The Comics Curmudgeon

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Summer doldrums

Gil Thorp, 7/30/08

I can’t hold back any longer! Summer, my friends, is the season when Gil Thorp is traditionally freed from the shackles of its need to focus on boring high school athletics and truly finds its completely deranged natural level. 2006 brought us vicious fights between little girls and Ben Franklin, time-traveling golf grifter; last summer, we saw one-legged boxing follies and the glory and majesty of Coach Kaz, PI to the rock and roll Carole King. Thus, I’ve been patiently awaiting the end of the very special “Elmer gets deported” storyline so we can move on to the summer madness.

But now, as we’re only a few weeks away from the start of football practice, it’s becoming clear that there is no joy in Milford. Elmer’s springtime woes have just dragged right on into July, as he’s been recalled from his two-week Mexile to take a spot on the independent minor league Kalamazoo Kings. So instead of boring high school sports action, we’re getting boring vaguely professional sports action, and it’s boring. The faint hopes that were raised by my first read of panel two’s narration box — “It’s the Kings vs. the Chillicothe Pants” — were dashed by a closer inspection of the text. Even the red-hot lower back action in panel three can’t save this from snoresville.

For Better Or For Worse, 7/30/08

After the trivet incident, I’m hesitant to admit when I have to look up a word in the dictionary, but: mucilage? Really? Maybe the reason Lynn Johnston is retiring is because there will soon literally be no words left in the English language to pun upon.

“An adhesive solution” is no doubt the meaning intended here, but the dictionary built in to my computer has as the word’s first definition “a viscous secretion or bodily fluid,” so this actually may not be a pun at all. “What you’re feeling? That’s mucilage! Please, change me! My own daughter refused and said I was ‘gross!’”

Beetle Bailey, 7/30/08

Like the fact that he could see right up your skirt in panel two, for instance.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Beetle Bailey, For Better or for Worse, Gil Thorp.

206 responses to “Summer doldrums”

juggernaut
July 30th, 2008 at 12:44 pm [Reply]

No, no, his hat would be vibrating if that were the case, in classic Beetle Bailey code for “sexual arousal”.
Carly
July 30th, 2008 at 12:45 pm [Reply]

And here I saw Mucilage and thought it was some word she’d made up, and that Gramps was descending into Family Circus style word mixups. Which wouldn’t work if it wasn’t a real word, but clearly my expectations are low.
Uncle Lumpy
July 30th, 2008 at 12:47 pm [Reply]

I want to hear Marty Moon’s drunken play-by-play of Kalamazoo vs. Chillicothe, because the “Kalama Zookings” would be a great name for a team.
Red Greenback
July 30th, 2008 at 12:47 pm [Reply]

Foob: Your mucilage may vary.
user-of-owls
July 30th, 2008 at 12:51 pm [Reply]

Wow. The Paints?

“We’re semi-pro, we’re semi-glossy;
We played the Kings, but we lossy!
Go Paints!”
man behind the curtain
July 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pm [Reply]

Gt — But when the season is over will Elmer be staying in the USA? Perhaps he can hide in the basement of his host family while being their indentured servamt. I’m thinking he’ll just go back to Mexico and play winter ball before returning to the USA for more independent league baseball.
gh
July 30th, 2008 at 12:54 pm [Reply]

I’ll take Words I Don’t Have to Look Up for $200, Alex.
yellojkt
July 30th, 2008 at 12:57 pm [Reply]

If Miss Buxley is a mind reader, it’s a good thing she only dates Beetle and Zero. And tell Otto that trash cans only block the mind control rays if they’re made of lead.
yellojkt
July 30th, 2008 at 12:58 pm [Reply]

I thought mucilage was the parts of the moose you really didn’t want to eat.
BigTed
July 30th, 2008 at 12:59 pm [Reply]

Was Otto introduced to “Beetle Bailey” in 1980? Because panel 2 makes it obvious that he was modeled after Pac-Man.
Chris
July 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pm [Reply]

Wait, but mucilage is just old-timey school glue, isn’t it? I had mucilage in first or second grade, and remember being excited when I finally “graduated” to glue, because mucilage barely held anything together. And I’m about the same age as Josh. Anyway I guess my point is that it’s the sort of word Grampa there would know and use and it’s a word you don’t hear everyday. Appropriate + a bit obscure = a good thing!
AhClem
July 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pm [Reply]

GT – Maybe the Chillicothe Paints are in a league sponsored by Home Depot, and as such all the teams have to adopt names of building materials. Next week they will play the Rochester Sheetrocks, Bettendorf Flapper Valves and the Elkhart Magnetic-Stud-Locator-Thingies.
Charles
July 30th, 2008 at 1:01 pm [Reply]

GT –
“We do this 96 times a year.” That is boring, bland and kind of sad. Insert a comma and you get:
“We do this 96, times a year.” That now has a bit of mystery and intrigue. They do a very certain act so often, it’s not just every day, it’s TIMES A YEAR.

Okay, so that’s stretching a little bit. But the comics were kind of so-so today and seeing the number “96″ in Gil Thorp kind of made me smile.
gnome de blog
July 30th, 2008 at 1:01 pm [Reply]

No comment on Widdle Sawah annointing her superhero daddy as MRSA MAN? I can hardly wait for the Rex Morgan-Spiderman crossover.

At least there will be a chance of a June-MJ rack-off.
Eric the DiscoBoy.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm [Reply]

Summer doldrums? I should think not, sir! Not with the impending threesome being offered in today’s Mary Worth. That’s more like summer nightmare fuel!
man behind the curtain
July 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm [Reply]

GT — Hey, our Kalamazoo Kings are in first place. Do I hear playoffs? Who said playoffs? But this strip must be done at least a week ahead as it looks like they were playing Chillicothe last week. Yesterday it was the Florence Freedom and today, the all mighty Evansville Otters. Regular season ends September 3rd.with a trip to arch-rival Traverse City Beach Bums. Yes, let’s hit the beach at tropical Traverse City. Surf’s up.
trey le parc
July 30th, 2008 at 1:04 pm [Reply]

BB: Even if Otto can see up Miss Buxley’s skirt, all he’s likely to glimpse between those creamy thighs is an expanse of unblemished plastic, a la Barbie’s Missing-In-Action genitalia.
Chris
July 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pm [Reply]

I wonder of Mort Walker ever considered having Miss Buxley put the Cookie up her skirt and asking Otto to lick the cream off. Now that’s a comic I’d like to see! LOL!
McManx
July 30th, 2008 at 1:07 pm [Reply]

FOOB – I would agree that “mucilage” in this usage is “a viscous secretion or bodily fluid.” After I read today’s strip, I too crapped my pants.

Phantom — What’s up with Ghost Who Waffles criticizing Andre for his plan to beat and shoot the bad guys? Since when did he become a pacifist? The man carries two 45’s and a ring specially engraved to leave a skull tattoo carved on the jaw of every punk he drops.

Mark Trail — Cherry and Kelly’s argument is escalating. I’m smelling cat fight here — and we’ve got a front row seat.
Sequitur
July 30th, 2008 at 1:07 pm [Reply]

Okay. Time for a mucilage lesson:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucilage

Check out the “human uses.”
Hairball
July 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pm [Reply]

GT: I have to admit, it took me about six readings to make sense of the third panel’s caption. That should be embarrassing, but instead I’m elated. I usually can’t make any sense of these strips no matter how many times I reread them.
Iris Steensma
July 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pm [Reply]

“Mucilage” is the fancy schmancy term for “rubber cement.” I’m guessing it was coined so repressed nuns didn’t have to use the word “rubber” since that could mean a CONDOM.
texas buddha
July 30th, 2008 at 1:14 pm [Reply]

Wow!

I am humbled and a little frightened by the huge jump in traffic to my blog. I went from an all time one day total of 80 hits (that I was quite proud of) to a current total today of 318 hits and it is only noon. That cease and desist letter from Bil Keane may be coming a little sooner than I thought. I know, that to many of you 318 hits on your blog is an insult, but for me this is the fast lane on the internet superhighway.

Thanks again to all my new visitors and especially to The Comics Curmudgeon for taking pity on a poor blogger and letting me post these invitations here to come and visit me at http://texasbuddha.wordpress.com/ .

I may have to post all of my un-posted New World Order Family Circus cartoons before the lawyers swoop in and stop me.

Much love from the texas buddha to you all!
Shandyowl
July 30th, 2008 at 1:15 pm [Reply]

Is it possible that the reason so many of the strips are either increasingly insane or utterly pointless and banal is that the writers have reached the stage where they think “nobody is reading this crap anymore so it doesn’t matter what I put in”?
The Not-So-Amazing Whitney
July 30th, 2008 at 1:15 pm [Reply]

Before today’s Foob, I was only familiar with mucilage as the sticky substance that carnivorous plants use to trap insects. Which goes perfectly with the strip’s ideas about love and marriage.

Apparently, mucilage is also used by plants to “faciltate seed dispersal,” which is an interpretation that I do not wish to imagine in connection with Grampa.
texas buddha
July 30th, 2008 at 1:18 pm [Reply]

On a non-self-promotional note…

… is there anything less appealing than the mental image of old people’s sticky bodily fluids? For Better of Worse seems to be working overtime to live down to it’s title.
Dobie Gillis
July 30th, 2008 at 1:21 pm [Reply]

Wait a minute. I just returned from watching the Paints defeat Kalamazoo 8-6 Saturday night. I didn’t see no damn “Elmer” . . . and I didn’t see anyone doing the Hustle on the warning track, either.
Muffaroo Wuffaroo
July 30th, 2008 at 1:23 pm [Reply]

Crank – That’s a nickname, right? Because “crank” is another word for a dick, and “shaft” is a part of same. So his real name is something else, but everybody calls him Crankshaft, right?

DT – Man, if only that guard with the gun in his hand had some way of firing it! Like, say, a trigger finger or something.

