Sunday, February 01, 2009

Heathcliff Watch: Gambling

It's been a while since I did a Heathcliff Watch; in fact enough time has passed that I presume I need to re-introduce the feature. There are a few of them but this intro comes from the first (excerpted):
Those who lump all long-running animal comics in a pile (e.g. Garfield, Marmaduke) think that Heathcliff is just another wacky personification with zany antics. Except that Heathcliff is almost R rated. The cat has a bookie, a parole officer, and a convict father; he drinks and gambles, and if ethnic stereotypes persist, he hangs out with mobsters. Great stuff, yep, but for kids? [snip] Anyway, whenever a daily Heathcliff strip demonstrates these illegal and/or immoral activities in front of our nations youth and illiterates, I will let you know. (Also, if anyone has evidence of Marmaduke shooting craps, drop me a line).
So in this comic (today's), we have Heathcliff showing how serious his relationship is to his girlfriend, he introduces her to his bookie. And I ask, what other comic strip gives the main character a bookie? Is that character a cat? And is that character considered a harmless children's role-model?!

And I should reiterate, this is not a criticism of Heathcliff; I like this stuff.

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