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Tip 'o the hat to Comics Curmudgeon here, but tonight's Mark Trail needs no help being hilarious
| OK, yesterday’s zany talking rug was obviously just the lead-in to the full-on peyote-drenched nightmare that is … this. Sometimes people say things in the comments before I read a strip and I think, “Oh, they’re exaggeratingâ€
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Edgy DC
Mar 28 2007 09:00 PM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Mar 29 2007 07:10 AM
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This is the second time in two days that I've been unable to stop laughing at the Mark Trail comments. For those uninitiated, it appears Jack Elrod has somebody else put in the caption balloons, but probably under a strict rule to never cover up any of his elephant-hating art. So they often only dimly appear to indicate who is speaking, particularly since Elrod rarely bothers giving the characters moving lips or gestures to match their statements.
Here's yesterday's disaster.
As a long-time fan of Mark Trail, I totally accept things like giant talking skunks without a bit of hesitation. But I’m having trouble with the giant talking rug in the third panel here. Which appears to be on the wall for some reason. Or is it perched on Mark’s shoulder? Or are Mark and Cherry actually standing on the wall, their bodies held parallel to the ground by some strange force, like Lionel Richie in the damn “Dancing on the Ceilingâ€
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cooby
Mar 29 2007 04:27 AM
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Also, for the uninitiated, Mark's friend Dan was fishing by himself in a boat on their lake (which never shows in that wide angle scene) suddenly fell off, and disappeared.
Some of Mark's comments:
"We didn't get to spend much time visiting"
"We'll have to forget this and move on"
Now, the guy's body hasn't shown up, but there doesn't seem to be any concern that it might show up in some horrible condition. "Life moves on" even with a horror like that out there where they swim.
Most hilarious of all, Rusty found an eye hook on the bottom of the boat and Mark is piecing the whole sordid insurance scam scheme together from that.
No wonder Cherry is confused. Though that doesn't explain the talking bangs.
I've been in on it from the start (Dan, in a naked scene, and his wife Sally, discussed it "for our ears only" beforehand) and I can't follow Mark's logic.
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Edgy DC
Mar 29 2007 07:59 AM
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Ah, yes, the dramatic drowning:
Mark’s doing exactly the right thing here. When I took a swim safety class in high school, they taught us that you can save a drowning person just by believing in their abilities hard enough. Also, in a situation like this, you should never leave your breakfast unattended, because your bacon might get cold. |
Cherry is scared into she's gone blonde and switched to a center part, but Mark is just there fogging up the window and not opening his mouth to speak.
He almost seems amused in the first panel.
But Elrod can sure draw majestic watefrowl.
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cooby
Apr 11 2007 06:20 PM
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I've always had the idea that "Apt 3G" is set in New York City.
Men in my little hick town don't even wear cowboy hats.
Please, somebody tell me you don't wear them in NYC either
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Benjamin Grimm
Apr 11 2007 06:43 PM
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Imus does.
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Edgy DC
Apr 13 2007 10:08 AM
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Firghtening as all Hell, but check out how Dennis' clown is peeking out of the toy chest and fucking with him behind Mom's back.
Agh.
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Johnny Dickshot
Apr 13 2007 11:22 AM
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Saw a guy with a cowboy hat on the B61 bus the other day. It was creepy. Also: A chick passenger in cowboy boots. That wasn't so creepy.
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Edgy DC
Apr 13 2007 11:39 AM
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Noted in the Comics Curmudgeon:Notice how --- contrary to the belief that certain iconic comic strip characters are always dressed the same because every day is more or less the same for their zamy selves --- Mrs. Mitchell is inadvertantly revealing that Dennis has several versions (or at least two) of the same outfit.
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cooby
Apr 13 2007 08:42 PM
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For those of you who have managed to ignore our tantalizing inticements to read Mark Trail, Mark has (very easily, I might add) now found out from Dan's insurance company that his $1000000 life insurance policy has been paid (within days, no less! With no investigation or body!) to Sally.
Mark, after riding the back of a goose to a distant city, is now driving an undetermined vehicle to Sally's house, and finds her driving away!
My favorite CC comment to date:
April 13th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I was wrong in an earlier comment. It still hasn’t been revealed what sort of giant-windowed vehicle Mark Trail is driving. So I’m still holding out for it to be a crane with a wrecking ball.
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Edgy DC
Apr 17 2007 10:28 AM
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One of our own appears in Gil Thorpe.
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Benjamin Grimm
Apr 17 2007 10:38 AM
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What an honor!
Just don''t start calling me "Clambake."
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Willets Point
Apr 17 2007 11:31 AM
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As soon as I read this I raced over to make the post that Edgy already made.
Clambake has a nice ring to it.
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Edgy DC
Apr 17 2007 11:34 AM
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One of our own appears in Mark Trail:
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Benjamin Grimm
Apr 17 2007 11:55 AM
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Our agents have been doing a good job at getting us placed in the comics this week.
Watch for me next week. I'll be playing "Man Number Two" in Gasoline Alley.
The following week I have a date with Miss Buxley in Beetle Bailey (on a Wednesday, natch) and in May I'll be appearing in a very special Funky Winkerbean.
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Willets Point
Apr 17 2007 11:57 AM
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Oh no! Does that mean you'll have cancer!
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Willets Point
Apr 18 2007 10:34 AM
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I can't believe I'm enjoying "Gil Thorp" this much.
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Edgy DC
Apr 18 2007 10:41 AM
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Worst illustrated strip in the paper.
Including Archie.
OK, Rhymes with Orange and maybe Six Chicks are worse, but, among realist dramatic strips, nothing stoops to Gil's level.
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Edgy DC
Apr 18 2007 08:24 PM
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This flew under the radar, but Brant Parker, the longtime collaborator of Johnny Hart on The Wizard of Id, followed Hart into the hereafter eight days later.
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cooby
May 08 2007 04:54 AM
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For those of you who have still not taken our advice and have not started to read Mark Trail religiously, Mark is now investigating "bird strikes" at neighboring air fields.
He is forced to work closely with a pretty little biologist named Sam Hill, who has painstakingly explained to Mark that her real name is "Samantha".
Good guy Mark's general reaction to Sam is his typical bland expression, despite the fact that along with her sweet face, she sports what appears to be a 42DD chest. And they look real to me.
Soon Sam and Mark will go out into the field to investigate these "bird strikes" where Sam will turn into the usual Mark Trail female and freak out over a garter snake or something, losing all credibility as a scientist. Somehow she will end up in Mark's arms, you mark my words.
Add this to the fact that last week, Mark and Cherry had an (offscreen) sexual encounter, and you see that Mark Trail is quickly becoming a "Must Read" comic strip.
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soupcan
May 08 2007 08:52 AM
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One of our own appears in Gil Thorpe.
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My 10 year old son has been having great difficulties in getting a hit in little league this year. The umpires are about 13-14 years old and their strike zones vary from tin cup size to soccer goal size. There is no method to their madness.
As a result the kids batting get really confused. 'Should I swing? If I don't swing at that pitch over my head will he call it it a strike?' Crap like that.
Anyway, my boy is completely lost and has gone from swinging at nothing to swinging at everything and getting the same result everytime - 'K'.
I saw this strip that Edgy posted last week and explained to Junior exactly what Clambake is saying to Rick.
It seemed to resonate and the little guy has been rocketing (seriously rocketing) line drives all over the place the last three games. The coach has moved him up from 9th in the order to 6th as a result.
Thanks Edgy.
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Willets Point
May 08 2007 08:58 AM
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You should thank Clambake.
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Willets Point
May 16 2007 04:57 PM
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I've now been so drawn in by Gil Thorp's bizarreness and unintentional humor that I'm reading This Week in Milford, a blog dedicated exclusively to daily analysis of Gil Thorp.
I'm such a geek.
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cooby
May 16 2007 05:17 PM
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Clambake's still got some chiseled chest.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 16 2007 05:58 PM
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Thanks!
Oops...
Never mind.
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Edgy DC
May 22 2007 09:42 AM
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First apparent African-American in Blondie ever?
And he's part of a pint-sized shakedown racket?
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cooby
May 24 2007 04:30 AM
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What is that coming out of her head? It's always, always there.
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Willets Point
May 24 2007 05:53 AM
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You mean the girl on the left in the first two panels? I think that's a poorly illustrated ribbon for her poorly illustrated pony tail.
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Willets Point
May 24 2007 05:54 AM
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You mean the girl on the left in the first two panels? I think that's a poorly illustrated ribbon for her poorly illustrated pony tail.
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cooby
May 24 2007 09:11 AM
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I'm thinking antennas
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cooby
May 29 2007 09:04 AM
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wrong thread
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cooby
May 30 2007 04:04 PM
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If you read Comics Curmudgeon today
http://joshreads.com/
and I hope you do, because certainly some us us have tried our darndest to get you to, check out MO TRAIL about half way down the page. The girl that drew it is from nearby here and my husband used to know her.
Mo Trail isn't that great but the book they mention FUN HOME is a good graphic novel
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Willets Point
May 30 2007 04:23 PM
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The same post mentions T Campbell, a guy I know from college.
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cooby
May 30 2007 04:46 PM
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Small world, Willets!
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Benjamin Grimm
May 31 2007 10:16 AM
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It was strange today to see Miss Buxley on a Thursday. (Maybe she got mixed up by the Memorial Day holiday.)
I checked and she wasn't in Wednesday's strip this week, which is her traditional day.
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Willets Point
May 31 2007 11:16 AM
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Clambake continues to be absurdly brilliant.
