Love is . . .
Funky Winkerbean, 6/23/2008
. . . putting her feelings before your own.
Apartment 3-G, 6/23/2008
Spider-Man, 6/23/2008
. . . checking both ends, just to be sure. “Say, ‘Ahhh’, Tiger!”
– Uncle Lumpy
"Why is the bear so pissed off? Probably the same reason the owl is the judge. Bears are angry murderers, owls are wise hooters. And in Slylock's forest, chicks are either old or hot, and green evil-looking people are always evil. Honestly, it's the easy-to-follow stereotyping in Slylock that I enjoy the most, and I really hope kids can take that from the comic and apply it in their day-to-day lives." --MolyBendum
You too can advertise on blogs
Funky Winkerbean, 6/23/2008
. . . putting her feelings before your own.
Apartment 3-G, 6/23/2008
Spider-Man, 6/23/2008
. . . checking both ends, just to be sure. “Say, ‘Ahhh’, Tiger!”
– Uncle Lumpy
Click here to jump to comments
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 am
Not even a mention of the frightening specificity of today’s “Herb and Jamaal?”
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:18 am
Hmm… I think Peter Parker is about to get an ice water enema from
Mary JaneNurse Diesel.June 23rd, 2008 at 1:20 am
OMG, Kate Beaton made me laugh like a crack whore.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:28 am
Umm….I got nothing. It’s pretty hard to snark about love. Who doesn’t like love?
You still need to post John P. going “AAAAH! OOOOH!” from Sunday. I don’t care if it’s late, make an excuse–I want it on the site.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:32 am
It must be the gay gene in me but I don’t know which gets me more riled: in panel 1 today, Mary is sitting on the couch with her feet on the cushions while wearing flip-flops; in panel 2, it looks like her right thigh has unlodged itself and is attempting to make a break for the door.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:33 am
FW Obviously Jinx hasn’t caught the spirit of “referring to family members in the third person Monday” It’s twice as fun as opposite day, and it allows parents to demonstrate they at least know their kids names!
S-M “Hmmm. They’re hanging a bit low. Maybe an ice pack…”
A3G I get the feeling Margo was originally going to say “Are you stupid?” before remembering she knows the answer to that one.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:42 am
The size and shape of Funky’s head in panel one frightens me.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 am
GT: Is… is that Kaz? Hubba hubba aroo! The last time I remember seeing Kaz he was the wimpy sweatervest dude (here if my link works) so this is a step in the right direction. He still isn’t wearing the earrings, and I may never forgive him for that.
Oh, who am I kidding. With those muscles, I’ll forgive him anything.
FW: I don’t know who that is in panel one, but his head is deformed, his arms are too small, he appears to be suffering from some kind of rare disorder, and he’s got the seat too close to the steering wheel. Another pleasant day in the Funkiverse, I see.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:56 am
Good God … look at Peter’s face in that last panel. That’s the definition of “smarmy.”
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:00 am
The guy in the car is Bull Bushka. Judging from the character page, this Funky cycle will be all about fathers and children:
Rageaholic Funky and sullen Cory
Jock Bush and geek Jinx
Wimp Les and jock Summer
Hilarity ensues.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:06 am
Hm. I mean parents and children. Add:
Becky and Rana
Crazy and Maddie
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:17 am
MW – Gaah!! – The GIANT Mustard Couch is back.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:18 am
So, uh … anyone wanna place bets on when Funky Winkerbean outright turns into Star Wars? Funky’s already beginning to resemble Jabba the Hutt.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:18 am
Oh, right. Bull, not Funky. Funky’s going more for the Palpatine look.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:32 am
I love how “checking both ends” was followed by “say AHH!”, implying that the bottom end was tested before the top end. Hot.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:38 am
Mundane:
FW: Love is….. wanting to be as creepy as your friend/collegue/former torture victim with a daughter.
Archie: Love is…. being a caring intellectual snob.
BBailey: Beetle is…. the hobo underneath the railroad car.
Curtis: History is…….. ye olde “PLOPP!” take.
FT: Love, compromise, loyalty and commitment is……. less common in the human race than we’d like to admit.
FOOB: Love is……… oh, forget it — we’ll just rerun old material first…
GF: Get Fuzzy is…….. getting as bad as Cranky/FW/FOOB/every other strip in modern days with the contrived puns.
GT: Love is……. a drawer full of Visas. (Actually, it would’ve been the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill, but anyway…)
HotC: Scary is….. Heart in those goggles!! Really, they look like a Tex Avery eye take gone horribly wrong! (Still better than that FOOB Sunday, though!)
JP: Wisdom is………. deferring to the guy who’s name is on the strip’s marqui. Even if the man does look like Dracula there.
Luann: TJ is……… screwed (if there’s any justice).
MF: Tunnelvision is…….. realizing that Obama will have Jimmy qualities if/when in office (in over his halo), but failing to see that he’s currently the liberal version of Reagan running for office (riding high on a failed, incompetent current presidency, using personal charisma to push empty, feel-good phrases to gain the presidency, all while being connected to an extremist religious demagogue).
MT: A giant squirrel watching over them is….. an omen!!
MW: Love isn’t…….. appeasement when you’re not really wrong (petulant, sure, but not wrong). Aw, hell, Love isn’t anything Mary and Jeff related!
Mutts: Puns are…… oh, dear God, not you too?!
OBH: Archie Bunker is…….. a kid in today’s OBH! (Aw, jeez!)
Plugger is….. kinda cocky today.
Popeye: Sea Hag is……… channeling the ’70s better than Mallard.
Popeye’s name is………… Popeye Zabolywunayesaylrski. (What’re the chances??)
Vertigo is………. 9CL.
RMMD: Security is….. a warm blanket… and no Dr. Morgan.
SFx: Short, grumpy frog is…. a blatant decoy.
Ziggy: Johnny Cash is…………. toast. (Mibbit is……. sorry ’bout that one)
ZtP: Griffy is…… giving world-building a bad name.
“Hand skills” is……….. creepy-sounding somehow!
Mibbit: Rip-off is………. taking UL’s posting premise today and running it into the ground.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:42 am
FC— That’s right, Dolly. All you have to do is put those slimy, bloody, lumps of flesh under your pillow before you go to bed. You get paid even more if you include your adenoids. And wait ’till you have a hysterectomy—you’ll get really big bucks. Pleasant dreams!
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:01 am
#17: Well, I guess we know what that Mad cover kid didn’t do with that missing tooth of his…
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:38 am
S-M: That’s the fastest growing five-o’-clock shadow I’ve ever seen.
http://awaitingtenure.wordpress.com/
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:42 am
Like, really. Judging by that five-o’-clock shadow, I’m pretty sure that for all that we make fun of Parker’s effeminate flaccidity, his slack-jawed naivety must be some kind of elaborate ruse for a testosterone-fueled man of muscle.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:55 am
This is getting serious. Funky’s case of Winkerbean Wry Eye appears to be stuck. It forces him to appear to issue a sleepy “oh really” at the conclusion of every human interaction, even when it’s entirely inappropriate.
There’s no doubt, of course, that it’s terminal.
