Launched in January, “Gil’’ captures the daily life and innocent (and often TV- and video game-influenced) ponderings and affirmations of its namesake pre-teen protagonist.
An only child, he’s raised by his mom, Cheryl, a factory worker (symbolized by her Rosie the Riveter-like head scarf) who struggles to provide the necessities for her son; while on alternate weekends, he sees his schlumpy underachieving dad, Frank.
Meanwhile, Gil plays - and discusses life’s nagging questions - with his best friend, Shandra, a black girl, who, like him, is raised by one parent (in her case a single dad); and trades insults with his snotty, red-ponytailed classmate, Morgan.
Along the way, he gets average grades, sneaks sweets, and fantasizes, like most boys do, about robots, aliens, flying cars, and super powers.
“Immediately you love this kid,’’ said Tom Racine, the San Diego-based host of the entertainment podcast Tall Tale Radio, for which he’s interviewed more than 250 syndicated and Web cartoonists and animators.
Comparing Gil to Charlie Brown, he called him a “lovable loser.’’
He’s definitely an underdog, agreed Paul Gilligan, a Toronto-based cartoonist and friend of Feuti’s who created the syndicated strip “Pooch Cafe.’’ “He’s not a clear winning, alpha kid like Dennis the Menace.’’
Yet despite it all, he’s “always smiling.’’
Which is just the message Feuti, a father of two who came from a non-nuclear family himself, said he hopes to stress: “the resiliency and optimism of childhood.’’
And of parenthood, too. The comic addresses the difficulties of raising children alone: Cheryl drives a beater car because it’s all she can afford; she laments missing work when Gil is sick; and regrets not being able to buy him the latest gadgets or save up for his college education.