The creepy claw on the shoulder, the Jedi-like wisdom, eerie shadow figures in the background ... all traits that make Gil Thorp the best worst comic ever!
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Benjamin Grimm
May 31 2007 12:06 PM
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I don't read it regularly, but looking at these recent strips, it's somehow reminding me of Dondi.
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cooby
May 31 2007 04:39 PM
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I can't find it online.
I think T Campbell got a second mention, Willets
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Willets Point
May 31 2007 09:16 PM
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Yes indeed he did.
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cooby
Jun 09 2007 08:23 PM
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Irving finally uses his head
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Willets Point
Jun 09 2007 08:57 PM
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Hey Cooby, did you notice that antenna girl is now bald girl?
By the way, I read Fun Home and it is really well written & well illustrated. A great book all around.
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Edgy DC
Jun 09 2007 09:19 PM
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The Curmudgeon outdid himself today.
I thought I’d share with you a little of the code from the algorithm that powers the Archie Joke-Generating Laugh Unit 3000:
if
assessLameness(joke.this) > Unspeakable
then
insertDrawing(BettysAssCrack)
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cooby
Jun 09 2007 09:27 PM
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Antenna Girl actually looks better now.
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DocTee
Jun 09 2007 09:28 PM
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the coach looks like A-Rod's paramour
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cooby
Jun 10 2007 03:47 PM
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Edgy, you were quoted!
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cooby
Jun 14 2007 07:12 PM
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My gosh, yet another CPFer mentioned in Gil Thorp.
Yancy, Edgy...who's next?
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Edgy DC
Jun 14 2007 08:04 PM
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Which of those softballers wouldn't look better bald?
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cooby
Jun 14 2007 08:32 PM
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Owing to her receding hairline, Branden soon will be
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Edgy DC
Jun 27 2007 07:43 AM
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The 'Bake is a fraud:
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Willets Point
Jun 27 2007 10:22 AM
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It's Eddie Scissons Syndrome.
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Willets Point
Jun 28 2007 08:29 AM
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A couple of comic competitions.
Internet vs. Library
Boston vs. New York
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Willets Point
Jul 05 2007 08:43 AM
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Willets Point
Jul 10 2007 10:11 AM
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| Holy crap, is Walt smoking a blunt on the back porch? YOU ARE MY NEW HERO, SIR! |
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cooby
Jul 10 2007 06:06 PM
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That's a guy??
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Batty31
Jul 10 2007 07:54 PM
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Dude looks like a lady!
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Edgy DC
Jul 10 2007 08:13 PM
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 Doug Martlette, who was modestly funny (and a Pulitzer winner) during a long stint as political cartoonist for Newsday, as well as painfully un-funny as author of the syndicated Kudzu strip, is dead today after a traffic accident.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 10 2007 08:27 PM
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I liked Kudzu - at least for the brief time I was reading it. I recall liking the preacher character.
He was actually only at Newsday as their editorial cartoonist for a short time - coming from New Orleans I believe - and it was during that stretch that they gave Kudzu a prominent spot (and bigger space). After he returned south - Charlotte I think - they dropped his strip too and I no longer read it.
I met him briefly when he was in New York.
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Edgy DC
Jul 10 2007 09:12 PM
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Well, he sure seemed there for a long time to me.
"I hate these modern interpretations." Har. Come on.
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Johnny Dickshot
Jul 20 2007 08:31 AM
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Any thoughts on the Quigmans?
I don't read it but had occassion to look up the illustrator, reference a blog that discusses him, and heard back from him.
Mr. Vengeance indeed!
[url]http://www.metsbythenumbers.com/?p=37
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Willets Point
Jul 26 2007 12:09 PM
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I don’t believe that fruitcake actually exists. I suppose there are still physical fruitcakes here and there, but I think those real-world manifestations of this traditional holiday treat are hugely outnumbered by jokes about their inedibility, told by and laughed at by an audience that for the most part has never seen one. I accept that ritualized jokes like these, ones everyone gets even though they’re several steps removed from the thing being joked about, are part of the landscape of humor, but in this case part of the ritual is that you make the joke at Christmas time, not in the last week of fucking July.
See, this is why zombie B.C. pisses me off much, much more now than it did when Johnny Hart was writing it and reminding me that I was going to hell. At least then I could say, “Oh, it’s the idiosyncratic output of a somewhat deranged old man who’s been doing this so long he’s in his own little world.” Whereas now I have to imagine the current team saying, “They’ll run this crap for decades no matter how nonsensical the jokes. Ka-ching! Tee time, everybody!” |
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Benjamin Grimm
Jul 26 2007 12:16 PM
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I think BC should be shut down. In most cases, when a creator dies (or retires) the strip should go too, and make room for some fresh talent.
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Willets Point
Jul 26 2007 12:20 PM
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I agree. They could probably purge out half the comics page if they remove all the legacy comics they're running these days. It's going to be real hard for this generation's George Herriman, Walt Kelly, Charles Schulz or Bill Waterson to find his/her way in all the zombie muck.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 26 2007 01:12 PM
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At least half.
Problem is that the artists who created those strips usually don't own them so the syndicator can
just hire new guys to write and draw and run the thing forever.
It would be like trying to prevent James Bond movies from ever being made once Connery
got too old and Ian Fleming kicked off.
I guess the key is for newspaper people to venture into new strips once old ones get stale
(for whatever reason) but that's probably about as easy as getting radio execs to try newer
formats and artists.
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Benjamin Grimm
Jul 26 2007 01:14 PM
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I was glad to see that the Philadelphia Inquirer, one of two papers that I read, dropped BC once Johnny Hart's strips ran out.
They replaced it with Sherman's Lagoon, which isn't a great choice but at least it's not Snuffy Smith.
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DocTee
Jul 26 2007 01:40 PM
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In college, a smart-ass classmate once told the professor that he was putting off reading the NY Times until they added comics.
The prof said he had a long wait ahead of him, but now I see the Sunday Times Magazine has a weekly installment, "The Funny Pages", which is about as inaccurate as you can name a strip that features a one-legged woman (and a pregnant lady strongly considering abortion) as the recurring characters.
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Edgy DC
Jul 26 2007 04:44 PM
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New strips will replace the old ones when the market says they should. When the reader gives more time to the unfamilar than to the familiar but stale.
The problem is that the market is hard to measure on products running side by side like that and consumed en masse.
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Willets Point
Jul 31 2007 04:13 PM
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Hey Cooby, Comics Curmudgeon rags on Cathy today!
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cooby
Jul 31 2007 05:14 PM
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And it's about friggin time. Let it be the first of many.
Thanks, also for pointing that out, because I might otherwise have missed the comment about the "kittens in a stewpot" on Dawn's shirt. Very funny!
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Frayed Knot
Jul 31 2007 05:49 PM
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Y'know, I actually met Cathy one time ... and yes I mean like the real person, not the cartoon alter-ego.
Little bit of a thing. Kinda cute too as I recall.
Or at least she was 10 years or so ago.
Luckily for her I didn't know any of you people back then.
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Willets Point
Jul 31 2007 08:08 PM
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Does she have a nose?
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cooby
Aug 02 2007 06:14 PM
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Several days later Dawn is still wearing her stewed cats teeshirt. And in this heat, poo-tinky.
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Edgy DC
Aug 03 2007 08:57 AM
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Bad timing for today's Speed Bump:
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Edgy DC
Aug 03 2007 10:22 AM
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Classick Chuck today:
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Willets Point
Aug 03 2007 10:43 AM
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Edgy DC wrote:
Bad timing for today's Speed Bump:
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Almost as bad as when Sally Forth's office was taken over by Chechen rebels and the strip ended up being published days after the massacre at Beslen.
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Nymr83
Aug 03 2007 10:53 AM
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Edgy DC wrote:
Bad timing for today's Speed Bump |
its a funny strip, and i dont think its close enough to what happened to be in poor taste (now if the car had driven off a bridge....)
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Benjamin Grimm
Aug 03 2007 11:20 AM
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Well, we don't know that that car didn't drive off a bridge.
I'm sure there will be a lot of complaints about this strip from people who don't realize that newspaper comics (except for editorial cartoons) are drawn and submitted weeks in advance.
I wonder if Speed Bump runs in any Minneapolis or St. Paul papers? If it does, I wouldn't blame the local features editor if he/she pulled that cartoon.
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Edgy DC
Aug 08 2007 07:26 AM
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Early statistical returns have indicated that 120% of readers think the same thing after reading the first panel of today's Blondie. I don't know how the writers live with themselves.
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Benjamin Grimm
Aug 08 2007 07:45 AM
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Is Elmo approaching puberty? Before he's always had eyes for Dagwood, but now it seems he's finally noticing Blondie.
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Edgy DC
Aug 08 2007 08:00 AM
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Considering the I'm-sorry-that's-no-accident perspective, a gay Stevie Wonder would be noticing Blondie.
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Willets Point
Aug 08 2007 02:20 PM
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Willets Point
Aug 10 2007 09:22 PM
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AIGH! A through-the-crotch angle in Gil Thorp!!!!
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cooby
Aug 11 2007 07:41 AM
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I see he takes out his pearl earrings for fights
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Willets Point
Aug 11 2007 02:32 PM
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cooby wrote:
I see he takes out his pearl earrings for fights |
That's Gil giving boxing lessons. Kaz is the one who wears earings and he's off solving the Gail Martin mystery. Not that you can really tell anyone apart in Gil Thorp.