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:14 am
#18 Mibbitmaker— Actually, the gap is due to the fact that I have permanent baby teeth. My adult teeth never came in, so I never got a visit from the tooth fairy. Obviously, I’m still pissed about it, and I continue to have body-parts fairy issues.
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:19 am
A3G: Margo doesn’t yet realize that she’s given Alan a loan too… she just hasn’t checked the petty cash for a few weeks in A3Gland-time.
MW: Love is… never having to say sorry. Dr. Jeff has now said sorry, so this must not have been meant to be. The saddest thing is that he’s calling back with his little tail between his legs. Once poor Jeff got back out into the dating pool, he found that many modern women eventually expect sex on the third date instead of just another invite to the early-bird special at the Bum Boat. They’re just not like Mary, and he kinda misses that.
Gasoline Alley: Yes, tax men are well known for driving large “fancy” cars. Because the money you give the IRS goes mostly to paying for tax-collectors’ luxury auto collections.
MT: Cherry notices that the weather looks “threatening”. Mostly because that gap in the white cumulus clouds looks exactly like the one between Rusty’s front teeth. Rusty’s father, William Murderface, enjoys current success as a member of the Dethklok metal band.
Mallard Fillmore: It’s odd that he would put Obama up as “Jimmy Carter, the Sequel” given that it would appear to be Bush’s approval ratings that appear in the toilet and on Bush’s watch that gas prices are sky-high. But, hey, if he wants to make predictions, I’ve got one for him: I bet Tinsley gets a third DUI sometime within the next five years.
Sex Organ, M.D.: Rex is a health inspector … or a doctor? In response to Max Mallory’s declaration that he essentially can have “health inspectors” thrown out of hospitals anytime he wants, I am wondering whether Rex will sheepfacedly admit: “Uh, well, I’m not sure if you can toss me out because, technically speaking, I am also a doctor here…”
Jugs Parker: After all the buildup yesterday regarding this very rare appearance by the JUDGE HIMSELF, I am a bit disappointed that they’re spending today to finish off a phone conversation. It’s still not entirely clear whether Judge Parker is wearing anything under his robes
Sally Forth: Ted’s tiny little hands are ideal for fine detail painting work, and I think his efforts are a bit wasted on things like chairs. He could really do something with tiny tin soldiers’ eye colors, facial shading and epaullettes.
GT: WTF?!? How is it that Elmer is having to be briefed on Branden’s family in Mexico? Just saying here that Elmer likely has a lot of relatives in Mexico, given that he’s, like, Mexican. Meanwhile, I’m puzzling out how it is that He-Man was able to get time off from Castle Grayskull and am wondering where the hell Coach Kaz and his pearl earrings have gone.
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:57 am
So Pluggers consume a diet of greasy fast food (only from big chain outlets), salty snacks, unidentifiable leftovers and delicious home-made baked goods?
Seems to be a little inconsistency there.
You’d think that modern-life-averse Pluggers would avoid those newfangled fast food chains in favor of the kind of place where Dagwood Bumstead eats.
But since they don’t, you’d expect them to eat disgusting factory-made desserts full of unpronouncable chemicals.
Thawing a pie on the windowsill is fairly Plugger-like though. If Pluggers could read the directions, they’d realize the frozen pie is supposed to be microwaved.
No wait, Plugger microwave=woodstove. Maybe they would thaw them on the windowsill. Beats chopping more wood.
But bravely resisting the trend, this stalwart chicken is hand-crafting a pie from flour and salt…?
I believe the salt. I think Plugger kitchens always have a container labelled “flour”, even though it really contains … well probably it would be chicken feed in this kitchen. But for typical Pluggers it’s probably stale caramel corn or deep-fried cheese balls.
The pie is probably made from frozen premade crust and canned apple pie filling, with a little extra sugar and cornstarch for that special texture.
Maybe I should send this one in–”Plugger green salads are made from lime Jello”.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:05 am
Thanks to the person who posted the picture of Chester Gould a couple of threads ago. Not because I particularly wanted to see a picture of Chester Gould.
But Joan Blondell wearing silk underwear and black boots—that’s worth clicking on!
Oh, and thanks to the people who found Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant at the Times-Union. I’ve missed PV since the local paper dropped it. Even though I know it’s not what it was. My father has a big collection of FG from the thirties. I don’t think he reads it much now, though. I bet he wouldn’t even miss it…
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:16 am
OK, Ziggy is starting to seriously upset me now. First his toilet was talking to him, then a seashell, and now his toaster is singing Johnny Cash at him – all for no discernible reason whatsoever. There’s no pun in there, no punchline, no development of any kind of humorous idea – why is this happening? Is Ziggy going mad, or am I?
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:18 am
Eek, sorry for the all-bold, I screwed up my formatting. I should remember that the Preview button is my friend…
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:50 am
A3G: Well, isn’t that why you should leave more money lying around the office, Margo?
Judge Parker: If it’s so early in the morning, like they said yesterday, why is Judge Parker already in his black robe? Or does he sleep in that thing?
Slylock: A feather? I don’t see any feather. I still suspect the eagle, but for two reasons: first, bald eagles have a strong sense of entitlement, due to all those years on the endangered species list; second, if it were the toad, the late Kenneth Graeme’s lawyers would be all over it.
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:58 am
MT – The four of them are about to “make camp.” Oh, yeah! Awright! Giggity-giggity!
SFx – I had to use the zoom feature at the Times Union to be able to find that feather. Up until then, I was about to cry “Fowl!” Oh, ho, ho! I kill me!
Retail – Marla does some finger-quotin’ today. Just an observation.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 am
Candorville: It’s stifle yourself, not shut up. Who knew All in the Family would cause a lookup in the dictionary?
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:48 am
#91 Bats, Tommie thread –
…And God knows what else.
*shudders*
Next thing you know,
RodJohn will want a ceiling mirror too.June 23rd, 2008 at 7:56 am
I’m wondering if Mary’s couch doesn’t vibrate as well. With or without Jeff on it alongside Mary.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 am
#8 Sheila — Kaz’ earrings should be reappearing any time now. One of the regulars at “This Week In Milford” (daily GT snarkblog) wrote to GT writer Neal Rubin asking what happened to the earrings. Rubin actually responded, saying he’d asked the new artist to restore the little pearlies to their rightful place.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:02 am
FC – No, Dolly, but a horse’s head might work for you, since you’re so special.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 am
Thorp: A basketball rim is 10 feet high, so Thorp’s hoops team should dominate next year, with that new guy in the He-Man costume who is apparently about 8 and a half feet tall. Good recruiting Gil!
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
A3G — For whatever the reason, for once i have to agree with Margo. And considering Saturday’s strip, it would have been nice to see gary in this picture chiming in with his opinion after soending the night with Tommie.
MW — Dr. Jeff, if you don’t hurry over there and give some loving to the comely Mary Worth, I will.
LuAnn — Not only will Brad have to move back home but his parents will probably provide a place for TJ even after burning down thier house.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 am
9DQ: There is one thing stiffer than a ballerina who’s recently lost an argument to your brand of unassailable logic: the member of the cartoonist drawing that ballerina.
