A student-drawn
comic strip in the
Exponent, the student newspaper of
Purdue University, by one Tom McHenry. The strip ran for some time under the name "Cat and Dog", then after suddenly
vanishing for a semester, returned under its current name, taken from the couplet:
Liquor before beer, you're in the clear;
Beer before liquor, you've never been sicker.
A truly bizarre strip, the kind one only finds in college newspapers. It focuses around, logically, Cat and Dog, (who actually are a cat and a dog). They're roommates, friends, and supposidly Purdue students. Cat's kind of a wise-ass, dog's a bit more innocent yet occasionally suprisingly deep. They're drawn in a very simple outline style, yet occasionally the artist shows he has the ability to draw in a much better, much more complicated manner and that it's a stylistic choice.
The content varies wildly, from mini-series runs to one-shot gags to political commentary on things going on on this acutal campus to the occasional incredibly profound. Just for comparison: yesterday's strip was a one-shot gag, where Cat gave Dog a belated easter present, a chocolate bunny. Upon Dog eating it, Cat revealed that, no, it was a REAL bunny, April Fools' Day!. Dog, being a dog and hence a meat-eater, didn't get the joke. Today's strip, and the one that inspiried me to node the strip, was in response to a rash of anti-abortion preachers that invaded the campus yesterday. The strip had the author (he rarely draws himself) approaching "you guys with the agendas" and explaining that dealing with class and college life is sucky enough as is, without their help and being condemned to Hell just for walking by. The preacher tried to interrupt him, quoting the book of Matthew. But Tom, having had enough, cut the man off with "No. It's important YOU understand. It says in MY book "life is long and tough--be a little decent to each other." Cat and Dog are shown in a small inset panel saying "Amen!"