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cooby
Aug 11 2007 06:30 PM
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Gail Martin? The hottie female singer? What is the mystery? (I can't find Gil Thorp online, only at Joshreads)
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Edgy DC
Aug 21 2007 06:33 PM
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Word balloons in Mark Trail always seem to point toward the speaker indifferently, or not at all --- making for some comedy when Mark's words seem to eminate from a passing squirrel, but this time they've gone too far.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/mark. ... e=20070817
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Willets Point
Aug 21 2007 07:53 PM
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Oddly, it looks like Mark is the one who is supposed to be speaking. So I guess he's using his ventriloquist talent to make Cherry's genitalia speak.
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cooby
Aug 22 2007 07:09 AM
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No wonder they keep her around
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Willets Point
Aug 31 2007 07:05 PM
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I'm a bit scandalized by the thought of the Cranepool sweetheart wanting a thong.
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cooby
Aug 31 2007 07:36 PM
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Strictly for use as an antenna ornament
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Willets Point
Sep 03 2007 05:31 PM
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Today "real time" ends in For Better or For Worse:
Kansas City, MO (08/29/2007) Aug. 28, 2007 -- Lynn Johnston’s popular comic strip “For Better or For Worse” begins a new phase Monday, Sept. 3, as character Michael Patterson looks through a family photo album with his 5-year-old daughter, Meredith. With this strip, Michael begins retelling the Patterson family story by recounting the courtship of his parents, John and Elly, the central characters in the 28-year-old comic strip read by millions each day.
In a mixture of new, old and retouched work, readers will begin to see scenes of the past -- Elly reading in the library at college and catching the eye of the young dental student who will one day become her husband.
“This was an opportunity to give my readers new material, as well as my being able to pick and choose through the original art and making it different, making it a new entity, as it were,” says Johnston.
Johnston will keep fans engaged with a mix of special strips from the past and newly drawn panels that will help reintroduce favorite storylines. The strip’s current storyline will be interlaced with Michael's remembrances until it gradually reaches a natural closing stage sometime early next year. When that happens, time will stop for the extended Patterson family, but not their stories. The stories will be relived by a current generation of fans and introduced for the first time to a new generation.
Right now, Johnston is still exploring the budding romance between oldest daughter Elizabeth and an old high school flame.
"I'm interested and readers are interested to know what is going to happen with Anthony and Elizabeth," she said. "That resolution can't happen too fast. They've only just started to see each other again after a long time apart."
Translated into eight languages, "For Better or For Worse" now appears in over 2,000 papers in Canada, the United States and 23 other countries. Read by people of all ages, the award-winning comic strip deals honestly with both the lighthearted and the serious, and has effectively brought families together for laughter, tears and dialogue. Johnston, a Canadian, has produced collections of “For Better or For Worse” in 35 best-selling books, and her strip has been adapted into six animated television specials and a popular animated series |
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Benjamin Grimm
Sep 04 2007 10:52 AM
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I find that to be a strange decision. I wonder if she (Lynn Johnston) sees retirement on the horizon.
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Willets Point
Sep 04 2007 10:54 AM
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I don't really understand what she's doing. And I'm not going to believe any commentary from the Comics Curmudgeon crowd either.
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Edgy DC
Sep 04 2007 11:04 AM
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The hating from that crowd makes me mad. But I hated on Drew Corey and made the comments of the week last week. I'm such a hypocrite.
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Willets Point
Sep 04 2007 12:22 PM
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Edgy DC wrote:
The hating from that crowd makes me mad. But I hated on Drew Corey and made the comments of the week last week. I'm such a hypocrite. |
You did? Which one way yours? Was it the one about the badass green suit? Because you know, you DO have red slacks!
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Edgy DC
Sep 04 2007 12:42 PM
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I also have no problem with the ladies in the slacks department.
How could you miss me? Met reference and everything.
Just because there's 400 hate-filled posts to sort through every day doesn't mean you shouldn't patiently search for mine.
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Willets Point
Sep 04 2007 01:27 PM
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Ah, TWO weeks ago.
Edgy DC wrote:
“Drew: hauling her (un)romantically down by the splintery old docks that he uses to take his countless conquests — last names unimportant and long since forgotten — and pick up smuggled drug drops. You can almost hear the old salty dockhand saying, ‘Thar be Dr. Feelgood, and Dawn, or Sally, or whoever. Snicker.’ Vera: throwing herself clumsily at Drew like a broken bat at Mike Piazza, torturing herself with heels, but not thinking enough of the date to bother to take her damn hair out of that damn ponytail, slipping out of the shoes in a symbolic hint of all she will take off for Drew if he’ll just catch her when … oops. Ugh. How can the stars allow themselves twinkle on these two awful people?” –Edgy DC |
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Edgy DC
Sep 04 2007 01:29 PM
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They took out my formatting.
Drew: hauling her (un)romantically down by the splintery old docks that he uses to take his countless conquests — last names unimportant and long since forgotten — and pick up smuggled drug drops. You can almost hear the old salty dockhand saying, ‘Thar be Dr. Feelgood, and Dawn, or Sally, or whoever. Snicker.’
Vera: throwing herself clumsily at Drew like a broken bat at Mike Piazza, torturing herself with heels, but not thinking enough of the date to bother to take her damn hair out of that damn ponytail, slipping out of the shoes in a symbolic hint of all she will take off for Drew if he’ll just catch her when … oops.
Ugh. How can the stars allow themselves twinkle on these two awful people?” –Edgy DC
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Willets Point
Sep 05 2007 07:59 AM
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Margo is just awesome!
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cooby
Oct 21 2007 06:52 PM
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Dear lord in heaven, this is Gil Thorp's most gender-challenged character yet.
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metsmarathon
Oct 21 2007 07:05 PM
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"sucks to be you"?!
what is this, 1988? who says that anymore...
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metsguyinmichigan
Oct 22 2007 06:57 AM
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metsmarathon wrote:
"sucks to be you"?!
what is this, 1988? who says that anymore... |
Badly drawn, gender-challenged people in Milford, Conn., apparently. :)
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cooby
Oct 29 2007 04:47 PM
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I would like to watch that!
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cooby
Oct 29 2007 08:25 PM
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It made me cry.
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Edgy DC
Nov 06 2007 01:18 PM
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The Comics Curmudgeon wrote:
Something very, very deep inside Mary Worth caused her to offer to pay good money to save the life of some dumb dog, and in panel two you can tell that she’s fighting it with every fiber of her being. She can barely choke out the part of the sentence after “I’ll”; her teeth are gritted so fiercely that her face is transformed into a grim, deathly rictus (more so than usual, I mean); and her hand is clutching at the black, empty hole where her heart is supposed to be. And there will be payback. Oh yes, there will be payback. That dog is going to wish it died on the side of the road with a modicum of dignity. |
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cooby
Nov 06 2007 05:33 PM
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Obviously Mary Worth has no idea how much a pet Xray costs.
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Edgy DC
Nov 16 2007 07:29 AM
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A Charlie Brown Christmas wasn't treacle.
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Benjamin Grimm
Jan 04 2008 12:11 PM
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Worth noting:
As of this week, the New York Daily News has dropped For Better or For Worse.
I guess they don't like the 50% rerun format.
They've replaced FBFW with a strip called Chuckle Brothers, one of those gag-a-day strips with no recurring characters. The Daily News has a few of those now. They were already carrying Flight Deck, The Flying McCoys, and Close to Home.
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Willets Point
Feb 29 2008 11:55 AM
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Garfield Minus Garfield.
The comic strip is much improved without its titular character.
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themetfairy
Mar 01 2008 02:51 PM
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AG/DC
Mar 10 2008 09:35 AM
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Crappy old strips re-asserting themselves with new funny of late.
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cooby
Mar 10 2008 07:08 PM
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WHY can't she just go along? It's not like she works, right?
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themetfairy
Mar 10 2008 07:25 PM
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Then who would feed Andy?
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AG/DC
Mar 10 2008 10:25 PM
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Cherry's father and her son Rusty live with them as well.
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Willets Point
Mar 11 2008 08:43 AM
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themetfairy wrote:
Then who would feed Andy? |
Andy the wonder dog is usually with Mark and responsible for rescuing Mark in 95% of the plots.
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AG/DC
Mar 19 2008 05:02 PM
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Funny thing is... while he's dead right about Cathy's general wordiness --- there should be at least as much visual information as verbal, and Cath generally fails that test --- I kind of liked today's strip.
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Willets Point
Mar 19 2008 05:34 PM
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That...and Cathy is not funny, Cathy is a loathsome character, and Cathy does not have a nose even though Guisewite is apparently capable of drawing noses on the other characters.
All big fails.
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AG/DC
Mar 19 2008 05:55 PM
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Well, sure she's a loathesome character. So are a lot of protagonists. I don't think that really disqualifies it. The rest, though, sure adds up. It asks for more than it gives.
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Benjamin Grimm
Apr 15 2008 01:00 PM
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The Philadelphia Inquirer censored Get Fuzzy today by rerunning an old strip (without explanation), while the Daily News went ahead and printed today's intended strip, in which Darby Conley daringly included a line from Bucky about how "Tiger Woods doesn't wash his own balls."
Also, did anyone notice Tina Fey's dig at Cathy on 30 Rock last week? It was a quick gag, but Tina had on a Cathy-like wig and was pointing her finger up in the air and shouting "CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE CHOCOLATE! ACK!"