(WT)DT: Oh, I understand now! All this time, Shirl’s just been pretending to talk into a normal cell phone, because the “voice scrambler phone” is implanted in her chin! Now that’s high-tech!
thorps.I swear I’ve seen that blonde guy in panel 3 before… Kaz? No, no, that’s not it… I got it! One of Dingo’s Tom of Finlandtwinkslinks.HotC: Yeah, that’s how I liked to enjoy my summers when I was a kid… relaxing in the pool with a couple of fried eggs taped to my face.
Oh That TJ: This is so not how TJ hoped to be “boned” tonight.
Marvin: Ha ha! She’s Chinese… so she’s jaded! Get it? Get it? Tomorrow, a Mexican kid puts on a poncho because he’s chili!
MC: I guess that means we’re not going to see a visit from famous director Brian DePuma.
SFx: A feather? A feather?! I call shenanigans. I don’t see any fwinking feather in that drawing. I see a newspaper, a hamburger box, a soda can and a banana peel that might have been intended to be a feather before the colorists got to it. I honestly thought the answer was going to have something to do with the position of the car seat, because of the height disparity of the two suspects. Come on, Weber, give us a mystery we have at least a remote chance of solving.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 am
Sorry, no time to double-check my comments for redundancy just now. I’m supposed to be joining my daughter’s kindergarten class at Farm Park. Thus…
I knew the uncomfortable specific nature of Herb & Jamaal would be commented on before I got here. I’m surprised nobody’s noticed Mary Worth trying out for the new White Rock girl, though.
SF – I say it’s the frog, because the bird would never fit in that car.
S-M – Pete’s so happy, he’s developing Gil Kane shading in the last panel.
Zippy – Hm, “clavicle” — is that what the kids are calling it now? (Good drawing.)
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 am
It’s Uncle Lumpy, so I suppose we can excuse him for missing H&J actually saying a movie title out loud.
But this is twice now I showed a comic to my wife and said “This will definitely be mentioned at Josh Reads” only to be disappointed. (The previous one was the infamous Dennis the Menace from 6/12/08.)
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:45 am
I have read the nightmarish, horrifying descriptions of Sunday FOOB’s John P. O-face strip… and if it is shown here, I will be r-r-r-r-real careful not to look directly at it.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 am
Luann – It still astounds me as to how T.J. is that inept. A kid could figure out how to put that type of flame out…I guess panic attacks run in his family.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:00 am
Sunday’s FOOB just goes to show you that John is more into Internet porn than satisfying his saintly wife.
Pig.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
SlyFox: Earring, feather, même combat!
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:22 am
SFx — I get the print version in my newspaper. The feather is easier to see there than online. It’s on the dashboard.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:27 am
Little does Luanne know that Margo and Alan are locked in a bitter turf war and that Margo has just upped the ante, cutting off Alan’s resources at the source, by striking at his loved ones. Soon we’ll see Luanne stuffed in Alan’s fridge, mark my words.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:32 am
And speaking od SFx, One of my favorite strips, Single and and Looking” (used to be titled “Out of the Gene Pool”), ended Sunday. In its next to last Sunday strip Slylock Fox is mentioned. http://www.comics.com/wash/singlelooking/archive/singlelooking-20080615.html
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:41 am
RIP: Single and Looking / Out of the Gene Pool
Not that I particularly cared for it that much, but I think we should all take a moment to remember a daily comic that had its swan song yesterday. Single and Looking (formerly Out of the Gene Pool) by Matt Janz folded up shop yesterday.
Now I think the comic had real problems from the start. Few of the characters were appealing, and many of the gags were not terribly funny. But it had its moments. And it was certainly no worse than some of the legacy comics that litter our comics pages.
In the end, it was nice to see at least some newspapers willing to give a new comic a try. And I think Janz really did give it the college try. Now, of course, it’ll be nice to see another comic get a chance in SAL’s old spot. I only wish the papers would be willing to pull the plug on some of the so-called classics as well when they get stale.
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 am
Just as everyone in FOOB will eventually morph into Elly, everyone in FW will become Funky, starting with Bull. Lisa is lucky that the cancer took her before she turned into a jowly old man with an underbite.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 am
Crankshaft – No, you asswipe, it’s not an existential crisis. It’s the kind of crisis where everybody around you is bound and determined to take away everything that matters to you in the name of “safety.” It’s a very different kind of crisis.
Curtis – Billingsley, we get it already. Yes, you support Barack Obama. Okay, fine, it’s your vote, but people don’t read Curtis to find out who they should vote for.
DT – Wow, Shirl Locke has had a VOICE SCRAMBLER PHONE implanted in her chin
FW – So why isn’t this strip subtitled Is An Asshole yet?
GA – Damnation, there go my hopes for a snap murder-suicide on Rufus’s part.
GT – Oh man, I will treasure panel three until the day I die. It’s not quite “I want you to kill Marty Moon!,” but it’s close.
MW – Wow. I wondered if Mary had always had that assaultingly orange couch, and it turns out the answer is yes, she has. The coloring monkeys’ choices usually confuse me, but this is just downright confounding.
Momma – EW STOP IT
Pluggers – Anybody who bakes is a Plugger.
Ziggy – Uh…um…er…OW MY BRAIN
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am
Where Pluggers come from.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Once again, this guy gets away with murder in family newspapers.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:40 am
# 24 Mr O’Malley
Good, thoughtful comment! This is kind of what I’ve been trying to figure out about pluggers all this time– there will be a strip avout fat lazy pluggers and then a strip about pluggers getting a new puppy for exercise? Even though theres no real conclusion to be reached, it’s really really weird and interesting to think about.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:46 am
It’s too bad Alan isn’t around to see Margo in the morning, before she gets her battle-armor on. He’d run far, far away.
And either the girls are late sleepers, or banks in NYC open extra early, or LuAnn enjoys loitering on the sidewalk for a couple of hours.
Speaking of which, whereinhell did she get $5,000? She hasn’t done any actual work in months and the posters can’t be back from the printers yet.
Finally, doesn’t Tommie look a little extra chirpy this morning?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:47 am
BB Beetle is worried that Sarge no longer wants to stay in the sack with him. Awww.
Cathy Well, lord knows there are no shops where you’re going, stupid. Just buy what you need at whatever swanky resort you’re making Irving take you to. Then you can have a storegasm like John Patterson did yesterday.
C’haft Ah, the continuing saga of Anti-Momma. Her child doesn’t bend over backwards for her approval; he doesn’t even give a shit about her at all. He’s just guilted, that’s all, and that’s not really love.
FC Dolly: Furture Black-Market Organ Salesman
FBoFW So what made the crash? A lamp thrown against the door? A delicate vase? The believeabilty and likeability of a once-venerated family saga comic strip gone glurge? What?!
FW But you DO have a relationship like Les and Summer, Bull. Summer knows Les is an easy-win opponent in driveway B-ball, and Jinx was smarter than you starting at age three. Or is that too complicated for you to get, Bull?
H&J They actually NAMED the movie before it BECAME “a chick flick about these four women…” I think he’s on to us. Good.
Scenes from Suburban Hell By the time I was their age, I could get up at five and play quietly and not bother my folks, so sure, why not. Now leave Mommy and me alone to sleep, and you go play indoors quietly. Don’t go outside. ZZzzzzzzz.
