I have an entire section in my
Webcomics book on something of a rift between newspaper cartoonists and webcomikers. Newspaper cartoonists seemed incredulous that webcomics could work, and they thought they were all crap anyway. Webcomic creators seemed confused by this, and often mocked the newspaper cartoonists' misplaced aggression. This feud lasted from about 2004 until 2014 or so, by which point many of the older newspaper cartoonists were retiring or passing away, and an entire new generation of webcomic creators had come up asking, "What's a newspaper?"
But then here comes Dave Kellett with a new installment of his webcomic
Sheldon...
Now, the joke stands reasonably well on its own. The main joke is that Arthur (the duck) is fed up with Gramp's incessant whining about exercising without actually exercising. Adding "Cathy" on the end works as an extra layer to the joke by referencing Cathy Guisewite's newspaper strip,
Cathy, in which the titular character spent much of her time complaining about her weight and exercising. Considering that
Cathy ended back in 2010, there's a more than fair chance that many of Kellett's readers missed that reference, but since that wasn't critical to understanding the joke, it highlights Kellett's talent as a cartoonist.
But here's the real punchline. Guisewite herself saw the comic and enjoyed it!
So I guess that section I have in my book is somewhat out of date before it's even published!
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