DT – alternate: Seriously, this bank robbery’s going to end when Vil Lane and the Hench Men all hyperventilate and pass out from blowing those damned whistles constantly for four days.

H&L – “I wouldn’t let her do that.” “Why not?” HUH? Because she’s writing on the wall, you moron, that’s why not! But then, I guess things like that don’t matter to you, do they? You’re just a two-dimensional enabler of throwaway punch lines, and at the end of each strip, the artists pull up the sheet of cellophane you exist on, and it disengages from the black stuff behind, and with a slight zipping sound, you vanish utterly and completely, like a fist when you open up your hand, only to be born again the next day, blinking at the unexpected light, as blank of mind and devoid of feeling as every other day since you became a nine-to-five job for a breadwinner at a drawing board.

JP – I think Sam’s trying to be Crankshaft, and so that every interaction with another human being is a little contest in how quickly he can get his opponent to wear that expression of dismay and turn away. Two panels! Yes! FTW!!

Luann – “YAHOO! I’M A-GOIN’ TO SOUTH DAKOTIE!!”

MF – I’m guessing that when Tinsley was just a sprat, he drew a caricature of somebody, and his liberal art teacher, eager to find some reason to praise him, said something nice about the great big chin. Ever since then, he has believed that “caricature” means “biggest possible chin.” That being said, whose hand is pointing at Obama there? Even if it was the same color (which isn’t Tinsley’s fault), it would still belong to a different universe. Is it a preview of tomorrow’s strip? (Same Duck-joke, same duck-channel!)

Marmaduke – Ha ha. Dogs love bones! Dinosaur skeletons are made of what look like bones. Okay, next it’s off to the post office to bark at the plywood cutout of Mr. Zip. Let’s snap it up! Anderson wants to get all of this week’s cartoons drawn this morning.

MW – Mary and Tobes are going shopping at the House O’ Platitudes for some more plaques, samplers, buttons, figurines, and quilts.

Momma – The strip seems to take place in some future dystopia, only instead of Morlocks and Elois, the human race has divided into Mommas and Offspring. Some believe that these are different phases of the same life form, but come on! Yeah, right! Pfffft.

My Cage – I’m snarkless again. But don’t think that just because I don’t comment on the strip that I don’t sometimes give a small sigh of recognition. I nod silently, then move on, looking for lame and unengaging strips to attack.

OBH – She should have a white streak in each side of her hair, so her brother can pat her on the hand and say, “We… belong… dead…”

Pluggers – A plugger thinks that if his old clothes ever come back in style, he’ll magically be able to fit into them again.

PCity – Panels 1 and 3 – “Two Differences”; Panels 2 and 4 – “Three Differences” — Or perhaps it’s all one game of “Malfunctioning Photocopier.”
Bootsy
July 30th, 2008 at 1:27 pm [Reply]

When I saw Foob, I thought, “Oh, snot”, which is better than what I usually think, which is “Oh shit”.

Hey, Texas Buddha, earlier thread, I thought you wrote, “My bong hits are out of control this morning!” which would be cool for you but then I reread it correctly and was sad.

Sam Driver is a dick. Way to insult everyone you ever come in contact with. No wonder you never get laid. I hope Abbey is doing it at home with Steve Shannon right now! I also hope we get to see it. What?
Red Greenback
July 30th, 2008 at 1:29 pm [Reply]

Foob: Mucilage=Glurge.
BTW, didn’t Mark Trail do a Sunday strip touting the wonders of mucilage a while back?
Uncle Lumpy
July 30th, 2008 at 1:34 pm [Reply]

#30 Red –

You’re thinking of Mark’s trip to the Moose Lodge.
Moss_Moses
July 30th, 2008 at 1:39 pm [Reply]

According to the first definition for mucilage (“a viscous secretion or bodily fluid”), that could be referring to santorum, especially if it is the viscous byproduct of anal sex. However, because this is FOOB, it means that sticky, viscous sap known as treacle.

I’m surprised fellow mudges don’t seem to care that Kelly Welly is calling Roger “Buck” today. Although it may be his pornstar name and seems fitting considering his pornstache, he was Roger up until this point. Buck was Molly’s owner.
Ned Ryerson
July 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm [Reply]

MRSA-Man, armed with a PowerPoint presentation urging healthcare workers to use prescribed precautions in handwashing, handling of soiled linens and isolation of infected patients!

See MRSA-Man review hospital procedures for equipment sterilization!

Thrill as MRSA-Man conducts inservices with nursing staff to review standard precautions.

You’ll be on the edge of your seat as MRSA-Man readies his organization for a site visit from the Joint Commission by reviewing thousands of patient records to detect deviations from hospital policy which may negatively impact the organizations accreditation status!
Mac
July 30th, 2008 at 1:49 pm [Reply]

I first ran across “mucilage” as an MST3K reference I had to look up. (Good times…) Maybe it’s a northern/Canadian thing and we just don’t get it.

Otto is a dog, of course, and doesn’t understand that you must use aluminum foil to block out the mindreaders.
Kevin Moore
July 30th, 2008 at 1:50 pm [Reply]

I read mucilage and immediately thought “Mucinex,” so I thought maybe he was having congestion problems – which was no help in deciphering the pun. I doubt Umberto Eco – let alone a senile old man on the brink of death – would have deciphered that pun.
Sarah
July 30th, 2008 at 1:50 pm [Reply]

I admit that I knew the first definition of “mucilage” (liberal arts FTW), and I was completely grossed out. Seriously, I can go forever without hearing that word in that context.
Nekrotzar
July 30th, 2008 at 2:00 pm [Reply]

“We do this 96 times a year” — that means the GT author has taken care of 26% of his strips for the upcoming year, and football season hasn’t even started yet.
Doctorb
July 30th, 2008 at 2:02 pm [Reply]

Hey, Mallard Fillmore was actually funny today, weighing in on the Iranian Photoshop news — remember that? About three weeks ago? And it looks like Tinsley is tacitly acknowledging that Obama’s going to win in November, which is odd for him. And of course it wasn’t really “ha-ha”
funny, just “Mallard Fillmore didn’t make me want to punch someone in the head” funny.
migellito
July 30th, 2008 at 2:02 pm [Reply]

Growing up in the western part of the midwest.. well, we thought of Nebraska as the midwest.. the only definition of mucilage I’ve ever heard people use is synonymous with mucous. So, yeah, he’s saying that being together with Iris is a bunch of snot. Either snot or phlegm.

The first thing I thought of though, I suppose because of the context, was the fiber laxative Mucilex. For more widely appreciated humourous effect, just read what Grandpa Jim says again, substituting ‘Exlax’ for the word in question.
Bootsy
July 30th, 2008 at 2:06 pm [Reply]

Poteet and Chatty! Have fun on your visit! I have 6 sisters and I don’t get to see them much as they are scattered around the country. So have a good time.
Marthas Rolling Pin
July 30th, 2008 at 2:09 pm [Reply]

#11 Chris, I remember mucilage. Sort of a thick amber-colored liquid, came in little glass bottles with a rubber stopper you pressed on your paper to ooze the stuff out. Once it dried, whatever you had glued together with it fell apart, so I guess that was what made it safe for early-graders. (Like white paste, which was the alternative stickum before we graduated to Elmer’s)

Wait, does remembering mucilage that well make me a plugger?
Red Greenback
July 30th, 2008 at 2:11 pm [Reply]

Foobucilage: …and it’s great for sticking down Zip-A-Tone™!
survivor
July 30th, 2008 at 2:11 pm [Reply]

So I didn’t take someone’s job?

Nope. Two guys got signed by big-league organizations, so we … AHH!!! AHH! MY FUCKING ARM! IT DISLOCATED AT THE SHOULDER! GOD HELP ME, THE PAIN! AHHHHHHHHGGGGGHHH!!!
Smarmy Duke
July 30th, 2008 at 2:11 pm [Reply]

Miss Buxley doesn’t know chocolate chips are bad for dogs. Won’t be long before Otto will be vomiting and/or pooping in that bucket.
Sequitur
July 30th, 2008 at 2:20 pm [Reply]

Pluggers; Hey, if Pluggers have stuff like that in their closet, they were once “hip” back in the 70’s. Or… they picked it up last week at a garage sale thinking it was “cool” clothes.
the grene kni3t
July 30th, 2008 at 2:21 pm [Reply]

I would like to point out that the Kalamazoo Kings and the Chillicothe Paints are real Frontier League baseball teams. They sometimes face off against my home team, the Florence Freedom, in contests of sportsmanship that are overshadowed by events such as Dollar Beer Thursdays and the Dizzy Bat Race.
Muffaroo Wuffaroo
July 30th, 2008 at 2:25 pm [Reply]

Marthas Rolling Pin @41 – I used mucilage in grade school — useless stuff. You can still find it at teacher stores. As others have suggested, it’s great for people who like to glue but don’t like things to stick together.
Jesse Cline
July 30th, 2008 at 2:28 pm [Reply]

I thought mucilage was a high fiber cereal…oh wait thats Muselix
Masem
July 30th, 2008 at 2:30 pm [Reply]

I know webcomics aren’t the big thing here, but Scott Kurtz’s “PvP” this week, particularly today’s strip is taking an interest pot-shot at a few print strips (Family Circus and Foxtrot).
Jesse Cline
July 30th, 2008 at 2:32 pm [Reply]

Ahh the Chillicothe Paints, the starting place of legendary baseball stars such as Bryce Bednarczyk, Rusty Watters and Brad “Gingivitis” Plackemeier!

Go Paint!!

http://www.chillicothepaints.com/
Daily Comics Reviewer
July 30th, 2008 at 2:33 pm [Reply]

That poor dog, constantly thinking “pantyshot pantyshot pantyshot pantysh….”
John C Fremont
July 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm [Reply]

# 101 (colonial – previous thread) – Well work me like a claw and call me Randy, you’re right! My apologies to Fran Riordan. I guess I should get out more. Thanks for the info and the link! This story could potentially be interesting – well, considering it’s Gil Thorp, and all.