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cooby
Apr 15 2008 05:46 PM
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Cathy doesn't appear in my paper any more (thank god for small miracles) but I think FBOFW is about the dumbest thing since sliced bread lately.
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TheOldMole
Apr 15 2008 07:19 PM
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Who's drawing Apartment 3G now? He's terrible! Can that really be Margo?
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AG/DC
May 07 2008 09:29 AM
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I don't know who or what Lio is, but I was shocked to open the Washington Post in my breakroom today and see Diabolism right there on the funny pages:
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Batty31
May 07 2008 09:46 AM
Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 07 2008 09:50 AM
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Damn...that's the kind of comic I would come up with!
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Benjamin Grimm
May 07 2008 09:46 AM
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LIO is a weird strip, and not in the way it intends.
It often doesn't have a joke at all. Just a reminder that Lio is a strange kid. (I can't count how many times the "gag" has been a reminder that Lio has a giant squid in his bedroom.)
We get it. He's strange. But as far as I'm concerned, the strip just isn't funny at all.
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metsguyinmichigan
May 08 2008 11:49 AM
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I like it, if only because it's different than the usual ancient stuff that clutters our funny pages.
A while back I had to go into our archives and pull out the papers from the moon landing. (All the past papers are in huge binders in our basement) and just for kicks I checked out the comics.
I tell you, most of them had not changed even a little bit, but were just a little bigger. Dagwood was in the bathtub, ect. Same gags, same artwork....incredible!
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AG/DC
May 08 2008 12:01 PM
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Blondie actually has changed a bit since we were kids.
A bit. Blondie's gone to work and Elmo occasionally hangs out with black kids. Well, a black kid. In a crowd of white kids.
That's about it. But it seems self-aware of how formulaic it is now.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 08 2008 12:23 PM
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Blondie used to also try to avoid topical references, because it was syndicated internationally and they didn't want to do gags that readers overseas wouldn't get.
They've gotten away from that. Today you'll find current pop culture references. Either they no longer care about international readers, or figure that American culture has grown so pervasive that the jokes will be understood worldwide anyway.
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AG/DC
May 08 2008 09:22 PM
Edited 2 time(s), most recently on May 09 2008 05:45 AM
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I want to praise Mel Lazarus, the 150-year-old artist on Momma.
I like that the challenges of the messed-up world that Momma is apologizing for amount to a particularly difficult sudoku puzzle.
And I'll never stop loving that Mel Lazarus' continues to anachronistically represent the older son's respectability by outfitting him in a boater that he might have borrowed from Jay Gatsby. The younger son is more contemporary, an idea of what useless loafer son might have looked like as a fifties beatnik.
Does anybody remember the strip Ms. Peach, which ran in Newsday for a few years when you might have been young? Lazarus brought that one from 1957-2002. He retired that one, but kept going with Momma. Eat it, Nolan Ryan.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 09 2008 05:22 AM
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I do remember Miss Peach!
All of the kids had huge heads and tiny little bodies. I think one of the kids was named Arthur, and he had a crew cut?
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AG/DC
May 09 2008 05:49 AM
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You've got it. The kids went to the Kelly School, and in the summer to "Kamp Kelly." Both were named in honor of Walt Kelly.
What made the art stand out even more than the huge heads on timy bodies (the seniors in Momma sharet those proportion issues) was the flounder faces the kids had, with both eyes on one side of their heads.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 09 2008 07:50 AM
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I assume this is a panel pulled from a Sunday strip, since there doesn't seem to be a joke here.
Other strips I remember from Newsday back then are Boner's Ark, Luther, Figments, and The Born Loser. I think Born Loser is still running (Brutus P. Thornapple was the main character's name) but the others are likely all defunct. (I think Boner's Ark was by Mort Walker, or at least by his studio.)
I'd love it if somebody had an Ultimate Comic Strip Database, listing which strips appeared in which newspapers and when.
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AG/DC
May 09 2008 08:07 AM
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Born Loser still runs. It's anachronistically pinned forever around 1960, when work ends with two martinis, women exist in the workplace as inexpensive admisistrative and decorative assets, and nobody's really sure what your firm does but you fear the clients and suck up to the boss.
I thnk the only change I remember in Born Loser was Brutus' son Wilberforce finally being released from his early-century knee pants and curls.
Brutus is a cross between the star-crossed Ziggy and the boss-battered Dagwood. In that regard, the strip doesn't stand out (unless you need one more depressing strip to push you over the edge) but Art Samson was a pro's pro when it came to naming his characters. Brutus' hateful mother-in-law is "Ramona Gargle." His boss is "Rancid Veeblefester." You can't beat a boss named "Rancid Veeblefester."
The little girl next door was Hurricane Hattie O'Hara. As a freckled Irish-named mischief-making brat with no apparent parental supervision, she's pretty much a stock character right out of Vaudeville.
Art's son Chip has taken over.
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AG/DC
May 09 2008 09:07 AM
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Come to think of it, the two sons in Momma have flounder faces also, and Sonya is getting there herself.
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metsguyinmichigan
May 09 2008 01:05 PM
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We purged some moldy oldies from our comics section a few years ago after a reader poll. Shockingly, Beetle Baily came out as the most popular strip. We also have BC, Garfield, "Calssic" Peanuts, Blondie, Hagar, Family Circus, Hi and Lois and Dennis the Menace.
But on the bright side, we picked up Get Fuzzy and Zits and a couple stange one-panel strips, Speed Bump and Ballard Street.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 09 2008 01:33 PM
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Are you running Classic Peanuts, or Classic Peanuts?
My local paper is running strips from the 1960's, and they're wonderful.
But when I travel, I often find that other papers are running strips from the 1990's, and they're, well, not wonderful.
I guess the syndicate is offering two options.
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Willets Point
May 09 2008 01:36 PM
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metsguyinmichigan wrote:
Shockingly, Beetle Baily came out as the most popular strip. |
I bet those Wednesday Miss Buxley strips get the biggest readership. T&A wins out every time.
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metsguyinmichigan
May 09 2008 01:53 PM
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Benjamin Grimm wrote:
Are you running Classic Peanuts, or Classic Peanuts?
My local paper is running strips from the 1960's, and they're wonderful.
But when I travel, I often find that other papers are running strips from the 1990's, and they're, well, not wonderful.
I guess the syndicate is offering two options. |
It's the newer ones. I'd much rather have the older strips.
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Willets Point
May 19 2008 01:18 PM
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Benjamin Grimm
Jun 18 2008 09:01 AM
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Doonesbury has just returned from a two-week or so hiatus, and it looks different. The lettering is definitely different, and the artwork is also, although more subtly.
I don't know if Garry Trudeau had been doing the artwork himself up until now, but the current strips very much look like they were done by an assistant. My guess: Trudeau is still doing the pencils, but someone else is handling the ink.
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AG/DC
Jun 26 2008 08:36 AM
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Have I posted this one yet?
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soupcan
Jun 26 2008 08:45 AM
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It was a sitcom?
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AG/DC
Jun 26 2008 08:52 AM
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No, I think the phrase and song were used in the marketing of a show, not that they becacme the actual title of the show.
But I don't know which show.
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Benjamin Grimm
Jun 26 2008 09:23 AM
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There was a short-lived sitcom called "That 80's Show"
Maybe it was that one.
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AG/DC
Jun 26 2008 11:59 AM
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I don't know how this guy isn't bigger than Tastycakes.
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AG/DC
Jul 01 2008 10:21 AM
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Curtis: corageously battling ethnic sterotypes since 1988.
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Benjamin Grimm
Jul 01 2008 10:38 AM
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AG/DC wrote:
Curtis: corageously battling ethnic sterotypes since 1988. |
The image isn't displaying, but I had the same reaction when I read the strip in this morning's paper.
It's an Asian kid who loves loves loves math.
But why is he in summer school? Surely he didn't fail math during the regular school year!
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AG/DC
Jul 01 2008 10:42 AM
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Here it is. Unsurprisingly, The Comics Curmudgeon flagged it to.
Asians: happy little human calculators.
Negros: lazy and repulsed by the idea of effort and achievement.
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themetfairy
Sep 01 2008 05:53 PM
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For Better or For Worse ran its final strip yesterday -
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Benjamin Grimm
Sep 11 2008 06:30 PM
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Vida Blue (!) is mentioned in Sally Forth today. (So is Catfish Hunter.)
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AG/DC
Oct 03 2008 07:09 AM
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Msinterpreting "Comic Strip," an old reliable single-panel comic appears to have decided to declare this to be Skin Week.
Check out Family Circus, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.
This also advances into infancy the strange rule in comics that allows the artists' the license to depict topless males, as long as their torsos don't include nips.
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cooby
Oct 03 2008 05:56 PM
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Does anybody else just get a big blank space at the top of Comics Curmudgeon lately?
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Benjamin Grimm
Oct 10 2008 11:02 AM
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This week Peanuts is rerunning the strips where Lucy determines that the cure for the cold is to stomp on the germs. She makes the other kids lie down on the ground and cough, and she stomps on the germs as they're expelled.
The strips are from the early 60's, before I was able to read, but I do remember them vividly. I must have read them in a paperback collection when I was a kid.
Some newspapers are rerunning Peanuts strips from the 90's, which were pretty awful. I'm so glad my local paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, is running these true classics. On a lot of days, it's the best strip in the paper.
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Willets Point
Oct 10 2008 11:11 AM
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Good riddance. Berke Breathed hasn't been funny since Bloom County.
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AG/DC
Oct 10 2008 11:30 AM
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I just caught up on Weapon Brown, and now I'm wondering why.
