The Family Mix

I just finished, minutes ago, reading a book that my mother gave to me for Xmas... 2 or 3 years ago. (I forget exactly when.) I do that thing, that I think everybody does, when I have a book that I need to read. Say someone gives you a book that they really enjoyed, and instead of starting right into it there's a few other books that are first on the list. Then of course there are those books screaming out to be read from bookstore windows, library shelves, even friend's coffee tables. Before you know it years have gone by and there's a book tucked away in a corner that you've been meaning to read.

Well, I decided to read this particular book and I'm glad I did. The book is called The Funnies and is by J. Robert Lennon. Its a story about the Mix family, now all grown up and dealing with the death of the father, Carl Mix, who was the creator and face behind the 'Family Funnies' comic strip. The one paneled comic, similar to a few I could name in existence today, followed the exploits of the Mix family back in their early years. Tim, the protagonist, of the book and one of five children in this dysfunctional family inherits the comic strip from a father whom he resented for years and has to prove himself worthy of filling his father's shoes. Tim's faced with an identity crisis, addled siblings, an ailing mother, a town so obsessed with the Mix's fame that they change the town's name to honor the cartoon family, and the pressures of trying to live up to expectations he'd never before known.

I won't say anymore except that I empathized with Tim. It's not easy trying to be your own man, and discovering your voice as an artist in a world that seems to be designed to keep you down. Obstacles appear in you path and the trick is to get by, through or around them while trying to maintain your course. Sometimes you are successful. Sometimes you get off track. Sometimes it takes getting knocked off track to realize you were never on the right track from the start.