The Comics Curmudgeon

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The dark soul of the chickadee

Mark Trail, 12/14/08

Kudos to Mark Trail for blowing the lid off of the weird little world of the chickadee! These birds stay active in the bleak, cold winter hellscape that most of their feathered cousins are clever enough to flee for warmer climes. Mark claims to be able to read the feelings of these non-English-speaking little creatures, saying that they’re “never depressed” by having to stay north all winter, but their behavior seems to tell a different story. As he describes it, they want nothing more than your handouts, and once they start getting them, they lose all sense of personal initiative, becoming nothing more than avian hobos, hopping around in your backyard begging for your scraps — and doomed by their own dependency if you grow bored with their antics. This seems to me to be indicative of a very poor self-esteem that doesn’t jibe with the cheery demeanor that Mark is trying sell us.

Kudos also to my alma mater for hosting a bird-related Web site from which Mark Trail can crib valuable ornithological information! Keep coming back to birds.cornell.edu for such bird-related headlines as “The Long Trek of the Bar-tailed Godwit”.

Mary Worth, 12/14/08

Here’s a little clue to help you get situated in Mary Worth: no matter who’s talking, it’s all about them. Thus we get to the climax of Lynn’s sad story: her friend Greg, whom her dad forced her to shun, was killed in a car accident, his brother behind the wheel. Would he still have died if Lynn hadn’t broken off their friendship? Obviously not! Was his horrible, untimely death intended to break her heart and serve as a direct rebuke against Lynn’s father? Of course it was! Greg’s family was probably broken up about it too or whatever, but the important thing about it is that it sent Lynn into a downward spiral that has affected her skating.

The shocking punchline to Lynn’s tale has sent Mary into head-wobbling palpitations in the final panel. This is not because she shudders in empathy for the young skater (ha ha, like you even need me to say that) but because the mention of death by car crash has given rise to intrusive feelings of guilt concerning her part in Aldo Kelrast’s fiery demise. Once she manages to suppress these feelings back into her Shame Place, she will be taking this out on Lynn, obviously.

With today’s strip’s epigraph, quirky outsider musician Daniel Johnston joins Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova on the list of Indie Rock Darlings You Never, Ever Thought You’d See Mentioned In Mary Worth.

Marvin, 12/14/08

Anyone who doubts that St. Nick really is a saint need only take a look at the second panel of today’s Marvin, in which he continues to display a cheery disposition despite being immediately adjacent to the strip’s titular hell-infant in full-on screaming mode. We’ll see if that crinkle-eyed smile persists after he receives all sixteen yards of Marvin’s illegible, saliva-fouled Christmas list.

Family Circus, 12/14/08

Phase one of PJ’s plan — confining his siblings in an enclosed space that would be difficult to escape from quickly — had gone perfectly. Operation Only Child was well on its way to a bloody but triumphant conclusion.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 11:28 pm and is filed under Family Circus, Mark Trail, Marvin, Mary Worth.

190 responses to “The dark soul of the chickadee”

Erik
December 14th, 2008 at 11:36 pm [Reply]

I will say this about Marvin. While the stories are confusing, the characters are dull and alike, and the jokes are at best perverted and gross, at least they have good taste in furniture. That lamp in the 6th panel? Pure awesomeness.
Steven
December 14th, 2008 at 11:39 pm [Reply]

I would like to see Mark do a report on the Vaux Swift. In spring and fall, this bird gets a better gate than the trailblazers.
Death to the FOOBS!
December 14th, 2008 at 11:48 pm [Reply]

…on the theory that he’d NEVER go back into that crib, even inf something fun is happening! Aiieeee….
Uncle Lumpy
December 14th, 2008 at 11:49 pm [Reply]

A hobo is a transient who will work. A transient who won’t work is a tramp. Since chickadees neither travel nor work, they are bums.

Just to round things out, a nontransient who will work is called a contractor.
commodorejohn
December 15th, 2008 at 12:00 am [Reply]

Very insightful commentary on Mary Worth today, Josh; it explains the Toby’s Identity-Theft Shame storyline much better than any attempt to approach it from a real-world behavioral standpoint.
dougrogers
December 15th, 2008 at 12:01 am [Reply]

Some things last a long time… and some things just go on and on forever.
Cranky
December 15th, 2008 at 12:03 am [Reply]

History will recall the second week of December, 2008, as the week in which Baldo completed its unstoppable march toward making Tia Carmen the repository of every bad stereotype about Latinas known to humankind. Cheap, overmedicated, telenovela addicted… check, check, check.
Grandstanding Oddball
December 15th, 2008 at 12:08 am [Reply]

I’m beginning to wonder about this whole idea of routine-or-death. I once read that once you start using Chapstick, you had better never stop, because the mucus membranes (your lips) would stop producing lubricants once they sensed that an external source had taken over the responsibility. I’m call bullshit on this idea, as well as the chickadee story. I’m an amateur birder, and I’ve never seen (it’s possible, but I have yet to witness it) a bird starve to death because it had become so dependent on human-provided birdseed that it ceased to understand how to forage for its own sustenance.