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Frayed Knot
Oct 10 2008 11:55 AM
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I didn't realize it had still been running. I lost track of it years ago.
'Bloom County' was not only hysterical but rare in it's willingness to skewer everyone, regardless of which side of the aisle a person or issue favored.
Then just when it seemed to be sailing along and gaining more wide-spread attention, he killed it in favor of a somewhat altered weekly version called 'Outland' which wasn't nearly as good. It was at some point along this time that he, despite having recently applied for membership in the National Cartoonists Society, denounced cartooning as "a moribund artform" and quit doing strips altogether - temporarily I guess.
After that, like I said, I lost track.
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AG/DC
Oct 10 2008 12:46 PM
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The only thing that can be said for Opus is osmehow the painting was extraordinary. I agree about the content. But somehow --- in a medium where the artist does the penciling, gets an assistant to do the inking, and turns the color over to the papers to fill in by numbers or guesswork, he managed to have a Sunday-only strip with depth and texture nobody else could dream of.
The content was neither here nor there, and the only reason anybody cares about Opus going under was it's connection to Bloom County. It's like an announcement that Wings has broken up --- not meaningless, but worth covering only because of the Beatles.
In the interim, I think he did cartoons for sailing magazines.
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Willets Point
Oct 10 2008 12:49 PM
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It's more like the announcement that Michael Jordan is retiring from the Washington Wizards. They both had quit twice before, they both weren't nearly as good as the first time around.
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Benjamin Grimm
Oct 10 2008 12:52 PM
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I heard Breathed interviewed on NPR earlier this week.
He's giving up comic strips to focus on children's books. He has one coming out about a pig and an elephant. I forget the title.
Breathed may be done with comic strips, but I wouldn't be surprised if he returned to Opus and Bill the Cat some day in some form or another. He's like the Brett Favre of cartoonists.
The thing that surprised me the most about the interview was the pronunciation of his name. It's BREATH-ID. I always thought it pronounced like the word that it looks like, the past tense of the verb that describes the act of inhaling air into one's lungs.
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Edgy DC
Nov 02 2008 02:00 PM
Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Nov 03 2008 09:27 AM
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 I've spoken about my feelings about Mrs. Mitchell before, but I just want to point out that Hank Ketchum, though long unable to consistently churn out suitable gags, deserves high praise for the incidental stuff he works into his single frames.
Notice how, while some of the trick-or-treaters --- the ghost and the queen -- at the Wilson door are forced to retain their painted-on smiles, the raccoon is profoundly disappointed at the interruption of what should be the happiest of nights in his child's year.
Similarly, look at Joey, peering into his booty bag with a mix of hope and dread that is quintessential Joey. He knows Mr. Wilson stiffed him, but it so doesn't compute that moments later he wonders if it was all a dream and and a fat new Oh, Henry! is just going to be sitting there on top of this pile.
And you know Dennis just loves messing with his naive pal's head --- "Hey, Joe. You know what Mr. Wilson put in there? The keys to his car. HA! Made you look! Seriously, Joey, he put a pair of your mom's underwear in there. Don't believe me? Sure you don't. Ha, you just looked! I saw you look, Joey!"
Good ol' Joey. Notice how his meekness is such that he doesn't think to keep his pumpkin low enough to be able to look into it without straining. Joey would not think to place anything beneath himself. Big kid stuff like trick-or-treating is always a stretch for Joe.
And sweet, sweet ever-loving Alice Mitchell. All we get is three quarters of the back of her head and one quarter of her face with that great number three exploding out of her bun, but you can see she's just tearing herself up worrying about the massive egging the Wilsons are going to be getting and collateral damage splattering onto her Henry's suburban fiefdom and his sad little 2001 Ford Focus.
Extra points go to Alice's season-appropriate peacoat and her hand in the pocket to keep the autumn chill off, the colorist's job breaking up the bedroom community darkness with golden windows lit by families willing to participate in the Halloween thing, and Joey's awesome one-inch heels and hose, so lovingly yet subtley rendered that his white stripes fade into the background of the Wilson's front walk.
This is almost all A-level work. I think what elevates it to A+ is that creepy tree --- already December leafless while it should be adorned in its autumn brilliance. It gives the strip a Halloween flava on one hand, and also, on the other hand, that tone in the whole strip that there's a dark shadow of evil somewhere in the Mitchells' idyllic suburb. And I don't think it's true that the Wilson house is the gateway towards it. Rather that Mr. Wilson --- in his grumpy way --- is the evil's keeper, protecting Dennis and his dangerous curiosity from going any further.
Look at the direction Dennis is walking. He came up empty at Mr. Wilson's, got his lecture, and he and Joey are walking right the fuck back toward the Mitchell house. Good.
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metsguyinmichigan
Nov 02 2008 03:07 PM
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Edgy, I confess I've never but that much thought into a Dennis the Menace.
How come Dennis is wearing a Joker mask and pirate costume?
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themetfairy
Nov 02 2008 03:16 PM
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Dennis and Joey aren't walking back to the Mitchells' house. They're walking back to Mrs. Mitchell, who is chaperoning the trick-or-treating youngsters.
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Willets Point
Nov 02 2008 03:30 PM
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Edgy really needs to start a blog.
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Edgy DC
Nov 03 2008 07:31 AM
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themetfairy wrote:
Dennis and Joey aren't walking back to the Mitchells' house. They're walking back to Mrs. Mitchell, who is chaperoning the trick-or-treating youngsters. |
Thanks for that.
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Frayed Knot
Nov 03 2008 08:35 AM
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| I just want to point out that Hank Ketchum, though long unable to consistently churn out suitable gags, deserves high praise for the incidental stuff he works into his single frames. |
You do understand that Ketchum's been dead for a number of years and was retired for a number before that, right?
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Edgy DC
Nov 03 2008 08:42 AM
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No, but thanks for that too.
Jeez, the Jerktones are live in concert today.
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themetfairy
Nov 03 2008 09:07 AM
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Unfair! I was just adding a parent's perspective to the analysis.
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Edgy DC
Nov 03 2008 09:11 AM
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I don't think I need a blog.
I appear to not field comments well.
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soupcan
Nov 03 2008 09:40 AM
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One more -
Edgy DC wrote:
Good ol' Joey. Notice how his meekness is such that he doesn't think to keep his pumpkin low enough to be able to look into it without straining. Joey would not think to place anything beneath himself. Big kid stuff like trick-or-treating is always a stretch for Joe. |
Joey's nose hanging over the lip of the pumpkin has nothing to do with his meekness. It's easier for the illustrator to get the point across that Joey's looking into the container. If his full face was above the pumpkin, you'd have to indicate Joey's eyes peering downward using more than just the eyebrows.
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Edgy DC
Nov 03 2008 09:46 AM
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Yeah, great. I'm going to stand by my assertion that there is meekness and coyness revealed in Joey's actions, and that it's excellently done, though too subtle for some.
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metsguyinmichigan
Nov 03 2008 09:54 AM
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I'm glad they didn't kill off Opus.
The way Breathed was setting it up, I thought he was doing a Tale of Two Cities thing where Opus would take the needle and allow the dog to go free.
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Willets Point
Nov 03 2008 10:01 AM
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Edgy DC wrote:
I don't think I need a blog.
I appear to not field comments well. |
I thought it was a brilliant commentary, perfectly crafted for the blog post format, and worthy of wider appreciation than this small Mets fan community. The responses were helpful, not hurtful. As Coach Kaz would say, "Ease up friend!"
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Edgy DC
Nov 03 2008 10:10 AM
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Frayed Knot wrote:
You do understand that Ketchum's been dead for a number of years and was retired for a number before that, right? |
This does explain his inability to consistently churn out suitable gags.
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Frayed Knot
Nov 03 2008 10:17 AM
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Yes, but it's notably poor at explaining his nuanced art work.
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Benjamin Grimm
Nov 18 2008 07:04 AM
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Comics.com has a new subscription policy. Previously, you were only able to get an e-mail subscription to one of their strips; if you wanted more you had to pay for it, and the free subscription didn't include Sunday comics.
Now you can select as many strips as you like (the e-mail contains an ad, so they're getting their revenue from advertisers instead of subscribers) and you can subscribe to as many of their strips and/or political cartoonists as you like. So if there are any strips that you're not getting in your local paper and you'd like delivered to your e-mail box, check it out.
I have five strips on my list, including Monty and Liberty Meadows. They also gave me, without my asking, a strip called Big Nate, which seems likeable enough.
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themetfairy
Nov 18 2008 07:37 AM
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I get my comics fix from The Washington Post. You have to register, but it's free and has a very large selection.
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cooby
Nov 20 2008 06:47 PM
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Have all of you been following the exploits of Mark Trail, Sneaky the Raccoon, Sue the love interest, Charley the bad guy , Rabbit the hick, and Pamela, the Large Headed Girl?
If not you should be. What more can we hard core Mark Trail fans do to entice you?
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Willets Point
Nov 21 2008 06:15 AM
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There was some good punch of justice action about a week ago.
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Edgy DC
Nov 21 2008 07:09 AM
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Knocked Rabbit about 15 feet down the river.
How can somebody who draws fauna so lovingly have such bad execution of depth perception?
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Valadius
Nov 21 2008 08:44 AM
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Although for some reason it appeared that one day he knocked Rabbit all the way down the river with an uppercut, while the next day Rabbit was felled by a punch aimed downward.
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Edgy DC
Nov 21 2008 08:52 AM
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The Curmudgeon's wrong about that. There were subsequent punches.