JP I vant zyoo to kam into my lair… I mean, my office. I hope your white count is up and your hemoglobin’s good!
Luann Smackdown for TJ Week has now begun!
MT I can’t recall any recent Cherry Trail adventures, so this should be nice and different! I wonder how long it will take before Kelly Welly flings a bitchslap, and Cherry Trail responds with a Left Jab of Justice?
MW JEFF YOU DUMB FUCK!
MC Well, I guess if we didn’t have any friction we wouldn’t have any story. *sigh*
PBS If ONLY I had thought of saying that when my daughter struck a squirrel with her car back in high school! Of course, she would have only wailed louder and consider herself the child of a blue-ribbon smartass. Yeah, but it’s funny! XD
Phantom “I’ll….I’ll FLY AT HIM! That’ll show him!!”
Popeye Why are there smiling people in line? I thought nobody smiled in Hagville, or wherever the hell they are.
RMMD The patient has the right to call the nurse and have everyone thrown out of his room.
SFx A WHAT found WHERE?! Is this another Cassandra Cat’s cold earring thing, Bob Jr.?
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 am
Love is… in the classifieds section in the L.A. Times
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:03 pm
#1 and #38, I also went, “Holy cow, Herb and Jamaal mentioned a real life movie and not ‘that popular chick flick out right now.’” I was literally stunned.
Of course the joke was still lame (and had been used before when they weren’t so specific), so order was still kind of maintained.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Oh, LJ, we can’t spend time showing Liz talking with Gwampah.
No No No.
We have to have time showing Mike breaking priceless family heirlooms.
**sigh**
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
#55 Re: FOOOOOOB – that sound is Michael’s Ego, busting out and getting ready for a new day in Hell.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
The sad part about today’s FOOB? Not a flashback!
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Attention Uncle Lumpy and other mudgies: do yourself a favor and check out the current Brenda Starr story. It’s so batshit insane that it’s wonderful. She and Basil’s son by another man have gone to Kazookistan to find Basil, who they have reason to believe has been there recently. They’ve just been offered a room in the sold-out hotel by a very shady-looking guy from a 1930’s movie. Really. Check it out. I now return you to your regularly-programmed snark.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Luann: If Toni doesn’t invite Brad to stay at her place, I will be sorely disappointed. Sorely, I say!
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
#61 The Divine O’F and Brenda Starr – This is the best series running today. I love that thanks to CC, I found Brenda Starr again. I urge all to check it out at http://www.comicspage.com/brendastarr/brendastarr.html
and be sure to see Sunday’s which includes a big beautiful woman smoking, a confirmed bachelor of a certain age, and other wonderful things even the most radical comics do not show.
Gil Thorp – gay men of my generation will immediately recognize that in the third panel the new artist has chosen a Tom of Finland inspiration for Coach Kaz. It suits him.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
#61 TDOF –
Re: Brenda Starr — I like that the kid wears an eye-patch, and that the kid’s dog wears an eye-patch. Also, “Kazookistan”, although Garry Trudeau was there first.
While you’re over at gocomics, check out Annie. Hey, it’s Monday — nobody else is doing any work, why should you?
Seriously, these two are object lessons in how an older comic can avoid zombie-strip hood.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
#61, Divine:
Basil’s son’s mother, Wanda Fonda, is not actually a man.
But you’re right: batshit insane and still the freshest, most irreverent strip around. Proof that legacies don’t have to be dull.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I want Josh’s first podcast to be an interview with Brenda Starr writer Mary Schmich.
I also want her to marry former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke (perhaps Josh could introduce them!), and hyphenate her last name.
I want a lot of things like that.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
#50 (Curtis): I agree with commodorejohn — we don’t read Curtis to find out who to vote for.
That’s what Doonesbury, Mallard, Edison Lee, Non-Sequitur, Opus, Prickly City, Candorville, and State of the Union are for!
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Duh… of course I meant Basil’s son by another woman. And UL–I do like your nuptial suggestions for Brenda’s mama.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
DT – I think this is the first time Shirl has opened here eyes wide enough for us to see her pupils. Now we know what drove her to a life of crime — strabismus!
Don’t blame her; she’s a victim!
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I know we all know this, I know it’s been said and said, but Jesus Christ is Spiderman boring. The stripmakers will take any excuse whatsoever for Spiderman to get out of superheroing, and for the readers to get into an interesting storyline.
It almost makes me wonder if they have a dangerous, exciting life, and that therefore their retreat into the world of fantasy involves sitting on a couch at home with the wife, watching TV.
Any other theories about why the stripmakers would persist in making things so tame?
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
er, to prevent readers from getting into an interesting storyline, I mean.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
RxMorgan: The real lawsuit isn’t about the Health Department not being able to track down the MRSA source. It’s about the lack of infection control on the pediatric ward.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
AS – Man, this is so unfunny. I would rather Hilburn rip off Far Side and produce something funny than publish this junk.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Someone will need to explain Spider-Man, panel one, to me. Does MJ have a lower half? Is she growing out of the couch?
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
A3G: Does $5,000 even cover a month’s rent in New York prices for the apartment these three live in?
Luann: Can anyone explain how a grease fire sitting on the stove managed to burn down half the house? Were the kitchen appliances made out of dry wood and oily rags?
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
#73 Joe Blevins – I also noticed that panel three of SM includes a cameo appearance by Dick Tracy (or at least his shadow). Are you thinking threesome?
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
FC – Yes Dolly, but if you want the really big bucks, you need a visit from the metastasizing tumor fairy.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Funky: Okay, what’s with Summer and Jinx having those extremely short hairstyles? I don’t want to sound sexist, but I go to an American high school of about 1000 students and I don’t know of a single girl who also goes there who wears her hair that short. What decade does Tom Batiuk live in?
Ziggy: OK, I laughed at “Ziggy” today. Is there something wrong with me? Or am I right in thinking that a piece of bread singing “Ring of Fire” as it gets burnt in the toaster is pretty funny?
Momma: WHAT?!
Get Fuzzy: Usually I am inclined to agree with people who think that this strip is leaning towards contrived puns a bit too much, but today’s contrived set-up led to some pretty brilliant puns about Neville Chamberlain, which were enough to make me laugh. Nevertheless, sometimes “Get Fuzzy” is getting a little grating with all the puns, like the overly long “bourgeoisball cards” series and yesterday’s rather wordy while bland Sunday.
A3G: I don’t care how much Lu Ann loves Alan; $5000 is an awful lot of money for her to be giving him, especially given the fact that she’s an artist without a dependable future income.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
#70 & 71 Sensitive Poet – When I was *coughyoungercough* I went to see the original Superman with Christopher Reeve at the theater. This old lady behind us started complaining to her husband from the get-go – “What did she say? Where are they going? What’s going on now? This is stupid.” The old man tried to quiet her with, “well, let’s keep watching, maybe it’ll tell us, okay?” So finally we see Superman in his costume, and then it cuts to in front of the Daily Planet building, and the old lady says, “well, what happened to the little boy? And what about the people in all that ice or whatever? This is stupid, this isn’t a story. Where’s the little boy?” A guy (not me; surprised?) turned around and said, “Lady, if you can’t follow a story, don’t go to the goddamn movies!”
