It got some very nice comments from readers, people chuckled and everyone moved on to the next day.
Then this past weekend all hell broke loose vis-à-vis some rather brazen pirates and suddenly the strip was pulled out from its murky archives, first appearing--to my total delight and shock--on Ezra Klein's blog on The American Prospect!
This in turn led to a link by Spencer Ackerman in The Washington Independent as well as in his own blog Attackerman, in which he described the comic as being "apt." "APT"! That may very well be the highest compliment Medium Large has ever been paid.
And now there's a incredible mention in a great "all pirates edition" of bloggingheads.tv between Professor Daniel Drezner of Tufts University (and ForeignPolicy.com) and Professor Robert Farley of the University of Kentucky (and the aforementioned AmericanProspect.com). The comic is referred to in the video's final section.
The result has been a tremendous spike in readership (temporary though it may be) and not a bad boost to one Italian-Portuguese cartoonist's ego. So thank you to all the great politicos and pundits who kindly thought to highlight the strip (and who politely disregarded that I also spent a full week having Sally Forth and her daughter Hilary argue over chocolate Easter bunny ears for what may very well be my 17th time).
I've been thinking about that strip every time the pirate thing comes up.
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ, I didn't even realize you wrote Sally Forth. I started reading this blog a few days ago because I like Medium Large. >_>
ReplyDeleteThat cartoon was on my mind through this whole incident. I think you pretty much wrote the epitaph for "Talk Like a Pirate Day." The pirates themselves have dug the grave and supplied the coffin.
ReplyDeleteWord verification word: reonatio, which sounds like it might mean "royal birth" in Italian or Portuguese.
Judging by the times, I think Ackerman was first at 10:25 AM with Klein at 3:00 PM. I'd actually passed it on to him, although not to Klein and Drezner, so they may have been fans in their own right or seen it elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI've never had that sort of luck with my own content, so I'm taking this to mean that my usual failures are not in promotion but in product. :P
I think I originally started following you back in the day through Gene Weingarten or Comics Curmudgeon, so original credit goes to them.
Also, the rabbit ears plot line was fun this year. No need to overlook the repetition unless Hilary is so foolish as to take Ted's advice again in the future.
Thank you very much, Greg!
ReplyDeleteFrancesco: You're quite welcome. It's only fair really, if I'm not paying for the comic I try to support it in other ways.
ReplyDelete