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Edgy DC
Dec 21 2008 06:52 PM
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Mort Walker has been bringing it so long, I think he was the one who first championed Charles Schulz for membership in the National Cartoonists Society and for the Reuben award. He's the man behind Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, and Boner's Ark, among other strips.
Beetle has been going along formulaically for a long time now. It's currently credited to "Mort and Greg Walker," and, since he employs (according to Wikipedia) six of his children in his studio, it's fair to ask how much of the strip he actually deserves credit for these days.
The Beetle formula is so set in concrete that you can actually figure out which day of the week it is by which characters appear in that day's strip. Be it Mort or Greg at the helm though, tiny cracks are appearing in the concrete.
First, a week ago Friday, the strip takes an impotent but open punch at President Bush:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ar ... e=20081212
Yeah, unfunny, but still quite a precedent for a strip that's been running 58 years and playing it safe seemingly as long.
Then, last Thursday, Beetle and Killer, out of nowhere, are shown outside the safe (save for Sarge's beatdowns) confines of Camp Swampy and suddenly in the thick of an actual war.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ar ... e=20081218
Holy shit!
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Willets Point
Dec 21 2008 09:01 PM
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Holy Shit! is right. Have Beetle and his brigade ever been in a war?
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Edgy DC
Dec 21 2008 09:36 PM
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I'm pretty certain they've never left Camp Swampy and the local base town.
Interesting note: Beetle, like it's long-running sisters Blondie and Barney Google and Snuffy Sniff, started life under a very different premise, but changed out of necessity. Walker conceived of it as a college-themed strip, the GI Bill making college suddenly a more universal experience. BB was the very last strip approved by King Features by William Randolph Hearst himself, but the college hijinx didn't work out, and after three years the syndicate was ready to pull the plug.
One day the plot was centered on that collegiate slacker Beetle seeing two different chicks. One was walking down the street one way, another from the other direction, and conflict-averse Beetle ducked into a recruiting office to hide. The rest is history.
Boring history, though. I'm pretty sure he went through basic training at Camp Swampy and has been stuck there for over a half century since.
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DocTee
Dec 21 2008 09:43 PM
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Nothing in that comic suggests they are not still in Camp Swampy, participating in some "wargames" exercise.
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Edgy DC
Dec 21 2008 09:45 PM
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Yes, they could be merely going through a live ammo exercise, but then there are shells going off also.
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Willets Point
Dec 21 2008 10:06 PM
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When I was a kid, Mort Walker was on the list of Famous People Who Lived in Stamford along with Gilda Radner, Bobby Valentine, and Jackie Robinson.
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metsguyinmichigan
Dec 22 2008 08:47 AM
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Mort Walker, another proud graduate of the University of Missouri. This statue of Beetle was errected after I graduated. Not too many statues devoted to comic strip characters out there.
That's a knife on the table next to Beetle's beer. He's sitting at a table in a legendary place called "The Shack" that was covered in carved initials from generations of Missouri students. A very small, dumpy place. Sadly, it closed the year I attended. The statue is on the spot where it stood.
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Frayed Knot
Dec 22 2008 07:58 PM
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Willets Point wrote:
When I was a kid, Mort Walker was on the list of Famous People Who Lived in Stamford ... |
He's still there. Has his studio in a place previously used by the sculptor Borglum (of Mt Rushmore fame).
Walker has a bar in the place which has carved into the face the heads of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt ... and Beetle Bailey.
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Edgy DC
Dec 22 2008 09:15 PM
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Beetle Bailey factoid number two: Lois Flagston of Hi and Lois, despite having sort of a Meg Ryan-y thing going on, is Beetle's sister.
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Benjamin Grimm
Jan 09 2009 10:38 AM
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I think Sally is being unreasonable about Ted's female co-worker.
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metsguyinmichigan
Jan 09 2009 12:54 PM
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I think you're right. What is he supposed to do, shun her because she's not ugly? It's not like they've done something inappropriate, that I can tell.
Then again, the way that strip is so poorly drawn, she looks like every other female in the strip, including Sally's mom. That's kinda creepy.
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Edgy DC
Jan 09 2009 01:03 PM
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Ted is uncomfortable. Women can sniff that from another state.
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Benjamin Grimm
Jan 09 2009 01:07 PM
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Sally is driving Ted right into Aria's arms.
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Edgy DC
Jan 09 2009 01:16 PM
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Ted doesn't have the confidence to take a lover. He needs his Sally.
Ted spent the last year underemployed and easily distracted. I'd be surprised to hear he hasn't logged on here.
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Benjamin Grimm
Jan 09 2009 01:44 PM
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Wow!
Yo! Yo! Ted Forth in da house!
You have a good point about Ted and his confidence, but I could see Aria taking the lead in initiating an affair. She has that sexy way of fluttering her fingers. How could Ted resist?
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cooby
Mar 14 2009 06:56 PM
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I posted something on Comics Curmudgeon, and somebody answered it!
It's almost as cool as the first time I posted on Mofo!
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Edgy DC
Mar 14 2009 08:25 PM
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cooby says:
March 14th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Wow first a updated hairdo for Cherry; now a new sweater. Will she become modern enough for a job of her own in the city?
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John Cougar Lunchbucket
May 18 2009 09:32 PM
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[url]http://www.gocomics.com/features/9/feature_items/427770
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cooby
Jun 01 2009 08:23 PM
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Has anybody figured out how to make the strips whose links they post in the forum section big enough that you can read them?
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cooby
Jun 07 2009 09:06 PM
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Mibbetmaker.
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cooby
Jun 20 2009 08:45 AM
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Mark Trail has been incredibly hilarious lately.
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Edgy DC
Jun 20 2009 09:34 AM
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Gotta love how the president of the company turns out to be Elizabeth Taylor.
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themetfairy
Jun 28 2009 06:51 AM
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I suspect my GPS feels this way about me -
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Benjamin Grimm
Jul 02 2009 10:20 AM
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There's a single-panel cartoon called Flight Deck that runs in the Daily News. Yesterday, Flight Deck presented something that I think is a first: pictures of sperm cells on a mainstream newspaper comics page. And then today, they did it again!
http://comics.com/flight_deck/?PerPage=10
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cooby
Jul 05 2009 12:55 PM
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Is this a fox, and a little bear with a hat?
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cooby
Jul 06 2009 07:15 PM
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Those of you who are male, reading Judge Parker, and who are wondering:
No, it is not the dream of every female in America to be a cheerleader.
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Edgy DC
Jul 06 2009 08:13 PM
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it was cool of Bono to come out and support Sophie, though.
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cooby
Jul 07 2009 07:46 PM
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And Sarah Palin
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Edgy DC
Jul 13 2009 01:36 PM
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Way to go, Dustin.
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cooby
Jul 29 2009 08:20 PM
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What is that thing in Beetle Bailey?
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Edgy DC
Jul 30 2009 12:47 PM
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I'm guessing a thong.
Meanwhile, Bill Keane can’t wait for the kids to get lost antchasing. Check him out spying Thel's buttocks.
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Frayed Knot
Jul 30 2009 12:58 PM
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btw, the current President of the National Cartoonist Society? .... Jeffy
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Edgy DC
Aug 27 2009 08:19 AM
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I have a soft spot for the Lockhorns. And I've had it since second grade.
And the fact that Leroy, Loretta, and Loretta's mom are pretty much the same person with different wigs is actually part of the appeal for me.
Interesting note: Bill Hoest died in 1988, but the strip was taken over by his wife, of all people.
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Benjamin Grimm
Aug 27 2009 08:22 AM
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When I was a kid, I was always happy when there was a strip in which both Leroy and Loretta appeared, and neither one had an "angry face." (I guess I wanted to think that they didn't always hate each other.)
I still sometimes notice when that happens.
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Edgy DC
Aug 27 2009 08:26 AM
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Other notes I picked up at Wikipedia.
Many of the business and institutions pictured in the comic are real, and are located in or near Huntington, NY, on the North Shore of Long Island.
[list][*]The the cartoon was originally called The Lockhorns of Levittown, and many of the businesses shown are real places from Huntington, Long Island.[/*:m]
[*]The comic strip Li? once had the title character call the cops on Leroy and Loretta for disturbing the peace.[/*:m][/list:u]
I don't think that last one is fair. They aren't really an explosive couple. They needle each other and bemoan each other rather than scream at each other.
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Benjamin Grimm
Aug 27 2009 08:27 AM
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I do remember when it was called "The Lockhorns of Levittown"
I guess it should be called "The Lockhorns of Huntington."
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Edgy DC
Sep 28 2009 09:46 AM
Re: All purpose Comic Strip thread
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Mary Worth gives us nothing today. Is Scott dead? Alive? All we know is that nobody in the hospital can believe the critical fashion faux pas that his boots represent.
http://www.seattlepi.com/fun/mary.asp
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Frayed Knot
Sep 28 2009 10:19 AM
Re:
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Edgy DC wrote:
Interesting note: Bill Hoest died in 1988, but [the Lockhorns] was taken over by his wife, of all people. |
Although not his first.
Bunny (yes, really) Hoest retained ownership of the strip after his death and the drawing was taken on by John Reiner who was previously the assistant to creator Bill. The same pair also puts out 'Howard Huge'.
| Many of the business and institutions pictured in the comic are real, and are located in or near Huntington, NY. |
'The Canterbury Ales' in particular has been a favorite watering hole of Leroy's over the years and is (or at least was) just off Main St in downtown Huntington.