Robert Klein did a routine about odd words, including mucilage. Pretty sure it was on his “Child of the 50’s” album. Funny stuff, this mucilage. Not when Lynn uses it, though.
PeteMoss
July 30th, 2008 at 2:39 pm [Reply]

Reading today’s FOOB installment reminded me on an episode of the animated program, The Tick. It featured a super hero crime fighting group called “The Civic Minded Five” (or something like that) that included, Mucilage-Man, who’s head gear looked like the opening of a tube of toothpaste or something. He also had some type of back pack attached to a gun that would dispense mucilage on evil doers or something. I think MSRA-man would fit right into that group.

Spoon!
Dingo
July 30th, 2008 at 2:40 pm [Reply]

New thread, new link:

Mary Worth: Dancing Queen

Yes, it’s safe for work.
Sorako-chan
July 30th, 2008 at 2:42 pm [Reply]

What, no adorable Ben Franklin in Gil Thorp this year? This is an outrage! Surely a squat, WASPy bald guy can get worked into this story somehow!….please?
PeteMoss
July 30th, 2008 at 2:44 pm [Reply]

#54 Dingo.

Nice work, however, my eyeballs are still bleeding form that image of Mary in a leather teddy. Damn you! Damn you to Charterstone!
Thank You for Taking My Call
July 30th, 2008 at 2:45 pm [Reply]

I lived in Chillicothe for an eternal 18 months. There is a huge, old paper mill in the middle of town. Any team would have to be named “The Peeling Paints” … or alternately “The Chillicothe Stench”. They must LOVE road games.
Sequitur
July 30th, 2008 at 2:46 pm [Reply]

#54 Dingo: Yow!
Patrick, Interlibrary Loan Lending Division
July 30th, 2008 at 2:53 pm [Reply]

Geeze, I feel old. Mucilage was that not quite glue I used in grade school in the late 1960’s. It made Elmer’s glue seem like industrial strength crazy glue by comparison.
Muffaroo Wuffaroo
July 30th, 2008 at 3:02 pm [Reply]

PeteMoss @53 – I was thinking of those guys while mowing my lawn earlier in the week. I kept imagining the lines, “(chuckle) Yes, and Feral Boy!” and “Let’s make a difference!”
Stroker Ace
July 30th, 2008 at 3:08 pm [Reply]

Otto’s thought balloon: “Buxleys got mucilage!”
Hank
July 30th, 2008 at 3:14 pm [Reply]

RE: Mary Worth. So Toby’s giving Professor Chinbeard “something special for his birthday” and wants to bring Mary along? Oh, dear god….worst…threesome…scene…ever….
Tom Allen
July 30th, 2008 at 3:14 pm [Reply]

FOOB: With all the mucilage remarks, I’m surprised that no one noticed that Iris is looking a bit pasty. But I’m sure Elly’s Dad would like to stick it to her anyway.

I wonder whether it’s depressing or fortunate for Iris that the stroke robbed him of the chance to make these puns aloud.
Monkeypants
July 30th, 2008 at 3:23 pm [Reply]

If you think Gil Thorp is extra boring to read lately, try coming up with something to write about this horrid plot every…damned…day. Edward Penis-Shoulder in panel one was all I could muster today. Sigh…

drinks heavily and dreams of Gail Martin…
Harvey Penick
July 30th, 2008 at 3:33 pm [Reply]

GT – Be vewy quiet – I’m wunning waps – huh-huh-huh-huh-huh!
commodorejohn
July 30th, 2008 at 3:34 pm [Reply]

#64 Monkeypants – Oh God, this is going to last all damn summer? ARGH. ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH.
cheech wizard
July 30th, 2008 at 3:36 pm [Reply]

BB- The guys in the barracks are gonna be pissed when they find out the dog won thebetting pool over who was going to be the first one to see Miss Buxley’s pussy.
cheech wizard
July 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm [Reply]

GT – “So, I didn’t take somebody’s job?”

“Nah, everything here’s based on merit, Elmer. We did cut a kid who ran away from home in South Dakota, but figured yours was the greater need.”
commodorejohn
July 30th, 2008 at 3:46 pm [Reply]

#67 cheech wizard – Are you implying that Miss Buxley goes commando at work? Holy cow.
Moss_Moses
July 30th, 2008 at 3:48 pm [Reply]

Buck + Roger * 2 = Buck Rogers…

Is Elrod pulling a Lynn Johnston on readers with a lousy, subliminal pun or did he really forget the name of Kelly’s assistant? This reminds me of the time Mark Trail was saying he’d be safe standing on the oyster bar with water up to his neck because the tide was coming in. Why are all naming conventions and laws of physics wantonly disregarded in Lost Forest?

Ol’ ChinNutz’s scrotal chin is getting more prominent all the time. Does he have a mucilage orgasm from his nose when Iris strokes his chin nuts? I’ve been wishing he’d die for years. He’d make great Farley Tree fertilizer.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pm [Reply]

I have also noticed that this Summer’s Gil Thorp strips have lacked a certain zip. The Elmer Vargas thing has continued long past any point of possible interest (worn out in about ten days.) Maybe Neal Rubin just can’t think of anything outlandish this year. That means its up to us. If you have pictures of an especially gory auto accident/machinery mishap, or six-hour surgery, send them to Gil c/o Tribune Media Services. Especially watch for anything involving injury to/enhancement of the genitals. Neal will thank you for it, and Rod may be inspired as well.
LurkNoLonger
July 30th, 2008 at 4:01 pm [Reply]

would just like to say that i love the snark here, but I really appreciate the respect shown for everyone’s posts. I know another site where a few posters are allowed to be very insulting to everyone else, but get their knickers in a twist if anybody dishes it back at ‘em. I love seeing defenseless cartoon characters get dumped on, however.
Carly
July 30th, 2008 at 4:02 pm [Reply]

#5 user-of-owls: lame, but pretty much on par for minor league baseball. Or major league baseball. This is the sport that names its teams after clothes (the Sox), location (the Phillies, the Mets), and various non-threatening forms of wildlife (the Orioles, the Cardinals). Other sports have these, too, but not in such abundant supply. I think my favorite minor league team is the Biscuits.
Carly
July 30th, 2008 at 4:03 pm [Reply]

And an addendum to my comment: looking through the comments, I see The Paints actually exist, which probably proves my points about the lameness of baseball nicknames, or something.
Professor Fate
July 30th, 2008 at 4:06 pm [Reply]

GT: Reading a strip where people talk about minor league baseball is dull enough to make you go backwards in time.

FOOB: “Oh we are so noble Oh we are so noble loving and kind and noble La La” Insert something that for want of a better phrase can be refered to as a ‘pun’ . Reader ponders benifits of life without eyes then figures FOOB comes in brail versions and figures it isn’t worth the trama.

Phanton: Your concern over your partner’s brutal methoods might go over better if you weren’t holding what looks like a .45 Caliber pistol in your hand.
cheech wizard
July 30th, 2008 at 4:16 pm [Reply]

69/commodore john – Of course she goes commando – it’s a military base, isn’t it?

Which suggests a rather disturbing possibility for a strip – Sarge orders the men to muster for commando training and they all show up without pants. Or perhaps it’s just Zero saying “So how come we’re not wearing any underwear?” Or something like that.
Perky Bird
July 30th, 2008 at 4:29 pm [Reply]

Family Circus: “First mimeographs, then chalk and blackboards. Geez, what’s next, Gramma, memories of mucilage?”
Baka Gaijin
July 30th, 2008 at 4:31 pm [Reply]

#54 Dingo: “Dancing Queen” is entertaining and all, but it lacks the je ne sais quoi of “Dapper Slapper.” I hoped you’d have focused your incredible authorial talents on the potential future of Apartment 3-G’s peripatetic blonde. You know, lovable LuAnn crossing paths with hundreds of drunken sweaty bikers on their way to Sturgis. I’m sure your fertile mind could come up with something interesting.
kalki
July 30th, 2008 at 4:31 pm [Reply]

FBOFW: Cmon, the guy is supposed to be on death’s door after 2 strokes. The strip is on life support anyway.
Vakar
July 30th, 2008 at 4:32 pm [Reply]

33: Whoa, Ned! That’s almost Spider-Man-level action! I don’t know if my ol’ ticker could keep up with two such strips! And, geez, if the next Mark Trail storyline involves more villianous county commissioners, I’m done for.

43: Still laughing over this one. I can hear Crow from MST3K in it.
Perky Bird
July 30th, 2008 at 4:33 pm [Reply]

# 73 Carly:
My hometown’s baseball team is called the Hooks. You can imagine what their loyal fans are called…

(That’s my original hometown. Now I live outside DC, where we have the Nats, which either reminds me of a swarm of annoying bugs, or makes me think they’re saying “nads”.)
Baka Gaijin
July 30th, 2008 at 4:35 pm [Reply]

Pickles: And all this time I’ve been blaming the dog!
Hollis
July 30th, 2008 at 4:46 pm [Reply]

Mucilage, if you were the product of (at least Ontario) public schools is all too familiar as the type of paste you were issued at school. It was made by a company called Elmer’s. Had a consistency and colour fairly close to honey. It came in a little stand-up bottle with a slanted, red rubber mouth on it that you would barf out the contents from a slit in the rubber that would seal up when it wasn’t being squeezed.
As I recall the mouth often got clogged up with a wad of the glue which dried to look remarkably like a crusted up booger.
Red Greenback
July 30th, 2008 at 4:47 pm [Reply]

(I?) GT: Sheesh! I need to get a life
Josh
July 30th, 2008 at 4:48 pm [Reply]

Wow, Luann’s growing up so fast! It seems like it was only eight years ago that she first started learning to drive. And all ready she’s getting a car? I wonder what 2016 could hold for the DeGroot residence? Maybe Brad can get permission from his parents by then to get to second base with Toni.
Jeremiah
July 30th, 2008 at 4:50 pm [Reply]

