I don't know if I've ever told you this, readers, but I have one very specific goal with each day's Zomby! cartoon: to improve upon the original Ziggy. Some days I make it, some days I don't. Ziggy can be maddening as source material, since it's very repetitive and recycles the same few scenarios over and over. Worse yet, the strip often gets in ruts, doing jokes about the same thing several times during the course of a week. Lately, for instance, there have been lots of jokes about Ziggy's parrot.
Like this one from today, Friday, October 7, 2011:
When I saw this cartoon, all I could think about was Samuel Beckett's famous and oft-repeated quote: "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness." The only way I could see to salvage this scene was to take Ziggy and his parrot out of it.
Like so:
Was I right? Was I wrong? I have decided to let you, the readers, decide. Use the poll below to tell me whether this cartoon is better with or without Ziggy.
If this gimmick succeeds, I may incorporate it into Zomby! as a regular feature. With each cartoon, I'd give you the opportunity to tell me if I succeeded or failed in my quest to improve upon the original.
