Fun Strip Archive: Phil The Disco Skinhead Gets Fired

Phil the Disco Skinhead was always a limited character, a one-joke bit that I managed to spin out a few times more than originally conceived (much like most of my concepts that were meant to be one-shots). At a certain point I realized that that I didn't want to use him anymore -- satirizing white supremacists isn't the same as using them for a backdrop for a gag about a skinhead who likes black music. "Disco Skinhead" was enough for a cheap laugh back in the day, but Phil's conflicted feelings weren't really a satirical chisel about racism so much as a dumb character with a funny shtick. If I were to make fun of racists in a strip now, Phil wouldn't be the vehicle I'd choose. Unless something struck me that validated using him. But I pretty much think of him as dead, and not a character to lament burying.

Anyway, I think this last Phil strip was done for House of Fun, I know it ran in color (the post-it note in panel one was a vibrant yellow). I realized at the time that Phil needed to go, so I literally fired him in this meta strip with a lot of my characters as staffers of the comic. Kind of an SCTV thing, with the fictional characters also having a behind the scenes life. I'm pretty sure SCTV was on my mind when I drew this. "Danielle" is the name of the actress playing Georgina Riley in The Murder Family sitcom, there's a cast listing at the end of every one of those comics. Thurman Moulting ("Harlan") has also been in a Fun Strip where he had another gig, hosting a talk show. Again, very SCTV.

This is one of my favorite fun strips. I like how it came together, with the meta joke in and of itself, but that it wraps up as a stealth Myron the Living Voodoo Doll strip. On a process level, I like that Myron getting kicked in panel 3 leads nicely into the human Myron's flight through the air in panel 4. Also, there's a cameo from the Cherry Clan, who appeared in a two-page comic I did a ways back about racist snack food characters*. For me, a lot of things got packed into these four panels, and it's the first time I ever wrote a character out by giving them a pink slip.

I don't think people unfamiliar with my characters would find this funny. But in context it fits snug inside all the other strips and comics. This one makes me happy.

Phil is probably never going to come back, but one never knows. I could always hire him back for a one-time appearance, like how old wrestlers are brought back for a gag. The Brooklyn Brawler comes to mind. Anyway, I'm getting way off topic now and have some art to pack up. It's a sign/sketch/pack kind of day, with some drawing in-between.

*Cherry Clan was originally called Cherry Chan, with a package design that ripped off the Charlie Chan character created by Earl Biggers. I don't know why Ferrara Pan canceled Alexander the Grape, as posited in the comic, perhaps there was a lawsuit filed by the ancient Macedonians.