MW – “Of course, Toby. I know of this store that sells the most darling crystal animal figurines! One of those coupled with a bottle of aged Scotch would be a perfect gift for Mr. Cameron and will also provide years of joyless bitterness… Wait, what did I just say? Sometimes I stop listening to myself.”
Jordan
July 30th, 2008 at 4:51 pm [Reply]

Maybe it’s just me, but if I had to work under a man named “Fran” pawing his crotch and telling me to “sit, watch, learn – and stay ready”, deportation wouldn’t look all that bad.
Galuaboy
July 30th, 2008 at 4:51 pm [Reply]

Foob: OK, maybe this has been addressed before, but it’s been bothering me for some time now. If Chinnuts can use a walker, stand with some degree of independence, and–as Elly so delicately put it last week– “Manage with, you know … personal things” then why can’t they get him a pad of paper and a pencil so he can express himself beyond shouting “yes” all the time? If he can wipe himself, surely he could scratch out, “Stop treating me like a goddamn child!”
AsleepOrDead
July 30th, 2008 at 5:02 pm [Reply]

88 Galuaboy- But where’s the fun in treating him like a human being???
cheech wizard
July 30th, 2008 at 5:02 pm [Reply]

LuAnn – “I am mature!” And to emphasize the point, she juts her blossoming tits out into her dad’s face. No wonder he looks skeptical in that panel.
Islamorada Girl
July 30th, 2008 at 5:05 pm [Reply]

In the ad to the left, are all those people running away because they’re terrified a 50 foot woman is going to crush them under her
giant, surgically enhanced bosoms?
p.
July 30th, 2008 at 5:07 pm [Reply]

“Mucilage” as a grade-school adhesive must be a heck of a regional thing, since that’s the first usage I knew growing up in midwestern schools in the late eighties. The Tick cartoon was mentioned above as having a Mucilage Man, and he appeared in the comics, too — the top of his costume mentioned in the post is based on the top of grade-school mucilage applicators.
Donald The Anarchist
July 30th, 2008 at 5:09 pm [Reply]

(DT)GT “After Lashawn Barry’s three hits pace Kalamazoo…” Is this a line from The Naked Lunch? Seriously, this is one of those things that’s going to gnaw at me endlessly. Any grade school teachers blogging here? Try writing that on the board and asking your kids to parse that sentence. I’m curious to know if it will make their brains explode…

BB At least that little outfit means his lipstick isn’t showing.

FOOB All her life, Iris wanted a man with all the autonomic responses of the living, but with absolutely no voluntary muscular control. Oh, the things she would do to him…I guess Grampa Jim doesn’t mind the attention, and at least she doesn’t dress him in leather and PVC…
LUJBEM FEJF
July 30th, 2008 at 5:11 pm [Reply]

Thanks FOOB! “Glow by Glow description” …”The feeling is Mucilage”… this week has been Jumble Gold! Keep ‘em coming Lynn.
L1
July 30th, 2008 at 5:17 pm [Reply]

The feeling is mucilage…at least it was before everything below the waist stopped working.
PeteMoss
July 30th, 2008 at 5:23 pm [Reply]

#60 Muffaroo Wuffaroo
My favorite member of the team was the guy wrapped in carpet who would fight crime with his power of generating static electricity. He almost passed out from the heat.
PeteMoss
July 30th, 2008 at 5:42 pm [Reply]

MT – Ya know, I could watch Cherry hitch up that stuff to the back of that horse all day long. Sigh. What a woman. By the way who is Buck? Anyway, Kelly should ask that nice Roger guy to stick around and help her with her photographs. Shoot, that guy was willing to take a moose hoof to the head for Kelly’s career.
texas buddha
July 30th, 2008 at 5:47 pm [Reply]

I just got a comment from somebody telling me they are contacting Keane and hope I get sued.

Anybody got any quick legal advice?
Trogdor
July 30th, 2008 at 5:47 pm [Reply]

Big Nate: Pardon me, but I must now go and soak by brain in bleach to purge it of the mental image today’s comic conjures up.
Christopher
July 30th, 2008 at 5:49 pm [Reply]

Mallard Fillmore: I see from today’s strip that Obama discovered the Ark of the Covenant on his Middle East trip. You know, because his face is melting.

Dick Tracy: Those dogs must be really scary. That guy in the back has reverted to mankind’s most primal method of expressing fear: the cartwheel.

Also, are these dogs bullet-proof or something? I’d like to think a SWAT team would be capable of handling two dogs. I haven’t been reading this story, but is that their whole plan? Bring a couple of dogs?

These villains join a long line of villains whose MO is significantly less effective then just getting a big gun. Like, eg, the Trapster, a Spider-Man villain who wields a high-pressure glue gun, and who was the basis for Mucilage Man.

You see? Life is a rich tapestry.

Momma: Oh my god, we know her true name! Her satanic power is gone! Hallelujah!

Mutts: This strip makes me think of some kind of crab version of Misery. Once you’ve crushed and eaten some of his limbs he’ll be real nice.

Hi & Lois: This is like, the third day in a row where I’ve seen a comic that has no joke at all. Your kid’s going to become a petty thug? That’s the punchline?

Actually, saying that to somebody while wearing a look of pure despair does sound pretty funny. Maybe it’s something about Hi & Lois.
DAS
July 30th, 2008 at 5:54 pm [Reply]

Momma is set in the future relative to the Cathy timeline and Sonya Hobbes (yes, I knew her name before today, how pathetic is that?) is friends with Cathy?
Marion Delgado
July 30th, 2008 at 5:55 pm [Reply]

I phoned up Jeff and Mary on my cardboard phone that talks to comics characters. They say both are right – the opener was a Hansard and Iglovna cover band, “Raise your Hopeful Voice,” but the headliner was, indeed, the Weepies.

Also, Mary asked me about my dead-end job and if I’d been dating much lately, and Jeff said you’re never too young to start worrying about your prostate.
PeteMoss
July 30th, 2008 at 6:01 pm [Reply]

# texas buddha
According to Mr. Fruhlinger, who’s Pope in this parts, Bil Keane politely asked the creator of Dysfunctional Family Circus to take down his parody images and said creator complied. Keane even admitted to finding DFC funny but was concerned about some of the images being too mean-spirited. At least that’s the urban legend I’ve read.
PeteMoss
July 30th, 2008 at 6:19 pm [Reply]

I propose we help Lynn Johnston out by providing her punch lines around which she can write FBOW puns.

- Is that why it’s called ON-tario?
- I couldn’t BEAR that much love.
- This evening could use a little more TROMbone.
- Like rice to a flame.
- Everyone’s a cricket.
- If I could walk that way, I wouldn’t need the talcum.
- Rectum? It killed him!
- Just let sleeping DOS lie.
- The squeaky veal gets the Greece.

Actually, some of these may be more suitable for Crankshaft, but Lynn is still welcome to use any one of them.
dale
July 30th, 2008 at 6:28 pm [Reply]

Luann
If TJ can’t afford to keep the car, how can Luann?

It would be a breath of fresh flatulence if a comic strip were to seriously address the difference between buying a vehicle and maintaining it.
magic8ball
July 30th, 2008 at 6:42 pm [Reply]

Trivia that will not interest anyone else: I learned the word “mucilage” from reading Perry Mason novels. It’s the word Erle Stanley Gardner uses for the glue that keeps envelopes sealed. You can imagine how this would come up frequently in Perry Mason novels.
texas buddha
July 30th, 2008 at 7:22 pm [Reply]

Over 1000 hits today, and before today my all time high was 80 hits in a 24 hour period… I’m actually queasy.

That and a conservative blogger vows to get me sued.

I expected a little more traffic, but holy shit.

Well PeteMoss, thanks for the words of encouragement. I guess I’ll just hold my breath and wait for the paperwork to arrive in the mail.

Maybe I should contact the ACLU. That might have the added benefit of making the conservative blogger burst a blood vessel in his brain.
mafketis
July 30th, 2008 at 7:26 pm [Reply]

I understood the mucilage reference right away.
This either makes me a Plugger or part of the target demographic for FOOB… It could be worse, I suppose, I could be a Mary Worth wannabe spouting fatuous platitudes over plates of ambiguous goo. And as a wise man once said: If minor league baseball be the road to the promised land, then … won’t somebody stage an intervention?
Harold
July 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pm [Reply]

Reposted from previous entry:

Wait…is “Andy” in the comic “strip” Curtis actually wearing a Black Terror t-shirt?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Terror

Nawww…probably just a plain old skull-and-crossbones. Still…that would be the coolest t-shirt since Starfish-Head Boy wore a Black Adam t-shirt in the dull “Rex and S-HB go fishing and wind up tangled with bank robbers” Rex Morgan storyline.
True Fable
July 30th, 2008 at 7:54 pm [Reply]

#107 texas buddha – I went to your site and thought it was funny! Don’t let some nit-picker spoil your day, bud. Just let it go. If Keane does contact you, contact him back and reassure him that you mean no harm, etc.

There are people in the world who just can’t stand anything out of line in their overstructured, tightassed world. Use them as a doorstop and step on through, buddy.

TF
Alfred E. Neuman, showing his mucil age
July 30th, 2008 at 8:04 pm [Reply]

FOOB— I, too used mucilage in elementary school in Southern California in the early 1950s. I guess I was more perverted in my thinking than Hollis (#83), as the crusted-up slit in the rubber tip reminded me of someone with a serious “social disease” (not that I knew that from personal experience, mind you.).
I first heard “The feeling is mucilage!” about that same time from one of the Three Stooges, or Red Skelton, or Milton Berle, or possibly all of them. So it’s a very old pun dating back to vaudeville at least. It appears that LJ has attended the Batiuk School of Ancient Crappy Comedy, or maybe it’s the other way around. In either case, it’s the readers that suffer.
commodorejohn
July 30th, 2008 at 8:09 pm [Reply]

#107 texas buddha – Oh, rock on, man. Your site is fantastic.
Jana C.H.
July 30th, 2008 at 8:10 pm [Reply]

#3 Uncle Lumpy– “Kalama Zookings”? Is this a reference to the small town in southwestern Washington State named Kalama?