I mean, birds may have tiny brains, but even the dumbest little sparrow is smarter than your average Apartment 3-G male. “What, no more dope here? Well, I guess I’ll just go somewhere else, where “dope” is widely available.” In case you were wondering, that was the hypothetical internal monologue of a retarded sparrow… still 80 IQ points above Alan or whatever his name was.
GoGonzaga
December 15th, 2008 at 12:09 am [Reply]

I just want to point out in the last panel of Mary Worth, when Lynn starts to have an emotional breakdown because of the intense guilt she has regarding Greg’s death, she doesn’t turn to Mary for comfort, but instead a tree. Naturally, a tree is much more comforting and warm than the cold, distant soul of Mary.
He Brought Queenie Baby Jesus
December 15th, 2008 at 12:10 am [Reply]

Hasn’t Marvin learned to speak? I thought that was a thing. So he’s only thought-ballooning to be an ass. Which, I mean, mission accomplished, really.
Artist formerly known as Ben
December 15th, 2008 at 12:11 am [Reply]

Huh. I couldn’t get “Marvin” to display when I looked at the WaPo’s comics site this evening. Internet Explorer really is trying to protect me.
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 12:14 am [Reply]

MT — I have to say just once more that it really isn’t true that birds just mope around and die if feeders aren’t kept filled in winter. The respected Cornell Lab is one of the sponsors of a website that points that out. Chickadees pal around with other small birds in the winter, and those mixed flocks move about in search of food.

Having said that, I was out filling my feeders tonight in spite of official wind-chill warnings (25 below zero). The birds around here are very good at sitting on empty feeders looking forlorn.
Andrew Leal
December 15th, 2008 at 12:15 am [Reply]

Josh, “that would *be* difficult to escape from quickly.” Let it be, let it be!

I’m disappointed but not at all surprised that Greg’s death has no direct relation to Lynn’s skating issues whatsoever. I was hoping he’d gone to watch her perform in an attempt to rekindle their friendship, seating himself in the back. At the end of the show, Lynn finally spots a still transfixed Greg and, touched by his loyalty, waves; Greg waves back and falls into the rink where he is crushed by a rogue Zamboni machine.
Tom the Pirate
December 15th, 2008 at 12:18 am [Reply]

The final panel of today’s Mark Trail would be much better with fewer educational text boxes and the addition of a thought balloon over the head of the chickadee on the right.

“My,” it thinks to itself, “I hadn’t realized until he hung upside down beside me, but Carl has a mighty fine-lookin’ anus!”
Eldaglass
December 15th, 2008 at 12:26 am [Reply]

I, for one, am concerned and moved by Lynn’s overblown sense of shame. Instead of viewing Mary as the pitiless freak of nature all comic-dom knows her to be, Lynn must think that Mistress Meddle was created as the final circle in her own personal Inferno.
Tom the Pirate
December 15th, 2008 at 12:26 am [Reply]

That’s a mighty fierce scowl on Mary’s face in panel 3. She is apparently already suspecting that, whatever happened to Greg, this conversation isn’t going to be focusing on Mary’s wisdom and insights any time soon.

Meanwhile, in the central panel, we see Lynn’s father in a flashback scene as he draws her attention to his empty right hand as his left prepares to make a quarter “appear” from her ear.
Rusty
December 15th, 2008 at 12:30 am [Reply]

How long has Marvin had a little “M” logo on his overalls? Like we, the comic viewing public, don’t know that little flamer is Marvin. At least he doesn’t have a little heart on all of his shirts, like a certain nose-less harpy I could mention.
Post-Punk Nerd
December 15th, 2008 at 12:33 am [Reply]

Aldo is lucky to have only got into Mary Worth’s Shame Place after death. Dr. Jeff Cory has to face that every single night of his horrific life.
zqfmgb
December 15th, 2008 at 12:35 am [Reply]

poteet, are you by any chance in Alberta?
Nekrotzar
December 15th, 2008 at 12:37 am [Reply]

saliva-fouled? For Santa’s sake, let’s hope it stops there.
Grandstanding Oddball
December 15th, 2008 at 12:43 am [Reply]

Don’t do it, Poteet! Don’t you realize that once you get your local fowl hooked on “the dope”, they won’t be able to “provide” for “themselves”?

Also, goodness, I hope you’re not in Alberta. The chickadees in Banff are fucking CRAY-ZEE.
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 12:47 am [Reply]

# 19 zqfmgb — Nope, Iowa. It’s very cold and windy tonight. But compared to the ice-storm power outages in the Northeast, I feel very lucky. And compared to Canadian winters, I bet ours are wimpy.
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 12:51 am [Reply]

# 21 Grandstanding Oddball — Thanks, but it’s too late. The dope they’re most hooked on is a mix of peanut butter, suet, and cornmeal. Even the juncoes are junkies.

Craz-zee chickadees in Banff? I’m very intrigued.
TitBrit
December 15th, 2008 at 12:53 am [Reply]

Well, I guess I will have to state the obvious, while everyone else seems to ignoring the 300 lb gorilla in the room…
The other name for the chickadee (in Britain at least) is the tit.
There, I said it. Tit, tit, tit. Stop sniggering at the back, there.
So, in cold weather, tits are more prominent.
No, really, stop it. You’re being really immature.
Tom the Pirate
December 15th, 2008 at 12:55 am [Reply]

Is your tit tufted?
Dan
December 15th, 2008 at 12:55 am [Reply]

Boy, I don’t know about the rest of you, but if you try to write on my (unused) toilet paper, your writing utensil will go right on through the paper. It’s not cardboard, although it sometimes feels like same.
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
December 15th, 2008 at 12:56 am [Reply]

Tits require a constant supply of nutrition to keep them looking healthy. If you’re lucky, you may see some tits in your neighbourhood.
Master Mahan
December 15th, 2008 at 12:56 am [Reply]

Mary Worth is thinking about Aldo alright, but that’s not guilty – that’s fear. Lynn is only in her twenties, but already she’s driven twice as many men to their deaths as Mary. The day is coming that Lynn will rip out Mary’s heart and eat it to take her place as the new Demon Queen of Charterstone.
bats :[
December 15th, 2008 at 12:56 am [Reply]

14. Tom the Pirate: technically, a bird has a cloaca rather than an anus, since the urinary and digestive tracts dump out at the same place (and it’s the same opening for reproductive matters in most cases).
Other fun stuff: cloaca is Latin for “sewer.”

