| Motley's Crew | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Ben Templeton and Tom Forman |
| Current status / schedule | Defunct |
| Launch date | 1976 |
| End Date | 2000 |
| Syndicate(s) | Tribune Media Services |
| Genre(s) | Humor, Marriage, Family, Career, Suburban Life |
Motley's Crew was a comic strip by Ben Templeton and Tom Forman that acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans during its 23 years of operation. The comic strip in general was about a blue collar employee named Mike Motley and his wife Mabel Motley. They had a son named Truman who married a woman named Tacoma. From that marriage came two sons. Mabel's siblings are Abel and Buffy, who occasionally torment their brother-in-law Mike. Templeton and Forman created the comic in 1976; it was first syndicated by what is known today as Tribune Media Services on September 6 of that year, working together on it until Forman's death in 1996, after which Templeton continued alone. It continued until January 1, 2000. The final week's strips dealt with the cast dealing with the Y2K bug; the final strip on January 1 with a sign with the words "This space for rent." Since then, Motley's Crew comic strips have been sought by collectors of contemporary comic strips.
Contents |
The Motley Family
Mabel Motley
In the comic strip Motley's Crew, Mabel Motley is a stay-at-home mother who cooks and cleans when her husband is off to work being the provider for the family unit. She eventually becomes a grandmother later in the comic strip series. While she is a homemaker (a job traditionally associated with passive and subservient wives), she reveals some of her repressed aspects of her personality when she frequently complains about her husband spending his weekends doing nothing but watching sports on the television. She is the element that balances out the masculine elements that the comic strip portrays by providing a feminine angle to attract a female audience as well as a male audience. She is considered to be more of a June Cleaver rather than a Marge Simpson or a Peggy Hill from King of the Hill. Mabel often has to set her husband straight. After a wedding, she gave strong criticism to her husband Mike for not wearing a necktie to a wedding service. Another time, she had to make her husband put on a "used" three piece tuxedo to look "presentable" in front of her siblings. Notice that the character development of Mike Motley suggested that he wore boxer shorts while resting inside his house. However, Mike wore briefs underneath his pants when he was outside the home. This was not meant to be a consistency error. While most men prefer wearing boxer shorts or briefs exclusively, other men prefer the support that briefs provide when away from home and the more comfortable fit of boxer shorts as outer clothing when relaxing at home. While her husband's hair is brown and balding, Mabel's hair is blond. This is considered to be a media stereotype of women who are either dumb or decide to pursue "traditional female" vocations. Mabel likes to wear her hair in "traditional feminine" hairstyle, like a typical housewife. This femininity is extended to her wardrobe, her personality, and her attitudes about life in general. Frequently seen in delicate dresses and almost never seen in trousers, Mabel is like the 1950s lady who got married as a young virgin and believed that a woman's place was home being the homemaker. There is no mention of Mabel having any post-secondary education prior to marrying her husband Mike.
Mike Motley
In the comic strip Motley's Crew, Mike Motley is a middle aged unskilled factory worker who works for his employer Mister Drudge and lives with his equally middle aged wife Mabel. When not working, he spends his time watching football on television. The occasional moments that he spends outside his factory workplace and his home is spent on doling out masculine humor to the readers of the comic strip that he plays the starring role in. During his working days, he often wears a hard hat because of the dangers that are involved in his blue collar job. During the earlier years of the comic strip, he and his wife took care of their son Truman. Eventually, the son grew up and got married because the comic strip had a story arc like a soap opera instead of a floating timeline like a Saturday morning cartoon. Even with his busy schedule of work, family, and bar life, Mike still had time to travel the world. On January 28, 1987, Mike and his buddy Earl are with their Russian friend Yuri in the then-current Soviet Union. Yuri stated "Across street is memorial to World War Two." Mike responded "Oh, yeah, World War Two... Isn't that when you Russkis started your occupation of Eastern Europe?". This led to a reply with Yuri stating "Nyet! Did not occupy Eastern Europe... is just where our tanks ran out of gas." Unlike Homer Simpson, his lack of hair is caused by age, not his the dangerous goods involved in his job. If Mike would have maintained all of his hair, his hairstyle would have closely followed that of a crew cut, a typical hairstyle used by young middle class men starting in the 1950s. According to the chronology of the story, Mike Motley was born circa 1941. Although his life prior to 1976 was never shown on the comic strip, he was shown as a younger man in the year 1977 when he joined the "working class poor."
