TITLE The Bastich By Hart
PANEL 1 (BASTICH angrily waves newspapers in his hands.) BASTICH: You know, I've been running this campaign for several weeks now, and I've gotten absolutely no press coverage. It's not fair!
PANEL 2 (FAITH holds out her hand as she responds to BASTICH.) FAITH: That's what you get for running your campaign on the "Information Super Highway," 'Stich. Half of the people you're polling aren't even old enough to vote...
PANEL 3 (HACKER-LAD speaks while waving a lit cigarette in the air.) HACKER-LAD: Yeah, and half of the rest aren't U.S. citizens and couldn't care less if you win or lose (unless the downfall of the nation is somewhere on their wishlists].
PANEL 4 (BASTICH pensively leans his chin on his hand.) BASTICH: Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe I should do more campaigning in the "real world." Maybe then I'd catch myself some media attention!
PANEL 5 (FAITH hands BASTICH a tabloid titled MIDNIGHT ENQUIRER.) FAITH: Well, it's not as if the media has been totally ignoring you, 'Stich. Take a look at this... BASTICH: Eh..?
PANEL 6 (HACKER-LAD stands behind BASTICH as he reads the tabloid. The back cover reads "NAZI POTATOES".) HACKER-LAD: "Presidential Hopeful, Bastich, found in lurid tryst with allen slime queen Petra"..? That's ridiculous.. BASTICH: Yeah, she wont even return my calls..!
CREDITS (c) 1996 Joshua Adam Hart
Commentary
Once again, my main take-away from this old strip is just how much internet adoption has changed over the intervening decades.
I'm sure the 1996 U.S. Presidential candidates all had people in charge of online messaging, but that messaging was an afterthought to an afterthought because most voters still got their news from print and network TV. The internet was growing fast but it was still mostly the domain of students and tech enthusiasts. The boomers who would make or break a campaign were mostly offline. Now that same age group is scrolling TikTok to see how to vote.
Given this reality, Bastich's ability to sell out every principle (AKA "pivot") would set him up for a much more successful run in the 2020s.
And obviously, scandalous trysts are just table stakes now.