Prickly City

Infobox comic strip
title=Prickly City


caption=
creator=Scott Stantis
current=
status=Running
syndicate=Universal Press Syndicate
comictype=print
genre=Humor, Politics
first=July 11, 2004
last=

"Prickly City" is a daily comic strip drawn by Scott Stantis, the editorial cartoonist for the "Birmingham News", and distributed through Universal Press Syndicate. The cartoon follows the adventures of Carmen, a young Hispanic girl in pigtails, and a coyote pup named Winslow. The strip is frequently — though not always — politically-oriented with a conservative leaning.

Characters

Carmen - a feisty, if somewhat naive, libertarian-conservative and a Republican. For a brief time, she had a crush on Tucker Carlson. Carmen made her first appearance at least 4 months before the strip began, in one of Stantis's editorial cartoons. [ [http://www.al.com/opinion/birminghamnews/cartoons/042704_stantisb.jpg"Editorial Cartoon"] , "The Birmingham News", April 27, 2004.]

Winslow - named for the town of Winslow, Arizona, is a coyote with political aspirations and often acts patronizing, condescending and impulsive liberal. Carmen is continuously frustrated by Winslow's assumption that she should be a liberal feminist. Early in the strip's run, Winslow had a crush on Condoleezza Rice, even writing a poem about her (which Carmen initially misunderstood as being a poem about herself).

Minor recurring characters include Dio, a chameleon named for Diogenes the Cynic, who was a campaign director for Winslow, Kevin, the Lost Bunny of the Apocalypse, who reports on signs of the "end times" and most-recently Vaughn; an armadillo who serves as Winslow's campaign finance director.

Controversies

The "Chicago Tribune" refused to run the February 7, 2005 strip, which inaccurately quoted Ted Kennedy. According to Stantis, the syndicate erroneously added quote marks to the dialogue without his permission. ["Chicago Tribune" drops "Prickly City" Strip with Ted Kennedy 'Quote'", "Editor & Publisher"] Later that year "The Seattle Times" refused to run a series of strips about the Terri Schiavo case. ["Seattle Times" Drops "Prickly City" Strips About Schiavo Case", "Editor & Publisher"] More recently, a series of strips beginning August 25th accuse the attendees of the 2008 Democratic National Convention of being communists.

Tributes

"Prickly City" has paid tribute to the passing of famous people during 2006. On July 31, they paid tribute to Hooters president Robert H. Brooks. "Frank & Ernest" cartoonist Bob Thaves was remembered in the September 10, 2006 edition.

Book collection

References

ee also

* Mallard Fillmore - another conservative-themed comic strip

External links

* [http://pricklycity.com "Prickly City" daily strip at gocomics]
* [http://www.amuniversal.com/ups/features/pricklycity/ "Prickly City" at Universal Press Syndicate]
* [http://www.shrubville.com Shrubville] , a blog devoted to daily criticism of "Prickly City"