It won’t work, though, because the accent in “Kalama” is on the penult, not the antepenult.

See, LJ isn’t the only one who can use over-sized words, though I confess I thought of the “mucus” definition, not the “glue” definition.

Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith JcH: How to write like a bureaucrat, academic, or educator: Never use a word of one syllable when you can employ two or utilize three.
commodorejohn
July 30th, 2008 at 8:16 pm [Reply]

So do you suppose that back in 1960, instead of mimeographs and chalkboards, Grandma Keane was reminiscing about stenography and Western Union?
Chat Noir
July 30th, 2008 at 8:20 pm [Reply]

FOOB: Forget mucilage, I was just disappointed that Grandpa didn’t kick it while Iris was away and that last panel isn’t her sobbing in guilt over the pine box the Pattersons shoved him in and then put on the back porch because it didn’t go with the teal-and-lavender wedding color scheme.
Harold
July 30th, 2008 at 8:27 pm [Reply]

A semi-repost from the previous entry:

Blandthony had better take a good hard look at Gwamps. His fate is the same one which awaits all of the other Patterfoob males, even those who have married into the family!
strawberrymom22
July 30th, 2008 at 8:50 pm [Reply]

#107 texas buddha

Your stuff was great. You tell Mr Uptight to get off the internet and finish their summer school homework. I told everyone here that my 13 yr old likes the family circus so I can assume that only a child would get that worked up over that strip. I’m sure that if that person is an adult they will sober up soon and forget they were even at your site!
texas buddha
July 30th, 2008 at 8:54 pm [Reply]

#110 & #112 Thanks y’all. I feel a little bit less like vomiting now.

I figure I’ll wait it out and see what happens… I have a few more postings left to do and a few more ideas for a few more postings beyond that…

… Besides, being told to cut it out by Bil Keane himself would be an honor.

The show must go on!!!
texas buddha
July 30th, 2008 at 8:59 pm [Reply]

#117 You all are being so nice to me.

My punk rock attitude of defiance toward authority is officially restored!
Lisa
July 30th, 2008 at 9:19 pm [Reply]

{Wait, does remembering mucilage that well make me a plugger?}

No, it makes you a boomer though. I remember rubber cement, its other name, really well. We used it in junior high art class, but we could only work with it so long or we would get high off the fumes. It’s the stuff meant when people talk about sniffing glue, or at least that was what it meant back then. And it really did only stick to what you didn’t want it to, like your fingers instead of the two pieces of paper you were trying to stick together.
Joe Blevins
July 30th, 2008 at 9:39 pm [Reply]

Being able to read minds at Camp Swampy? Yeah, that’s like being Burgess Meredith in that “time enough at last” episode of The Twilight Zone.

I must say, though, I’ve always been secretly amused and delighted by the character of Otto. Specifically by the fact that he wears a tie, which speaks to a certain degree of either optimism or complete denial on his part. The fact that one (hallucinogenic?) cookie is enough to make him wear a garbage can for a hat only makes me love him more.
trey le parc
July 30th, 2008 at 9:41 pm [Reply]

#98: If the real Bil Keane shows up, offer him a trite joke you’ve repeated for years. Chances are that it’s new to him and presto! End of problem.

If the animated version shows up, contact me immediately. I know how to deal with that bastard.
dale
July 30th, 2008 at 9:44 pm [Reply]

I remember mucilage from the early 50s. It was applied from those rubber tipped bottles, as others have previously described. My mother used the stuff at home. We didn’t use it in school, just the white paste which some kids did eat.

Mucilage is like using maple syrup for paste.

Rubber cement is not mucilage. You spread it on with a brush that hangs from the jar cap. It does have a fine aroma about it.

You might think of a glue stick as being a cross between a bottle of mucilage and a jar of white paste in terms of (1) method of application and (2) adhesive attributes.
Muffaroo Wuffaroo
July 30th, 2008 at 9:46 pm [Reply]

Lisa @120 – Mucilage is different from rubber cement. Rubber cement actually holds papers together, and can be used for paste-up purposes (as I have, many times). Mucilage is more liquidy and doesn’t smell like rubber cement (which has a solvent base).
Muffaroo Wuffaroo
July 30th, 2008 at 9:48 pm [Reply]

Now, see, if I’d previewed, I’d have seen #123, which came along while I was composing. For the record, I’m more of a mid-60s grade school guy. Just in case somebody’s keeping track.
texas buddha
July 30th, 2008 at 10:16 pm [Reply]

Thanks to the Comics Curmudgeon and all of you my tiny little blog has gone from nowheresville to the #4 fastest growing blog on Wordpress overnight. That and I’m getting threatened with a possible lawsuit.

Thanks again everyone!
LTBF
July 30th, 2008 at 10:18 pm [Reply]

Otto covering his head so people couldn’t read his mind is a Family Circus type joke. Mort, you’re better than that.
Sheila Sternwell
July 30th, 2008 at 10:27 pm [Reply]

Mexile

HA!

I know I should say something clever or snarky, but there’s nothing I can say today that would top that.
Sheila Sternwell
July 30th, 2008 at 10:34 pm [Reply]

Oh, wait. The FOOB joke of “the feeling is mucilage” is an old Charlie McCarthy joke. Back in the 1980s I watched one of those PBS shows which had a bunch of old TV comics reprise their 1950s roles, a la “The Sunshine Boys”. Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy were on the show, and Charlie used the pun “the feeling is mucilage” as a punchline. I thought the joke was hysterical, but when I repeated it to my friend Olivia, she said, “EWWWWWWWWW.”

For years I thought “mucilage” was the same as “sewage”, based on her reaction. Imagine my dismay to discover that was wrong.

But, yeah, Lynn totally stole a crappy, decades-old pun. As Olivia once said, “EWWWWWWWWW.”
AhClem
July 30th, 2008 at 10:39 pm [Reply]

I recall a line from recording where a stereotypical hard-boiled detective is eating lunch at a greasy-spoon cafe and says to the waitress, “If I wanted mucilage, I would have ordered mucilage.” Unfortunately, I don’t remember where it came from (possibly Firesign Theater, but I’m not sure).
Old School Allie Cat
July 30th, 2008 at 10:41 pm [Reply]

What’s interesting to me is that I was actually thinking about mucilage a few days before this strip was published.

What’s less interesting, and downright gross, is that I was remembering that my late grandmother had a bottle of it in her house, and I was remembering it in conjunction with the fact that I have a cold-y, sinus-y thing going on.

Sorry, but how often does that kind of thing happen.

You’ll be thinking plate, or shrimp, or, plate of shrimp…

Well, never mind.
survivor
July 30th, 2008 at 11:08 pm [Reply]

125 – You are in your 60s and you’re still in grade school?

You must be the dumbest mother fucker alive!
texas buddha
July 30th, 2008 at 11:10 pm [Reply]

#131… and then somebody will say shrimp, or plate of shrimp. No explanation. No point in looking for one either. It’s all part of the cosmic unconsciousness.
Muffaroo Wuffaroo
July 30th, 2008 at 11:24 pm [Reply]

AhClem @130 – Well, the line’s not in the original Nick Danger album, and it doesn’t sound familiar from the other two Nick Danger LPs or the Case of the Missing Yolk, so you might be remembering it from somewhere else.
AhClem
July 30th, 2008 at 11:27 pm [Reply]

#130 me, #134 M.W. -
The line comes from Humphrey Bogart in “All Through the Night.” I’ve never seen it, but Radar O’Reilly repeates the line while impersonating Bogart in an old M*A*S*H episode, which is where I remember it from.

Thank you, Google and IMDB!
Dr. Weird
July 30th, 2008 at 11:53 pm [Reply]

Hi everybody! I attended the San Diego Comic Con and came across Luann’s Greg Evans at the National Cartoonist Society booth. My first instinct was to tell him “PLEASE have some forward movement with Toni and Brad.” He remarked that if they did get together, it wouldn’t be funny… which is true. I suggested “Then they can break up! Or he can meet a girl even more ideally suited for him!” I should have suggested Love Hina as a reference… or Gunsmith Cats. Bernice looks a lot like Becky Farrah there.

I mentioned this site, and he had heard of it in passing, such as the thoughts that TJ is gay that are expressed here, and felt it was “mean.” I pointed out that the people are reading the strip and they wouldn’t comment on it, even snarkily, if they didn’t care, and that I still do read the strip and skip over things like “Garfield.”

I’ve put a picture in the link on my name, after botching the inline link here a few times.
Dingo
July 31st, 2008 at 12:59 am [Reply]

Not to cast aspersions but the creator of Luann looks like one of those guys who hangs out in the park and offers teenage girls an umbrella and a lift… and it’s not raining.

I’m almost afraid to learn what a $10 “Luann” musical CD is.
Andy Panderer
July 31st, 2008 at 1:10 am [Reply]

“Funny” is something Greg Evans has never been concerned about.
Pepperoni Détournées
July 31st, 2008 at 1:12 am [Reply]

JP: OK, am I the only one who has never heard of this magical little book? Flight attendants, wispy-moustached teenagers who work at Avis, and injured vets have all read this book, but a bookworm like myself has never heard of it? I guess I really, REALLY hate golf.
Mr. Wuxtry
July 31st, 2008 at 1:17 am [Reply]

Remembering mucilage definitely makes you a Plugger. For the rest of you, here is a photograph that shows various bottles of LePage’s, which is the mucilage I remember:
http://tinyurl.com/5rhx9x
Note that LePage’s is a Canadian outfit. There’s your FOOB connection. Canada got Pluggers!
Jake
July 31st, 2008 at 1:27 am [Reply]

For those who haven’t realized, the Kalamazoo Kings and Chillicothe Paints are real teams in the Frontier League, around the midwest.
Invisible Me
July 31st, 2008 at 1:38 am [Reply]

“Mucilage” is a rare word? Since when? It means that yellow glue kids are issued with in school. It’s always meant that. It’s a common word.

