The Comics Curmudgeon

53 responses to “Deli shop of TERROR”

1. The Paradox
   September 29th, 2008 at 10:42 am [Reply]

   I loves me a bodacious sale…

2. Calico
   September 29th, 2008 at 10:46 am [Reply]

   “In the Czech Republic, we like pork too…you should try our sausages.”

   Gaaaaah! Brrrrr…

3. Anonymous
   September 29th, 2008 at 10:53 am [Reply]

   Well, Dennis is only five. However, ignorance is no excuse in the law’s eyes. Why isn’t that cop throwing him to the ground and tasering the crap out of him?

4. Gabe
   September 29th, 2008 at 10:53 am [Reply]

   Oops, Anon was me.

5. Holy Prepuce
   September 29th, 2008 at 10:55 am [Reply]

   Not to mention the hand-in-his-pocket fellow at right, staring lasciviously at the lone pickle.

6. willieO
   September 29th, 2008 at 10:55 am [Reply]

   Mintutes later, Dennis succumbs to a flurry of nightstick blows, and the rythmic yelling of “STOP RESISTING, STOP RESISTING”.

7. Suengmina
   September 29th, 2008 at 11:08 am [Reply]

   Another disturbing image from Slylock Fox is the top “find the sames”, where an apparently stoned Barret wearing turtle, carries off a baby. There’s no way of knowing what he will do with it, but his expression tells us it will not be good. Meanwhile the ignorant baby beaver grins on.

8. Peter
   September 29th, 2008 at 11:17 am [Reply]

   I think Snuffy’s reaction might have something to do with the fact that his feet are on fire.

9. Chert the Chort
   September 29th, 2008 at 11:26 am [Reply]

   Dang… I seriously think that Bob Weber Jr. puts stuff in his strip just to see what sorts of freakishness this website can muster. Bravo, Josh. Deli-slicer indeed….

10. Chert the Chort
    September 29th, 2008 at 11:27 am [Reply]

    Oh, and in panel two of Snuffy Smith, is the eponymous character having a seizure?

11. Darkefang
    September 29th, 2008 at 11:33 am [Reply]

    A3G: How adorable. Blaze changed into a black ascot before heading over to the morgue.

    DT: So this plot is going to revolve around giant robots battling it out in the streets? Until now, I didn’t realize Dick Tracy took place in Japan.

    GA: How many strips in a row do we have to look forward to in which the punchline is that Hogee spent $2000 more than the previous strip?

    GT: Milford used to be chock full of people with mutant physical deformities. Now they just lack basic fashion sense. One girl wears outfits with hearts and jolly rogers plastered all over them. There’s a guy wearing Ward Cleaver’s favorite hat. And there’s a transvestite wearing Molly Ringwald’s outfit from The Breakfast Club. Mr. Blackwell must have nightmares populated entirely by the population of Milford High.

    MW: Toby got swindled out of $1.29 and she’s been crying about it for days. I’d hate to think of what she’d do if anything really tragic were to happen, like if the toilet overflowed or a check bounced. Time to hide the sleeping pills and razor blades!

    S-M: His name is “Big Time” and he plays with clocks? Where did they dig this guy up, the Dick Tracy archives? Oh, and I love the brown jacket with mustard yellow turtleneck. Does this guy shop at the Everything’s From 1975 store? He looks like a villain from Columbo.

12. Uncanny Valley of the Dolls
    September 29th, 2008 at 11:47 am [Reply]

    It’s even worse than you think… you can’t see that the pig deli owner is actually on crutches… because the “ham of the day” was his own leg…. good lord.. *choke*

13. MyEvilTwin
    September 29th, 2008 at 11:55 am [Reply]

    I can’t believe I’m actually posting this request, because it shows how much I care about Slylock Fox. So, um, here goes.

    “My friend” can’t read the answer to the Slylock Fox mystery, and “my friend” actually copied the panel into Microsoft Paint and tried to zoom in to read it. But then it got all pixelated and unreadable. So, could someone post the answer to how SF knew the the pig’s weight? So that I can tell “my friend”? Thanks.

14. Hysterical Woman
    September 29th, 2008 at 11:58 am [Reply]

    The answer is meat, right? I can’t read the small upside down print.