*respect knuckles to that guy, whoever he was*
Anyway, my theory is that newspaper strips are well aware that there are people who can’t / won’t/ don’t follow stories very well, so the cartoonists have to either pull an A3G and use the first two panels to repeat what the previous day’s third panel said, or do a JP and show pretty women and handsome men in various poses, or pull a S-M and tell a smidgeon of a story and swath the rest in bullshit because they figure, “nobody is going to follow a newspaper serial”.
Sadly, they’re kind of right as far as the majority goes. We few, we proud few here at Comics Curmudgeon, do NOT think that way but then we are the minority.
- TF
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:43 pm
# 69 and 70 were Sensitive Poet, obviously. Well, obvious to everyone but a ranter in a hurry like me. :-)
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Why would Mary Worth even care what that blond bimbo airhead thinks? Toeby is not a worthy successor to Mary Worth as Charterstone Meddler in Chief. With her wisdom, experience and uncommon common sense, Mary certainlyh doesn’t need relationship advice from anyone. So she spouted a corny platitude about “War and Peace”. Look at her track record. Toeby’s an attractive (albeit airheaded and vacuous) young woman whose relationship is being married to a fat, old curmudgeonly blowhard with a butt ugly chinbeard. Harumph!
What does the judge want to discuss with Sam Driver that is so urgent? Urgent in JP time – 15 minutes = 15 days. Today’s meaningless repeat of the Judge calling him is day two.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Darkefang: the girls have been living in Apt. 3G since the 1950’s, which means it is probably rent controlled. Even with the allowed increases, they’re probably only paying about $250 a month by now.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
#78 True –
Yeah, but it’s not just the audience — there’s a failure of basic craft here, too. Remember when Alan snubbed Lu Ann at the gallery opening, almost exactly two years ago? When Tommie caught her old friend Tim making out in the elevator? And Margo gave her business card to Eric?
Yeah, well neither do I — yet those story arcs are all nowhere near resolution. Steve Canyon or Brenda Starr would have completed at least six complete stories in the same time, and even Mary Worth or Rex Morgan three or four.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
81 O’F:
Somebody said a while back that the girls own the building. Result of a lawsuit, or Tommie won it in a craps game, or something. Are there any A3G historians out there on top of this?
Still, it’s hard to imagine LuAnn having 5 large laying around. Her last gainful employment was art teacher in a private school, which pays doodley-squat.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
DT: Looks more like Shirl Locke has a face scrambler phone to me.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
83 gnome de blog–I haven’t yet found the scoop on the ownership of the building, but Wikipedia had a startling bit of information:
>The depictions of the three main characters are loosely based on real actors. Tommie is based on Lucille Ball, Margo on Joan Collins, and Lu Ann on Tuesday Weld.
They also list Comics Curmudgeon as one of the links!
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
The older gentleman talking to Sam in JP seems interesting. They ought to give him his own strip one of these days.
Oh, on second thought, don’t. Who would ever want to read a strip about the boring lives of judges and lawyers? Man, that would be about as boring as a strip about a suburban general practitioner or a condo-dwelling volunteer nurse retiree.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
What ever happened to Wally Winkerbean/
Is he now part of the special Soylent Green Pizza that is sweeping the near future in the Funkyverse?
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
#85 Shoshi –
Looks like it’s about time to post this A3-G Retrospective link again. Say goodbye to your afternoon!
Oh, and I think it was one of those “let’s make life easy for our characters” plot leaps that allowed the girls to buy their freaking building — I think they bought it with Lu Ann’s inheritance when her fighter-pilot husband died, but maybe your research will uncover the real story.
Either way, I don’t think I’d be letting Gina hang around rent-free, even if she is schtumming our friend Professor P.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Gil Thorp, panel 3: OOOoohhh huh huh huh huh… that fabulous man-sweat, that snarky grin, that giant hand. Kaz maybe be He-Man, but Gil, you are Captain Scrumptious.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Funky Sockserbean:
The saddest part of the strip is the fact that Bull is smiling one of those smirky “this is the joke – heh – you can laugh now, reader” grins. I don’t quite know why. He’s envious that his buddy has taken time and patience and in the wake of personal tragedy, has bonded with his daughter. Bull is so damned insensitive that he not only forgets that his own daughter is within earshot, but he’s proud of it, too. His wife doesn’t seem to share the joy, or the joke or the pride at how jerky one can be.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
88 Uncle Lumpy–Heehee, I was actually just reading through that site when I came back here to check on updates! (See, my research is ahead of you!) But I’ll keep digging for the truth about the building. (I mean, how freakin’ much could a fighter-pilot who died in Vietnam have left?? Was he rich to begin with?)
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
#82 – Lumpy – I beg your pardon, but one of those story arcs was resolved. Tommie caught her friend Tim in the elevator making out with a woman that was not his wife. Then he separated from his wife and wound up in – yes – Tommie’s arms. Then he realized that he should go back to being the “perfect couple”, because spending endless years in a loveless household is better than a single night with passionateless Tommie.
Just because you have red hair and Lucille Ball had red hair does not make you the iconic figure that she was. I liked Lucille Ball. I watched Lucille Ball on TV. Lucille Ball was funny. You, ma’am, are NO LUCILLE BALL.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
FW: In panel one, Funky looks a little like Shan…non.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
for someone with a supposedly sodding superheroic physiognomy, peter parker pulls sickies an awful lot. he seems unaccountably prone to any bug doing the rounds. who would’ve guessed spider-man ran on windows?
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
88 – Lumpy – I don’t think they owned the building from the get-go. One early story line suggested that they didn’t know Professor Papasnarkapus and had to figure out who this strange man was. Decades later, the oddly de-aging Prof introduced the trio to his drunken 21 year old new squeeze. I’d think that if they owned the place and lived there, that they would know each resident at least a little bit.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Bull, not Funky…duh…
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:47 pm
#91 Shosh –
IARC, they had to bring Lu Ann back into A3-G because the replacement blonde wasn’t working out. This meant killing her husband, so Lu Ann wisely negotiated with the writers for a big cash settlement, realistic or not! The writers exacted their revenge by writing every trace of sense out of the character, then gassing what little brain remained.
Man, I was nuts for Tuesday Weld. Everybody dissed her comeback film, Play It as It Lays, but Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins in a Joan Didion screenplay of her own novel — Lordy, what’s not to love?
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
FOOB: Judginb by John’s expression he was dreaming of some kind of chair.
FW: Obsessive creepy near stalker = perfect parent in the funkverse. And where is Wally by the by?
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Hey, Peter Parker, check the Super Hero by-laws…Once you decide that you are unable to go to work when your temperature is one degree above normal, you forfeit the privilege of having the term Super Hero, or any of its derivatives, applied to you.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:50 pm
#92 Mr. mogen –
Sir! Those events merely set in motion Tommie’s “Poor Me” manquest, which continues unresolved to this day!
I’m less sure of building ownership business, but have great confidence in the power of Shoshi’s mad research skillz and copious spare time.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
94 lesles — Well, you’ve got to cut him some slack because he *was* exposed to an exceptionally large dose of radiation. I understand that can have an adverse effect on the immune system.
