Family reunion of the damned
Cathy, 7/31/07
It’s possible that the Cathy powers that be have decided that we need to be distracted from the loathsomeness of Cathy and her parents and have thus created a family that is even more hateful. Or they may believe Cathy’s family to be a perfect little group and that this is the depths required to register on their awful-o-meter. Either way, the point is that Irving’s family are terrible people, which has been the thrust of the “jokes” in Cathy throughout this family reunion plot, which has been going on for … well, I haven’t been keeping track, but it seems like about a year and a half. Today’s different, though, because we actually get to see the other members of Irving’s clan all in a row, and learn that they’re all terrifyingly identical Hillman-Bots, presumably just released from the factory. The fact that they all look like either Irving’s mother or Irving’s father indicates the unseemly amount of inbreeding required to produce these grinning, dead-eyed clones. Hopefully these abominations of nature are being lined up against the wall so they can be shot and this horrible perversion of science ended once and for all.
Mary Worth, 7/31/07
Mother of God in heaven above! After reading your comments, I thought I was prepared for the awful hideousness of Dawn’s outfit, but now I know that no human could ever be ready for this. I think what disturbs me most is the obvious care she’s taken to match find a pair of bike shorts and an extra-long t-shirt in precisely the same offensive shade of purple. The appliqué of a two-headed kitten sitting in a stewpot is just the revolting icing on the repulsive cake.
The Phantom, 7/31/07
“Maybe I should just start appearing out of thin air! With my gun! Um. Gun. Yeah. First person who asks what kind of ghost needs a gun to fight bad guys gets shot, by the way.”
At least faithful reader Bootsy will be placated by today’s featured stripey ass presentation.
For Better Or For Worse, 7/31/07
Must … not … make … joke … about … a person … being … inside … Becky …
July 31st, 2007 at 3:40 pm
MW–two-headed kitten? or two-headed West Highland Terrors!!!!
July 31st, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I keep killing threads! Anyway, wouldn’t it be great if Linda Richman moderated this Coffee Talk?
July 31st, 2007 at 3:42 pm
A3G–I like the poetic echo of Eric’s “Now what?!” in annoyance just as Margo “Now what?!”-ed the flower delivery guy. Margo should have waited!
July 31st, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Is is just me, or does it look like Mary hijacked a man’s body?
July 31st, 2007 at 3:46 pm
4. Well, heck, it isn’t like Aldo was using his anymore…
July 31st, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Wow. Look at John’s face in panel two. That just screams, “God, isn’t enough I’m driving you home, can’t you at least be quiet SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”
July 31st, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Some rules in life are unclear.
But some rules in life are crystal clear—-nay, absolutely, positively, without a hint of doubt, for real, for sure, in-this-and-all-possible-worlds clear:
In a conversation with Mary Worth, never use the phrase, “May I confide in you?”
Retching vertiginous horror is the only possible outcome.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:51 pm
What bothers me most about Mary Worth is that there might be someone out there that read her and thinks “What a sweet woman to be helping this poor misguided child” rather than ‘Run, run, don’t talk to her, run away.”, which is what I am thinking. There can only be bad to come from talking with Mary.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Divine O’F: I saw your post on the other thread. How about the 25th or 26th in Tucson? Bats? Kronkina? Anyone else?
July 31st, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Mary looks like Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner.
Wish she would utter Roy Battey’s last words–”Time to die”–and follow them.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Last Thread Repost ( I know, but I’m a slow typist, please forgive me)
48 – Portia
There was much discussion yesterday about this; is it plumber crack? Thong-n-crack? A tattoo? Cancer? Trotzenbonnie believes that it is a Lee Press-on Thong to give the illusion of undergarments for those who are embarrassed of going without. I think it cancer brought on by the glue used by the Lee Press-on products. True Fable wrote an argument against the butt-crack on display, which I agree with, I’m mad that 150 years ago bathing costumes started showing too much ankle, leaving nothing to the imagination.
But in the end it’s not what we want it to be. Only Batuik knows what it is and what we want. You, me, his audience have no idea what we want nor are qualified to make decisions or have opinions.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:54 pm
(THTI) Foob: Yikes! I hadn’t thought of the “person being inside Becky” angle! On a second reading, however, it certainly looks as though John, who is suddenly bug-eyed and hyper-alert, is thinking about it and is desperately trying to stop thinking about it: “It’s a funny thing, every time I think about Becky, I get a mental image of model trains plunging in and out of model tunnels over and over again until . . . Oops! Sorry, April; I’m going to have to pull the car over for a minute . . .”
Hey, that almost makes that “roadside” slang make sense! Almost.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Aw, Josh! You remember how much I love a shot of the Phantom’s strong muscular,
deliciousstripey ass!And I was gratified.
I don’t read Cathy, but may I ask just how much inbreeding would be considered “seemly”?
And as I type, I look over and see myself in the comics curmudgeon gear ad on the side!
What a day!
July 31st, 2007 at 3:56 pm
AAAGH! Cathy! Look at the arms on what’s-her-name. She can touch the ground without bending over. I realize these enormously long arms are a signature feature of Cathy, which is why I never, ever, want to look at the stip. It frightens me.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Becky’s father is her manager, he’s arrogant and controlling… that can only mean that Becky is actually JESSICA SIMPSON! Or maybe Ashlee.
July 31st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Sorry, necropost. I missed the new thread. This is my caption:
“I don’t have any idea what it’s for, but it gives him something to do since he retired.”
July 31st, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Today’s Cathy illustrates quite well, I think, that this strip might qualify as the most painful to the eye of all the strips on the funny pages.
Momma is another strip that people like to make fun of for being badly drawn. Today’s, however, honestly isn’t drawn that bad at all, IMHO. (The fact that I find the “joke” terribly unfunny is another matter.)
Momma usually looks like it was drawn in a hurry, and all the people depicted in the strip tend to be ugly, but I maintain that today’s strip, and some others, reveal that Mell Lazarus has indeed internalized some principles of good design over the course of his long cartooning career. Sloppy though his work may look, he actually has a sense of how to arrange characters and word balloons on a page, and his ink lines are at least “alive” and tend to attract the eye. (I mean, even barf attracts the eye.)
Comic strips can work if they’re simplistically drawn — I find that Pearls Before Swine, for example, is perfectly pleasing to the eye. But Cathy possesses exactly the wrong kind of visual simplicity. It’s simple, but also small and fussy, and ends up hurting the eye as well as the soul.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Josh, if you enlarge the image of Dawn Weston’s hideous shirt, you will see that those yellow things are actually shirt puppies in a basket that looks more like the pouch on a kangaroo.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Saying “May I confide in you?” to Mary Worth is like asking Tommy Chong if he wants a hit off your bong.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Josh, your commenters need show no such restraint.
“Wait, Dad, you mean that guy from the big record label with the gold chain?”
July 31st, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Am I the only one who thinks it’s inappropriate for Mary to grab Dawn’s breast while simultaneously asking if Dawn has anything she’d like to share?
July 31st, 2007 at 4:08 pm
If you stare long enough at Dawn’s hair, it looks almost as if she’s wearing an orange-and-black leather bonnet, like the bonnets worn by the underground people in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Which would also explain the matching black lipstick. And her talking to Mary Worth.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:11 pm
So…the lonely person inside Becky is her father? Whoa. What an unexpected touch of Jessica Simpson-inspired verité.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:12 pm
10 – Chris
I’ve… seen… things you people wouldn’t believe.
Aldo’s car on fire off the shoulder of Charterstone blvd.
I watched beatnicks gather in the dark near the woman’s shelter. All those moments will be lost… like my swan statue.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:13 pm
#17 – Skullturf
Cathy is drawn with absolute loathing for the human body. Each figure looks like those hard little turds stingily doled out by a toddler who objects to being potty-trained.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:15 pm
9 Mountain Mama: damn, I just looked at my calendar. We have out of town guests both the 8 & 9, and the 25 & 26th. So it’s either earlier or pushed off till September. Other Arizonans? Step up please?
July 31st, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Now, to be fair, all the relatives are described as Uncles and Aunts.
If this is in relationship to Irving himself, which is entirely possible, then there’s a chance his dad came a group of identical quartuplets and his mother a group of identical octuplets.
Believe it… Or not!
July 31st, 2007 at 4:16 pm
#25 Trotzenbonnie -
Thank you for that COTW-worthy visual image.
Time to go home now and make dinner.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:18 pm
FOOB: Yeah, well, April, you’ve just learned several important lessons, haven’t you? Spend the rest of your life in your hometown close to your family, even living in their house; the rock’n'roll lifestyle will only lead to debauchery and spiritual emptiness; and any man whose last name isn’t Patterson is bound to be a failure as a father. Now isn’t living in a damp basement with a creaky ceiling a small price to pay for that knowledge?
July 31st, 2007 at 4:22 pm
24. thebigsmoke, that was awesome!
July 31st, 2007 at 4:24 pm
MW – Dawn looks like Ernie Kovacs wearing a hoodie. All she needs is a White Owl cigar to complete the transformation.
