Sunday, January 17, 2010

Vulcans Face Off in this Corner

Vulcan vs. vulcan comic -- winter carnival vulcan vs. Mr. Spock. Carnival vulcan wins
(Click to see it larger)

In honor of the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the Pioneer Press reprinted this vulcanized In This Corner comic... a favorite from David Steinlicht's Corner Comic archive. (Also available in book form as Cornered! A Slightly Askew Look at Our Pop-Culture Landscape.)

This comic reminds me how much I appreciate cultural references that are most intelligible -- and therefore funniest -- to people who live in a specific location and have local knowledge. Not everything is generica.

Update: For a fan of another PiPress illustrator, Kirk Lyttle, I can be a bit slow on the uptake. I just found out today that Lyttle did the illustrations for this year's Winter Carnival buttons, and (no surprise) they're the best looking buttons the Carnival has had for at least 20 years. Go Kirk!


I hear the bouncing girl button is particularly popular because they have hardly ever been shown on the buttons.

1 comment:

Nancy/BLissed-Out Grandma said...

The buttons are great...I hadn't seen them.

I did see an online discussion about the fact that the Pioneer Press, sponsor and organizer of the treasure hunt, is not only printing clues in each edition, but is now posting videos in which the clue writer reads them. He is wearing costumes and using props. People are debating whether the paper is short-changing its regular customers by presenting added content online (to which some readers will not have access), or smartly adopting new technology.