But, yeah…that Carl does have a mighty fine-lookin’ one!
Tom the Pirate
December 15th, 2008 at 12:57 am [Reply]

Although … don’t the Brits also refer to another bird as a boobie? Tits and boobies. What is it with you guys, weren’t your ornithologists breastfed as children? Next there’ll be a bird colloquially referred to as “Wow! What knockers!”
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
December 15th, 2008 at 12:58 am [Reply]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Tits
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
December 15th, 2008 at 12:58 am [Reply]

Of course, there’s also the term “Hooters” — is that a North America-ism?
Master Mahan
December 15th, 2008 at 12:59 am [Reply]

Apparently Marvin wants blood. I am not surprised in the least.
Tom the Pirate
December 15th, 2008 at 12:59 am [Reply]

Bats — You’re overlooking the poetry of the language. “Carl has a mighty fine-lookin’ anus!” just sings. “Carl has a mighty fine-lookin’ cloaca!” is stilted and awkward.

Didn’t you study Shakespeare in your youth? The Bard would never have used “cloaca” in such a context, even if it was technically inaccurate.
Red Greenback
December 15th, 2008 at 1:01 am [Reply]

The Keane Kidz are gonna be playing board games, alright… in The Bighouse!
TitBrit
December 15th, 2008 at 1:08 am [Reply]

Without tits and boobies, the world of ornithology would be a lesser place. Also, Benny Hill’s repertoire would last about 2 minutes.
Mel
December 15th, 2008 at 1:08 am [Reply]

Poteet: Funny you should mention that ice storm — finally have electricity back here, but folks further north may still have days of darkness to go.

If you have never seen one of these storms check out this news website for a slideshow of pictures viewers sent in from their neighborhoods.

http://www.necn.com/Boston/New-England/2008/12/13/Slideshow-More-of-your-Ice/1229193601.html
dale
December 15th, 2008 at 1:08 am [Reply]

Family Circus

I’ve seen that gag before. Years ago and rendered better. Mother inside and rugrats outside.

Do they really make playpens out of plastic instead of wood or mesh?
And how did those little tubs of lard manage to climb in?
Tom the Pirate
December 15th, 2008 at 1:09 am [Reply]

It lasted more than two minutes? I mean, we can summarize every show with “Look at boobies, pat bald man on head, look at boobies, wacky chase scene with boobies.”
BigTed
December 15th, 2008 at 1:12 am [Reply]

“Some things last a long time”? Anyone can claim they’re quoting Daniel Johnston, but we all know “Mary Worth” actually got that from a Tootsie Roll wrapper.
Rita Lake and the Special Goddesses
December 15th, 2008 at 1:14 am [Reply]

Wow…look at MW, panel five. Someone broke the news to her that her crush died so immediately after she won the Junior Championship that she was still wearing her skating outfit and her medal. Who is this, her spiteful arch-nemesis, angry that she only came in runner-up? ‘Oh, hey Lynn, great job winning the competition! By the way, did you hear that the boy you’ve been in love with all year, the only friend you ever had, died? Yeah, I’m so sorry I had to be the one to break it to you. Oh, here are the reporters from the local paper! Have fun with those interviews!’
Tabby Lavalamp
December 15th, 2008 at 1:15 am [Reply]

AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!

Sorry. I just read Sunday’s ~~cry for help~~ Garfield.
Heroin
December 15th, 2008 at 1:15 am [Reply]

I’m in Alberta – jeebis, it’s unpleasant here right now. Wind chill is -44! That’s a wind chill of -47 in Fahrenheit-speak.

Anyway, I fear the same future for PJ as I do for my own 15 month old son – happiest serial killer ever.

And also, it looks like Mary is wearing a sweet shirt under her jacket. Oh how I wish I could see it in it’s entirety.
TitBrit
December 15th, 2008 at 1:20 am [Reply]

then, of course there’s always the shag…

yeah, baby! Shall we shag now, or shag later?

But the shag is an actual cormorant-like bird!

Bird?Don’t get me started – bird is Brit slang for “broad” (with about the same assumptions/connotations). Then there’s cock, also a bird…
bats :[
December 15th, 2008 at 1:34 am [Reply]

Monday, Monday, still not trusting that day:

MW: “It was devastating! I went from winning the junior championships to learning about Greg’s death to recalling these horrible memories to careening drunkenly into a osteoporitic old woman all on the same day!”

Phantom: okay, I lose. I had my money on Guran with the saucepan instead of Devil with the jaws of death. Dang.

