I am an "expert" in very few things, although I am quite knowledgeable in a number of areas There is however one very tiny, microscopic really, niche of art in which I can claim the provisional title of expert. That is the world of the comic strips 9 Chickweed Lane and Pibgorn, both created by artist Brooke McEldowney. In the overall scheme of things my knowledge of these two enterprises is entirely inconsequential, except to those who love the brilliant art and word play of the two strips.
I have a near encyclopedic knowledge of the fifteen thousand or so strips that make up the two works of Mr. McEldowney. Which serves me well as an administrator of the the three Facebook pages devoted to his work. However, I make no claims of authority as to matters of interpretation, only those of plain fact. Both "strips" are unique in their delightful combination of erudition and visual sensuality. It's not fair to call Pibgorn a comic "strip" at all. It solely inhabits the often seedy and grotesque world of the web comic and was never published in any newspaper.
9 Chickweed Lane still runs in some newspapers, although that is rapidly dwindling along with the dwindling of newspapers in general. At some point Chickweed will become a web only strip unless Mr. Mac decides to close out the strip before that becomes necessary. But the work will remain archived on the web, for my lifetime at least, I hope. I also hope that the relative anonymity of both strips will mean that it won't catch the baleful eye of the bowdlerizers who infest literature these days. Chickweed has already suffered from such interference, but to date Pibgorn has not, although it has encountered one or two censorious issues concerning prurience. Oh well. Sic transit gloria mundi and like that there.