Hoest lived in Oyster Bay.
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cooby
Sep 28 2009 05:52 PM
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Clearly panel 2 shows that Rusty is the culprit that knocked Mark on his tailpins
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cooby
Oct 01 2009 05:57 PM
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I love Zonker
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Valadius
Nov 16 2009 09:29 PM
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I finally made the comments of the week at the Comics Curmudgeon.
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cooby
Nov 17 2009 05:03 PM
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Vlad, I bow down! Which one is you? :)
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Valadius
Nov 17 2009 06:49 PM
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| “When one wears sweatpants and slippers as part of a three-piece suit, you’re damn right they’re having some mental problems.” |
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cooby
Nov 18 2009 02:57 PM
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LOL, I always thought they look like sweatpants too!
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dgwphotography
Nov 18 2009 06:57 PM
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I can't believe I missed this thread over 3 years...
The comics just haven't been the same since Calvin left... I'm glad I can still get them emailed to me every day...
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soupcan
Nov 18 2009 08:44 PM
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My favorite C&H -
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cooby
Dec 07 2009 04:49 PM
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I would never laugh aloud at a real little boy if this happened. But Rusty....
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Edgy DC
Dec 16 2009 12:38 PM
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That's not Alice Mitchell that Henry Mitchell is chilling with at the local White Person's Mall, and he's looking a little guilty at having gotten caught in the shot.
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themetfairy
Dec 22 2009 04:51 PM
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Ho Ho Ho from Close to Home -
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Edgy DC
Dec 28 2009 07:41 PM
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In response to a campaign (I was agin' it) in Pearls Before Swine, Ziggy has been wearing pants the last ten days.
Ziggy! Pants! I know!
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cooby
Dec 29 2009 02:31 PM
Re: All purpose Comic Strip thread
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Edgy, we always knew you were a trend setter in the pants department!
Meanwhile
Mark Trail, who has gone on a long and winding road looking for help for Rusty, including breaking and entering, assaulting a police officer, and jail time, has apparantly taken the time to put the jack he stole from the closed general store in his trunk, instead of putting it handily in the front seat, where anybody else would.
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TheOldMole
Dec 29 2009 06:18 PM
Re: All purpose Comic Strip thread
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| Interesting note: Bill Hoest died in 1988, but [the Lockhorns] was taken over by his wife, of all people. |
Selma Kelly took over Pogo when Walt died.
Anyone know the name of the website that comments on medical plots on TV and in comics?
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TheOldMole
Dec 29 2009 06:19 PM
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I put an edit into the Church of the Subgenius Wiki page to the effect that "Bob" looks a lot like Mark Trail -- probably over a year ago. Last I looked, it was still there.
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Edgy DC
Dec 29 2009 07:01 PM
Re: All purpose Comic Strip thread
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TheOldMole wrote:
| Interesting note: Bill Hoest died in 1988, but [the Lockhorns] was taken over by his wife, of all people. |
Selma Kelly took over Pogo when Walt died.
Anyone know the name of the website that comments on medical plots on TV and in comics? |
Sounds like a good one.
While I generally support husbands and wives carrying on each other's legacy, I just found it particularly interesting that Hoest's wife took over because the strip is about a very unhappy marriage.
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Frayed Knot
Dec 29 2009 09:07 PM
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Well she just inherited the strip, she doesn't draw it.
Also wasn't his first wife.
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Edgy DC
Dec 29 2009 09:14 PM
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As you made clear above.
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Benjamin Grimm
Dec 31 2009 07:26 AM
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Meet Mr. Luckey draws to a close
BY Matt Gagne
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Thursday, December 31st 2009, 4:00 AM
There's a little more space for results in the Daily News stats pages these days, and a little less room for the imagination to try to pick today's winners.
A seemingly out-of-place cartoon at first glance, Meet Mr. Luckey was an institution in these sports pages for decades, a daily ritual for readers who played the numbers, the ponies, or anything where they hoped the odds could be massaged in their favor.
The one-panel comic strip, according to folklore and common belief, contained cryptic messages on the day's best bets. It was a gambler's horoscope, a crystal ball of sorts given the cartoon's title. A character had three buttons on his shirt? There you go, you've got the race and your horse. What else could Mr. Luckey's message be?
The tradition ended this week, with the series' final cartoon running on Dec. 26, but that doesn't mean superstitious readers have run out of luck. In fact, any success betting on Mr. Luckey throughout the years has been just that - pure luck.
The cartoon's author, 91-year-old Henri Arnold, revealed his methodology in a telephone interview from Sarasota, Fla., where he and his wife, Harriet, have lived for the past decade.
Knowing all along that people were scouring his work for tips and clues, Arnold says he never tried to influence readers. He was no clairvoyant, just a cartoonist who would work a month in advance and FedEx a bundle of drawings to New York. There was no inside information to be had, although many believed they were plucking it from the cartoon.
"When they picked up the paper, they assumed it was done the day before," Arnold said. "I never, never, never did anything deliberately. If you wanted to, you could interpret it any way you wanted.
"It was perfect innocence, nothing ever intended," he added. "I had a big sense of humor about it. Nobody ever questioned it."
Many, however, have wondered where the comic strip has gone, now that Arnold has put his pencil down and retired, bringing an end to a celebrated career in which he also drew the nationally syndicated Jumble cartoon for many years.
"I loved it, I really did," Arnold said of Meet Mr. Luckey. "It was fun to do it, because a guy would say, 'I won on that today,' and I had no intention thinking it was a tip. ...It's the only thing I've ever done, I've snuck by with no means of livelihood except for drawing cartoons. The time has come for me to kiss it all goodbye. It breaks my heart of course." |
I had no idea that Mr. Luckey was used by gamblers as described above. I thought everyone treated it like I did, as space filler to be seen out of the corner of my eye and ignored. The article says that "Mr. Luckey" has been running for decades, but it's glossing over a change that came about somewhere along the way. It used to be called "Ching Chow" and featured a Chinese character spouting proverbs. I assume that Ching Chow came to be seen as politically incorrect, so the Chinese philosopher got changed to a leprechaun.
I'll have to do some Googling to see if I can confirm that.
Henri Arnold is a name I've been seeing for years. The Jumble cartoon, which I also see but ignore, hasn't looked the same at all lately. Whoever replaced him has a different, and inferior, style. I had no idea that Henri Arnold was 91 years old, but I guess, had I thought about it, I would have known that he was no kid since I've been seeing his work in the Daily News for almost 40 years.
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Benjamin Grimm
Dec 31 2009 07:29 AM
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Maybe my memory is a little off. It appears that Ching Chow wasn't by Henri Arnold, unless perhaps Arnold took it over at some point.
Anyway, here's an example of Ching Chow from 1951:
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Edgy DC
Dec 31 2009 07:36 AM
Re: All purpose Comic Strip thread
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I remember Ching Chow, but never saw this Mr. Lucky you speak of.
Meanwhile, Rex Morgan, MD is getting so hot that it's scorching up the newspaper industry, with Rex and June coming home to find a trampy teenage she-cousin of June's has moved in and trashed the place, badmouthing the rock-hard June as "old" in the bargain, creating this cross-generational battle of sexual tension.
Rex, of course, sleeps without a shirt and acts like a smug dick as plays the two xexy women in his house against each other and stands back to watch the sparks fly.
If your local paper is like mine Foxtrot and Big Nate have been scorched right out of the paper simply by being situated adjacent to Rex Morgan, Bordeline Porno.
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Valadius
Dec 31 2009 07:41 AM
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Oh, snap! Wilbur's maybe-could be-offspring wants to kill his pudgy ass!
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TheOldMole
Jan 01 2010 09:47 AM
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| Anyone know the name of the website that comments on medical plots on TV and in comics? |
I found it again: http://www.politedissent.com/
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Edgy DC
Jan 01 2010 01:56 PM
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Not to get obsessed with the Z-man, but has Tom Wilson II gone where I think he's gone with today's Ziggy? Because if he has, there's no turning back.
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Edgy DC
Jan 08 2010 02:46 PM
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Is Odie telling Jon to fuck himself?
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Willets Point
Jan 09 2010 07:48 PM
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cooby wrote:
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This image of Rusty with his head barely sticking out over the water but with a big, goofy grin cracks me up every time.
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Edgy DC
Jan 09 2010 07:58 PM
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The never showed how Nature-Man got that damn jack to work underwater on soft sand.
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Edgy DC
Apr 23 2010 08:54 AM
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Homos have reached Riverdale:
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LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
Apr 23 2010 09:07 AM
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"I'll have the Moose for dessert."
You're trying to tell me that fancy, matching-tennis-outfits Reggie isn't gay?
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Benjamin Grimm
Apr 23 2010 09:14 AM
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Perhaps he's just "metrosexual."
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Edgy DC
Apr 23 2010 10:12 AM
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What's also interesting is that Veronica has a crushie on Kevin and he looks like her dad.
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LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
Apr 23 2010 10:14 AM
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Hiram Lodge: FILF?
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Edgy DC
Apr 23 2010 10:19 AM
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Well, I don't know about you, and I'm not sure she sees it (she likely doesn't). JB may disagree, but I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying Ronnie is exhibiting classic symptoms of an Electra Complex.