RMMD: Rex evidently lives in a world where there is such a thing as a good disaster movie…
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 1:35 am [Reply]

# 37 Mel — Wow. I’ve seen a number of ice storms in my time, but that one is quite amazing. Thanks for the photos.

# 44 TitBrit — On my (very occasional) visits to Europe and Great Britain, I have been very happy to record that I’d seen Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, and Penduline Tits. I think I also saw a Long-tailed Tit, but my list isn’t handy. All hail to tits. They are fun to watch.
TitBrit
December 15th, 2008 at 1:35 am [Reply]

But returning to tits (and who doesn’t want to? boom chick a boom chick a)… there’s the great tit (one of my favorites), the blue tit (which relates to the theme of winter under which we are discussing this), and the coal tit. Unfortunately, no risque jokes can be derived from “coal tit”, so this bird may become extinct in the comic form. So a bit of a let down there. Note to self – leave them on a high note. Hmm, maybe that’s why my Hollywood career is going nowhere.
TitBrit
December 15th, 2008 at 1:37 am [Reply]

ooh Poteet you bastard stealing my thunder
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 1:40 am [Reply]

# 48 TitBrit — Deep apologies:-)! But I don’t think I really stole your thunder — you had the glory of pointing out the important tit connection!
Mr. O'Malley
December 15th, 2008 at 1:43 am [Reply]

This discussion reminds me of the immortal “Birds of Britain”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfvEgWINUFc
TitBrit
December 15th, 2008 at 1:44 am [Reply]

just to qualify – to Poteet and others – the tit (great, blue, coal or long-tailed) will not die out as long as people think like me and leave some suet or mincemeat out for them. I the summer it’s another story – where I grew up there was always the melancholy cry each morning of:

Oh No, the tits have been at my full cream again!

Make of that what you will.
He Brought Queenie Baby Jesus
December 15th, 2008 at 1:48 am [Reply]

Skullturf has taught us all a lesson. Thanks to Tits, we can all appreciate a good Coxeter graph. We owe Tits a great debt.
Red Greenback
December 15th, 2008 at 1:55 am [Reply]

Ooops! I went off half cocked on that last one. The Keane Kids are gonna play board games, alright… in the Big House!
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 1:56 am [Reply]

# 51 TitBrit — So you have the added status of growing up and living with tits all around you, and even feeding them mincemeat. I bow.

I do remember reading somewhere, at some time, that some tit was clever enough to figure out how to open a container of cream, and that this tit-genius behavior spread across England(?) If you were there when tits made that great leap for tit-kind, I bow again.
Dingo
December 15th, 2008 at 1:56 am [Reply]

Take today’s Adam and Andy (NSFW) and replace them with Mary Worth and Dr. Jeff Cory. I see Mary as the one in bed with the hairy armpits and Dr. Jeff as the pouncer. That’s me. Maybe you fashion ol’ Mar’ as a pouncer. Either way, it should elicit a scream.
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 1:58 am [Reply]

On another subject entirely, what happened to STEVE CANYON today? The second set of panels were repeated. I wonder what we missed.
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
December 15th, 2008 at 1:58 am [Reply]

We all pull a few boners from time to time, or go off half-cocked, so we shouldn’t be hard on each other.
Angry Kem
December 15th, 2008 at 2:00 am [Reply]

*Tsk*…yet again, the conversation turns to tits. What is the world coming to?

Monday’s MW: Notice the unusual use of motion lines here. When such lines appear in this particular comic, you know that something is breaking the laws of Mary Worthian Apathy by moving faster than the speed of meddling. Lynn here throws herself at Mary so violently that a third panel would show both of them lying on the ground, Mary with the wind knocked out of her and Lynn sobbing passionately, as one would if one’s former best friend’s death had interfered with one’s skating career.
Lithros
December 15th, 2008 at 2:04 am [Reply]

Greg held a balled-up fist to his groin, struggling in vain to staunch the blood pouring from his botched at-home bris. His brother’s mohel correspondence course had lied — not only could Greg feel everything during the operation, he had soon found that glue mixed with flour was not effective at stopping the bleeding. His brother drove through the blinding snowstorm as fast as he dared, his yarmulke spinning wildly as he swerved to avoid oncoming traffic and patches of deadly ice. The hospital was just around the next corner when the car spun out, banking off the median and spinning into the air before exploding in a completely unseasonal display of pyrotechnics. Before dying, Greg had time for only one thought: “I’ll never be a man.”
Consul, the Almost Human
December 15th, 2008 at 2:11 am [Reply]

9CL: This has to be a dream sequence of the Owl Creek Bridge/Green Grass of Home variety. McEldowney plummeted to softcore hackdom a few years ago but if he’s playing this straight up, he’s completely flipped his lid.
OKStan
December 15th, 2008 at 2:12 am [Reply]

Like the Simpsons said about Mary Worth: “It became a hard-core sex series so gradually, no one seememd to notice”. Yes, I honestly can’t remember the quote.
On the other hand, more information on tits, boobies, shag, and cocks can be found on the Internet.
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 2:19 am [Reply]

9CL — Does this mean there’s going to be anotherweek about that cello contest???

*shrieks and faints*
Charlene
December 15th, 2008 at 2:23 am [Reply]

“I once read that once you start using Chapstick, you had better never stop, because the mucus membranes (your lips) would stop producing lubricants once they sensed that an external source had taken over the responsibility. I’m call bullshit on this idea,”

As you should. Chapstick irritates your lips to the point that they act dry, prompting you to put on more, which irritates the lips even more, rinse and repeat. The majority of acne medicines work in the same way.