Or is it only a weird word in the US?
Eric the Baker
July 31st, 2008 at 1:45 am [Reply]

Regarding horrid sports mascot names, I feel I and the other students who went to the same High School I went to have a virtual lock on a top 10 position.

I attended Bishop Boyle High School, in Homestead PA. It was a Catholic co-ed, school, closed after the 1987 school year. It was named after a former Bishop of the Pittsburgh Diocese.

The team/mascot name was the Boyle Lancer. He was a knight riding a horse into battle, with his lance out in front. Of course if you go with the way Boyle is usually pronounced, as “boil”, you come up with a completely different image.
True Fable
July 31st, 2008 at 2:14 am [Reply]

FW Oh, come ON now! Batiuk, do you mean that a coach’s kid, even a geek like Jinx, hasn’t learned even the basics about base/softball from her dad? Okay, I don’t expect her to understand the infield fly rule but holy crap, surely she went to a few ball games with her mother when she was younger to watch Dad at work and saw that the pitcher faces the catcher and throws the ball over the home plate!
You stink, Batiuk. And even if you DID come to this site, I’d tell you the same thing outright.
GF Oh, come one, I haven’t laughed at this strip in an abysmally long time. Bucky used to be funny but obviously he doesn’t have the power to just stand there and be funny anymore.
JP Am I saying Oh Come On yet again? Woody! Good Lord, who fucking HASN’T read Chairman Penick’s Little Red Golf Book?
MT Let’s see the Catfight! Meow, rrrrh! pfft! PFFFT! But wait, first Kelly’s got to get into an implausible jam and Cherry’s got to wrestle her out of it. I tell you what, Cherry’s really improved with this storyarc – She’s not quite as scary if you don’t give her big close-ups and show her with talking potatoes and stuff.
MW You can’t really read it well, but I’m sure the bill Toby is holding says Salad – Stew – Dessert – Souls. Mary’s appetite is back!
Phantom Stripey Butt’s the only guy I know who can lecture a man on Smackdown Etiquette while knocking the snot out of people.
RMMD I’m Max Mallory…gooooood day!
S-M Yes, I’m sure Peter Parker will do the Noble Thing and save JJJ, but if he was smart, he’d claim a relapse and let the old fucktard get what’s coming to him.
True Fable
July 31st, 2008 at 2:18 am [Reply]

#137 Dingo – The Luann musical is sort of like High School Musical, only with actual legitimate two-dimensional comic strip characters and not bankrolled by Disney.

…yeah.
Mad at Mad at Patty
July 31st, 2008 at 2:26 am [Reply]

To quote Franks Burns “SNOT SNOT!”
Visaman
July 31st, 2008 at 2:28 am [Reply]

Who the hell was that? Mad Mad at Patty?
bats :[
July 31st, 2008 at 2:28 am [Reply]

139. Pepperoni Détournées: I volunteer for our local Friends of the Library, and this damned little book comes through a lot (always as a donation — about as popular as the Lee Iacocca bios or the latest Tom Clancy potboiler) — I can only guess it was less inspirational to many people in Tucson.

Oh, look! Thursday funnies!

JP: dang, I have to admit I’m a little excited — Sam’s actually landed at Sky Harbor airport, in Phoenix! Hoo!

MT: I guess the moniker “Moss” comes from the fact that the poor fellow either has a very shaggy, unruly beard, like moss.
Which I suppose is better than having impetigo or MRSA or something…
I think Cherry would’ve been money ahead if she’d told Kelly that Moss was a rare, LoFo sasquatch and she should take photos of hime, rather than wasting perfectly good bacon.

MW: Mary has to run home and finish filling out the hospital admittance forms for Jeff’s orchidectomy. And Toby think she has the perfect surprise for Ian!

FOOB:
Elly: Looking after him is a lot of work…You’re always afraid that he’ll fall or choke or something.
John: I don’t worry about that at all.
Joe Btfsplk
July 31st, 2008 at 2:35 am [Reply]

Yesterthread #144 Harold – Indeed, that falling-brick incident demonstrates that that Spider-Sense of his is wildly unreliable. That doesn’t excuse this episode, from back in January, when Spider-Man stood and watched as The Persuader broke off a lamppost and BONKKed him on the head with it. And this was an even lamer villain than The Vulture.

Dick Tracy – (Thursday) Eeeeww!! He punched the whistle out of the bad guys’s mouth, and then put it in his own mouth! Ack!! And I don’t get it… Blowing the whistle just makes the dogs not attack you. They’ll still go after everyone else who isn’t blowing a whistle. Or is that not right? I’m sorry. I try my best to understand this strip, really I do.
Frank Parsnip
July 31st, 2008 at 2:36 am [Reply]

A3G: Never has so much unsureness in her own locking-up skills been indicated by a woman wearing a violet Mao suit.

MT: I’m starting to like Kelly Welly as a 1940s-era early proponent of extreme sports. She’s clearly just looking for new crazy thrills in Mark Trail’s boring world: “Aww, you bunch of spoilsports! Before we leave, I’m going to climb up that steep cliff ON A HORSE!”

OBH: Yesterday’s visit by Crankshaft to the OBH universe has been duly noted. Today’s Maltese joke has been swiftly forgotten.

MW: The bill: “Salad, Stew, Dessert”. Mmmmmm… tasty! No choices involved with that, and apparently these were served family-style because there’s no indicator of them getting 2 of these.

Sex Organ, M.D.: “Can we put the infected boys in Mallory’s basement?” asked Rex. “I think I can treat them there over the coming weeks.”

Jugs Parker: Everybody notices that little red book, and if two guys who hate golf thinks it’s “cool” and “inspirational”, I think there’s a problem here. That little book is getting more attention than Ted Nugent at a Klan rally.

FC: Test Subject: Billy Keane. Date: 080731. Notes: After 27 hours, Substance 2031923-A at 10mg appears to be losing its effect on the Subject, as he no longer hears the crackers scream when he bites into them.

Mallard Fillmore: Does Tinsley even look at any photos of the people he tries to draw?

My Cage: Today there’s still no resolution of the issue of where Ashley and Norm were headed to outside the office as they were getting “too comfortable” around each other. The tension mounts… however I’m assuming that given Norm’s personality and Ashley’s prior statements re: Norm that they were simply heading out for lunch or an off-site customer meeting.

Bizarro: Ernie Keebler? Hey, if all I wanted was pop culture references, I could go watch Family Guy all day.
Christian
July 31st, 2008 at 2:39 am [Reply]

Does the fact that Sarge dresses up his little dog contribute to the idea that he’s gay, or at least gay for Beetle? Or is that a grossly bigoted stereotyping-type comment?
Jana C.H.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:52 am [Reply]

For weird team nicknames it’s hard to beat the Richland Bombers and their mushroom cloud emblem.

http://richlandbombers.org/sports/

The city of Richland, Washington, was barely a farm town until the construction of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where the plutonium was created for the bombing of Nagasaki. Ah, history!

Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Floss Forbes: If you don’t know the tune, sing tenor.
Mibbitmaker
July 31st, 2008 at 3:05 am [Reply]

7/31 A3G:

“No, I’m just suuuch a weakling that I can’t open an UNlocked door! … Okay, actually, I didn’t want to strain my drawing hand; Harvey wants me to get going on the “Mark Trade” story. Sorry I snapped, hon’.”
Mibbitmaker
July 31st, 2008 at 3:13 am [Reply]

7/31 FOOB: Well, if real life is any indicatio– aw, hell, I haven’t the heart!

GF: Now they call him Bucket Katt. (By the way, kitty, that’s almost a Peter Gabriel song)
Mibbitmaker
July 31st, 2008 at 3:29 am [Reply]

7/31 MF: Good! I was getting tired of all that pandering.

MW: MAN, is Toeby a patsy!

OBH: I thought it meant it was related to that great WB cartoon writer that did alot with Chuck Jones over the years. No? Yeah, that was a longshot.

Popeye: That kid’ll make a great advertiser when he grows up.

R&R: Lemonaide? Shouldn’t they be selling gum?

S-M: “… And the crowd is……. cheering.”
athena
July 31st, 2008 at 3:53 am [Reply]

BB: How does Miss Buckley know Otto wants a cookie? Because he’s an effing dog. Dogs eat their own poo; of course they’d love cookies.

MW: Thursday’s panel ends with a close-up of Toby’s credit card. Ooh, foreshadowing! What’s the next exciting storyline: Toby’s card is rejected and she immediately assumes Ian has been running up the bill with afternoon-delight hotel visits with a string of chippies, only to learn after seven weeks of high drama (read: tedium) that the card had been hacked by some eBayer, and then we have another seven weeks of high drama (read: tedium) as the Carmichaels cancel their card and get a new one.
scott
July 31st, 2008 at 5:02 am [Reply]

What the hell, Dick Tracy. Good guys with guns can’t keep attack dogs from biting them. Bad guys with attack dogs can’t keep good guys from THUKing them. Don’t these people read the manuals?
gleeb
July 31st, 2008 at 6:22 am [Reply]

Sam Driver’s Golfing Adventures: Why would the rent-a-car guy read a book about a game he “hates”?

Pluggers: …don’t wash.

Rex: “Can we put the infected boys in Mallory’s basement? How about my rumpus room?”
Saluki
July 31st, 2008 at 7:43 am [Reply]

Well it looks like Hagar was hanging around with that Timothy Treadwell fellow again. Timothy couldn’t come in, he was too pooped.
John C Fremont
July 31st, 2008 at 7:45 am [Reply]

MT – I wish he were here, also. For this is how we speak here in The Forest Of The Lost.

MW – Tense bill-paying action! Wait, that’s not a Mastercard, that’s a (gasp) Visa! (Duh-duh-duuuhh!)

Phantom – Made me laugh out loud.

