I'm excited about this strip and am hoping that I'll be able to share it with you on a weekly basis as the newest addition to the "Dew".
Press Release taken off their website:
Stereotype-Busting Cartoon Strip Launches
Fueled by tenacious pride in their “Southron”* heritage and having grown weary of the stereotype portraying most folks in the South as ignorant, gap-toothed rednecks, Alexis and Davis Mauldin are launching Southron Pride with Cecil and Jake in early 2006. Cecil and Jake, the new cartoon strip’s main characters, seek to put-a-whuppin’ on the mean-spirited, inaccurate image that has been sold to large sections of the nation.
Cecil, a black, middle aged, white-collar worker, and Jake, a white, middle aged, blue-collar-type, are best friends and proud, lifelong Southerners. They love Dixie and wax eloquent about the blessings of living south of the Mason-Dixon line. Frequently, they poke fun at Yankee perceptions that are way off base. The two characters’ comments range from humor to wisdom to political commentary (“Politicians should be limited to two terms ... one in office and one in jail”).
Frequently listening in, Jake’s hound dog Wallace interrupts his snooze to offer pithy doggie commentary in thought balloons about the conversation at hand.
Cecil and Jake are unapologetically and consistently politically incorrect. They are Christians, but they don’t preach. They love Southern values and institutions, such as family, chivalry, country music, NASCAR, huntin', fishin', SEC football, and grits. There is no racial tension between the two men ... Cecil and Jake genuinely like each other. The strip portrays Southern folks as the majority really are: people of faith, friendly, family oriented, laid back, helpful, and humorous--with a large dollop of country-inspired common sense.
The inherent goodness of Southern culture and values has been ridiculed too long in favor of race baiting and attacks on family, heritage, and history. Cecil and Jake - with Wallace’s help - are on a mission to revive Southron pride and to preserve and celebrate all that is good and positive about the South.
Southron Pride is a collective effort. Alexis and Davis Mauldin (pen names: Puisin & the Commander) are lifelong Southerners, 30+ year political activists, and writers. The Mauldins created the Cecil and Jake concept and write the scripts, while Christopher Thomas, a professional graphic artist, created the characters and draws the strip.
* “Southron” is the old-fashioned word for Southerner.