Flutterby™! : Hate mail

Got to the Cartoon Art Museum yesterday. The "Women in Cartooning" exhibit was fun, but "Hate Mail", on comics that have generated letters and controversy, was great. Didn't go back terribly far, but it was fun to see the "Joanie and Rick" episodes of Doonesbury up against more modern controversies, like some of the reactions to a few of the For Better or For Worse and Boondocks, and realize that in another 25 years we could change so that nobody thinks twice about the behaviors depicted there.

To jump somewhat tangentially, one of the things that killed Bowling Alone for me was his assertion that levels of tolerance in the U.S. hadn't increased in the period in which he was chronicling the fall of bowling clubs. Hogwash. The exhibit was a clear show of attitudes changing in the bast two or three decades. Anyway, if you're in the Bay Area this one's worth astop by.

Especially the bit about the (pink) letter from Mary Kay thanking Berke Breathed for the publicity they got in his attack on animal testing in Bloom County. Damn but Mary Kay understands publicity.