15. Skullturf Q. Beavispants
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm [Reply]

    Would it make it more weird or less weird if it was a kosher deli?

16. Paul1963
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:07 pm [Reply]

    13 & 14: “Slylock said the deli worker weighs cheese, salami, turkey and macaroni. Slylock also has a reputation for having a sense of humor.”

    And then I clubbed them both to death with a leg of lamb.

17. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:11 pm [Reply]

    Don’t think “pig”; think a happy ending version of “The Island of Doctor Moreau.”

18. Bitter Scribe
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:13 pm [Reply]

    Maybe the pig behind the deli counter is an example of suicide food.

19. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:18 pm [Reply]

    I won’t ask what the pig puts in the “Special Pastrami”, and I am rather disturbed at the lustful looks of the customers toward the meat products on display. I’ve seen dogs playing poker and such, but the hounddog playing pocket-pool whilst eyeing that jarred dill pickle, has me a little whiffy.

20. Jeff
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:27 pm [Reply]

    Just read an interview with comic book and TV animation (Jet Cat, Tutenstein, and The Secret Saturdays, soon to debut on Cartoon Network) creator Jay Stephens. Near the end of the short interview he says he is developing a new newspaper comic strip with his pal Bob weber Jr.
    Can’t wait to see what this will look like!
    http://www.comicbookbin.com/jaystephens001.html

21. WarOfTheBees
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:28 pm [Reply]

    Snuffy Smith is displaying some of the most heart-breaking mind games I’ve ever seen in a comic strip. “You didn’t pay enough attention to me, so now I will take everything you ever care for

22. Ben
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:38 pm [Reply]

    Hurray for examples of suicide food in the comics!

23. Anon
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:45 pm [Reply]

    Just wanted to comment generally – to all the new folks who came in after Josh’s jeopardy appearance. I’ve seen several comments over the last few weeks from the new people along the lines of “why am I being ignored?”
    Well, the sad truth is that this forum is dominated by a few people who think they own it – the day before the Jeopardy thing aired, they were smugly anticipating that many new people would start reading and posting, and they were saying things like how they would have to be nice to the newcomers. But they rarely if ever acknowledge the new people – so don’t feel downhearted, they treat almost all outsiders like that. Norm from a few threads ago got attacked for trying to inject humor (no, I’m not Norm) because he is not one of them. I remember a while back when one of them posted anonymously by accident that the COTW was bad because it contained a curse word. He was roundly attacked until he revealed that he was one of the regular, whereupon several of the attackers immediately apologized for their vitriol! Which rather proves my point…

24. Paul K
    September 29th, 2008 at 12:54 pm [Reply]

    Who the heck walks around munching on a bag of chips? A menace that’s who.

25. tom
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:05 pm [Reply]

    What makes one a “regular”? I have been posting for a few months now and I just assumed my posts must not be funny enough to warrent any attention, now I understand it is a plot to rid the blog of all the outsiders.

26. Cheese-n-Pear
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:05 pm [Reply]

    11: I thought that the Japanese robots had to be piloted by blue-haired girls. *OUCH* I think I just strained my brain trying to imagine Locher-style anime.

27. Mibbitmaker
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:07 pm [Reply]

    SFx: Yeah, that pig-selling-pork is in bad taste. Then again, given that Weber’s helper on SFx was part of “Air Pirates”, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise. Either that, or Stephan Pastis ghost-wrote it.

28. Trix
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:08 pm [Reply]

    #23 anon: Hey, I thought Norm was a little over the top but easy enough to skip through. Bottom line-Norm was not funny. Actually the regulars are funnier than I am and have better punctuation. (refer post #19 cotw thread) I guess I am a regular reader who loves to read the funnies and appreciates a good snark. Lighten up and laugh.

29. Pozzo
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:11 pm [Reply]

    Maybe the second throwaway panel in Snuffy Smith is just the Snufster’s delayed reaction to the information Loweezy gave him in the first panel. “Tarnation; I can pick up a whole passel o’ white sheets in time for my next bodacious Klan meeting!”

30. Alex W.
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:12 pm [Reply]

    The real idiot in Dennis The Menace is the police officer. Clearly, the sign is only written on one side. It is written on the side that is facing away from Dennis. He couldn’t have been able to read the sign. That cop’s just a jerk.

