Single panel comics are the most difficult to pull off. Larsen did well, but he didn't do what I consider to be the zen master of all single panels. IMO Berkeley Breathed did this with one Bloom County panel. When you contemplate it long enough, this one panel gives insight into most human interactions, the problems with education, psychology, and predicting behavior. In addition it gives a simple health message. I can't post it, due to copyright, but if you send me an email, I'll email it to you in return if you promise not to publicly post it or describe it.

I can understand how many people would find the strip offensive in contrast to the outburst of patriotism and flag waving at the time. I found some of it uncomfortable myself, even though I felt much of it was more or less accurate.

Since the days of those strips, 99% of the flags on cars are torn, faded, or gone, the immediacy of the horror is lessened, and some people are just now taking a harder look at the events leading up to 911, and the way the government reacted. I suggest that McGruder had a better knowledge of human behavior than it appeared at the time.

In any event, McGruder is an equal opportunity satirist, ripping both Republicans and far left liberals with equal glee. His send up of the mixed marriage couple in his strip was hilarious. Good satire is never tame, and McGruder's satire, at times, is as good as it gets.

The sad thing to me is that many comic strips are now sanitized into non-offensive, politically correct baby food. Whenever I see two or more strips tackling the same subject (ie: Mother's Day) with cutsie jokes, I cringe, knowing that they have totally sold out to pressure from the newspapers and syndicates.

Cartoons are a "Your Milage May Vary" commodity. Tastes are different. I nominate "Nancy" for the worst comic of all time.