Candorville

Last updated

Candorville
Author(s) Darrin Bell
Current status/scheduleCurrent daily strip
Launch dateSeptember 2003;20 years ago (September 2003)
Syndicate(s) King Features Syndicate
Publisher(s) Andrews McMeel Publishing
Genre(s)Satire, Politics

Candorville is a syndicated newspaper comic strip written and illustrated by Darrin Bell. Launched in September 2003 by The Washington Post Writers Group, Candorville features young black and Latino characters living in the inner city. Using the vehicle of humor, Candorville presents social and political commentary as well as the stories of its protagonists.

Contents

Publication history

Candorville grew out of a comic strip called Lemont Brown, which appeared in the student newspaper of UC Berkeley, The Daily Californian , from 1993 to 2003. It still appears in the Daily Californian under its new title, and it is that newspaper's longest-running comic strip. Candorville appears in most of America's largest newspapers.[ citation needed ] It also runs in Spanish-language newspapers where it is translated by the author's wife, Laura Bustamante.[ citation needed ]

Candorville and Bell's other strip, Rudy Park , exist in a shared universe. For a period in 2017, the strips were amalgamated [1] while Bell was dealing with health and exhaustion issues. In June 2018, Bell ended Rudy Park, although characters from that strip will continue to appear in Candorville. [2] (Candorville is syndicated in many more newspapers than was Rudy Park.) [2]

Because of its political content, Candorville, like Doonesbury , sometimes appears on a newspaper's editorial page rather than its comics page; like G.B. Trudeau's strip, Candorville has been accused of having a liberal slant, which has prevented the strip from being syndicated to some right-leaning newspapers.[ citation needed ] This is despite the fact that Candorville has lampooned liberal organizations like PETA, and liberal politicians like Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, John Edwards, and Barack Obama.

In late 2022 syndication of Candorville moved to King Features Syndicate as the Washington Post Writers Group wound down its comics line. [3]

Characters and story

Main characters

He got engaged to Roxanne, an ignorant and deranged woman who had his love child. Based on actions in the strip, he did not appear to love this woman, but proposed to her anyway, apparently to stay close to his child. Eventually they broke up, with Lemont gaining custody of his son. This is a conflict with his (slowly and subconsciously) developing romantic feelings for and relationship with Susan Garcia (see below). He once wrote about the love of "Leroy" and "Susana" on his blog. Roxanne, as it turns out, might be an evil vampire. Meanwhile, his newspaper, the Candorville Chronicle, fired all of its reporters except for Lemont, so Lemont is working as the paper's Senior White House Correspondent.

Supporting characters

Collections

Eight collections of Candorville have been published in book form:

  1. Candorville: Thank God for Culture Clash (2005) — fearlessly covers bigotry, poverty, homelessness, biracialism, personal responsibility, and more while never losing sight of the humor behind these weighty issues. The strip targets the socially conscious by tackling tough issues with irony, satire, and humor.
  2. Another Stereotype Bites the Dust: a Candorville Collection (2006)
  3. Katrina's Ghost: The Third Candorville Collection (2009)
  4. The Starbucks at the End of the World: The 4th Candorville Collection (2011)
  5. Run! Vampires, Werewolves, the One That Got Away, and Other Demons: The 5th Candorville Collection (2011) — the story looks on the main character, Lemont, whose new success as The Chronicle's senior White House correspondent may be short-lived; as a startling revelation about his evil fiancée motivates him and Dr. Noodle to travel on a journey to Mexico, where they face bloodthirsty demons, vampires, werewolves, and drug cartels. At home, in honor of the first black President, Lemont's friend C-Dog summons the ghost of Richard Pryor for advice on how to stop saying the N-word. He finds himself on the run, impersonating Lemont on his book tour to hide from the insanely huge brother of a girl he's wronged. And as Susan makes a life-altering pact with her backstabbing assistant, Lemont travels back in time to the Nineties to help his younger self seduce her ex-lover.
  6. Does the Afterlife Have Skittles?: The 6th Candorville Collection (2013)
  7. Goodnight Grandpa (2015) — Bell's popular character, Lemont, has written a memoir, but when Lemont's wife, Susan, gets to the part where Lemont explains how he and a demon, La Llorona, accidentally caused the end of the world, Susan questions his sanity and debates on saving their relationship. While Lemont's political blog explodes, he faces his challenges at home. Lemont accompanies a 94-year-old World War II veteran on his final journey in the story.
  8. Color-Blinded (2016) — Lemont is a single dad raising a mysteriously smart two-year-old. He's also a journalist single-handedly running one of the top news sites in the country. The comic is based around Lemont trying to figure out how to cover the breaking news in Uganda and Russia, and interview every candidate in the 2016 presidential race. Lamont has to face the process of explaining to his son why he's supposed to respect the police, when the police don't seem to face any repercussions for killing so many unarmed people who look just like his dad. Despite his best efforts, people start to wonder if C-Dog is secretly the smartest, most morally upstanding man in the neighborhood. At the ad agency, Susan discovers why her boss won't ever let her fire her evil, conniving assistant. And Lemont accompanies the recently departed comedian Robin Williams on his final journey.

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References

  1. Degg, D. D. (June 16, 2018). "The Amalgamation of Candorville and Rudy Park". The Daily Cartoonist.
  2. 1 2 Degg, D. D. (October 21, 2018). "Candorville/Rudy Park Amalgamation Explained". The Daily Cartoonist.
  3. Degg, D.D. (November 30, 2022). "Darrin Bell takes Candorville to King Features". The Daily Cartoonist. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  4. "Candorville - Susan Comic Strips". www.thecomicstrips.com. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
  5. "Candorville - Clyde Comic Strips". www.thecomicstrips.com. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
  6. "Candorville - Rosencrantz Comic Strips". www.thecomicstrips.com. Retrieved August 11, 2019.
  7. "Al Qaeda's No. 2 says end of West imminent, video shows," CNN (July 5, 2007).