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Edgy DC
Apr 27 2010 07:24 AM
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In a surreal moment of setup-so-good-you-can't-miss, Cooby and I jump at the same punchline.
| “School of bad choices: those earrings.” –Cooby |
| “Honey, I graduated with honors from the School of Bad Choices. Like, take this morning, when I chose to don earrings from the Ricky Ricardo Bongo Drum Collection. There’s a graduate thesis in bad choices right there. Sure puts supplying your wacko homicidal girlfriend with prescription pills in prespective, doesn’t it?” –Edgy DC |
Cooby, pithier and faster on the draw, pulls down a Comments of the Week nod. Well played, Coo'.
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themetfairy
May 07 2010 06:35 AM
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Edgy DC
May 11 2010 07:29 AM
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It goes down tomorrow. After 49 years, Apartment 3G finally delivers what it's been teasing at all these decades --- mediocrely rendered girl-on-girl violence.
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metsguyinmichigan
May 11 2010 01:27 PM
Re: All purpose Comic Strip thread
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My paper this week picked up Frazz -- a great strip that is penned by a former employee -- and cut Luann. Readers are not happy. I'd rather have us lop out some of the legacy strips, like BC and Peanuts, or Hagar the Horrible. We run Beetle Bailey, but since Mort Walker is a Mizzou grad with a statue of Beetle on campus, I can't call for its banishment.
Lots of angst goes into picking and cutting strips.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 11 2010 02:35 PM
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Dustin seems to be a new strip that a lot of papers are picking up.
The Philadelphia Inquirer runs Peanuts, but the real classic version, from the 1960's, and they're great. I know that some papers run strips from the 1990's instead, which is just nuts. Why run the "worst of" when you can run the "best of"?
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metsguyinmichigan
May 13 2010 04:20 AM
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Luann is coming back by reader demand. Looks like Peanuts is getting the ax, and yes, we run the later strips.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 13 2010 06:50 AM
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Little Orphan Annie, now known simply as Annie, is being discontinued, according to today's N.Y. Daily News. The last strip will appear on June 13.
I never read the original Harold Gray strips, but I did enjoy the strip when it was being done by Leonard Starr. (According to Wikipedia, that was from 1979 through 2000.) When Starr left, the strip fizzled and I quickly stopped reading. The News says that they're one of fewer than 20 papers that's still running the strip.
I wonder how much longer Dick Tracy will hang on?
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Edgy DC
May 13 2010 07:08 AM
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I think the Daily News had a New York exclusive on Annie in the eighties (long after papers tended to routinely shell out bucks for exclusives, and thus they were the only ones who gave the Annie film a good review.
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cooby
May 13 2010 06:59 PM
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In a surreal moment of setup-so-good-you-can't-miss, Cooby and I jump at the same punchline.
| “School of bad choices: those earrings.” –Cooby |
| “Honey, I graduated with honors from the School of Bad Choices. Like, take this morning, when I chose to don earrings from the Ricky Ricardo Bongo Drum Collection. There’s a graduate thesis in bad choices right there. Sure puts supplying your wacko homicidal girlfriend with prescription pills in prespective, doesn’t it?” –Edgy DC |
Cooby, pithier and faster on the draw, pulls down a Comments of the Week nod. Well played, Coo'. |
Edgy, I saw your comment and didn't notice it was you! :)
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Edgy DC
May 17 2010 08:20 AM
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I sure can't read the original copyright information, but the Washington Post is giving us a classick four-panel Peanuts from way back before all of Schulz's birds looked like Woodstock.
I would guess it's within a year of the 1963 release of the film, although Schulz made references to Citizen Kane forever.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 18 2010 05:59 AM
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Uh oh...
What have Curtis and Barry discovered?
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Edgy DC
May 18 2010 08:02 AM
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What year are they livin' in that they have a VHS player and a generic "RAP" poster on Barry's wall?
Diane Wilkins has been sporting a casual new combover look recently, but there's nothing casual about her attitude toward porn.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 18 2010 08:09 AM
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How ironic then that she's about to deal with her sons watching an old sex tape.
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Edgy DC
May 18 2010 08:16 AM
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Indeed.
Look at the "Keep on Truckin'" level of exaggerated size in Curtis' front foot as he strides into the kitchen.
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LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
May 19 2010 11:17 AM
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Unless they spent the first 4-5 years of their lives on a low-tech commune, neither Curtis nor Barry would likely be unable to recognize a VHS tape, much less be able to locate a player for it.
Conversely, I wonder if Ray Billingsly knows what an MP4 is.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 19 2010 12:19 PM
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I'm not so sure about that. They're a low-income family and may never have made the jump to DVD's.
In my house, we still have a VCR which is used once in a while. My kids, 13 and 9, know what videotapes are and know how to play them.
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seawolf17
May 19 2010 12:36 PM
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Benjamin Grimm wrote:
I'm not so sure about that. They're a low-income family and may never have made the jump to DVD's.
In my house, we still have a VCR which is used once in a while. My kids, 13 and 9, know what videotapes are and know how to play them. |
So does MiniWolf, who's four; our DVD recorder has a VHS deck too. The nice thing about videotapes is that they're virtually indestructible, whereas DVDs get scratched if you look at them funny.
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Edgy DC
May 24 2010 06:56 AM
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The world balloons exploding across the frames in today's Mark Trail suggests he has a very helpful flagpole:
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metsguyinmichigan
May 24 2010 08:48 AM
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Comics resolution at the paper. LuAnn is back by reader demand. Peanuts stays, and Mutts gets the boot, except for on Sundays. Frazz is the new guy.
There were a lot others I'd have punted before Mutts, but I'm glad to have Frazz. Jef Mallett is a former co-worker.
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Benjamin Grimm
May 24 2010 08:49 AM
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I had a feeling this would be the case, but it wasn't a sex tape that horrified Curtis and Barry. Apparently his parents had once been on some TV dancing show.
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seawolf17
May 24 2010 09:26 AM
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Mutts is my favorite strip, mostly because Ozzie and Earl are me and Peanut.
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Edgy DC
May 24 2010 09:34 AM
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Edgy DC
Jul 09 2010 08:05 AM
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Somebody tell Mary Worth artist Joe Giella how reflections work.
Maybe how kisses work also.
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Benjamin Grimm
Jul 09 2010 08:12 AM
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Maybe that's not a mirror, but a portal into an alternate universe.
There's been some heavy romantic action going on in Zits this week, by the way.
Also, I wonder if Rob from Get Fuzzy is ever going to have a date, or show any romantic interest in anyone. He appears to be very asexual.
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metsmarathon
Jul 09 2010 01:52 PM
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maybe she's brushing her hair, looking into a painting of herself
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LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
Jul 09 2010 03:04 PM
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Benjamin Grimm wrote:
Maybe that's not a mirror, but a portal into an alternate universe. |
"WHAT IF... that lady had used the other hand to brush?"
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cooby
Aug 04 2010 08:05 PM
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Can anybody explain Hagar tonight?
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Edgy DC
Aug 12 2010 08:55 AM
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Cathy's going down.
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Benjamin Grimm
Aug 12 2010 08:57 AM
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Wow, long overdue. That strip became unreadable (for me, anyway) years ago.
I can't believe it's been a 34-year run!
Poor Irving!
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Edgy DC
Aug 12 2010 09:11 AM
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I find it unreadable too. Too densely worded in the setups, where you see the payoff coming far off so you just cut to the end to confrim it. The artwork was annnoying as well.
But I had a closet appreciation of it's ackness. It returned to its rotating themes well (or at least better than other longtime strips), and, well, I know too many neurotic women who've lived their lives that way without recognizing it, that it gave me comfort to know somebody had some self-awareness about it all.
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Willets Point
Aug 12 2010 09:16 AM
Re: All purpose Comic Strip thread
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Edgy DC wrote:
Cathy's going down. |
I bet Irving is happy about that but I'm sure lots of old people will write their newspapers to complain.
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LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr
Aug 12 2010 09:36 AM
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Willets Point wrote:
Edgy DC wrote:
Cathy's going down. |
I bet Irving is happy about that but I'm sure lots of old people will write their newspapers to complain. |
Will the strip end with sweat flecking off of her in beads, or...
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Frayed Knot
Aug 12 2010 09:48 AM
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Benjamin Grimm wrote:
I can't believe it's been a 34-year run! |
That was my reaction too.
Cathy Guisewite is listed as turning 60 next month (I met her briefly about 15 years ago and would have guessed she was somewhat younger) meaning she started the strip at around age 26.
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themetfairy
Aug 25 2010 09:10 AM
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If I can convince three more people to sign up for Unshelved, I can get an autographed post card.
Can I convince anyone here to check out the funniest library based webcomic you'll ever read?
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cooby
Aug 28 2010 08:29 AM
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Those of you who read Comics Curmudgeon, that Luann video is pretty dumb, huh?
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cooby
Aug 28 2010 08:36 AM
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Wow, I can relate to this...
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Edgy DC
Aug 29 2010 03:37 PM
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cooby wrote:
Wow, I can relate to this... |
Pickles is OK, but I never know whether I'm reading it or I'm reading One Big Happy.
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Willets Point
Aug 29 2010 06:31 PM
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I can relate. I've never been able to keep up with celebrities but once I had a fighting chance. These days the supermarket tabloids refer to the celebs entirely by their first names. And they're usually not unique names like Brazilian soccer players.
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Snoopy was a silent character for the first two years of his existence, but on May 27, 1952 he verbalized his thoughts to readers for the first time via a thought balloon; Schulz would utilize this device for nearly all of the character's appearances in the strip thereafter. In addition to Snoopy's ability to "speak" his thoughts to the reader, many of the human characters in Peanuts have the uncanny knack of reading his thoughts and responding to them.