The Grandkids
Truman and Tacoma Motley's children started out as babies in the 1980s Motley Crew comic strips. Eventually, they grew up to be children in puberty that confuse their grandfather's work clothes for the baggy clothing that was popular among youth in the late 1990s. They are frequently seen hanging around their grandfather, while their grandmother Mabel enjoys their occasional company. Their fate is unknown, as the comic strip was cancelled before they could graduate high school or get married. Like most children, Truman and Tacoma Motley's sons attended public school and received homework.
Mike Motley Family Tree
In-Laws and Acquaintances
Tacoma Motley
Tacoma Motley is Mike and Mabel Motley's daughter-in-law, who married the Motley's son Truman. She refuses to eat meat and she is also an environmentalist, a new age guru, as well as a wanna-be psychic. When she is not exploring her spirituality, she works as a bean counter in the big city. Her lifestyle is considered that to be bohemian chic and oriented towards the career path, the polar opposite of that of her mother-in-law. At one point Tacoma got a job in an office, and when she couldn't get her desktop computer to switch on, she snapped and said "Open Sesame!" to it. The computer then switched on and Tacoma could proceed with her normal activities. She also spoke an another time as if on the telephone; her supervisor said "Tacoma, personal calls aren't permitted." Tacoma said she wasn't on a personal call--she was channelling. Tacoma first met Truman Motley while at a school of higher learning. Their wedding was integrated into the comic strip series. Eventually, she became a mother as grandchildren were introduced to Mabel and Mike Motley much later in the series. Her name could be taken after the city of Tacoma, Washington, which is a liberal community near the western coast of the United States of America. Her willingness to have a career and to be a mother at the same time illustrate the modernity of the Truman Motley family over the old fashioned values of the Mike Motley family.
Abel and Buffy
Although they didn't appear often in the comic strip, Abel and Buffy provided comic relief when Mabel coerced her husband into embarrassing situations. This effect is especially seen in a comic strip that took place around July 22, 1997. Abel is in a normal business suit and Buffy is in a summer dress. They enter Mabel and Mike Motley's house to see their embarrassed brother-in-law Mike Motley being forced to dress up in an exceedingly formal manner for the occasion. Mike Motley opens the door to greet his sister's siblings while slightly confused and with more of his bald spot showing. The reason behind this is that Mabel didn't know how to properly comb a balding head and she desperately attempt to her husband look "perfect" after giving him a black eye. According to the caption of the comic strip panels, Mike give his wife's brother and sister a 2 out of 10 (20%) while his wife Mabel gave her siblings a mathematically illogical score of 12 out of 10 (120%). This level of perfection also meant forcing her husband to shave his face and making him wear a slightly torn tuxedo (with the tuxedo supposedly being a symbolism for class and dignity). There was no logical reason to pick a slightly torn three-piece tuxedo other than to entertain the newspaper reading audience with the comedic timing of Mike Motley. The underwear that was slightly revealed through the noticeable rip in the formal trousers was an attempt to capitalize America's newly found obsession with underwear oriented humor during that era. Later comic strips would incorporate the use of underwear outside its expected role of underneath a person's trousers.
Mister Drudge
Mister Drudge is an autocratic factory manager who runs the fictional corporation Drudge Industries, Inc. which is a construction company in the comic Motley's Crew. He is the businessman who personally signs the paycheck of Mike Motley and his other subordinates. His coarse and totalitarian nature is what keeps his construction firm in "perfect shape." Traditional gender roles reign supreme in his factory and he has an obedient female secretary always ready to take orders from him. His last name comes from a word that means "labor" or "work." Very rarely did anyone receive a pay raise or a promotion in his construction company. The man is also very young, with red hair and freckles, and appears content in his successful life.
Earl and Abigail
Earl is the next-door neighbor of Mike and Mabel Motley. He works at Drudge Industries along with Mike. Earl usually has a cigar in his mouth and is the most incompetent person in comics. When he was captured and forced to steer the ship, he ran it until it collided with land in the middle of Kansas. The humor behind this scenario is that is impossible to sail a ship to Kansas and that Earl is an incompetent sailor. Abigail is Earl's long-suffering wife. Like Mabel Motley, she is a homemaker.
