Hello World

Inspired by The Comics Curmudgeon and by Crap Every Time, I decided to turn my attention to another strip that appears to be worthy of focused attention: The Dinette Set.

It features a seemingly MidWestern married couple, named Joy and Burl: obese, pupil-less, with some sort of cranial deformity, and a level of obliviousness that borders on the narcissistic.

According to a short biography of the artist, Julie Larson:

Julie noted a dull, repetitive lifestyle from one suburb to the next. But when she took a closer look, she saw it was only monotonous on the outside. Underneath, she observed a lively hustle and bustle of people who truly enjoyed every moment of belonging to the masses. Mass consumerism was exciting and colorful! Julie embraced it and saw it as a theater filled with stars whose favorite ride was "The Rat Wheel." She "got it." Julie began writing The Dinette Set comic in 1990, then called Suburban Torture, offering a satire on middle class culture.

Suburban Torture, for what it is worth, was a much better title.

Each panel feature a density of information, both background and foreground, that makes one suspect the cartoonist is never sure if the main thrust is quite funny enough, so marginalia jokes are crammed into every inch of white space in the desperate hope that everyone will find something to chuckle at.

Sadly, this is rarely the case.