31. Montag
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:17 pm [Reply]

    I fixed that Dennis the Menace strip. It’s way more punk rock this way.

32. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:18 pm [Reply]

    #23 ANON- I’ve noticed that too. When I started reading this about 2.5 years ago I posted a comment and one of the regulars made a comment about me not really knowing what I was talking about. So now I just skip over his/hers comments and a few of the others, too. There are some really funny people on here and others who want to take over Josh’s job.

33. viscosity
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:28 pm [Reply]

    SF : it is worth pointing out that while there are claims about macaroni salad it’s not actually visible. You’d think they would draw that in at the same time rather than self-pleasuring pickle lover or the bizarre to-scale meat slicer.

34. Anon
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:33 pm [Reply]

    I actually do know whereof I speak… I once dared to express an opinion that was mildly opinionated, and was “run off” by several of the regulars. It was not just my opinion that I was treated unfairly. Josh himself added his comments to that day’s thread, and called my attackers “jerks” and “bullies”.
    It’s unfortunate, because initially I regarded this website as a safe place to come and express myself – but some of the people here can get pretty nasty. So only post here if you have strong self-esteem, and don’t expect this to be a supportive group.

35. Anonymous
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:49 pm [Reply]

    #31. Even punker:

    http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/rlindner/menace.jpg

36. Montag
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm [Reply]

    Anonymous #35: touché.

37. alyeska39
    September 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm [Reply]

    That dog is wearing a collar and is with a boy whom I can only assume is his owner. Why is that dog-catcher chasing him?

38. Alex W.
    September 29th, 2008 at 3:12 pm [Reply]

    I’ve figured it out. The officer is actually part of Oprah’s “Calorie Brigade” and is trying to warn Dennis about all the junk potato chips have in them. Had Dennis been literate, he wouldn’t have made the same snack selection.

39. Roadchick
    September 29th, 2008 at 3:51 pm [Reply]

    Why, it’s Swiney Todd, the demon butcher of Meat Street!

40. Muffaroo-who-brunches
    September 29th, 2008 at 3:55 pm [Reply]

    SFx – The deli owner meant to say he weighs wambs, because he’s a sheep freak who can’t pronounce the letter L.

    Mibbitmaker @27 – What th-? Okay, I googled it, and since I tried “Hallgren” first, I got a match right away. I’ll be darned. He has an art studio in the next town over from where we lived in Massachusetts, and I went over there one day to say hello, but he was somewhere else, so I tried to peek through the windows some, talked to the next painter over, and then wandered around in the cavernous former factory the studio is in. I’m not surprised I never recognized him, because he’s always been an adept stylist. Wow.

    Montag @31 – That’s how I actually read it the first time. Good fix!

    Roadchick @39 – Now that’s just not kosher. [groans of appreciation]

41. Andrew Leal
    September 29th, 2008 at 3:59 pm [Reply]

    Slylock Fox: Yes, we all know how perverted and shocking and unusual it is to see a mouse displaying an interest in cheese!

42. Muffaroo-who-brunches
    September 29th, 2008 at 4:05 pm [Reply]

    PS – Just to throw my two cents on the fire about the whole non-welcoming thing, I try to limit my banter mostly to things I simply can’t avoid saying.

    There are so many comments here, and it seems to get harder to stay on top of things all the time. Often, after I’ve commented on a couple of great posts, I start to think I’m going to start treating the whole thing as a social occasion instead of a snarkfest, and rein myself in.

    And anyway, everybody ignores me, too, most days, and I’ve been here for a year or so. It just makes the occasional bit of egoboo more satisfying, I guess, and then I go back to snarking my heart out over a hot keyboard all day and seeing my favorite conceits waste away from neglect.

    Fitting into a group takes time. Also, people have different senses of humor. I’ve had rude things said to me. I cried. I think maybe it was supposed to be a joke, but some day I’ll k– I mean, you just have to let these things go by. And wait for your– never mind. I’ll edit this before I sen

43. Oliver K.
    September 29th, 2008 at 4:23 pm [Reply]

    @ MyEvilTwin: Get IfranView. I could read the answer easily.

    @Paul1963: That was my reaction, too. Bob Weber Jr. must have a sick humor to trick his readers this way.

    Is it wrong that I find Slylock Fox totally hilarious, especially the artwork, although I am over 20?