Phantom — At least the Ghost Who Walks is directing his attention to the bad guys now. He spent the better part of last week referring to the Mori canoe crew as “boys”, which would have earned him a stripey ass kicking where I come from.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:28 pm
FOOB: Wow, that’s a lot of exposition in panels two and three! But if you read through it all you’re rewarded with a hilarious punch line delivered by a man who’s dead inside.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:41 pm
15: Sorry, didn’t see you there, loudfan! I’ll just back away slowly now …
July 31st, 2007 at 4:42 pm
SFx: Ah, Count Weirdly. Don’t you think it’s time you admitted you’re a complete and total failure as a criminal genius and get another career going? How about vice- president? You’d be good at that.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Good uncle Bill reference there Halifaxer.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Jesus, can I get a job coloring the Phantom strip? Could it be any shittier?
July 31st, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Fans of Japanese pop culture will recognize Dawn’s shirt right away: The characters are nyan nyan nyanko, cartoon cats that like to disguise themselves as food. They’re part of the wonderfully neurotic San-X line of cartoon characters. (Think Hello Kitty’s crazy aunts and uncles.) I applaud Dawn not only for her hipness, but also for her dedication, as I don’t think you can even buy the T-shirts outside of Japan.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:46 pm
BC: So… the new team has officially started?
I guess I have to give them props for immitating Hart’s style so well.
Wait, no I don’t.
Okay, BC pretty much started sucking before I was born, but old-timers out there seem to think it was good at one point, and who am I to argue.
So, if you were carrying BC forward, why would you slavishly immitate the stupid decades? Why not try to immitate the good years?
I guess if I were a cartoonist I’d care more about my kids being able to eat then I would the integrity of my work, but still, there’s something unsettling about people taking something you worked on your whole life, and simply rehashing the dumbest parts over and over again, each rehash driving out memories of the good parts and making people with taste hate your life’s work a little more.
That said, I did laugh at yesterday’s strip.
Dick Tracy: You got a description over the net… This doesn’t make me want to slam my head against the desk as much as “Gretchen, give us a detailed description of the Baron.” but still,
HE WAS IN CIA A CUSTODY! AND YOU PERSONALLY JUST SAW DICK TRACY WEARING A DISGUISE OF HIM SO ACCURATE IT FOOLED HIS CLOSEST FRIEND AND RELATIVE!!!!
Why in holy heck would you need a description from some outside source?
Man, Dick Tracy does for writing what Gil Thorp(e) does for art. And vice versa.
Slylock Fox: A goth midget is trying to paint his ranch home black, but is about to be dragged away by his gargantuan dog, who is both bigger then he is and has for some reason been tied to the midget’s ladder, a flimsy device that even with the Midget’s weight on it could not possibly slow this monster dog down. The dog is going to chase down a hundred pound housecat who walks on his or her hind legs and is bigger then some people.
And it’s STILL more realistic then Dick Tracy or Gil Thorpe.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Wasn’t there some gentleman’s agreement that we don’t “do” Cathy here? (no pun intended)
Man, that strip hurts like long division.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I hate to break it to you, Dawn, but, stewpot or no, your shirt kittens really aren’t that hot.
July 31st, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Why, why, WHY are three of those aunts bald?!
July 31st, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Last panel of FBOFW: “Dad, why are you bringing Gerald into this?”
July 31st, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Incidentally, why does the Phantom wear diagonally striped underwear on the outside of his superhero costume? Does he think it looks slimming?
July 31st, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Christopher #38 — I almost did a diatribe about Dick Tracy’s baron along the same lines as yours, but then I realized that the sentence in question is horribly phrased and doesn’t mean what it appears on first flush. I’m pretty sure that what Random Square-Jawed CIA Dude is saying is “[I] got the baron’s description [out onto] the [CIA radio] net[work], Agent O’Brien.” I realize that’s a lot of bracketing, but it’s the only thing that makes an even tiny shred of sense, for all the reasons you describe.
Josh
July 31st, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Becky’s pregnant?
July 31st, 2007 at 5:01 pm
# 10 — Noooooo! No, Chris, she doesn’t! NO! NO! NO! *hastily starts scrubbing brain*
# 18 — MossMoses, I like and respect and often BWAHAHA at your comments. But I still see kittens.
CATHY — My horror at this ghastly lineup of semi-humans is more than balanced by the happy realization that it’s been months since I quit reading CATHY every day. Ahhh, freedom smells sweet.
Actually, it doesn’t, because a crop duster just made repeated passes right over my house, very low, and I’m smelling pesticide. Oh well.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:03 pm
I don’t think the author of this comic strip DREW this comic strip or any recent Cathy comic strip. I think they are all drawn by computer. I thought of Paige Fox (in the late Foxtrot comic strip) when she learned how to use the ctrl-alt keys after drawing her nerdy little brother Jason saying “Hi, I’m a geek” and repeating the image again and again on a piece of paper. I imagine the author of this strip did the same. That’s another reason for newspapers to drop this train-wreck about pathetic life of Mrs. Hillman (er. Cathy).
July 31st, 2007 at 5:05 pm
#37 – Encyclopedia Brown
What possible reason could cats have for disguising themselves as food?
#28 – AhClem
Da nada! Betcha won’t be making swedish meatballs.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:08 pm
#37 EB –
Here’s the official San-X Nyanko site.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:14 pm
46. Poteet, are you a cat person by any chance? They do look like kittens at first glance. If you enlarge the image 3x, they look more like distorted yellow puppies in a bizarre kangaroo basket pouch.
Who could not help but be totally smitten
by two furriful, purriful, loveable kittens?
With wee playful paws that run pitter, pat, pitter,
why, the only thing cuter is a Dawn Weston litter!
btw: That “like and respect and often BWAHAHA” made my day! Thank you for the props. Now if only I could break out of my cotw slump or at least get an honorable mention, life would be a lot more meaningful for me…
July 31st, 2007 at 5:14 pm
#467 Skullturf from yester-yesterthread – Yeah, I find Fred Basset to be an inoffensive and usually passably humorous strip, and have nothing against it really. If I ever meet Fred on the street, I’ll give him a MilkBone and a pat on the head. I just thought that the art looked oddly unpolished and inconsistent with its usual style today. The joke would have spoken better, both to Fred’s humanlike aspect and to the actual humans reading it, if the neighbors’ – sorry, neighbours’ – door had actually been coloured somehow, rather than plain white. For Fred to be misled in that way, his own door must be some relatively uncommon colour, like green or maroon, which he wouldn’t expect to encounter elsewhere. If he’s homing in on a white door, he’ll be stumbling up to probably three-quarters of the houses in his neighbourhood.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Holy $#!&, am I glad my paper runs black-and-white comix – I don’t think I could have handled Dawn’s purple outfit at 6:30 this morning. It’s giving me a rather violent headache even at 6:30 this evening.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:31 pm
FW: I think Jessica Darling is a skank.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Kittens or dogs, I keep think someone told the MW artist that Dawn needed some “Sweater Puppies” and the old dear just misunderstood.
As for Cathy, relatives at a family reunion don’t usually start to all look alike until the second day in, but remember, Cath’s never been in a room w/ more than two of ‘em at a time before. The In-Law Horror might be working on her “mind” here.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Ingmar Bergman two days ago, Michelangelo Antonioni yesterday.
OK, they were 89 and 95r espectively, but still.
Not even the Comics Curmudgeon could uplift me today.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:44 pm
#17 I think Mallard Fillmore is the worst drawn comic–Tinsley’s sketches are amateur and sloppy (the fish in today’s strip for example), his caricatures generally unrecognizable, and all in all, it’s one of the flattest and most boring strips in the paper, often featuring simply a disembodied duck’s head repeated.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
I read The Phantom and all I could think was, “What does God…need with a starship?”
July 31st, 2007 at 5:46 pm
# 49 — Thanks, Uncle Lumpy! And welcome back! Like some other Japanese websites, that one is wondrous and inexplicable to me. I appreciate the link.
# 50 — MossMoses, yes, I’m a cat person. My vet says she wants to be one of my cats in her next life, though timing-wise, that’s unlikely. But I don’t actually want those shirt animals to be kittens, honest. No living creature deserves to be portrayed on that hideous outfit. Maybe those creatures are extremely deformed Bart Simpson heads. (I do like your verse!)
And thank you, I’m very honored to have made your day. And I share your exile from the COTW list. I’m keeping up a cheery front as the weeks go by and other gifted snarkers get to ride the float, and I really am happy for them, but it’s hard (sob). Maybe you and I should hold hands as we wait.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Oh geez, I finally understand the Pope’s comment on today’s Foob. BWAHAHA! Haha! Ummm… I can’t decide if this means I’m a little less dirty-minded than I used to be, or just dim.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Well, Lynn Johnston has put new life into one of the oldest, gravest debates of the past century: Which Justice League member isn’t gay? We all know Becky’s Wonder Woman, afterall. She’s got be screwing one of them. And if John knows one thing, it’s that she’s screwing one of them right now.
July 31st, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Dammit, forgot to sign #51 again.
#37 E. Brown – What the..? Okay. Of all the world’s pop cultures, that of Japan generates by far the greatest number of trends that I have no hope of ever understanding. I somehow know that if I were able to read the Japanese text there, it wouldn’t help me a bit. There are kittens on my pizza, and I’ll just have to accept it.
July 31st, 2007 at 6:07 pm
FOOB, panel one. Note the head-on view of the car. Factor in the angle at which we “stand” in relation to the edge of the roadway. Consider proximity of right front tire to said roadway edge.
