't just be grateful. I'll be thankful.
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