Yuri
Yuri was Mike Motley's friend from Russia (which was part of the Soviet Union during most of the comic strip's production). He provided Cold War humor from the perspective of what Americans were conditioned to believe to be the "enemy" during the Cold War years. This character was used the most often during the Mikhail Gorbachev administration. When the Soviet Union collapsed on December 25, 1991, his role in the comic strip was eventually phased out and the comic strip returned to its main focus on capturing the comedy filled moments of suburban life in the United States. While Yuri was visited by his friend Mike Motley in the then-current Soviet Union, Yuri rarely traveled to America. The reason for Yuri's lack of visits to the United States was that financial and security reasons prevented citizens from the Soviet Union from entering Western Bloc countries during that time. During the 1980s when the Soviets were warming relations with the United States, Mike (representing the United States of America and his capitalist employer) had fewer financial and security restriction upon entering the Soviet Union.
Mike and Mabel Motley's Community
Mike Motley's Workplace
Mike Motley was employed in the construction industry and was employed under the manager of Drudge Industries, Inc., Mister Drudge himself. Due to the fact that he was an unskilled laborer, he and his wife lived a menial lower middle class existence. Because Motley's Crew was intended to be a humorous comic strip on everyday life, certain strips would show Mike Motley wearing his underwear outside of his pants and some strips would show him prancing around the work site in mouse ears because he thought at one point in time that his place of employment was like a Mickey Mouse outfit. Unfortunately, due to the cancellation of the comic strip, Mike Motley never got to retire from his workplace. Had the comic strip been published for a longer period of time, Mike Motley would have retired around the late 2000s. The retirement party would have featured the entire cast (including irregular characters like Abel and Buffy, Tacoma and Truman Motley, and Mike's grandchildren) and would have featured underwear worn in an unorthodox manner (either outside of his clothes, on top of his head, or sticking out from his pants - as this type of humor became more acceptable in the late 1990s and in the early 2000s). However, retirement would have eventually removed a key aspect in the flow of the story - the employer to employee relationship that made Mister Drudge a significant part of the story as the comic strip evolved through the years.
Mike and Mabel Motley's Neighborhood
Mike and Mabel Motley were homeowners during the course of the entire comic strip. They lived in the suburbs of an industrial city somewhere in the United States of America. While Mabel did the housework (cooking, cleaning, washing dishes), Mike did all the yard work (raking leaves, cutting the grass, etc.) Even though Mike and Mabel Motley decided that only Mike needed to earn income for the household, Mr. and Mrs. Motley tried their best to keep up with the times and with the changing needs of Middle America. Despite other comic strips changing completely with the times to suit a younger audience, older fans of the comic strip wanted to keep traditional gender roles present in the comic strip as much as possible. Therefore, any changes to the main characters were seen as temporary and made to look as foolish as possible in order to create a laughter effect. Like other people who live in the suburban area of a city, Mike owned a car in which he used to travel to work and play. In addition to factories, houses, and office buildings, the neighborhood also had a bar, a health clinic, a church, a beach, and other fine places where Mike, his friends and family all worked and played at. Humor was found in the least expected places like a reception area in a hospital being confused for a place where footballs are caught in an American football field for a touchdown. Rarely were any of the characters were seen walking, jogging, or using any form of transportation that didn't involve some form of motorized vehicle on Motley's Crew as the characters lived beyond reasonable walking distance to each other and to their respective hangouts. The issue of using gasoline and wasting natural resources was seen as a relative non-issue for the comic strip until the late 1990s brought in a radical increase in gasoline prices that dwarfed that of the 1973 oil crisis that occurred prior to the establishment of the comic strip. By then, the comic strip was past its prime and focused on issues that affect people going into senior citizenship instead of attracting American youth with stories about global warming and alternative fuels like solar power and ethanol.