Conclusion: Patterson driving philosophy of “If you don’t like my driving, stay off of the bleeping sidewalk!”
July 31st, 2007 at 6:11 pm
MT: Unfortunately Sam’s idea of distracting Buzzard is to appear directly in front of him, thus leading to her recapture and a repeat of this dreadfully slow scene.
July 31st, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Oh for crap’s sake, not only is Mallard Fillmore hideously ugly, today it’s blatantly factually incorrect too. Chilean seabass is overfished, not endangered (ok, that’s essentially a semantic difference, but still…). It can also be purchased from responsibly managed fisheries.
Incidentally, Chilean sea bass used to be called patagonian toothfish, but there was no market for it. They changed the name, and voila, overfishing ensued.
/useless information
July 31st, 2007 at 6:16 pm
FOOB – Am I the only one who really wants the Asshathony/Liz storyline back? I hate them, but I LOVE to hate them.
Hurry Lynn, we don’t have much time to force these two together into a life of wedding bliss with insta-kid locked in the basement!
July 31st, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Damn, I’m no fan of this whole necroposting thing, but my ability to create new things to say is limited.
DT: All right, we get it! The cold war ended, but the Baron is still programmed. We’ve been over this 10 times now. However, nobody has thought it worthwhile to explain what he’s been programmed for! At least let us in on the reason why he went to that spooky farm from Sin City, you know, the one where that creepy Elijah Wood Harry Potter look-alike who enjoys eating prostitutes (literally) lives. Or will that big wolf get him first?
Oh, and #64: Thank you. Not only was it incorrect, it also rips off one of the lamest jokes I’ve ever heard.
July 31st, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Origins Of The Phantom:
“Blast that dratted Truth and Reconciliation Commission! Getting to be so a man can’t make an honest Guilder any more. Back to Antwerp eh? I’ll give those Commies over a the ANC what for – but how? I know! I’ll dress up as a ghost and pray off the local superstitions, scaring the hell out of these ungrateful Africans! ‘Tho I’ll need a costume, too bad the white sheet’s already taken…”
I propose that if the Phantom took a radical departure from its usual pap and started writing about the war, poverty, genocide, AIDS, corruption, neo-colonailisam, absence of child labor laws and eco-distruction going on in Africa right now, it would still be more cheerful than Funky W.
July 31st, 2007 at 6:21 pm
At first, I thought the San-X Nyanko stuff was a little risque – kitties between two buns, kitties as cream filled donuts, fishy kitties, “kitties” who want you to eat them.
Then I found this image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pancakejess/224957478/in/pool-nyankofan/
A kitty with an eggplant for an ass? What the friggity hell? How can Japan manufacture something so bizarre but make it look so cute that….dammit! I want one!?
July 31st, 2007 at 6:27 pm
er… Hillman family… hill+man… hill+billy/mountain+people… inbreeding jokes… am I making a connection that’s already been discussed?
July 31st, 2007 at 6:36 pm
To CrabbyGenes (from previous post):
If the Cambridge Dictionary has this for “see off” (SAY GOODBYE) phrasal verb [M] to go to the place that someone is leaving from in order to say goodbye to them:
My parents saw me off at the airport.
Then certainly the noun form is “see-off.” Seems to me a perfectly good word. Hope your see-off at Narita went smoothly.
July 31st, 2007 at 6:59 pm
FOOB – The only thing that keeps FOOB from being an ABC “After-School Special” is an insufficiency of sideburns and wide watch bands.
Cathy – Are you sure they’re supposed to look alike? I just don’t think Guisewhite can draw more than four different faces, and I’m including the dog-thing in that.
It’d make a good puzzle for Slylock Fox, though. “Can you find six differences between any of these?”
MW – If those puppies are for sale, I want the one with the pink nose! Grrrrowr! [/Duckman]
July 31st, 2007 at 7:00 pm
19 – My pick for COTW, Francis!
July 31st, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Phantom: Since that canoe is actually a gondola, I would say an Venetian ghost, or a tourist ghost.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Phantom: Since that canoe is actually a gondola, I would say a Venetian ghost, or a tourist ghost.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:10 pm
the person inside becky? That can’t be. If the person inside is speaking, then her words are surrounded by a more bubbley cloud-like balloon. This is all too much for a fragile soul like April to absorb.
MW: Trying hard not to make siamese cat joke
July 31st, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Applique? I thought Dawn had two live kittens in a pouch on her chest, placed strategically in the hopes that a passing stranger would wink at her and say, “Cute pair. And the kittens aren’t bad, either.”
July 31st, 2007 at 7:22 pm
# 68 — Trotzenbonnie, CrabbyGenes once gave me some ADORABLE chocolate kittens from Japan. Their playful poses and little whiskered faces were quite realistic and very fetching. That saved them for about five seconds.
# 71 — HAR! Kip, that’s one of the best Foob comments this week.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:24 pm
I think the most disturbing part of today’s “Cathy” is not the identical people, but the meticulous care that has gone into the words “Hillman Family Reunion” on each shirt and the slightly different pattern (seriously, check it out) on each pair of pants and skirt. It’s creeping me out. This has shown me that the only thing worse than a horrible cartoonist is a horrible cartoonist with obsessive compulsive disorder.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I’ve never seen a white person wearing a family reunion T-shirt.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:28 pm
FBoFW: I was just thinking of all the complaints I’ve read about show business life – stalker fans, crummy hotels, boring hours travelling between gigs, living out of a suitcase, etc. But all April remembers of Becky’s hard life is the parent-related stuff, which she is (coincidentally) relating to her dad. It all comes suspiciously close to the unspoken maxim, “But she’d give it all up in a moment just to have parents like mine!“
July 31st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Necroposting: I try to be a good boy and eat all my vegetables before dessert — uh, finish reading the comments on the last post before diving onto Josh’s latest and the NEW comments. But if everyone’s gonna re-post their stuff in the newer thread I’m going to skip the damn broccoli.
– Uke, the guy who said he thought that thing on Dawn’s tee shirt looked like a big wedge of yellow cheese yesterday
July 31st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
#78 Chromium –
The different Zipatone pants set us up for weeks of “Cathy guesses the in-laws” “jokes.”
Clip today’s strip to your refrigerator and play along at home! All contestants get a stark moment of self-realization — winner gets a mercifully quick death!
July 31st, 2007 at 7:37 pm
“Well, dad, at least Becky’s dad is interested in her music. You were too damn busy with your stupid train set to come see me play. Thanks for the support. I’m sorry my creativity doesn’t inspire me to write crappy novels.”
July 31st, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Mary: “Dawn, you look happy.”
Dawn: “Yes, Mary, I’m very happy.”
*silence*
Mary: “How on earth did this happen without my knowledge? Care to explain?”
Dawn: “I bought this shirt with two Pikachu’s on it.”
Mary: “Hate it. You’re happy, explain!”
Dawn: “Well, okay… Can I confide in you?”
Mary: “If by confiding you mean telling your father and half of Charterstone, then yes, you may confide in me.”
July 31st, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Josh – I also thought, “Oh, good. Stripey ass for Bootsy.” They say it’s a sign of good emotional health when our joys and concerns extend beyond ourselves to others.
Any Curmudgeons live in Norway? Been to Norway? Have a sister bitten by a moose once? It’s such a stunning country; I’m seriously thinking about visiting; maybe in the spring. Just wondering if anyone’s there or has been.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:56 pm
The big ugly sign for the Hillman Family Reunion, put up with two pieces of very visible tape makes me think that Margo has been hired as the party planner for this special occasion. And the horrible shirts, let’s not forget those – I’m sure, like bridesmaid’s dresses, these shirts will be worn over and over again for many notable events.
I’m not sure which comic makes my eyes glaze over more, the incredibly ugly Cathy strip, or the incredibly verbose FOOB strip. I know that I don’t like looking at either one.
Hey everyone, I’m back from my vacation! Thanks for missing me, Poteet, Divine O’F, AppleGirl and Uncle Lumpy. I was truly offline and will not get caught up with either the comics themselves or your comments – I only regret missing your comments. No news, no current events of any sort for over a week and it was fabulous. Now I’m back at work and wondering why these people want me to talk to them and actually do stuff for them. Don’t they know that I’m due to re-read the Harry Potter book after I finish Michael Chabon’s latest? Priorities, people!
I missed you all and wanted you to know that I’m back lurking, if not commenting. And working too, of course, when I have time.
July 31st, 2007 at 7:56 pm
The Phantom really looks like he’s brandishing his penis at them.
July 31st, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Squid Countess, forget Norway for a nonce and plan a quick trip to New Orleans, you too Trotzenbonnie, as well as anyother Southern ‘Mudges. I’m going in a week or so, and another trip planed in Sept. We’ll scoop up Bootsy and snark the night away.
NOTE – “snark the night away” might be limited to or briefly interrupted by my kids bedtime. Josh, you and Mrs C are cordially invited of course, and I’ve got some pull with the tow companies there so parking won’t be a worry.
July 31st, 2007 at 8:07 pm
85 Lovely Squid Countess (by the way, there sure have been a lot of squid in Lio recently):
I was in Oslo and Kristiansaand Norway in 1977 with my high school choir. I do remember it being a spectacular country, but most of my memory is of the jaw-dropping young blondes who seem to make up about 95% of the female population there. Sorry I was so distracted that I can’t give you a better report, but at 16, with hormones raging, there was very little else on my mind.
