Oh, the humanity

One of the sure signs of the decline of Western civilization has been the inexorable deterioration in quality of the syndicated comic strip. Now one brave blogger named Joshua Fruhlinger has decided to take a stand against this disturbing situation. The title of his blog says it all: I Read the Comics So You Don't Have To.

Fruhlinger serves up heaping helpings of comics critique, leavened liberally with snark. Case in point: a post from this past Friday, when the subject was this episode of Rex Morgan, M.D., in which the Morgans are discussing a bone their new dog, Abbey, has found:

On behalf of "the Committee to Advance the Plotline in Rex Morgan, M.D., in a Reasonably Speedy Fashion (CAPRMMDRSF)," Fruhlinger posted this rant:

FOR GOD’S SAKE, IT WAS A HUMAN THIGHBONE, OKAY? WE ALL SAW IT! WE ALL KNOW WHAT IT IS! THAT WAS ALMOST TWO WEEKS AGO NOW! IT WAS A HUMAN FEMUR! JESUS CHRIST, AREN’T YOU PEOPLE SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION OR SOMETHING?

Ahem. Fruhlinger usually has more of a hold on himself, as evidenced by a post from earlier that same day: he noted that Jeff Keane has now taken over most of the creative duties on The Family Circus from his father, Bil Keane, and pointed out that Jeff's counterpart in the comic, Jeffy, is almost always treated badly. Fruhlinger theorized that Jeff Keane "has a lot of anger to work out," and speculated:

One wonders if he goes out of the way to make the art as crude and talentless as possible (and the jokes as stupid as possible) when “Billy” takes over in a pathetic attempt to get back at his parent-favored older brother.

Fruhlinger has also advocated (successfully) for such righteous causes as the restoration of Apartment 3-G and The Phantom to the pages of the Baltimore Sun. Clearly, his heart, and his aesthetic sense, are in the right place.