44. Jana C.H.
    September 29th, 2008 at 4:54 pm [Reply]

    #39 Roadchick: “Why, it’s Swiney Todd, the demon butcher of Meat Street!”

    Brilliant! All us opera buffs, theatre fanatics, and lovers of musicals need to push for this as COTW.

    Re: Unfriendliness on this blog. My impression is that all you need to do to become a regular is to post at least a dozen comments every day, and make most of them clever and/or kinky. The standard of cleverness is not incredibly high (which is what makes Roadchik’s comment stand out), but it helps to fit yourself somewhat to the house style, just as it does when submitting to a magazine.

    There are too many posts for a single one to be sure of being noticed, so being missed at first isn’t necessarily intentional rudeness (though I confess I have not encountered the attacks some people have). At first I, too, was disappointed that few of my comments made much of a splash, but that’s just the nature of the blog. It would be fun to be one of the insiders, but I really don’t have the time. Strange as it seems, I have other things to do.

    By the way, I didn’t think it was necessary to cut off Norm unless he carried the game over into the next thread. It was funny enough for one thread, and easy to ignore if you didn’t like it.

    Jana C.H.
    Seattle
    Saith Oscar Wilde: Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

45. Rex Dandycorn
    September 29th, 2008 at 5:05 pm [Reply]

    I was so sure the answer would involve some sort of calculation involving the density of ham.

    Getting outsmarted by Slylock Fox is the most ignoble of shames.

46. MyEvilTwin
    September 29th, 2008 at 5:22 pm [Reply]

    Thanks Paul1963 and Oliver K. Appreciate the help.

47. boojum
    September 29th, 2008 at 6:25 pm [Reply]

    I’ve been posting here for over a year now, and consider myself one of the new kids. On the very, very few occasions when someone has noted something I’ve said, I’ve considered it a special treat. Since I’m not a regular poster on other threads, it never occurred to me to assume others would respond to my comments — nor to feel snubbed if they didn’t.

    On the specific charge Anon raised about Norm yesterday, if you go back and look you’ll see that most people played along — and most of them were regulars. Docweasel, who came in hard and heavy after the whole thing was really over, is not in fact a regular poster, as far as I know. I thought Norm was funny; those who didn’t, probably simply moved on.

    I’ve found the folks here quite friendly and helpful. Some of the personal exchanges, when contributors were going through rough times, have been extremely touching. I’ve asked questions, and received helpful answers. I once unwittingly caused a controversy, got some responses I felt were unwarranted, made my case and then apologized for offending anyone; it was graciously accepted. Several others have done the same.

    I believe I remember the controversy Anon himself generated, though I’ll protect the anonymity he is anxious to keep. If I’m remembering correctly, the combatitveness of his tone on this thread was also apparent then. It didn’t help.

    I think CC has a true familial vibe. Naturally, those who have been here longer are more invested in each other, and they respond more frequently to friends than to strangers. Why wouldn’t they?

    If you’re new here, welcome! I hope you take the time to listen and catch the dynamic. Then jump right in. But it’s just like any large, noisy, funny family. You have to earn the right to sit at the big kids’ table. I suspect the best way to do that is not to take ourselves too seriously, and to be consistently funny when we do add our comments.

48. Uncle Ed
    September 29th, 2008 at 6:34 pm [Reply]

    #39 and #44 Stephen Sondheim must be proud.

49. Harold
    September 29th, 2008 at 6:58 pm [Reply]

    I am horrified by the bird woman standing next to the TURKEY LOAF 3.99 sign, happily pointing at a pile of slices of…something. Someone she knows?

50. Fertang
    September 29th, 2008 at 8:42 pm [Reply]

    How to draw an orangutan, the Duchamp way: http://uniliv.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/marcel-duchamp-fountain.jpg

51. Reynard Noir
    September 29th, 2008 at 9:30 pm [Reply]

    So it’s not just me, right? I’m not the only one who can’t even figure out what the gorram brainteaser is even supposed to MEAN?

52. Canaduck
    September 30th, 2008 at 2:04 am [Reply]

    #22 Hi Ben, I love your Suicide Foods blog!

53. Calico
    September 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pm [Reply]

    #31, #35 – Yes.

All the cool kids…

…buy Comics Curmudgeon merchandise!

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