I do recall hearing a Norse rock band in the lobby of the SAS Hotel doing covers of Jim Croce tunes. My favorite was the immortal “Jah, Jah, Yeeeroy Braun.”
July 31st, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Hi, folks. Jamus is back. I’ve been trying to keep up with the various snarkings on the site, but using just a Motrola Q to do so makes Jamus’ eye’s hurt. So, I spent a lot of time watching my sister’s kids, helping my mom with stuff around the house like Mike Patterson likes to think he would if he weren’t Mister Author Guy, and eating fried foods. I did see Ms. Buxley in her undies, which was fun. Anyway, after some dinner, i’ll tell you all about the vacation, and possibly by then i’ll get some word about the ol’ detective, who was on the run from The Man last I heard….
July 31st, 2007 at 8:21 pm
# 85 — S.C., I visited Oslo for one winter weekend in 1973. Not exactly helpful current expertise. But for what it’s worth, I remember beautiful women and handsome men in every shade of blonde (plus a few other great hair colors), a wonderful medieval-era village-museum which I had almost entirely to myself, good though expensive food, a lovely clean city, intriguing accents, the amazing Munch Museum that was (fortunately and considerately) open in the evening (this was long before those infamous art thefts). It was all wonderful, even though I was very sleep-deprived from spending the night on the train. I’d go back in a red-hot minute.
July 31st, 2007 at 8:24 pm
I wanna know something. HOW THE HELL DOES EVERY SINGLE HILLMAN FAMILY MEMBER AND INLAW LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME. Is there a genetic lab that we don’t know about? Is Cathy the only Hillman that doesn’t look like a clone?
And, for the record, the Hillmans hold the worst freaking family reunions ever.
July 31st, 2007 at 8:24 pm
# 86 — Welcome back, fizzy logic! My advice is to not try to catch up on current events, either:-).
July 31st, 2007 at 8:43 pm
So few of us recognize him these days. He’s been calling toads for a few years now, but it’s a rare day when any show up.
Mary Worth: None of her ‘no’s ever meant ‘yes’.
July 31st, 2007 at 8:47 pm
#88 – Big Sims
‘Taint nothin’ quick about a trip to N’Awlins, mon cher.
We can create our own version of the Algonquin Round Table at Cafe Du Monde….wait….better make that Pat O’s. No one ever got snarkier after drinking chicoffee and all that powdered sugar just makes me giddy.
Mr. T will be doing border patrol starting Aug 17 and I will be AWOL from Aug 26 thru Labor Day weekend. I’LL BE IN BALTIMORE! No, it’s not an audience with The Pope. My kid invited me to witness his thesis defense for his PhD. (What do I wear? How do I act? Do I have to be serious – and, if so, for how friggin long?!!!! Does anybody out there know what I’m supposed to do?)
Anyway, if any ‘mudges are going to be roaming the streets of New Orleans, say when.
July 31st, 2007 at 8:56 pm
FOOB: April looks like she is sitting on her misplaced hairbrush… handle-end up. (Note to Lynn: Learn to draw April without that surprised look on her face.)
July 31st, 2007 at 8:58 pm
I have to say, the thought of Mary responding to a pleading “May I confide in you?” with “Yes, yeeeees….of course my child…confide in Mary…WA-HAHAHAHA!”, throwing her head back and laughing demonically as crows flock to her outstretched arms makes up for any number of matching violet hot pants and pajama shirts.
Well, not ANY number.
Not more than, say, one.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Also, I’m not sure just from WHERE Mary appropriated the torso of the 13 year old boy she seems to have placed her head upon, but I’m sure he misses it terribly.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:11 pm
No snark really, just some questions.
1. Did Cathy have a last name before marrying Irving (who I never realized had a last name himself)? I don’t know why the question nags at me; it just does.
2. The Beckster is famous now? Since when does doing gigs at truck stops as the opening act for some third-rate garage band and playing a late-night set on a cable-access “telethon” equal being famous? That might fly in FOOB-ville, but here in the real world, we demand our stars come with catastrophe on a grand scale. Come back and talk to me about fame after your failed marriage to a backup dancer, your arrest following a booze-fueled drug binge and your third expulsion from rehab after you get caught snorting coke off Tommy Lee’s ass, Rebecc-ah. Then maybe we can talk about being famous.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:14 pm
95 Trotz, re PhD defenses, sit in the back and for God’s sake don’t harass his committee. If you want to heckle Dan, that’s OK. My suggestion: hairdresser jokes.
All: Just saw the movie Once. Many, many thumbs up (well, two, anyway).
July 31st, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Can anyone explain Frazz to me today?
http://www.comics.com/comics/frazz/archive/frazz-20070731.html
I like this comic quite a bit, and it often has the kind og jokes that take a minute to get, but today’s has me stumped.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:23 pm
#64 Katharine:
And I’m going to call Boxcar Saturn on today’s M(argo) Fillmore. Not only is Chilean Sea Bass not endangered, but Al Gore didn’t serve it at his daughter’s wedding. The groom’s parents served at at the rehearsal dinner. MF is often nothing more than RNC talking points spouted by a poorly drawn duck.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Zamboni: That is famous.
For Canada.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:29 pm
101 cedar, this is the third thread in a row that someone has asked this, with no answers forthcoming. who better to tackle the question than me? *crickets*. exactly. herewith, my analysis.
First of all, if I get the “joke” it’s not all that interesting. The first 3 panels are just a very belabored set-up of panel 4 (where the comic may as well start, for all the confusion panels 1 to 3 cause). So, forget panels 1-3, and the strip just has Frazz commenting that it’s harder to define a hero today than it was when Jack Armstrong and Superman ruled the airwaves. Fair enough.
So, if that’s the point of the strip, then panels 1-3 exist only to get Frazz to say the word “heroes” so the kid can note in panel 3 that “heroes” are not supposed to exist anymore (or so some people say). The whole thing about forgetting to say “sharks” in panel 1 just sets up the pointless confusion about who the kid was referring to when he talked about a team that doesn’t exist (Frazz thought “sharks”, kid thought “heroes”).
no, please, applause is not necessary. well, if you insist.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:30 pm
I second the nomination for a return to the Asshathony/Lizardbreath storyline.
I just don’t freaking CARE about April that much. When she was going roadside with Gerald, it was one thing. But this After School Special of Happiness is so goddamn annoying.
Also, I would like to just say that my parents are way better parents than the Pattersons. Just in case April is feeling all warm and fuzzy about her parents, I’ll say this: my dad would have volunteered for the telethon AND pledged a shitload more money than that.
MW – I know I’m setting myself up for ridicule, but I’m actually very interested to see how Vera is going to weasle back into the storyline and ruin Dawn’s newfound happiness with her ugly, ugly Drew. I figure that there was no reason to have Drew lust after Vera, only to have to settle for Dawn, unless there’s some serious heartbreak ahead.
I’m looking forward to it.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:31 pm
#101 Cedar-
Big dude rattles off the list of teams they’ve played, then rattles off the list of teams they’ve beat. He forgot to list the Sharks in the first list but did put it in the second, causing a moment of confusion for little dude imagining a situation in which he could have beaten a team that they never played … or that never existed in the first place! But in fact, as big dude’s dialog indicates, the Sharks do exist; he just forgot them in the first list. This then takes a sharp turn towards a play on words based on the name of another team, the Heroes, riffing on the (supposedly) oft-proclaimed bit of nostalgia “there are no heroes anymore”.
It’s not funny.
Josh
July 31st, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Gah, Stinky Pete answered too! Between the two of our answers, hopefully this clears up the confusion.
Josh
July 31st, 2007 at 9:33 pm
106 Josh, um, well said.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:33 pm
I know where I’ve seen Irving’s family before. At least one of those aunts works at the department store where Cathy does her (*AAAAAACK*) swimsuit shopping. You always see her with her dark-haired co-worker, each with pencils in their hair.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:34 pm
107 Josh, hey, let’s just keep posting over the top of each other all night, eh?
July 31st, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Poteet and Moon Mullins – Norway in ‘73 and ‘77. Thanks for trying. =)
Fizzy Logic – So glad you’re back!
MossMoses I was at least 4 months off the COTW float. I couldn’t get run over by the dang float, much less a runner-up comment. Then, suddenly, I got an actual COTW. You never know. Hmm…maybe I’ll send that in to Guideposts inspirational magazine.
Alamo – Where y’at?
Big Sims – I love the idea of a gathering of Mudgeons and jazz and alcohol and lots of shrimp, but, “they my Lord,” as we say here in East Tennessee (read: “Jesus Christ on a stick!”) I’d die in New Orleans in August. September, too. I know I’d die, because extreme heat makes me a psychotic bitch. So if hyperthermia didn’t kill me, somebody would shoot me. I think the best time to go to NOLA, in my inexperienced opinion, is St Patrick’s day. Great weather, plus the Irish put on a nice St Pat’s parade and the Italians put on a nice St Joseph’s parade. I still have a castor bean that was blessed by the Pope. (The Vatican Pope, I mean. To whose tenents I do not adhere; for I am not a Catholic, but I am a ‘Mudgeon.)
