Bengal Brew

            My immediate reaction to ‘Tiger Tea” basically consists of “so is this entire thing about weed?” After reading  others’ reactions, I feel vindicated in this. It’s interesting to read something from so early on that is related to drugs and their cultural and social impacts; In particular, because anything involving that nowadays seems highly biased in one direction or another. It’s also interesting to see this in the form of a humor-based comic strip. In many ways humor can diffuse any controversy, and therefore is a powerful tool for commentary and discussion of things taboo.

            Another things that I was thinking about as I read “Tiger Tea” was the minimal and distinctive art style. I found Herriman’s ability to create a distinctive space and thus a strong sense of place with very few lines very effective.  This goes for distinctive characters as well. His style is very strait forward and simple, perhaps deceptively so (especially considering above alleged political undertones.)

            One thing I found very frustrating was the vernacular/phonetic style of writing dialogue. I am not absolutely opposed to that kind of thing, but I feel at this degree it is a detriment to the reading experience. I feel the same way about Huckleberry Finn. That being said I love, love, LOVE alliteration, so that was a joy to me. Similarly to the dialogue, I think some of the gags where lost in time for me.  Some of the truly bizarre things made me laugh, but I feel many of the jokes where culturally irrelevant to me, which is disappointing.

            Overall it was an enjoyable and baffling experience, with the after taste of  cultural commentary (probably.)