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I really liked this post, great idea for mixing up the usual
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
#78 – True F – I agree. Newspaper editors don’t think anyone wiil follow a serial strip, and most of the time, they’re right. Of course, the people who compose the strips shouldn’t just slack off and put together nonsensical story lines devoid of continuity and use that as an excuse. Rex Moron is stupid, slow and banal, but at least each story has a beginning, middle and end. Mary Worthless makes absolutely sure that her acquaintences are taken care of ad infinitum. Ritzilla, for instance, was saved. The next week, she was really saved. Then she was really, really saved. Then her life was insulated from all possible wrongdoing in a quaint 1950s idyllic community without any ties to the outside world, save those invented before the Kennedy administration ruined the country.
A3G, on the other hand, just trails off into a bland haze and shifts the attention to one of the other girls. But then that story line doesn’t conclude, either.
And, as long as I’m hatin’ on A3G, Tommie is supposed to be the brains of the operation. But, MARGO is the one to speak up today. “I’m going to give my boyfriend $5000.” Tommie: How nice. Margo: Crazy bitch! Whassamadda you?? Do you have dain bramage?
June 23rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
#101 Shoshi – didn’t seem to do gojira any harm. i just assumed spidey would have the commensurate immune system of a spider. when was the last time you heard a spider with sniffles?
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Unrelated to the funny pages, except peripherally, but I kow many curmudgeons were fans, as I was. George Carlin passed away Sunday. He had just done a show the previous weekend, so at least we can say he went out doing what he loved. Now we have one less good kind of crazy to help us through the next few crazy years. To say he’ll be missed will be an understatement. I’ve seen him angry, I’ve seen him laid back, and I saw him in performances in which he later admitted he was out of his mind on coke, but he was never less than interesting. R.I.P.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
# 103 Hogenmogen – “A3G, on the other hand, just trails off into a bland haze and shifts the attention to one of the other girls. But then that story line doesn’t conclude, either.”
so … you’re saying the whole strip takes place inside alan’s head?
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
105. Donald: here’s hoping that George is palavering, or playing poker with, or matching shots with Buddy Jesus.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Why doesn’t this blog just not publish when the author is away? Jesus, it’s annoying to read the inferior writing and have to check back. Just don’t post for chrissake…
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
A3G: Well, Margo is making sense, but that’s not what jumps out at me. Her hair is down. Hasn’t it been established that Ms Magee only loosens her ‘do for sex? And Tommie is also in her robe. So what do you think? Threesome with Tommie and her nerd boyfriend. It’s the kind of thing that might be on Margo’s bucket list. And I’m sure once is enough.
MW: No, I’m sorry, Mary’s coy pose on the couch is doing nothing for me. She’s saltpetre on two legs.
OBH: “I’m not down with all this ant love” sounds like a Bucky Kattism.
9CL: Play ball!
DT: Making the call to your gang boss from the police station? Oh, that’s bright. Hey Shirl Locke, you do realize that it’s just a voice scrambler, not a face scrambler, right?
Ziggy: I love Johnny Cash, and I really don’t want to think about his spirit being trapped in Ziggy’s toaster.
GA: “Revenooers! You got the rifle ready?”
H&J: Jamaal knew something was wrong when Herb called it “Sex & the City” rather than “that movie they made from the cable TV show.”
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:07 pm
# 108 – we do it just for you.
buck up little possum, it won’t be long now.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
FC: Someone’s due for a visit from the tongue fairy.
GT: “Drawerful of visas? Come to think of it, I do know a guy in the stolen credit card racket.”
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
A3G — Research still ongoing, but based on strips from 2004, it does appear that they co-own the building, along with the professor. I don’t know if any others do. I’ll let y’all know if I find anything definitive as to how it came about.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
100 – Lumpy – Ok, I see. My bad. I misinterpreted your reference. I thought you meant that guy-friend of Tommie’s, and not the bigger picture plot line of “must search for eligible male to marry because I have female mindset circa 1963″.
But two years and they’re still pretty much still grinding it out in the same story. Even Spiderman has beaten a super villian or two since then.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
104 lesles — On the other hand, spiders are known for their extremely short lifespans! :-)
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
3G: Okay, chilluns, gather round Auntie I-Girl. About five years ago, right before Josh started this blog, the girls inherited the building from the late owner. How they pulled off this coup was never explained or blithely blown off, but we were quickly transported to a story about how the building was an historical landmark because the penthouse had been used as a hiding place on the Underground Railroad. Someone casually remarked that slavery was still being practised around the world, and the next thing you know, Margo was kidnapped and forced to work in a secret slave labor garment factory along with a lot of illegal aliens. At one point, she was told by the evil foreman to fetch “More zippers, Mule!” and a catchphrase was born that rocked this blog and inspired an early t-shirt. If anyone can fill in
3G: The Lost Months, please feel free do so. Now, everyone put on your jammies and go to bed.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
#114 Shoshi – so there’s hope, after all! thankyou! the newspaper strip has done no end of trauma to my soft-focus childhood recollections of spidey.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
#68 Wolf Shepherd -
I have bouts of strabismus, too. When it kicks in, I get to see two of everything.
Nice for JP, but for DT or GT, not so much.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
#105 – Don, you’re right. George Carlin will be missed by many. The major news media will miss him the most, by missing coverage of his funeral while showing yet more of Tim Russert’s valliant struggles to remain dead.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:43 pm
87 Just Curious & 98 Professor Fate: How dare you raise the subject of Wally Winkerbean? How can you be so out of the loop? Do you not read Batiuk’s blog? Batiuk will explain all in his own good time. In his own words, It’s called writing.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
#113 Even Spiderman has beaten a super villian or two since then.
I think what you really meant was: even Spiderman has had a super villain or two trip over his own costume or accidentally lock himself in the trunk since then.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:50 pm
#113 Hogenmogen -
The only supervillians Spidey has beaten are the ones in the old DOS game “World of Adventure” on his IBM PC clone. And since everything that happened in that game was random once you started it, beating the villians was pure dumb luck.
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
1 Mariko — No kidding! I was all ready for some comment from Uncle Lumpy about Herb & Jamaal’s sudden specificity!
So many comics truths have been shattered while Josh has been gone. First, Tommie gets more action than Margo and Lu Ann. Then Herb & Jamaal uses a proper name in a pop culture reference. What’s next? Will Funky Winkerbean be cheerful? Will Mary Worth butt out? Will Dick Tracy make sense?
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Here’s a definitive statement (August 2004) that they do, in fact own the building, but I’m still trying to find out HOW.
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20040810&name=Apartment_3-G
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
So Wally is going to come back renamed Wally McGuffin?
Batiuk — writer?
***gag***
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Since we’re discussing trivia, without searching online, who knows the name of Drew Cory’s twin seester? I’ll give you the hint that it is unisex, like Drew. I like her attitude. When her father had been out of touch in VietNam for months her atititude was Dick Cheney-like – “So”.
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
#108 annoyed – Ha ha, I’m surprised it took our single, very vocal naysayer this long to show up. As with previous UL guest appearances, nobody’s making you read this, dude.
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
125. Moss_Moses: I had to ferret this out, since I knew it once and when I saw it, it was the classic “D’oh! I knew that!”.