July 31st, 2007 at 9:39 pm
#100 – stinky pete
Thanks for the tip! Can I at least tell a few Uranus jokes?
And re: Frazz – I don’t understand why the kid wasn’t concerned about playing a team that didn’t exist (they were on the list in panel 1)…only about beating it. And why does the big guy look just like Calvin?
July 31st, 2007 at 9:46 pm
112 Trotz, hey, whatever works. As I think of it, this could be quite a boon for our cosmetologist-to-be. A bunch of aging stargazers will be so distracted by your presence they’ll forget to give Dan a hard time. Wear something low-cut.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:53 pm
After the demise of Hobbes in a tragic washing machine accident, Calvin dropped out of school, got Susie pregnant, left her to form a rock band, then when the band ditched him for sucking he became a janitor named Frazz.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:53 pm
#99- Zamboni – I was just wondering the same thing about Cathy’s last name. I don’t think she ever had one – maybe that’s why she was so hot to get married. Aaaccck!
July 31st, 2007 at 9:54 pm
#112 Trotz-
When I was in college, one of my roommate was a TA in the Astronomy department, and when I took Astro 101 (aka “moons for goons”) to fulfill my science distribution requirements, I arranged my schedule so I could be in her section. Here’s a list of Uranus-themed questions that I came up with to ask her during class but never had the nerve to run with (you can substitue your son’s name for Julie):
“How much methane does Uranus contain?”
“Is it true that there’s a ring of dark material around Uranus?”
“Do NASA scientists have plans to send a probe into Uranus?”
The best part is that they’re all astronomically legitimate!
If you and/or your son haven’t picked out a restaurant for his triumphant post-defense dinner, since Bohagers is closd, might I suggest The Black Olive in Fells Point? It’s run by my wife’s cousin’s in-laws, but I am totally unbiased in saying that if you like seafood and/or Greek food, it’s A#1 the very very best. We had our rehearsal dinner there … soooooo delish. DO NOT MISS the Baklava ice cream.
Josh
July 31st, 2007 at 9:55 pm
16-year old girls LOVE to gossip about their friends with their Dads!
Speaking of which, what is the driving age in Canada?
July 31st, 2007 at 9:55 pm
#104 Thanks! I’m sorry; I hadn’t read too deeply into the previous threads. I thought I got the joke (which was basically how you explained it), but Frazz’s last line didn’t make any sense to me.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Remember the 2-threads-back comment about “Fred Basset”, that a dog can’t see colors? That means that, when Snoopy was chasing after the Red Baron, he was really just chasing after The Baron. But how can a guy programmed during the Cold War be fighting in World War I ??
July 31st, 2007 at 10:16 pm
GT: Gee…. you don’t think…… maybe sending a big macho tough guy (with earrings???) after people that are writing not-nice things about someone entertaining the masses… is an allegorical swipe at us GT-snarkers…..do you?? Yikes!
Nah, that can’t be it. Rubin and McLaughlin wouldn’t do such a thing. They’d know it’s all in good fun, right? Sure, that’s all it —
Huh……. who could be knocking at my door at this time of night?……………
July 31st, 2007 at 10:18 pm
stinky pete – I think my M!B!S! t-shirt is more appropriate. I’m no June Cleavage. I hate cleavage. I even hate shoes that show toe cleavage. Cleavage looks like an asscrack that doesn’t know it’s way home. Phew! I’m glad I got that off my chest!
Josh – Thanks! Those are three Uranus jokes that I missed so they’re going on my list. Dan’s specialty is finding dark matter so I usually just say ‘Have you looked on Uranus?’
And The Black Olive sounds good. I love Greek food. And there’s nothing funnier than Dan winding up with tzatziki sauce on his lap. But that’s a story for another day.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:19 pm
… And with her ability to move seamlessly from cute to ugly, Dawn blows her cover as the hidden human Transformer.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:35 pm
121: That’s funny, today’s FW demonstrates that the opposite can also be true: an asscrack that looks like wayward frontal cleavage.
On that note: today provides yet more evidence that Mary Worth and Kaz are actually the same person. As any good dick will tell you, when in doubt, follow the accessories.
And I am nothing if not a good dick.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:35 pm
#117 – Driving age in Canada : 16
Oh boy, I’m just coming back from Foob’s “Who’s who” page – going through all the names, it made me realize this strip has been good before…
July 31st, 2007 at 10:41 pm
FBOFW: In a few years Becky will be walking through public bathrooms barefoot, shaving her head and generally going batshit crazy.
Crankshaft: Is there anyone in this strip who isn’t a complete asshole?
DT: Somehow I find the idea that the CIA lost track of an old man walking with a cane the most believable plot Dick Tracy has ever had.
GT: “Another awful show?” If this man thinks that Gail Martin is capable of producing an awful show, he obviously needs psychological help.
Spider-Man: Awww, Peter looks like a 12 year old with a crush when he hears Jonah call out Spider-man for being the pussy that he is.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:43 pm
=41= Cathy (criminallyinane): The aunts are bald in solidarity with Coach Thorp (Mrs.), of course!
=107= Frazz (Josh and stinky pete): I thought the sharks had something to do with the decline of majestic sea creatures, possibly served by Al Gore’s son-in-law (along with a bit of deep-fried Mallard).
=123= FW (SecretMargo): Ass crack? I was thinkin’ tramp stamp.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:49 pm
105. Re: MW. I’m hoping Vera comes back into the picture and steals Dawn away from Drew. Not going to happen, but it would be way cool.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:57 pm
I can’t remember any strips drawn by two different artists ever looking as much like each other as Frazz looks like Calvin and Hobbes, in its characters at least. I find it rather distracting actually.
There’s another strip that occasionally looks uncannily like FBOFW, but I can’t think of which one it is.
July 31st, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Today’s Cathy is an admission by the Guisewhite that she can only draw 4 different characters. Poorly.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:00 pm
CC Voter Fraud Alert! My parents’ newspaper is currently holding a survey to determine which comic will replace B.C. (they actually said NO to ZomB.C.! I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud of being from Eastern Washington) The important thing — LIO is in the running!!! So I’m soliciting some ballot stuffing. Please let me get to see Lio in newsprint form when I go home to visit the ‘rents and my lovely grandmother! To Stone Soup, Tundra, and Pickles fans: I’ll hear your pleas when they run an equivalent to the Lio’s FBoFW parody.
I thought so.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:00 pm
I’m shocked more people aren’t making a big deal about how Mary is feeling up that poor woman.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:05 pm
#109: At first glance, I likewise thought Guisewite just copied her ubiquitous salesclerks (same two women in every store or restaurant–maybe that’s how sales people seem to her). But although I dislike her artwork and most of her themes and find Cathy’s constant whininess tedious, I’ve got to admit that today the strip struck a chord for anyone who’s ever been suddenly introduced to, say, a spouse’s extended family or host of reunion friends all at once.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:09 pm
FRAZZ — I’m not in love with this strip, but I’ve certainly seen worse. My paper is putting it back into the lineup, and said, in the announcement, that FRAZZ strongly reflects the influence of PEANUTS and CALVIN AND HOBBES. Hmm.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:16 pm
85, Squid Countess, I explored Norway in the early 90s: I experienced fabulous scenic hikes, nature walks/bird watching, and some adventure. In the bigger cities, there were interesting history and art museums, great street flea markets with fun antiques, good restaurants. p.s. Mongolia is not the only place with Mary Worth-sized horses; Norway has small horses bred to find their way along steep mountain trails.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I laughed so hard at MW, then I showed it to Hubby. He said, “I’ll be damned, that DOES look like a 2-headed kitten in a stewpot.” But seriously, who wears that kind of shirt? I’ll tell you who: older women who never developed good taste in clothing and just quit trying, or 10 year olds with cruel, heartless mothers who are actively trying to snuff out the smallest glimmer of self-esteem in their poor offspring. You know who doesn’t wear that kind of shirt? Pretty college girls dating older doctors, that’s who.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:19 pm
When’s Day?:
FOOB: All Lynn knows these days is goop, gross body functions, and puns. Well, at least there weren’t any puns.
FW: Okay, okay, great, now go on. They’ll make it to Lisa just fine their time, but our time she’ll already be dead.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:20 pm
126: I have been taking breaks all day while writing an interminable proposal to peer at FW backside (*shudder), and it really appears to me to be two lines that curve slightly until they meet and disappear into her jeans. I’m sure “tramp stamp” is what Batiuk told his syndicate, but unless she’s into tattoing a simplified map of the Nile delta onto her backside, I stand by my “asscrack” diagnosis. Though I do fervently wish I could convince myself otherwise.
I am also firmly in the “disconcertingly stern-faced kittens who reproduced asexually between Monday and Tuesday” camp re: Dawn’s shirt. Again, I wish I was wrong. Or maybe just blissfully blind (where are those birds when you really need them?).
July 31st, 2007 at 11:22 pm
#133 – Poteet
‘Strongly reflects’? That tall guy looks just like Calvin! It’s as if the artist found a matchbook cover that said “Draw Calvin” and he said, “Uh. O.K.”