Chickadees, on the other hand, are irritating, but at least they know enough to stay in their nests when the wind chill factor is at 50 below Fahrenheit.
Charlene
December 15th, 2008 at 2:24 am [Reply]

(By “act dry”, I mean that the irritation makes them redden and peel, which imitates dry lips.)
True Fable
December 15th, 2008 at 2:34 am [Reply]

First Impressions:

9CL Yeah…so?
BBailey Ah, so Beetle prefers bears to Sarge. Next week: Sarge grows a beard.
DtN-M Stale.
Canadian Zombie Oh dammit; the return of the Last Panel Sticky-Out Tongue.
FB But Fred Bassett never has a decent punchline anyway; how’d Jock ruin it?
FW Oh noes! Now Summer will have to deal with Les trying on her formal dress in an attempt to bond with her!
JP Stop, or I will wait until you are halfway to Mexico before popping a cap in your leg.
Luann I have to side with TJ on this one; it’s not his fault that Brad didn’t even care to read over what he was giving Toni.
MT Mark wanders through The Land of the Lost.
MW Mary Magneto abruptly pulls Lynn’s metallic hair clip toward her in an awesome display of meddle powers.
RMMW June, your depillatory just isn’t working, babe.
Wangdoodle
December 15th, 2008 at 2:37 am [Reply]

Mungday’s strips are up.

RMMD: Why, yes, Rex, you are correct sir. A VERY bad disaster movie.

Zits: Oh, that’s nothing. They’ve proven in strip after strip that they have no spines whatever when dealing with their brat. Or, wait, is that the joke?

My Cage: Remove paper from hat. Crumple. Throw in face. Curse violently.

MT: Don’t worry, Mark! All your swamp friends are coming to help! Or coming to kill you. Either way, good times.

Get Fuzzy: I could’ve sworn Rob was taking Mac to the airport last week.

FC: Wow, Billy can remember that, but he can’t remember to wipe his butt?

Dick Tracy: Actually hurts to look at it today. Usually it’s just a numb sensation. When did Tess become a dude?

Crankshaft: Urge to harm the elderly…rising…
chickensdontclap
December 15th, 2008 at 2:40 am [Reply]

OKStan- The Simpsons quote actually was about Fox becoming a hard core sex network. They do jab at Mary Worth quite a bit but that wasn’t it. Although your quote is funny too.
Gordo\'s Cat
December 15th, 2008 at 2:54 am [Reply]

Well, I’ll be a dirty bird. All these naughty avian/sex jokes, and nobody has yet mentioned Woody Woodpecker?

Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha!
OKStan
December 15th, 2008 at 2:54 am [Reply]

Well, I remember something lwas said like that. I could’ve swore it was about MW. I could swear ABOUT MW.
Simon
December 15th, 2008 at 2:56 am [Reply]

Lynn: “Oh well, I guess that in the end I am a natural on the ice, but Greg….not so much.”
Alex Blaze
December 15th, 2008 at 3:38 am [Reply]

Wow, did anyone see Herb and Jamaal today (monday)? That’s, like, really gay, what with the misogynistic quotation from a gay poet over images of Herb being bothered by the mere presence of a woman.

I’m guessing Mr. Langston Hughes was thinking something different when he was writing about women there, but for all I know Herb might be a total closet case and being generally annoyed in a non-specific situation is his way of crying for help.

Oh, it’s times like these when I wish I was still doing qomics for queers….
Mibbitmaker
December 15th, 2008 at 3:46 am [Reply]

12/15:

A3G: Margo’s “Soap Opera ‘Suspense-Building’ Cliche of the Day”.

Archie and Curtis: It’s Creepy Head Day! (Marvin got the jump on it on Sunday (see above).)

BBailey: And so, once the bear woke up and saw Beetle and Sarge in his cave for the 1st time (no matter what Beetle said), he proceeded to rip them up into a grisly death, no pun intended, the end.[/Mr. Mike]

DT: WHAT THE HELL ARE DIET AND TESS TALKING ABOUT???

GA: Uh-oh… between Saturday and today (I haven’t seen the Sunday one), it looks like Clovia is having a Sybill moment!

H&J: Langston Hughs, Dave Sim, what’s the difference?

“Judge Parker” sure knows how to make suspenseful action/adventure scenes sexy!

MF: “Oprah’s not a religi(on)”?? Where have YOU been, Mallard?!?

MW: Mary knows not of this “traumatic” stuff regarding wronged guys dying in car accidents. She faked it in panel 1, but it shows in panel 2.

NS: The helicopter pad was a nice touch. Reminds me of “Big Dick” Casablancas’s getaway on “Veronica Mars”.

Popeye: Bluto, this is your best chance to go after Olive Oyl…!

RMMD: …or a great, absurdly funny “drama” serial comic strip. The next twist: June gets sunburned!

6C: How She Sees Last Minute Shopping:… and How A Male Stereotype Does: (Cellphones in holsters optional in Canada, see Lynn J for details)

ZtP: That last “cute” God avatar isn’t God, it’s Griffy.

Zits: Get ready for a whole week of these…………..
Alfred E. Neuman
December 15th, 2008 at 4:15 am [Reply]

#4 Uncle Lumpy— The term “hobo” has pretty much fallen into disuse. These days a transient who will work is called a “consultant”.
Zaq
December 15th, 2008 at 5:33 am [Reply]

Monday!

