"A Girl and Her Fed"

I've recently begun trawling the archives of A Girl and Her Fed, by K. Brooke Spangler, and I'm much taken with it.

Let me first say that it's a politically-oriented cartoon, focusing on civil rights. If you have any fondness for GWB, DHS, TSA, or any related people or organizations, you might not enjoy this strip. It's also a serial comic; Spangler has a single definite story to tell, and expects the story (and the strip) to end sometime in 2011. Last, it is very funny, at least to my tastes.

There are four central characters.

The Girl (otherwise nameless): She is an unreconstructed radical, who wound up on the terrorist watch list (unfairly, but for reasons eventually explained in the strip) some years ago. She appears to be rather scatterbrained, but it's a lack more of mental discipline than of ability. Her capacity for alcohol is immense, and her physical abilities - well, let's just say that the last time she was in jail, the violent felon who shared her cell asked to be moved to another after about thirty minutes. She has built a considerable fortune via online day-trading.

The Fed (also nameless): He works for an unidentified security agency; The Girl is one of his cases. He is one of the victims subjects of a secret government experiment. This involved a proposed means of instantaneous communication without any external devices. It manifests in the form of a miniature and malfunctioning simulacrum of George W. Bush. The simulacrum is invisible to all except those in whom it has been implanted; communication, unfortunately, requires audible speech. There are other problems as well, and a number of the people with the implant have committed suicide. His concern over this has led him and The Girl into alliance.

Ben: To be more precise, the ghost of Benjamin Franklin. He is small - no more than a foot or so - and winged. He first appeared to The Girl during an acid trip years ago, and has continued to haunt her since then. It is only recently that she has come to accept that he is, indeed, a ghost and not a hallucination. He is very fond of The Girl, and has helped her build her fortune. (Ben would be an excellent financial advisor in any case, and the fact that he can occasionally see a short distance into the future doesn't hurt.)

Speedy: Speedy is also the result of a government experiment, this time in genetic engineering. He is an intelligent, talking, koala bear. He is malicious, has an acid wit, and leans hard to the right in his politics. He and The Girl have clashed frequently; so far, neither has been hurt. The Fed and Ben have worked to mediate between them.

The artwork, as far as I've gone, is black and white, and somewhat impressionistic; it reminds me somewhat of Jules Feiffer. I should say that the strip has undergone a reboot somewhere upstream from where I currently am, and I don't know what changes Spangler may have made. (Well, I know one change: the rebooted strip is in color.)

What's the attraction? The strip is simply very funny. All four characters are of above-average intelligence, but of sharply different kinds, and the interplay among them can be hilarious. The teasing between The Girl and The Fed - hers sharp and needle-like, his stolid but subtle - and Speedy's barbs, thrown at all and sundry, are delightful. [N.B.: my sense of humor, I am reminded, is not everyone's....] There is, of course, a serious core to it all. (In this respect, it reminds me somewhat of "Schlock Mercenary" and "Freefall". It is probably a coincidence, but Speedy does share some characteristics with SM's Petey, and one of the officials in The Fed's agency bears a passing resemblance to Mr. Kornada, though this official is smarter and more directly malevolent than Mr. K.)

Anyway, if this sounds at all appealing, give it a try.

Oh, Crap

My sinuses have been acting up most of the day, and Benadryl doesn't seem to be helping.

Now my throat feels a little sore.

I do not need this.