July 31st, 2007 at 11:23 pm
I don’t really have a problem with the serious/relevant direction that Funky Winkerbean has taken. I do have a problem with the fact that Batiuk’s story structure suffers so much whenever he delves into these issues. Since the beginning of this Darren’s PO Box/Birth mother series, each strip has just been so shoddily paced (except for the Sunday one, I’d say) and written. Last summerish, with the strips where Lisa and Les go hiking was similar as plodding and odd. I remember reading one strip over and over again, just not understanding it, either by itself or in context. Say what you will about FOOB, but LJ knows how to write a five panel strip (not saying they’re all good); even when the storyline is taking a serious turn, she can pace it well, end each strip on an interesting note, and break up the monotony with some joke or pun. Batiuk should take a lesson from her before he continues this plodding course.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Hey…Josh…you’re…starting…to…sound…a…little…like…Shannon.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:48 pm
# 125 — Actually, reader, I think the Baron is also blind. Which, if true, just adds to your point.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:49 pm
#137 – SecretMargo
Maybe it’s butt fluff. (MossMoses gets the credit for that term.)
I worked in the records room of the Dutchess County Clerk with a bunch of ladies who all wore matching ‘Lighthouses of Maine’ sweatshirts and appropriately appliqued sweaters for every holiday. I thought they were kind of corny but they didn’t understand my Angriest Dog in the World t-shirt either. C’est la guerre!
July 31st, 2007 at 11:49 pm
116, 121: Believe it or not, I used to live on Uranus Terrace in San Francisco, on Twin Peaks, not far from the Castro District. There was even a 69 Uranus across the street from us that had some pretty raucous parties (go figure).
My roommate at the time made it his quest to find the best joke about the street where he lived. He finally chose:
“I was so drunk last night I had to crawl up Uranus to get home.”
July 31st, 2007 at 11:49 pm
FBOFW: In honor of April Beckster:
Michael’s on the last laps, the doctors don’t make much effort, the nurses just administer drugs and let him run his course. His pulse is ragged, thin, barely holding onto wherever his fantasy takes him, as all routes that appear feel like resolutions – but to what? Michael of course.
How often did we have to hear about the greatness of this author, his 25,000 dollar advance, something blown-up over weeks of Canadian super-stardom. He had his severe afflictions (wife, kids, having to deal with shelter all that stuff) as he bravely moved forward to inherit the easy earth – everything his parents set up for him.
But when it comes to Rebeccah, who is —apparently — REALLY having a large fan base for the tween popular culture market — rather than ever once hearing how cool it is she, with all her supposed bad background at least managed anything, we only hear the problems she has with her family not really being a good example of MARRIAGE! Some people should just not reproduce, right? Whiel I agree that kids being shoved by stageparents is a bad risk factor, but on the other side… are the Pattersons an answer? And all that stuff about her education on the road is just a dodge – she would’ve been roadside trouble in high school as well. She’s not just Goofus to April’s Gallant.
But what is Michael thinking about with Becky, except April. It’s all down to April, the last one, the court jester who still shows up in this fantasy to stand on her own as a counter-balance to Liz’s increasingly deadening role. But April thinks alot about Becky. She needs Becky. Hell, they even “share the same drummer” now… She never seemed THAT pissed off with the Beckster. Sure, she gets miffed, but what degree, and isn’t it more by what April herself doesn’t yet understand, which is her role in fact.
In comics, to generalize here, it’s the female characters who most likely escape the plots of the predominantly male authors, slipping out to connect with the readers, and exploring second-layers to the stories, despite their authors intentions. And in the case of Michael/Lynn, the same can be applied.
April is a shapeshifter, with some knowledge that challenges Michael’s perfectly planned final countdown. She knows that Becky isn’t a threat, but just the other half of a supercharged girls equation: “4evah”. It’s “4evah” vs Michael’s “timelessness”. Which scares the hell out of all the males in Foobdom. Papa John just learned he couldn’t rely on any of his buddies, nor Michael to come by to watch his trains going nowhere in circles.
April really isn’t concious enough of what playing on stage could MEAN really. She is just a typical guitarist who also sings. She’s representing Grandpa, family, we-are-the-world. We know, she’s a future veterinarian who plays guitar, sort of a young Andy Griffith, if he were a vet instead of a sheriff.
But Becky IS concious of the whole thang, she WANTS something, BAD. She is the real pedal-to-the- metal that Becky could only imitate being in her coming-of-age song. What Patterson understands a world based on desires?
Becky felt the sex, the drives, the manufacture of something she wants. Bad. But the stage can appear as some blind first grasp for another family, or community, a momentary alternative from dystopia, to feel something wonderful while you can get it. She knows what it means to get out there.
Michael, the misogynist, in his fantasy here, tries to set up Becky as CAUTIONARY TALE. Girls can’t have fun! Can’t bitch! Can’t get dressed up like some 80s Wonder Woman channeled through Olivia Newton-John! Although that would be more real: a girl to go through that phase, to get the weird chemistry out of all kinds of things you don’t yet understand. Later, if she is intelligent enough, she can figure out the whole game plan and get real pop culture liftoff, et al.
But in this fantasy, it all boils down to one essential fact: do they have a bad FAMILY life?! Will she produce progeny! After all reproduction is the point of woman, right? Not getting all “uppity” on stage, wonder- womaning it in front of fans and the jocks who tried to take them down.
The scary aspect of FBOFW fantasy, is that one can’t really imagine there was ever any realistic family there – certainly not Michael and Dee, and certainly not as potentially normal alternative to the Becksters “bad” parents, whose daughter at least goes after her desires, has hunger and passion.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:52 pm
The tall guy in Frazz looks like Captain Kangaroo.
Cathy’s maiden name: Ack!royd. Stop throwing the veal!!!
July 31st, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Wed A3G:
Dismayed by Eric’s big “But”, Margo’s lips progressively grow nearly as black as her heart.
July 31st, 2007 at 11:55 pm
# 138 — BWAHA! Well put, Trotz. Except now I wonder if that’s what really happened. And incidently, I say your CATHY/turd image deserves float consideration.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:01 am
MW + FW = Get Out!
August 1st, 2007 at 12:10 am
144. Man, Ms.[?] Gineering, I never know how much I [margo]ing miss you until you produce another mindblasting post. Will you write all my articles for me? Just do what you do with FBoFW, but with Japan instead. How hard can that be?
Seriously: “all routes that appear feel like resolutions” — so elegant, so true.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:12 am
#41 – No, that’s Uncle Phil, Uncle Sam, and Uncle Harry. I think that’s why Cathy looks horrified: the idea of a bald Irving bobbing up and down on top of her while he’s ramming it home is just too much for her to bear.
MW – In profile, Mary looks an awful lot like Bob Dole.
FOOB – I haven’t been reading FOOB daily, so what’s up with John’s stubble? Is he being run ragged trying to help Mike and Deanna move, or is the idea of Liz and Granthony made him a blubbering cesspool of filth who has lost all interest in bathing and shaving?
August 1st, 2007 at 12:23 am
Cathy ANDREWS, according to Wikipedia…
(I read Wikipedia so you don’t have to)
August 1st, 2007 at 12:31 am
#95 Trotzenbonnie:
All I know is that one can’t go wrong holding up a lighter shouting, “Hooooo!” Academicians love that!
August 1st, 2007 at 12:37 am
Wednesday comic snarkage:
BB – Get it? George Washington didn’t like to look at women without perfectly-shaped bodies!
FC: “But Dolly, sweetheart, we already have six of your friends tied up on the roof!”
FW – “Well, okay, I’m also pretty sure of the fact that when I meet my birth mother, we will celebrate what should be an auspicious, moving reunion of mother and child by making bad puns and smirking at each other. That, too.”
MT- They’re in the wilderness, right? So why is there a public trash can in panel 3?
August 1st, 2007 at 12:37 am
Irving’s bald relatives look sort of like grown-up Charlie Browns. Cathy Guisewite, we all read Peanuts. The kids in Peanuts were friends of ours. Guisewite, your strip is no Peanuts.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:39 am
Oh, and I also want to say thanks for a warm welcome to this site a few posts back. I really appreciate it. :-)
August 1st, 2007 at 12:42 am
#152 – Spotted Horse
Let’s see if I got this right. I need to sit way in the back, heckle my kid, dress like a two-bit tart, tell Uranus jokes and flick my Bic while I shout ‘Hoo!’ This is going to be more fun than I thought!
Thanks, guys. You’re all the best.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:48 am
GA: Not only is Slim crazy and stupid, now he’s broke. If he’s so worried about coming into contact with black people, why doesn’t he just fuck off to a suburb like all the other fear-filled ofays? It’d be cheaper than this mind fuck!
FOOB: ‘The girl who I constantly defame to protect my ego from being bruised was nice to me, Daddy. Don’t care why, though.’
August 1st, 2007 at 12:48 am
# 156 — And don’t forget to flirt outrageously with every professor in the room, Trotzenbonnie, and feel free to throw in a few outright propositions. That’s de rigueur.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:50 am
8/1/007:
Something’s gone terribly wrong with the universe! I like S-M and hate GF today. Bizarro World! Bizarro World! (fwiw, I discovered the concept from 1981 SNL, not Superman)
GT: 2nd panel: Whoa! That’s messed up, coach! And why is a young Jerry Brown there?
BBailey: Any woman needy enough to lust after long-dead Founding Fathers should consider Ben Franklin instead. He was more… Bill Clintonesque.