MW: Any old meddler can ruin someone’s life, drawing them closer and snaring them in a web of platitudes. Only a master like Mary can make the victim think it’s their own idea.

9CL: We’re looking at three more weeks minimum, aren’t we?

Rex Morgan, Disaster Movie (RMDM): This is what those in the biz know as “lampshade hanging,” isn’t it?

JP: Dixie’s a devoted student of Thorp-Fu. Only a master of the art can ignore both physics and geometry at the same time like that, leaving a trail of stilted dialogue in their wake.

Z.I.T.S: HAW HAW TEENAGERS ARE HORRIBLE PEOPLE

S-M: Spidey had a good three, four weeks to think of that line, and this is the best he came up with?

Assholine Galley: Stop saying “let [them] down!” There’s more to it than that! You also can’t give them up, or run around and desert them!

Luann: At first I was thinking “damn, TJ’s a major-league douchebag and deserves a Batiuk fate.” Then I realized that the only person he was annoying is Brad, who’s just as bad in a different way. So rather than specifically punishing TJ, I propose we just drop the whole strip and replace it with reruns of They’ll Do It Every Time. What do you say?

D’bury: Huh, interesting to see narration box as punchline. Cool.

MT: In Judge Parker, sentences that would normally end with a full stop instead end with a bang. In Mark Trail, the full stop simply disappears without a trace.

Also, so many tit-related comments and no one brought up IndieTits? It’s now defunct, more or less, but I’m still surprised. I guess that most people here aren’t that into webcomics? Hmm. If I were more html-savvy I’d link to it.
Marcie Vargas
December 15th, 2008 at 7:23 am [Reply]

Using the bland: “Some things last a long time” as a quote seems akin to quoting: “Yeah, I guess I’ll have toast,” or “No, I thought you got the mail.” Using one of those as an epigraph at least might have been funny in a dadaist sort of way…
gleeb
December 15th, 2008 at 7:47 am [Reply]

Ice storms, feet of snow. I’ll try to keep these in mind as it rains all week long here in Baltimore. Maybe the bay will flood.

Brewster Rockit: Riding the coat-tails of a movie remake with Keanu Reeves? Come on, you’re better than that.

Dick: AHA! Now Diet is in the first panel. Way to keep it fresh, Locher!

Phantom: Yeah! Had to wait through weeks of gab for it, but now we got wolf-vs-Chatu action!
Brian
December 15th, 2008 at 8:04 am [Reply]

The idea of Mary Worth quoting Daniel Johnston — and such a bland choice of quotation, which just makes it seem that much more gratuitous — has completely shifted my reality. Can somebody check my quantum signature?
John C Fremont
December 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am [Reply]

MW – “As someone once said, ‘I’ve got you where I want you!’ As it’s also been said, ‘Mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaa!!’”

DT – Wha?!
Little Guy
December 15th, 2008 at 8:29 am [Reply]

MW: “Greg was with his older brother, who was driving his car along an icy road, was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in…There were no survivors.”

JP: She’s too close! The bullet could richochet off her tight ass and who knows what damage that may do!??”

Curtis: Proof that Barry is an illegitmate Patterson. Note the tongue hanging out while laughing.

9CL: Sadly, in the real world, this would be the top story on the cable news networks, knocking off the financial crisis.
TB Tabby
December 15th, 2008 at 8:30 am [Reply]

Inspired by today’s Slylock Fox, I have created this.
Little Guy
December 15th, 2008 at 8:31 am [Reply]

Take two, only because I did the ~~Googling~~ intense research:

MW: “Greg, with his older brother, who was driving his car along an icy road, was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in…There were no survivors.”
Peter Hillock
December 15th, 2008 at 8:33 am [Reply]

MT: “Those guys on the boat must be smugglers of some sort!” Why must they be smugglers? Mark was there because the jealous land developer got the animal-fight guy to ambush him. Smugglers?
teddytoad
December 15th, 2008 at 8:37 am [Reply]

Some things go on a long time… but not Greg.
Tom Bondurant
December 15th, 2008 at 8:49 am [Reply]

With regard to today’s Judge Parker, MST3K said it best: “Oh, I hate to shoot a butt like that!”
Drizzle
December 15th, 2008 at 8:57 am [Reply]

aaaaannnnd … Beetle Baily just fucked a bear.
Bryan
December 15th, 2008 at 8:58 am [Reply]

Bar-tailed Godwit

He was a great comedian. Shakes the Clown is one of my favorite movies.
Brick Bradford
December 15th, 2008 at 9:26 am [Reply]

DT Clearly Tess has asked Diet about robots that compensate for erectile dysfunction.

RMMD The striking crew has already turned off the water–June is filthy in that last panel.

MW In the last panel Mary is stunned by the prospect of actual physical contact with another human being.

JP However this turns out I am having a really good time–if you get my drift (wink wink nudge nudge).

9CL This is just too stupid.

Archie Note Archie’s dismay as Veronica turns on her seductive powers. Something’s wrong with that boy.
Warofthebees
December 15th, 2008 at 9:33 am [Reply]

Marvin: When you can’t do a poop joke, go for a long Christmas list joke.
Anonymous
December 15th, 2008 at 9:35 am [Reply]

The Chickadees remind me of an old song:

‘A little bird,
With a little bill
was sitting on my
Windowsill

I coaxed him in
with a crust of bread

And then I smashed his
f**king head’

Just thought I’d share.
The Spectacular Spider-Brick
December 15th, 2008 at 9:45 am [Reply]

H&J: “When Bentley is too lazy to write a strip… he draws two wordless panels, then quotes Langston Hughes.” — Spider-Brick

JP: Dixie breaks a tackle and makes for the open field! She could go all the way! Just look at the power in those thighs!