Visit From The In-laws
Because Mabel and Mike Motley were an "old married couple," there were times where Mabel had to "shape up" her husband before her siblings entered the house. The most humorous of these scenarios occurred around July 22, 1997. Mike Motley was watching television with a face that hasn't been touched by a shaving razor. During that time, he was wearing a T-shirt with boxer shorts. His wife said to him "What on earth are you doing? Abel and Buffy will be here any moment now." Mike immediately replied with the scornful remark "This is as dressed up as I'm getting," believing that a T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts were suitable attire for a visit by his wife's siblings. By the relaxed appearance of Mike Motley, the visit by his brother- and sister-in-law took place on a Saturday or Sunday. Out of nowhere, Mabel gave him a pair of black eyes. She also took him upstairs and made him shave his face. Of course, Mabel didn't think that boxer shorts and a T-shirt were suitable clothing to wear for a visit by her siblings so she dressed him in a three piece tuxedo with tails. Because she had to dress him extremely fast before Abel and Buffy's arrival, his white briefs were not tucked adequately and the top portion (that would usually be tucked in with the formal trousers) were sticking out because of a rip that was on the formal trousers. The rip on the formal trousers could have been caused by these factors:
- It could have been Mabel's fault because she was not given the time to make her husband put on the tuxedo at a normal pace before the siblings arrive; this could have attributed to the rapid state of disrepair in more ways than one.
- Another resolution to this query would be that the tailor was unable to mend the formal trousers before it was rented by Mrs. Motley. Even though there was little time until Mabel's siblings arrived, Mike's injuries were adequately bandaged.
- The perfect world resolution to this query would indicate that Mike Motley purchased the tuxedo to wear in his wedding (which was never shown on the comic strip). As a result of this, the tuxedo has been gathering dust while Mike Motley gained weight during the years. After trying to get his tuxedo on, a rip emerged in his black formal trousers and his white briefs are revealed because the rip in his formal trousers was the most prominent within the general condition of the tuxedo.
While he could still feel the soreness of his black eyes, Mike Motley was forced to struggle his way to the door. The conversation was quickly started with a "Hi ya" to Abel and Buffy. This was said with a slightly slurred speech because Mike was recovering from the black eyes that Mabel gave him before dressing him up for the event. The slightly slurred speech sounded like "Hi ya Abel Buffy." In the caption that represented Mike's welcome to Abel and Buffy, there was no comma between "ya" and "Abel." In addition to this, the word "and" was missing between the names "Abel" and "Buffy." While saying "hi ya" to Abel and Buffy using informal American English, Mike shook the hand of his brother-in-law Abel. Continuity from that comic strip lasted only until the next day's comic strip, where Mike Motley is in his normal clothes and he is complaining to his wife about how his brother-in-law Abel was toying around with his car. This visit with Mabel's brother and sister was assumed to be somewhat of a disaster because no other words are exchanged between Mike, Abel, and Buffy except for the "Hi ya Abel Buffy" line.
Observations
- Mike's vest, tuxedo shirt (a more formal shirt that is worn with a tuxedo, as opposed to a dress shirt that is worn with a business suit) and bow tie were white.
- Mike's jacket and formal trousers were black.
- Mike's formal trousers were in ripped in a manner that revealed the waistband and the top portion of the underwear were revealed to his unsuspecting brother- and sister-in-law.
- Even though the rip exposed a significant part of his underwear, the fly of the briefs was never shown. The reason is that the fly of the briefs were not shown is because it allows easier access to the penis for urination. Also, it is not considered to be appropriate to show something that is associated with sexuality, defecation, urination, or the expulsion of puke in a family publication.
- The condition of the tuxedo suggested that either the tuxedo could possibly have been a rental. Many users could have used the tuxedo before it was used by Mike Motley.
- On the other hand, Mabel made the rip in the tuxedo by trying to make Mike put on the garment than what would be considered normal for dressing a man in a tuxedo.
- It is assumed from his manner of dress that Mike was wearing dark-colored dress socks and black dress shoes.
- The wise observant should have also noticed that his wife Mabel was wearing a long dress with a floral design, similar to the kind worn by June Cleaver.
Classic Comic Strips
 Mabel Motley lying down on a beach in the summertime. |
 Mike Motley is shown here playing baseball for his local bar. His team lost the game by a score of 37-0. |
 Seen here in a classic comic strip from 1977, Mike Motley joins the "middle class poor." |
 Mike Motley's T-shirt and work pants are stolen by his grandchildren, who confuse them for baggy clothes |
 Mike Motley is receiving a heating bill in the winter time. |
 This is a vintage Motley's Crew comic strip from August 26, 1979. Mike Motley is attempting to pour a drink of beer. |