FC rerun: Of course there’s plenty of room: the girl is teeny-tiny, and the car is so unreally lengthy that it has a Tex Avery “Long darn thing, isn’t it?” sign on the back.
Lockhorns: He did.
H&L: Lois, you really shouldn’t have let Trixie see the Interior Demolitionists sketch from the season one SNL DVD (1st Elliott Gould show).
August 1st, 2007 at 12:50 am
105 Andrea D & the Grandstanding Oddballs — Surely you meant After School Special of Happiness and Awesome Telethons (ASSHAT)?
August 1st, 2007 at 12:55 am
Poteet –
How’s this for a pick-up line…’Once this crap is finally over maybe that kid will start making my grandbabies. Ah, to hell with him. Hey, Professor Chinbeard, why don’t you give me a hand so’s I can just make my own.’
August 1st, 2007 at 12:58 am
Trotz, we are here to help! Heh!
Actually, with all the sheepskin gracing these hallowed Curminionly halls, I know you’ll get adequate advice.
Just guessing that you’d dress professionally, but with a little more fun than you might present for a job interview. Uhh… sorta between wedding and job interview?
Oh, hell, I just hit refresh and here you are picking up on Professor Chinbeard! Looks like you have the situation well in control. Got gettum, Tiger!
August 1st, 2007 at 12:59 am
Oops. Go gettum, Trotz!
August 1st, 2007 at 1:07 am
Trotzenbonnie –
The key to decorum at Ph.D. orals is not to pierce the veil — Dan’s thesis committee can not keep him from getting his degree, but it’s crucial to keep them believing you don’t know that. So if you look anxious at first, confident later, and grateful at the last, you will have done your part to prop up a few of the most fragile egos in the Western hemisphere. And that’s a good day’s work.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:12 am
Also, Trotz, you’re going to want to watch out for this.
Josh
August 1st, 2007 at 1:15 am
Crankshaft: Dude, she’s onto you! But stay cool: you know it’ll be either her birthday or Andy Griffith’s + “69,” just like always.
Doonesbury: This made me laugh out loud. Why can’t Crankshaft’s oldsters be even a tenth as appealing and funny as Trudeau’s?
GT: Doesn’t he have problems with footwork because he only has one leg? I’m suddenly fantasizing about how much better the Shannon storyline would have been if the Gil Thorp writers had taken over: Well, her timing is a little off, but that look in her eye tells me we’ll make an auctioneer out of her yet!
JP: …And maybe Trudi was so distracted by the twin-barrelled thickets of armhair you’re sporting that she had trouble remembering her own name, Sam.
MT: Mark’s idea of an ambush appears to be crouching in the same position under a tree for hours watching Sam wander aimlessly back into rifle-range from twenty feet away. Maybe he’s waiting for Buzzard to just hurry up and shoot Sam, let loose the birds, and drive away so he can do some grilling undisturbed using that sweet-looking barbeque in the third panel.
MW: Whoa, Dawn’s eyebags in the second panel are rivalling Mary’s. And Mother Theresa’s, for that matter. In fact, I think I see an orphan peeking out of one of them. Oh wait. It’s just another damn kitten.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:17 am
#149 – Secret Margo – blushing thanks, especially knowing your posts when they go into things.
It ran a ‘few’ paragraphs too long, sigh, just miss the pleasure of posting here lately. My current schedule keeps me from reading and posting much right now, and then I get the urge to contribute a bit. After all… its getting closer to the fall.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:23 am
MT: The WHO is actually properly pronounced! This is Mark Trail, right? Btw, daily colorists? You weren’t imagining those trees, they really were drawn there. (Idiots!)
MW: Dawn, you just blew it. Game over!
RMMD: Hey, June, no wonder Hugh can’t hear anyone, you’re covering his furshlugginer EAR! (Okay, I was actually kinda moved by this one… then the snark kicked in. Really, I was like “Awww”, and everything.)
August 1st, 2007 at 1:33 am
#162 – SH
Hmmm. A taffeta suit with a huge bow on the butt?
I am really looking forward to this. None of my immigrant grandparents had more than a third grade education and my parents both dropped out of high school to get married. I was on the PhD track at GMU (English/Lit – my thesis topic, ‘Hemingway, the Feminist’ was going to be my ticket to literary stardom) but the cancer thing snagged too many brain cells and I had to quit. Wah. So my kid graduating from Johns Hopkins is a very big deal that I will do my best to treat with honor and respect.
Maybe.
#164 Uncle Lumpy –
Holy crap! That’s why my kid has pissed off all of his bosses. He’s too damned confident! Seriously, thank you for those wonderful words.
#165 Josh –
That’s hilarious! I’m going to forward that to the boy. I tried to convince him to dress up as Darth Vader and use a light saber as a pointer but he wouldn’t do it. Then I thought we should dress up as Rocky Balboa and Micky the trainer. He nixed that idea too. Kids these days are just no fun…
August 1st, 2007 at 1:35 am
The Hillmans were created to serve humans…
They Rebelled….
They Evolved…
There are Many Copies…
… and They Have A Plan.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:40 am
Trotzenbonnie, congratulations to your son!
At my PhD defence, I closed with a joke.
http://www.yorku.ca/idmercer/defence.pdf
August 1st, 2007 at 1:45 am
I don’t know who did this, but it’s brilliant. Enjoy.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:47 am
=v= Foob: The strip above has Becky taking Grade 11 courses, but on the Foobsite it’s Grade 10. (A tip o’ the Hatlo hat to April Patterson for pointing this out!)
August 1st, 2007 at 2:01 am
FOOB: On the FoobSite, I happened to notice that Anthony is pictured next to Liz on the cover of the 2008 FBoFW calendar (NO I WASN’T BUYING IT, sheesh). I think that means we’re doomed. But then, you probably knew that.
Why do I always daydream about FOOB villains finding redemption in their very own spinoff comic strips? In this case, it would be Roadside, which would chronicle the triumphs and misadventures of Becky as she tours Canada with her band. Kind of like Almost Famous, but about modern pop instead of 1970’s rock. Or, there could be a strip called Tabarnak!, in which practical career-minded Therese and her romantic but sometimes exasperating lover could move to Montreal and have wacky French-Canadian adventures.
Hmm, what kind of comic strip could Hoo!Guy have?
August 1st, 2007 at 2:03 am
SQB – Thanks for the kind words. And thanks for the link. The first 100 have cracked me up. Maybe we need to issue the same challenge to the ‘real’ comic strip artists.
Nite all!
August 1st, 2007 at 2:26 am
=173= Foob (Me): Aw nuts, unpersistent URL for the foobsite strip. Go here instead.
August 1st, 2007 at 2:29 am
#128 Joe Btfsplk: Between Friends look sort of like the early FBoFW to me. Hopefully it won’t self-destruct.
#132 Steve Roper – I hate family reunions, ESPECIALLY spouse-driven ones. “who the hell are you, and why should I care?” I kept these thoughts to myself, as we were in the Panhandle of Florida in the midst of Good Ol’ Boys and Ninja-like Menacing Southern Women with Frightening Smiles if you got out of line.
They asked ME to construct a family tree, and every damn year they had a reunion. Every Year! I hastily scribbled down the names called out to me to put on the family tree, and was expected to remember everyone from the year before and all their extended family, and I could not care less if I tried. Maybe if i’d had a chance to actually converse with these people, I would have enjoyed it but instead they stuck me with the same duty every year, because I could print neatly on great big sheets of posterboard I guess.
Tell me, WHY a reunion every [margo]ing year?!? Are you expecting a sudden die-off? It gave me the creeps, I tell ya.
Thankfully, I escaped about a dozen years ago and never looked back.
#174 ChristyNell – Heh heh heh, Fable chuckled wickedly. A Hoo-Boo Strip, eh?…..
August 1st, 2007 at 2:29 am
64 – katherine
re: the commercial implications of animal names
A restaurant person once told me: Mahi mahi is really dolphin, but if you say dolphin, people think they’re eating Flipper.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:28 am
Mahi mahi is actually a fish called dauphin (dolphins are mammals, not fish), but it does freak people out, even after you explain that you’re not serving them Flipper.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:32 am
OK, I misspelled it. It is dolphin, but not the mammal:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_fish
Still, not eating Flipper.
August 1st, 2007 at 4:17 am
FC: Jeffy Keane has drawn in seatbelts to “update” the late ’60s rerun strips, no doubt in response to bribes from the government’s Safety Czar. He and Billy are gonna die in a wreck, though, since he lacks the skills to retrofit child seats. Dolly appears to be on her own, safety-wise, but look where she’s sitting. He has his reasons. Deep-seated, traumatic reasons.
August 1st, 2007 at 8:05 am
to #49 Uncle Lumpy, Trotzenbonnie, and others.
First of all, I don’t think the weird design on Dawn’s shirt has anything to do with the website linked to by Uncle Lumpy. Just my opinion, though. I think it’s coincidence that there seems to be a similarity.
Second, regarding the website and the phenomenon. I have no idea if I’m right, but I have an idea that some clever person realized that when we fall in love with something, we want to eat it. And I mean that in a cute way, not in a bad way or a lewd way. As in “You look good enough to eat.”