MT: Has Mark gone from Lost Forest to the Land of the Lost? Better watch out for Sleestaks!

MW: The Meddlebot 1500 that Mary sent to Lake Pleasant (because she doesn’t fly) has been doing a bang-up job so far, but it’s clear in panel 2 that is has not been properly programmed to react to actual human emotion. Pretty soon she will start to spout unrelated fragments of the Bodhisattva and shoot sparks from her neck.

RWO: Laziest Iron Man coloring job ever.
queek
December 15th, 2008 at 9:53 am [Reply]

Saturday’s FW gave me a mental vision of a two-panel scene, Summer and Special K having a hair-pulling catfight during practice, and Les and Ms. Williams having a hair-pulling “wrestling match” in a closet somewhere, or perhaps under the bleachers.
I have been drinking steadily since then in an effort to remove this image from my brain.

FW Today’s last panel just writes its own Rule34.

A3G: guest appearence by Dr. Who in panel 2?!?
Isaac
December 15th, 2008 at 9:58 am [Reply]

#88: Why not both? Marvin’s father then accidentally uses his list, and the poop stained illegible mess then somehow reaches Santa at the North Pole! Hilarity!
kippetje2000
December 15th, 2008 at 10:21 am [Reply]

Sorry. I read “The Long Trek of the Bar-tailed Godwit” as “the long drek of the bobtailed nit-wit”; and thought that was your intro to Sunday’s Mary Worth.
Anonymous
December 15th, 2008 at 10:23 am [Reply]

“Some things last a long time.” Ah, I wish I could come up with such insightful wit. Oh, here’s one that you can quote me on: “It rains sometimes and other days it doesn’t.”

Curtis is angered that his brother Barry has un-cooked Curtis’s egg. To further display his magical powers, he hangs around Curtis in stealth invisibility mode, choosing only to reveal his floating head when the gag has been sprung, completing the humiliation of Curtis. Surely, though, there is a more pressing need for someone with super powers than an egg switcheroo and accompanying public mockery. Either way, Curtis, the yolk’s on you!
Anonymous
December 15th, 2008 at 10:25 am [Reply]

Dick: “Not qualified in that field” I’m thinking she’s been asking for a robot with full sexual functionality and the endurance of the Energizer Bunny.
Pete DuKane
December 15th, 2008 at 10:27 am [Reply]

MW- Just as she ends the story about Greg, Lynn body-blocks Mary!

Mary: “No…she’s too close! Stop…I will meddle!”
Hogen friggin Mogen
December 15th, 2008 at 10:32 am [Reply]

94, 95 – yeah, those are me.

Trail: Yeah, Pop talks to himself, but I like the way Mark starts throwing around unsubstantiated accusations about possible smuggling operations. Smuggling what? Stolen pets?
Calico
December 15th, 2008 at 10:32 am [Reply]

Excellent Chickadee Rant, Josh.
My partner has created a thing Mark Trail would be oh so proud of-a cedar-branch faux tree feeding station on our upper balcony/porch that goes across the front of the house-she’s got a cornucopia of seed and suet and the ‘Dees love it. Yes, they are officially squatting here until spring, those little Supertramps.

MW – gosh, Mary could’ve had a V8!

Marvin – Um, saliva-fouled?
fishmorgjp
December 15th, 2008 at 10:32 am [Reply]

Whenever Marvin is drawn with one of his gaping-mouthed expressions, It’s fun to imagine him screaming in agony from a wooden stake pounded through his heart! Or the left side of his chest, at any rate…
willethompson
December 15th, 2008 at 10:36 am [Reply]

JP: If the purpose of this ridiculous plot about Judge Parker getting his Stone Seasonishly-large publishing advance doubled by ‘Dewey Cheatem’ losing a golf bet to Sam and then getting whacked because he wanted to steal Snowflake the dog from Dixie Julep the murderess/pole dancer was just to lead us to the breathtaking artwork of Lt. Detective Cleavage McDatedress’s pert boobage, I, for one, salute all involved.
Hogen friggin Mogen
December 15th, 2008 at 10:39 am [Reply]

Marvin the asshole (above): My recent pet peeve is cartoonists that insist on delivering the punch line in a thought balloon. Marvin used to be an infant, and he made all of his pithy observations about the world via thought balloons, as it is a well known fact that all babies posess the ability to think in complete sentences and offer witty insight that they have garnered in the six to twelve months that they have lived on this planet, although they can only vocalize single syllables and screaming. However, there was a time jump, and Marvin is now a toddler, capable of verbalizing his intents. So what’s with the thought balloons? If you were there, you’d only see a kid who does something stupid and then smiles with a glint of evil. I’d start taking that kid down to the local witch hunter and spray him with holy water, for he is truly the devil’s own.
McManx
December 15th, 2008 at 10:39 am [Reply]

Marvin — I now know why I find Marvin so disturbing. He reminds me of that Chucky doll in the movie “Child’s Play”. All I could see in this last panel was that doll writing his Christmas list with a severed finger.
Hogen friggin Mogen
December 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am [Reply]

Lynn flings herself at Mary. Mary, unaccustomed to concepts such as human emotion, is thrown off her game and remains uncharactaristically non-meddling for a panel. Just one. You can bet tomorrow she’ll be back in action, laying down a barrage of advice and peppering the youngster with bon mots aplenty.
Mr. Jones
December 15th, 2008 at 10:47 am [Reply]

Mary Worth:

Wow. A car crash being used as a major plot device, in order to kill off a character. How many weeks have we waited for this?