RMMD – It’s not just MRSA, it’s CA-MRSA! But wait, you mean there’s more?!

JP – ENOUGH WITH THE MARGOING BOOK, ALREADY!!!

’shaft – Today we’ve crossed the line between annoying and pointless to just plain stupid. Again.
Saluki
July 31st, 2008 at 7:48 am [Reply]

Pluggers: Who writes this stuff? Jeff Foxworthy?
Hogenmogen
July 31st, 2008 at 7:55 am [Reply]

MRSA: Andy, you did NOT just say “There’s more!” No! You meant to say “Yup, we got it. Case closed. Thanks a billion, Rex-a-roonie. See ya at the wrestling mat barbeque.”
Whippersnapper
July 31st, 2008 at 8:14 am [Reply]

Foob: Assuming April hits the road the moment she turns 18, never to be seen in Pattersonland again, I figured this job would go to Mike’s servant- er wife, Dee. She’s already used to the thankless task of caring for obnoxious Pattersons.
Mordock999
July 31st, 2008 at 8:15 am [Reply]

Today’s LUANN – 07/31/08

Predictable. Painfully, Pathetically, Predictable.

___________________________

DEATH to TJ!
Frank Parsnip
July 31st, 2008 at 8:23 am [Reply]

True Fable (144): The spectre of an MT catfight is an interesting one. Cherry and Kelly with their mom jeans and 1940s body shapes fighting it out in the midst of nature. And to think that in those days (the years when presumably these pictures of Cherry and Kelly were actually drawn before El Rod used them as clipart), the concept of rating systems (CCA, MPAA, etc.) hadn’t come into existence to screw up the comic-book and movie industries…not that either Cherry or Kelly would qualify as “good girl art” in any era but there could be some potential for those with Bettie Page leanings to feel the nostalgia as Cherry and Kelly roll about in the mud.
dimestore lipstick
July 31st, 2008 at 8:25 am [Reply]

FW–
Cripes. Jinx is supposed to be smart, not a mental defective.
One thing people like Batuik never seem to understand–smart people like Jinx are perfectly capable of understanding the basics of a sport or activity, even though they dislike it. In fact, geeks usually make it a policy to research things, and if they choose to reject them, they do it from a position of knowledge, not ignorance.

Case in point: me and Funky Winkerbean.
Hogenmogen
July 31st, 2008 at 9:05 am [Reply]

MF isn’t funny even when it is putting down a Republican. Wow, Tins, you’re a fair and balanced disgrace to the comics page. Who knew?

MW has taken a turn for the worse. Yesterday I cringed upon the realization that the new story line would be “Mary and Toeby shop for Chinbeard”. But, never failing to disappoint even my lowest of expectations, Mary has instead devised an even less interesting route: Go home and do paperwork. Next Tuesday we will see her arduously balancing her checkbook, cursing the fact that she paid the check for Toeby, even though Toeby had the dessert and added chicken strips to her salad, thus making it cost more than Mary’s stew. Sure, and she’ll offer to pay the next time and call it even, but her total portion is almost double Mary’s. The injustice! Curses upon you, Toeby!

The most depressing marriage anywhere from heaven to hell: This joke suffers from misdirection. If the Lockhorns had cable, they wouldn’t need “reception”, because that’s what you need if you have your own antenna. If Leroy were standing outside a blank, Orwellian building generically labeled “Satellite TV – Customer Service”, there would be a joke. But here, the punch line doesn’t make sense. I’m looking for a big dog so that something would be funny.

For Better or Worse But Usually Worse. This is the sort of strip that made me hate it even before the Farley incident. Where’s the punch line? Where? I defy all humanity with a soul to deliver to me one single interpretation of this strip that would register on the hum-o-meter one iota of humorous comedy. She sees the debilitated state of her once proud and vibrant father, now condemned to live the rest of his days as an invalid under the close watch of beleaguered relatives. She and her husband together think how horrific that fate would be. See, it would at least be a pun if they thought “One day soon I’m either going to be inconvenienced or incontinent.”

Suburban Hell: Her brother wrote a pejorative song about her, and she sings it herself. Mom thinks “Better you than me.” Yeah, way to encourage your kid’s self-esteem. Here’s my little ditty:
“Ditto
Is a little shitto…”

Words of wisdom from a man who wears stripey Speedos.

<a href=”http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20080731&name=Family_Circus”Mellon Head eats stale crackers. What’s the joke?

Heathcliff’s interrogator is “also fluent in skunk”? He passes a nauseating odor from his anus?
There is a whole lot to hate about today’s Heathcliff. The helpful sign posed over the window “Interrogation”, the fact that the interrogator is meowing instead of speaking English, which Heathcliff has already demonstrated full comprehension of, Heathcliff has no mouth and he looks as if asleep, why is he under interrogation, and do the police so routinely arrest skunks that they need a translator?

Why are they locking up cats, when YOU MUST FEAR THE MONKEY.

It is the duty of every CCer to make the sincerest effort at some point today to use the phrase “YOU MUST FEAR THE MONKEY”. I’m going on a road trip today with my wife. She has no idea what she’s in for. She will fear that monkey by nightfall.
Hogenmogen
July 31st, 2008 at 9:07 am [Reply]

Sorry, little screw up there: <a href=”http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20080731&name=Family_Circus”Mellon Head eats stale crackers. What’s the joke?
Hogenmogen
July 31st, 2008 at 9:07 am [Reply]

Sorry, little screw up there: Mellon Head eats stale crackers. What’s the joke?
Hogenmogen
July 31st, 2008 at 9:11 am [Reply]

JP: Fellow book lover, but golf hater? So, uh, what time do you get off work, handsome?
The Spectacular Spider-Brick
July 31st, 2008 at 9:21 am [Reply]

Archie: Archie’s doing pretty good, jumping all the way over the upheld umbrella like that. How he got to be so sopping wet that he dripped on the way into the pool I don’t want to know. Meanwhile, Jughead appears to be sliding down a ramp covered in marshmallow fluff. Which would be typical for him.

Blondie: So, will Dagwood just have his job back next week without explanation, or will we get to see him beg and grovel to get it back? Or… third possibility… will he stay unemployed for a while until he finds a different job? It would be a radical shift for this strip, but it has happened before, with Blondie starting her own business. I’d like to see it happen again.

C’Shaft: For the sake of comicdom, somebody needs to block Tom Batiuk’s phone from being able to dial Lynn Johnston’s number.

(WT)DT: “They let go”? It looks like all these “killer” dogs do is hold onto you by the knee. And not too hard, either, since Dick and the others can still stand. That’s specialized dog training, that is.

thorps. Oh, crap! Rubin’s name-dropping again! That’s not just some random newspaper name, he’s talking about the Chillicothe Gazette, which I worked for as a copy editor back in the early ’90s. And there’s even a story about the Paints losing on the front page! Now if Lynn does a story about John being interviewed by Model Railroader, I’m going to have to pull down my blinds and get an unlisted phone number.

Also: If Elmer’s not going to get deported any more, why does he need to work on his Spanish? Or are they just sticking the dirty Mexicans together?

JP: You could put it in your carry-on, Sam. Sheesh. I don’t think this many people have really read that book; I think Woody Wilson just likes saying “Penick.”

Luann: Would Luann even be able to fit in that thing? I’ve owned cats bigger than that car. Where do you stick the key in to wind it up, or do you just pull it back and let go?

MT: Say hi to the puma while you’re up there, Kelly!

Stripeybutt: Not to mention… who are the intruders here?

PC: More like Clip Art City.

RMMRSA: Good for Count Morgu! He’s been promoted from medical examiner to the Rtment of Health!

6C: Where’s the contradiction? Most vegans I know are vegans for ethical concerns, not health ones. It’s really tough to eat a balanced vegan diet. Unless she’s supposed to be smoking unfiltered Oscar-Meyer Bacon-Menthol 100s.
Professor Fate
July 31st, 2008 at 9:24 am [Reply]

FOOB: It’s always about them isn’t it? it might have been funny if while Elly was thinking about the future John was thinking “Beer” or “I need a younger chick”

FW: Ha ha she doesn’t know about sports because she’s a brain Ha ha – Please just shoot me now.

Phantom – okay why draw the gun if a) you’re going to punch everybody and b) make lectures on stealth – guns kinda go boom you know. Attact attention from folks like smugglers.
Bootsy
July 31st, 2008 at 9:24 am [Reply]

Rex Morgan: Rex is disappointed there’s more, since he’s still thinking “Can we put the infected boys in Mallory’s basement? Can we? Please?”

PBS: Lil Duard Duck has obviously been platituded by Mary Worth! Hope he jumps panels and kills her.

And Sam Driver continues to be a dick to total strangers.
Hogenmogen
July 31st, 2008 at 9:25 am [Reply]

Hey Texas Buddha, what is the link to your site?
Hogenmogen
July 31st, 2008 at 9:36 am [Reply]

#166 – Dimestore says “smart people like Jinx are perfectly capable of understanding the basics of a sport or activity, even though they dislike it. In fact, geeks usually make it a policy to research”

Yes, Jinx has read Pinnick’s Little Orange Book, which teaches how to refine your amateur softball game.
Gabacho
July 31st, 2008 at 9:41 am [Reply]

Mary Worth – In any other strip, the close up today on Mary’s credit card would foreshadow the upcoming story line – Mary as an Identity Theft Victim – and the well ~~hung~~ developed young waiter would be the thief.

But seriously, who would want to pose as Mary Worth even it meant access to her credit line? Or all the riches in the world?

Foob – Well, Ellie, based on the example you set for your kids by dumping your father on his hapless second wife, you can pretty well rule out the kids for support after your inevitable bacon on bacon induced stroke.

Gil Thorp – I have followed this plot since the beginning and I have a question. Does anybody know what this storyline is about?
texas buddha
July 31st, 2008 at 9:44 am [Reply]

#174 Hey Texas Buddha, what is the link to your site?

http://texasbuddha.wordpress.com/

Enjoy!
Crankenstank
July 31st, 2008 at 9:58 am [Reply]

The first words out of any illegal immigrants’ mouth: “I hope I didn’t take anyone else’s job!”