Drew’s seester is Adrian, which I guess could mean that his given name is actually Andrew, for a nice piece of alliteration. (I was kind of hoping for “Dipstick,” as that seems rather gender-neutral.)
What surprised me is Dr. Cory the Elder’s given name…
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
124 Just Curious: Don’t kill the messenger! Those were Batiuk’s words, not mine.
BTW I, too, eagerly await the return of Wally. At the rate TB is unfolding the storyline, Wally should appear sometime in late spring 2010. :-)
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Gee, with today’s theme, I’m surprised no one has included today’s “Love Is” installment featuring the coquettish-little-naked-girl putting the moves on little-naked-and-genitaless-boy!
June 23rd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
#74 Darkefang Re: Luann— Here is my answer to your question about the fire’s surprising destructiveness. It’s from a couple of threads ago (”Tommie Thompson — trollop!” #37). You may need to go back to check on Saturday’s strip first. My apologies to the anti-reposting gods.
“Luann— Brad n’ Toni sure work for a weenie fire department. Unless a structure is “fully involved” and too dangerous to enter, the most effective way to attack the fire is from the inside. Since Brad’s house is obviously not fully involved, they should have their hoses inside the house and should be ventilating the roof. Putting water on the fire from an external position is a defensive attack designed primarily to prevent nearby structures from burning while consigning the burning structure to total loss status.
I guess we now know how Brad’s colleagues feel about him!”
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
#85 Shoshi – Tuesday Weld I can buy, Joan Collins I can buy, but Lucille Ball? GMAFB!
I remember Tuesday Weld in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar.” Giggity-Giggity.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
127. Bats, good job! Did you have to look this up or could you recall it from your internal memory? Yes, “Jefferson” just reeks of bombast and pomposity, much like the C (for Charles) in C. Montgomery Burns. I guess his Jeff Cory’s parents must have known how he’d turn out. He’s a pathetic loser, too so maybe that’s in his middle name.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Re: Wally’s fate – we saw back in pre-jump Funky, during Les’s trip to New York post-Death Butler, a newspaper headlined “SOLDIERS TAKEN HOSTAGE,” which certainly isn’t any kind of foreshadowing at all about the only military character in the strip. I’m sure there’s no chance at all he’ll suddenly show up in post-jump Westview for a heart-rending reunion with his wife, now married to another man. And there’s no chance it’ll end in bloodshed and profound psychological trauma for the bystanding offspring.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
A3G: GO Margo! Stop the ninny from giving her life savings to a junkie who dreams of becoming a…dealer!
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
#49 commodorejohn re: Curtis: Wait just a minute. Are you trying to say you’ve actually got a line on what people DO read Curtis for?
Re: today’s Mary Worth: I am a woman of simple pleasures and I have to say that the spectacle of Mary posed seductively on her marigold couch in a slinky Asian-inspired shift and coordinating orthopedic sandals screening Jeff’s call while she plays with an Etch-A-Sketch has really brought a ray of sunshine to this grey Monday.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
134 – “…a junkie who dreams of becoming a…dealer!
At least he has ambition, which is very un-junkie-like.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
#129 – Isn’t that *every* installment of Love Is?
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
#23 Frank Parsnip–Since Rufus & Joel’s daily-driver is a mule-drawn junk wagon, I imagine that even a government-fleet-issue Chevy Impala would appear to be a “fancy car” to them…let alone the airport rental car driven by the guy who is almost certainly a representative of the cat-food company, come to notify Rufus of his winning the contest, since Rufus missed the phone call last week.
#49 commodorejohn–The ideal opportunity for the R&J murder-suicide would have been back at the beginning of this interminable storyline, when Joel pointed out to Rufus that Chef Meowrice is not, in fact, real. Miz Mayor Melba could have tried to talk Rufus into surrendering to the police, only to have Rufus tearfully apologize before eating the shotgun. Kitty’s eyes would then have glowed red as she grinned evilly…
#51 Prospero–That Liberty Meadows is about ten years old. Cho hasn’t done any new ones for syndication in at least five years, having tired of the constant censorship battles. You ought to see the ones that didn’t make it…
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
#135 Violet – Point. But I know what I don’t read Curtis for, at least.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm
FW: If lisa died 10 years ago – then that was 1998 – we didn’t even have any body in Afgan at all -if memory serves we’d broken off diplomatic relationons with the Talaban and were attacking terroist bases with cruise missles.
and Batiuk to quote one TC “that’s not writing that’s just typing”
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
#139 – Curtis is an action comic… well, actually, an affirmative action comic. I was living in the Washington DC area when Curtis made its debut in the Washington Post. There were many letters to the editor complaining about this unfunny pile of crap displacing some beloved (but probably equally unfunny) zombie strip. I don’t remember what strip got canned, but I remember the Post editors patiently explaining to the great unwashed that it wasn’t about being funny or entertaining or even interesting. The problem was they didn’t have enough comics written by black people for black people about black people. That’s how we got Curtis.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
#141 Wolf Shepherd – Kind of what I figured, but at least it bothers to try and be entertaining, even if it is where it is because of the “black comic” thing. It’s not as funny as The Boondocks was, but at least Billingsley tries. I’m just tired of seeing him stumping for Obama-well, scratch that, I’m tired of the whole damn 2008 campaign and the three years it’s been going on, and this is just one facet of it. Like I said, hey, it’s his vote, I’d just rather read an actual entertaining storyline.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Curiosity about Wally Winkerbean is on the rise! I’ll add to commodorejohn’s response (#133) as best I can.
#87 Just Curious & #98 Professor Fate Re: Wally Winkerbean— As you know, Wally was sent to Iraq and has “disappeared”. An ominous newspaper headline months ago in FW mentioned something about a US soldier being captured by the enemy. It was assumed that this foretold Wally’s fate, but so far nothing in FW has addressed what happened to him. However, as a comics character myself, I occasionally get special access to fellow comics characters for interviews. I was able to interview Wally on January 16 and February 14, 2008.
Jan. 14 Interview:
AEN: What’s up?
WW: After surviving a helicopter crash and a minefield in Afghanistan, I finally made it safely home and back to civilian life. Then it turned out that the Army released me one day too soon. How did the Army make me pay for their mistake? By making me spend a full tour of duty in Iraq! How did my friends and family respond to this obvious injustice? Did they support me by writing to their elected representatives, contacting the media, staging protests, or flooding the Internet with my story? Naw, they didn’t do anything. Now I am in Batiukatory and no one cares. I would kill myself, but I think I’m already dead.
Feb. 14 Interview: (Things have obviously gotten worse.)
AEN– Wally, long time, no see. What’s happening?
WW– Much like Generalissimo Franco, I’m still dead.
AEN—How did it happen?
WW—Things just kept piling up on me. First, I lost my hearing, then I lost an arm, then I got cancer, and finally, I stepped on a land mine that the Taliban placed just outside of my tent.
AEN— That’s horrible! I didn’t know that there were any Taliban in Iraq.
WW—Any sort of cruelty is possible in my strip.
AEN—How are your friends and relatives taking your loss?
WW— They don’t give a shit. They’ve never noticed that I’m gone.