How many people name adorable pets after favorite foods? “Muffin” is an example. In my family, Daughter #2 named her first Djungarian Pearl hamster “Sugar Cookie” (we called her “Cookie” for short), and her second one “Daifuku,” after a popular, round Japanese rice confection.
I’ve seen those cute-cat cartoon food characters on stationery and memo-pads here. In fact, I bought a very tiny calendar with those characters on it to put in my daughter’s Christmas stocking last year. Yeah, I guess it’s a weird idea when you analyze it. But so is Sponge Bob Square Pants, and a lot of cartoony things that come out of the U.S. (And I don’t think he’s as cute as the cats!)
August 1st, 2007 at 8:12 am
#65 Allie Cat. Nope, you’re not the only one. Liz and Anthony are some of the best snark-material in the comics.
And I’ve often connected the snarking-on-comics phenomenon in my mind with one of my Dad’s favorite quotes from G and S (that’s Gilbert and Sullivan, for anyone who doesn’t know), which goes:
“Oh don’t the days seem lank and long when all goes right and nothing goes wrong, and isn’t your life extremely flat with nothing whatever to grumble at!”
August 1st, 2007 at 8:15 am
#68 Trotzenbonnie. Believe it or not, I made my post #182 BEFORE I read your #68. See what I mean? Thank you for proving my point so adroitly!
August 1st, 2007 at 8:25 am
#70 bubujun. Thank you, it did! (The see-off went well, I mean.
Except that we’re still waiting for the see-off-ee’s arrivals in the US to confirm that they had a safe trip. (Now I know THAT word will never pass muster!)
After I posted this morning, and when we were on our way to the airport, it occurred to me that maybe the word should have been “send-off”? But then I remembered that I have heard the word send-off in connection with funerals—not a meaning I want!
I am further confused by remembering that there is a word for this idea in Spanish, which is “despedida,” from the verb “despedir” which means “to say goodbye (to)” Why is there no good word in English, I wonder? I mean, if “see-off” is the correct word, I’ve never heard it!
August 1st, 2007 at 8:28 am
How embarrasing. I just realized that I am the only person still posting on this thread (I think, anyway.) Have you all moved over to the BE AFRAID thread? (Makes mental note to thread-jump and notify everyone to check this one again.)
August 1st, 2007 at 8:39 am
Josh, I hate to begrudge you any income, but can you find a different ad than the GIANT FLASHING TITS at the side of the screen? People at work are starting to notice.
August 1st, 2007 at 8:59 am
38 – I guess that it’s easier to slap new captions and dialog on ‘Hee Hoo” or “Wiley’s Dictionary” strips than it is on Clumsy making waterballs or “Clams got legs!” strips.
August 1st, 2007 at 9:10 am
FC: I think Jeff Keane is still under the power of his dad, otherwise the panel would have said “Daddy’s looking for another bi*ch to slap him in the next few days–wanna do the job?”
August 1st, 2007 at 9:24 am
Giella and Moy show us the two kittens in the cauldron, but what they don’t show us is the back of Dawn’s shirt, which says HOT WET PUSSY.
August 1st, 2007 at 9:35 am
190 — sounds like the typical English on the shirts sold in Asian night markets.
August 1st, 2007 at 9:38 am
“Hopefully these abominations of nature are being lined up against the wall so they can be shot and this horrible perversion of science ended once and for all.”
Abominations of nature?? At least THEY have noses! Take a good look at Cathy’s face and tell me who’s the abomination!!
August 1st, 2007 at 9:45 am
Trotzenbonnie: Not to put the freak on, but there are certain rare circumstances where your son could walk out of his defense without his PhD. His advisor would not have scheduled his defense unless he was sure he was ready, but the other, equally *critical* parts are to ensure that the paperwork is complete and correct beforehand, and that everyone who needs to be there is actually in the room for the defense. A friend of mine went into labor during the defense of one of her grad students, and she had to stay all the way to the end, despite the fact that her water broke, because the university doesn’t allow “do-overs”. Naturally, they hurried it up so she could go to the hospital, but if she had left before the end, her student would have been in a bad position. And my cousin spent months in a bureaucratic snarl because his advisor accidentally put the wrong person in one of the “attendee” slots (most places require a certain minimum number of profs from within the department and a certain minimum number from outside the department to attend, and it’s usually up to the advisor to round everybody up) – the advisor wrote “J. Surname,” who was in another department and didn’t attend, when it should have been “M. Surname,” who fortunately did.
So best wishes to your son, and enjoy!
August 1st, 2007 at 9:52 am
Joe Btfsplk @128 – “Bloom County” used to look like a serious attempt to draw like Garry Trudeau, and resembled it in tone as well (this according to a Comics Journal interview with Breathed). Back in the 80s or some time like that, a strip called “Heartland” came out that looked like a particularly nauseous and neurotic imitation of Breathed. The characters were blatant ripoffs. Breathed, in the interview, said he wrote the creator and said something like, “Yeah, I used to imitate other artists too. Good luck with your career.” He said the other guy wrote back something along the lines of, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
(Going one step farther back, it always seemed to me like Doonesbury was like a spiritual cross between “Peanuts” and the work of Jules Feiffer.)
Mike Billips @181 – They can’t update the strips any more because Bud Warner’s not around to do the drawing. I remember one day noticing that the drawing style had gotten a little slipshod in FC. Shortly after, Jeffy started getting a byline.
Ellie M @192 – Maybe while they’re all lined up like that, somebody could give them rifles to blow Cathy away. [sigh] If only.
[Oh, and thanx, Poteet!]
August 1st, 2007 at 10:35 am
CATHY: You know, that strip was actually funny in days gone by! “I have 80 projects overdue at work, and I’m 80 dollars overdrawn at the bank. It’s been 80 hours since I did the dishes, 80 days since I had a satisfying date, and 80 weeks since I had a truly meaningful conversation with my mother. So you know what I’m going to do? I am going to sit on my 80-year-old carpet and eat 80 M&Ms!… I’m an ’80s woman.”
August 1st, 2007 at 10:50 am
The Hillmans all look alike because somewhere there is a gigantic, bloated Queen Hillman, spewing them out like so many termites. The Queen Hillman lives in a cavern deep within a hill. Hill-man… get it?
August 1st, 2007 at 11:28 am
As someone who is friends with a couple of famous musicians:
FAMOUS PEOPLE ARE NOT UNHAPPY OR LONELY. This is another one of those stupid “Noble Everyman” tropes that things like FBOFW like to espouse. But it’s just not true.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:21 pm
#38, and anyone else who just can’t bring themselves to believe that B.C. had ever been funny… if you’d like proof, keep an eye out for any old B.C. paperback collections from the 60s and 70s… see the work of a pre-senile Hart for yourself!
August 1st, 2007 at 12:31 pm
102 — it’s the first time I ever read MF, and I already hate it.
120– that sounds dirty.
150 — now she just needs to start referring to herself in the 3rd person. I actually voted for Dole, in the very first election I was allowed to vote in, for that very reason. Which led directly to my mother getting her US citizenship, to cancel out my vote, so all’s well that ends well.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:49 pm
I didn’t read through 199 comments to see if this has been mentioned before, but… I would totally buy Dawn’s shirt as Curmudgeon merch.
August 1st, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I’ve just spent the last five minutes wondering what ’stripey ass penetration’ meant, and then decided to re-read it.
August 1st, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Haven’t Irving and Cathy been together for like 15-20 years? How long can you go without meeting people’s aunts and uncles, especially ones this, ah, close?
August 1st, 2007 at 4:02 pm
George Lucas draws FC The seatbelt additions in ’60s rerun FC were really bizarre today. Jeffy and Billy are sitting in the back with one of the dogs, back with the luggage, like kids used to frequently do in the days when seatbelt usage was considered eccentric (and shoulder belts existed only in Volkswagens). They’ve drawn in three implausible shoulder belt lines back there, and the dog in the back seat is belted in as well.
Sheesh.
Actually, I guess those are ’70s FC, since they’ve got the second dog, but those seatbelts are not original. And Han Solo fired first.
August 1st, 2007 at 6:22 pm
196–If Cathy were truly resentful, she’d call Terminix or Orkin and get away of the colony that produced her husband. By the way, are there any webpages which look at this mess from Irving’s point of view? The forthcoming divorce could be interesting, especially if it takes place during Cathy’s pregnancy (which Andrea, the termites and everyone else in creating this train-wreck want).
Here’s my solution on how to make things interesting–have a long-lost cousin or son from Irving’s side (on the lines of Cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch), join Cathy and Irving.
August 1st, 2007 at 6:45 pm
fishmorgjp @198 – I agree, but I’d narrow my scope to pre-1970. The ones after that still seemed funny to me at the time, but looking at them now, they don’t wear as well as the brilliantly inspired early years of the strip.
Me big snob.
August 1st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
“Must … not … make … joke … about … a person … being … inside … Becky …”
No, no, look at the first panel. It’s Eva who’s being roadside in this particular strip.
August 1st, 2007 at 9:37 pm
oh please, oh please, OH PLEASE I want a kitty head stew pot shirt!!!!!!
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:14 pm
This must be addressed…one of the most disturbing comics panels ever:
http://i13.tinypic.com/4p9fybk.gif
February 1st, 2008 at 11:16 am
Thanks for sharing
February 9th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links:
March 12th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
that is too funny. loved the simpson comment.