The “Paints”, by the way, is the name of a real team. Really.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 31st, 2008 at 9:58 am [Reply]

7/31

JP: And thus is furthered my suspicion that the story is not taking place on earth, but rather is unfolding on a distant planet founded on a Harvey Penick cargo cult.

H&L: The lyrics don’t sound right on their own. You need Johnny Ramone shouting “1,2,3,4″

H&L take 2: So Lois was hoping that Ditto wrote Dot a love song? To those of us not valiumed to the gills, that would be way more creepy.

FC: OK Keanes, I dare you to have him say the same thing while taking communion.

DT: You can go over and punch the whistle out of the guys mouth, and the dogs won’t go for your throat? Man, you can’t get good help anywhere.

C-Shaft: Please, don’t.

Archie: And that’s just one of the many duties the butler performs without pants.

Bizarro: Ah, Pop wants to be Mom. (Did I get the identities right.) Well done, Ces.

MW: The waiter’s crotch, now duly tamed, takes a back seat to Toeby’s credit card. Feel the excitement.

SFx: If you’re a gazelle and they ask you to pose for a group portrait, do not stand between the lion and the crocodile. I think the pile of bones illustrates my point.

Big Dog. A couple months ago, Josh pointed out Phil’s resemblance to ol’ Schickelgruber and I couldn’t quite see it. But jeez. Now he’s doing the Hitler salute while watching Crossfire. Ha. Don’t worry about him, she says.

H&J: And you’ve never been tempted to brain him with your book?

S-M: And somehow the window has been fixed already. New York’s glazers almost work hard enough to make up for the slacking superheroes. Almost.

Luann: “Wait, no, that’s from my hair.”

BSt: Uh, nicely placed crane, sir. I feel a neologism coming on. Transformerection. Yes, transformerections, more than you want to meet the eye.
brendancalling
July 31st, 2008 at 10:01 am [Reply]

-sigh-

those GT (DTGT) strips form last year really make me miss the old artist.

His clumsiness and inability to draw human beings really added to the whole GT experience, making me feel like I’d had LSD for breakfast.
DAS
July 31st, 2008 at 10:03 am [Reply]

RMMD: “can we put the boys in Max Mallory’s basement? It’ll be more convenient for me if they are all in one, quiet, out-of-the way place” “yes, but there’s more … the age of consent in this state has been lowered, so you’ll be legally in the clear”

9CL: If it’s the hair that she’s into, why doesn’t she just engage in some self-love? she seems to have the same hair as he … but maybe that was Brooke’s point?
AMC
July 31st, 2008 at 10:08 am [Reply]

Foob – Q. “Who will be the caregiver for the other?” A. “Neither. He’ll leave you for a younger woman.”

MT – Kelly Welly is about to fall and face severe peril on “those rocks”. We can’t have the arc end without her getting her comeuppance, now can we?

MW – Today’s strip foreshadows Toby’s bankruptcy filing. After Chinbeard finds out she’s been swiping her credit cards in an attempt to fill the utter emptiness of her life, he’ll cut off her allowance. Then, the collection calls just get too much for poor maxed out Toby. After that there will be meddling. Lots of meddling.
DAS
July 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am [Reply]

FC: OK Keanes, I dare you to have him say the same thing while taking communion. – Artist formerly known as Ben

It took me a while to grok this comment. I forget the Keanes are (IRL) Catholic. The comic family seems almost to be more “the Catholic church is the Whore of Babylon and communion wafers are the devil’s food” sort of Christians.
Niall
July 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am [Reply]

Yup, I definitely used those LePage mucilage bottles as portrayed in 140. Mr Wuxtry’s link, way back in kindergarden and the first couple of grades. I wholly agree about its inability to actually make anything stick to anything else other than your fingers. We just called it “glue” though (or “colle” to be precise).

I’ll say one thing, though: if it’s a decades-old pun, woudln’t it be in character for the grandfather to use it, since he’d be the one most likely to have seen it in his prime years? If Apwil had said it, then we could accuse Lynn of (reverse) anachronisms.

143. Eric the Baker: Boyle Lancer??? *dissolves in giggles at work* That’s just MEAN! I mean, it guarantees the team members cannot be taken seriously and get heaped with insults…

179. AfkaBen on FC: See, that was my thought too – that would have been funny. Kids would say something like that, mistaking communion wafers for cookies. But that would have been though of as sacrilegious (when it’s not). And he’d still have been scooped by a day by Ceszarro.
leepy
July 31st, 2008 at 10:11 am [Reply]

As a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, you can understand my feelings towards the city’s baseball team being mentioned in a Gil Thorp comic strip.

Miserable.
Stuart
July 31st, 2008 at 10:12 am [Reply]

What, no comment on the lesbian undertones of this week’s “Funky Winkerbean” storyline?
Deena in OR
July 31st, 2008 at 10:22 am [Reply]

Ces re: Bizzaro…been watching “A Mighty Wind”?
Weaselboy
July 31st, 2008 at 10:27 am [Reply]

Foob: Lynn has offered up a worthy topic of discussion for her readers: which would be more entertaining, Ellie caring for stroke victim John, or vice-versa? I guess we’ll never know, unless Lynn smites one of them right before the wedding. If that’s the case, that strip will be framed and hung right above my computer.
Astroboy
July 31st, 2008 at 10:27 am [Reply]

Luann – Is it me or is Luann looking a little bustier lately? And yesterday while she was jumping up and down on the bed I…wait, Luann IS legal age isn’t she?

Um, she’s not?

Please move along, nothing to see here.
Meanwhile
July 31st, 2008 at 10:37 am [Reply]

MW 7/31: OK, Toby’s a spendthrift, we get it already, JEEZ! You don’t have to keep beating us over the head with it! Day after day of showing these examples without actually advancing the plot is getting pretty dull, you guys!

Oh, oops! This comment was intended for next Friday. Sorry, I got a little ahead of the arc there.
Perky Bird
July 31st, 2008 at 10:43 am [Reply]

Remembering mucilage doesn’t make you a Plugger. Eating> mucilage makes you a Plugger.

Or is that, eating mucilage makes you plugged up?
texas buddha
July 31st, 2008 at 10:44 am [Reply]

#186 What, no comment on the lesbian undertones of this week’s “Funky Winkerbean” storyline?

It’s the love that dare not speak it’s name, hence no comment.
Perky Bird
July 31st, 2008 at 10:47 am [Reply]

D’oh! Dang end tags! Forgetting them makes me a Plugger!
gh
July 31st, 2008 at 11:06 am [Reply]

(WT)DT! –

I like how the dog in panel 3 is mesmerized by Dick. You can almost hear it thinking: Is that spittle? Is he spitting at me? And how can he talk and blow that whistle at the same time?

And “They let go!!”?? Just how many dogs did Dick have hanging off him as he lurched across the bank lobby to THUK! the bad guy, then crawl around trying to recover the whistle? Two? Six? Those are big dogs. I think the dog in the third panel is also thinking How did he do that? We should have taken him down like a zebra at a waterhole.

Forget it, dog. It’s Tracytown.
bats :[
July 31st, 2008 at 11:06 am [Reply]

A little late, but you didn’t think I’d skip the opportunity, did you?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9545446@N07/2720028082/sizes/o/
Hibbleton
July 31st, 2008 at 11:13 am [Reply]

#193 To a Plugger, end-tags are also know as cling-ons.
Paul1963
July 31st, 2008 at 11:39 am [Reply]

Texas Buddha: It’s parody, which is considered fair use under U.S. copyright law. Plus you’re not making any money off of it, right?

Wait’ll I get some of my FC stuff online. Heh, heh. “Do we hafta go to the ‘mergency room now? I have show an’ tell tomorrow!”
Rachel
July 31st, 2008 at 11:42 am [Reply]

All I can say to “mucilage”: Ew. And that dog from yesterday with the brown stuff in his mouth. Ew. What is going on with these comics??? Ew.
queek
July 31st, 2008 at 12:43 pm [Reply]

54: holy [BOXCAR]! Dingo, you aint right, and I mean that in the best possible way. Well done!
Sully
July 31st, 2008 at 2:55 pm [Reply]

YES! BOXCAR! MUCILAGE! DIE, YOU OLD BASTARD, DIE!!
The Wild Sow
July 31st, 2008 at 4:03 pm [Reply]

Mucilage is the kind of glue they are talking about when they send horses to the Glue Factory.

Yes, I know that ’cause I’m a Plugger!
dale
July 31st, 2008 at 4:05 pm [Reply]

186 – Stuart
I clicked on your name link.

1) If your student status is alumni, how many personalities do you have?

2) The county you live in is DuPage, not Dupage.
PunsKillPeople
July 31st, 2008 at 10:58 pm [Reply]

FOOB:

Oh dear god.

This makes me wonder…what hideous crimes has the English language committed against Lynn Johnston? Why does she continue in her grotesque quest to mutilate it beyond all recognition with poorly-structured puns? Did it kick her puppy? Kill her family? Tell her that her characters are stale and two-dimensional and that her so-called “plot” is boring and contrived? Regardless of what it’s done, no matter how great its atrocities, IT HAS PAID FOR ITS SINS!!!

Incidentally, I’m a bio geek, so I read “mucilage” literally. What this meant to me was that she was planting a big, nasty, saliva-laden kiss on poor immobile grandpa, like the Alien-style drool. Yeek.
Stuart
August 1st, 2008 at 9:52 pm [Reply]

#202 – Dale

1. I haven’t figured out how to correct that.

2. That, however, is correctable. Thank you.
Me(Duh)
August 4th, 2008 at 3:51 am [Reply]

About FBOFW;
My dictionary says mucilage is an adhesive substance, gum or glue. So there.
Ed
January 10th, 2009 at 3:52 pm [Reply]

Want a cookie, how classic!

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