AEN—Well, that’s typical for the strip. With luck, maybe you’ll be reincarnated in “Crankshaft.”
WW—That would be a fate worse than death.
Since then, and following the “10 year jump”, it’s been all silence. R.I.P., Wally.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
#141 Wolf Shepherd –
Well, in fairness, that’s how we got Wee Pals. Billingsley is a really capable, expressive artist who just mines his material a bit too deeply.
And it’s a hard heart that doesn’t beat just a little faster as Kwanzaa approaches!
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:51 pm
#143—Aargh! That should read “Jan 16 Interview:”
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
#144 – I forget, is Kwanzaa before or after Festivus?
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
133 — CJ, I like your enthusiasm, but what are the odds that Wally would be taken hostage TWICE?
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Whew! I’m glad that Mary Worth’s unexpected posturings on the giant mustard couch o’ love didn’t go unnoticed, whether they inspired cheer (to Violet) or etiquettal faux-pasery (to Dingo).
I didn’t think it was an Etch-a-Sketch, though, Violet — I was under the impression that Mary’s latest copy of “Cougar Beat” had just come in the mail.
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Aha–getting closer to the A3G mystery! In April 2001, they acquired the building:
>Apartment 3G: Gradually, glacially, Margo informs her fellow tenants of her victory over nefarious landlord Dratman. Now they all own the building! “Hip! Hip! Hooray!” they cry in the Sunday color supplement–though FP isn’t sure whether they’re cheering their venture into joint property ownership or simply celebrating the fact that this interminable plot line seems to be ending.
(http://www.citypaper.com/comics/story.asp?id=5282)
What the victory was, who knows! I’ll keep looking!
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
#147 Al of the Christian Single Jungle Patrol – Well, you’ve got to remember the Second Law of Batiukdynamics, which states that the amount of misery in a Tom Batiuk comic tends to increase over time. Piddly little things like probability and suspension of disbelief are helpless in the face of this; remember when Les, in the space of a couple weeks, lost his wife, got mugged, and had to sacrifice a precious marital heirloom to call Funky to get back to Westview?
June 23rd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
somehow I suspect that the entire dialog shown in panel 2 of Mary Worth is Mary’s voicemail greeting…as in, actually saying the word BEEP! followed by acting out the part of Jeff in case he calls and is wondering what he should say.
Also, nice gams.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:21 pm
20 Miles From the City says:” Funky: Okay, what’s with Summer and Jinx having those extremely short hairstyles? I don’t want to sound sexist, but I go to an American high school of about 1000 students and I don’t know of a single girl who also goes there who wears her hair that short. What decade does Tom Batiuk live in?”
well, the comic jumped 10 years into the future, so expect short haircuts around then. Except, that the future seems to be now, and he’d already made a 10 year jump 10 years or so ago, right. So, 20 years, it’s 20 years in the future! What?
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Apartment 3G — Sorry, guys, I’ve lost the trail. All I know is that in the first few months of 2001, Margo sued the landlord and it ended up with the girls owning the building. I have no idea what the lawsuit was about, as the strips from that long ago do not seem to be accessible online. Hopefully someone else can fill in the gap!
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
#130 Alfred E Newman –
The other firemen must figure that if Brad’s house burns down, then that means Toni is going to end up back in the dating pool. After all, no woman as hot as Toni is going to date a homeless guy.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:08 pm
108. Annoyed. Well, you could always follow your own advice about posting while Josh is away. And using the Name of the Lord in Vain TWICE in one posting is liable to bring down the wrath of the Christian Singles Girl. Or Chennux. Or both. Egad!
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
9CL - Happy Pride Week, Seth! And you’ll make us all the more proud of you if you simply, er, accidently drop the jointless wonder. Maybe a few weeks on crutches will cheer her up, and besides, there’s a rumour going around that she’s not the only ballerina in NYC!
Judge Parker - This is very exciting stuff! I began following the CC about a year and a half ago, and this is my first encounter with the Judge himself. First impression: he looks, uh, kind of cold…and if he knows anything at all about Sam, his crack about knowing how busy he is suggests a keen grasp of sarcasm. More! More!
GA - Yes, Rufus will blow it, as usual. Now can we get back to the laneway with fuel-dispensing services, please? Or else back to the cats, they were nice.
FOOB - I think we’ve just witnessed the Craptaculate Conception of Elizabeth!
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
#62 Gabacho says:
I thought it. You said it.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
156. Mooncattie re 9CL: oh, you were too kind about accidentally dropping Edda on purpose! I was thinking if she had all the flexibility of a 2×4 or a baseball bat, a little batting practice might well be in order. Heh.
I’m stunned to learn, however, that NYC is rife with ballerinas, though…where do they park all of their unicorns?
And re, Gil of Finland: I’m no gay male, but I know a hawk from a handsaw, and you guys are spot-on:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9545446@N07/2606293678/
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
okay… one , ur all nuts and i like that. two, what the hell pete’s a mutant(unintentionally) he can runa fever if he wants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! other than that, have a good’un
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:03 pm
FOOB: Another trip down memory lane. With Michael.
I wish they would all just DIE!!!!
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
158: well done, bats :[ !
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
#140 Professor Fate: FW did jump ahead 10 years last fall, but they were set in 2007 when they did it, so they’re now in 2018.
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
#131 Wolf Shepherd: Check out this link about the original A3G artist Alex Kotzky and showing what his characters used to look like when he drew the strip.
http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/apart3G.htm
June 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Crap, I need to read before posting! Sorry Uncle Lumpy, I didn’t see you’d posted the A3G retrospective when I posted the link again!
June 24th, 2008 at 12:04 am
No problem: that site deserves extra exposure — among other things, it shows how badly the comics were hurt by the smaller format and water-based inks. Very few cartoonists — Bill Watterson was one — had the clout to stand up for full-size treatment: even Prince Valiant got shrunk, and he used to be a full page.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Maybe it’s just because I’m reading it out of context, but Bull seems to be stalking Les in today’s strip. Maybe a drive by is in order? With Les’ life, it’ll happen sooner or later. I’d say I’m being too dark, but this is Funky Winkerbean we’re talking about.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:31 am
A few Tuesday observations (not many):
MW: hold firm, Mary — remember how irrational Jeff was in person! It’s so easy to be nice to a machine! A cold, heartless automaton…
Oh, wait. Never mind.
FOOB: were the characters in the early Foob years really this wretched? I never followed the strip closely, and if this is the case, I’m glad I didn’t. Christ, what an asshole…
June 24th, 2008 at 1:32 am
# 74 Darkefang and #130 Alfred — Thank you both. That TJ fire is the absolute stupidest fire scenario I’ve seen in the media since some TV primetime procedural featured an outdoor fire that managed to race toward and kill two people even though it was burning downhill at night through short sparce fuel.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:33 am
# 168 — Sparse. Sparse. Ye gods. Time for bed.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:12 am
MW: “Grovel, grovel, cringe, bow, stoop, fall
Worship, worship, beg, kneel, sponge, crawl…”
(I knew that high school production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” would come in handy someday.)
June 24th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Apologies if this is old, but what sort of sadist calls their child “Jinx”? You might as well call her “Doomed”.