I don’t usually like to talk about my political leanings in my reviews. As the old proverb says, religion and politics are off-limits for polite discussion, doubly so if the discussion is about flippin’ webcomics. But since we’re reviewing the politically charged Kidnapped by Gnomes, it’s only right that I disclose a little something about my beliefs. Here’s a hint: in my desk drawer downstairs, I have a nice certificate issued to me by the NRA. The one that’s not the National Restaurateur’s Association. Based on one of the comics’ story arcs, my guess is that Kathy Peterson would not approve. So from this point on, feel free to dismiss any statements you don’t agree with as close-minded partisan bias. I’d totally understand. We cool?

So here’s my first, senses-shattering controversial statement: The artwork in Kidnapped by Gnomes is not that great.

I am not a fan of comics where the characters are seemingly copy and pasted from one strip to the next like Colorforms, with only slight changes to the faces to indicate “emotion”. There should be a rule somewhere that only Ryan North is allowed to do this. I hate it when it’s done in video game webcomics (*cough* Buckley *cough*), but at least there it makes sense thematically: computer characters that didn’t register any recognizable facial emotions until about the mid-2000’s. Yet Kidnapped by Gnomes is, for the most part, a political cartoon. This is the realm of Thomas Nast and David Horsey and Gary Trudeau, all artists who masked the deathly dull nature of their subject matter with eye-catching visuals and attention to detail.

Kidnapped by Gnomes, on the other hand, is static and dull. Ed and Wilson, the two gnome characters, are difficult to tell apart, and their expressions barely change from one panel to the next. I think they’re supposed to look like stuffed animals in a novel juxtaposition of childhood id and adult sarcasm, yet for the life I me I can’t get over how much they look like Veggie Tales. Is there anything in the world more off-putting than hearing political opinions coming from analogues of Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato?

As for the aforementioned political content, Ms. Peterson is opinionated and is not afraid to show it. Her views are a little left of the middle, a liberal if you will. (Or “progressive”; I’m not entirely sure what the proper term is nowadays.) However, Kidnapped by Gnomes is no Mallard Filmore or Minimum Security, and THANK GOD FOR THAT. While Ms. Peterson chastises right-wing politicians for the most part, she has no patience for extremists, right or left. Politics, after all is full of idiots from both sides, and part of the problem is the screwed up system that got them there. If there is a central theme of the comic, it’s “Don’t be a pompous jerk.” Frankly that’s something we can all agree with, no matter what our beliefs. As a result, Gnomes comes off as less petulant than its peers.

An example of the strip’s relative geniality: one of the strip’s running jokes is that Wilson, the liberal gnome, harbors a crush on notorious conservative writer Ann Coulter. I halfway expected this particular joke to devolve into the standard “Ann Coulter is a transvestite” response. (I don’t care if you like or hate Ms. Coulter: those sorts of insults are grade school at best.) When Gnomes get a chance to take a dig at her, what does Peterson come up with? “She only dates macho men with bulging muscles and a lust for maiming woodland creatures,” which is then follow-up by: “… not wimpy liberals who cry at the end of the ‘Joy Luck Club.’” Creative digs and self-deprecating comments? I approve!

Trust me, it matters. I don’t always agree with Ms. Peterson (what being a neo-con soulless corporate sell-out and all), but the way she presents her views, I am willing to listen. Kidnapped by Gnomes is not an inflammatory comic howling that your beliefs are wrong, and you’re stupid for believing what you do. Instead, it’s a pleasant debate you have with friends at a coffee shop, a call for civil conversation. Ed is portrayed as a Libertarian, and Wilson a Green Party liberal. Yet they’re portrayed as best of friends. Perhaps the best message of the comic is that despite our differences, we can all get along … not unlike Reverends Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson in that super bizarre commercial from the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Rating:

Kidnapped by Gnomes
by Kathy Peterson
http://www.kidnappedbygnomes.com/

(4 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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