And I love that look on Greg’s face in his last panel, like he’s thinking “let’s get this death scene over with already!!”. Because even if he’s going to hell, it can’t be any worse than being in a Mary Worth comic strip.
Hogen friggin Mogen
December 15th, 2008 at 10:49 am [Reply]

So what a crazy world, eh? Chatu, almost on the edge of death not too long ago takes Phantom off guard and stabs him. Dixie Julep overpowers a SWAT team. Couldn’t happen in real life?

Some guy in Iraq managed to chuck TWO shoes at Bush while the secret service looked on. Prime Minister al-Maliki blocked the second shoe, and had there been a third shoe, it too would have been heaved before the security team took him down.
Artist formerly known as Ben
December 15th, 2008 at 10:51 am [Reply]

12/15

MW: The flying head-butt didn’t work on Lynn’s father, as he’s got nothing between the ears except visions of ice-dancing glory. Ultimately it will fail on Mary Worth, too.

DtM: “Who the hell are you, and how did you get in our house?”

JP: The SWAT team officer is body-checked by a stripper. Moments later, he has the irresistible urge to buy a $15 dollar martini.

S-M: “Meet me near a wristwatch? That doesn’t make any sense.”

HtH: You have even more trouble coming up with a punchline.

BB: “Beetle, you little slut. I thought I was the only bear in your life.”

SFx: It is revealed that not only is Buford Bullfrog guilty of the crime, he’s also completely ignorant of his own species’ reproduction/life cycle. Oh, this is going to be one tearful confession.

MC: “Whiny Tim.” Yeah, that’s definitely something Rex would say.

9CL: So now Juilliard is denying all knowledge of Amos’ existence? Are they going to destroy student records to back the story up? It’s not the crime, Juilliard, it’s the coverup.

BSt: Coming to the “Brokeback” party a little late, aren’t we?

GA: Given the Norman Rockwell on crack vibe of recent storylines, I’m wondering if they’re going to draft Rover to put on camouglage and a halo and pose as the girl’s father.

Shoe: “Or an inflatable girlfriend. They sell those for birds, right?”

FC: Yo Billy, don’t antagonize your mother when she’s got a sharp object in her hand.

H&J: And Herb, maybe you should worry less about your mother in law who’s not doing anything to you, and more about the way your right hand just turned into a flipper.
Hogen friggin Mogen
December 15th, 2008 at 10:58 am [Reply]

Spi-duh-man: I read out loud what Spidey said as the clock was falling, and his punch line from the second panel. Keeping a reasonable pace, it took five seconds, and that doesn’t include the time from Saturday when the clock started falling, continuing through a full Sunday spread. And I thought that the inane writing in this strip only made the minutes seem like hours.
Hogen friggin Mogen
December 15th, 2008 at 11:03 am [Reply]

Thorp: Laughs aplenty here! Let’s review!

Panel 1: “But enough about you, honey, let’s talk about ME.

Panel 2: Dan Greve has a lot to worry about, but probably #1 on his list should be the fact that his hands have disconnected themselves from his body and one has started to smack him on the back of the head.

Panel 3: She casually discusses the crisis in the financial sector while their house is on fire. Was this intended to be some kind of symbolism? Deep.
Peter
December 15th, 2008 at 11:05 am [Reply]

Jean-Paul Sartre will now be taking over writing and illustrating Family Circus.
Shermy Glamrocker
December 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am [Reply]

“I’m in favor of it.”
- John McKay, coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1976, when asked about the execution of his team.

“I’m all for it.”
- The Coach dude in B.C. comic strip on Dec. 15, 2008, when asked about the execution of his team.

B.C. Stealing 33-year-old quips for 100 years.
AmazingThor
December 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am [Reply]

9CL: Just so we’re clear, in a 24-hour period, the following have happened:
1. Amos and Edda boned
2. People filmed it whilst waiting to film a hot air balloon that for some reason was floating through a maze of skyskrappers.
3. People posted the video online and sent it in to the news (giving up on the hot air balloon show, presumably).
4. The news drops all its top stories and goes international with the “Two geeks dorking” video, which also goes viral online.
5. Whilst the video beomes hotter than a Paris Hilton sex tape, the competition goes on (I missed a few more rounds of sweaty nerd-sex, but there were too many to count)
6. Amos wows the crowd and his music inspires the entire world to go into an orgy of Perfume proportions.
7. The judges, having just awarded the top prize to Amos, immediately log in to youtube and watch the video.
8. Newspapers worldwide immediately print out stories about Amos winning.
9. The judges call Edda and announce an emergency press conference.
10. Amos demands another competition and also bones Edda ten or twelve more times.
11. Newspapers worldwide issue immediate retractions about Amos’ victory.

That about cover it? The only way for all of this to happen so quickly is if somehow the more sex being had on Earth slows down time itself. Which puts a nice kinky twist on Einstein’s theory of relativity. E=MC^2, where C = number of times premature ejaculation occurs (also known as Amos’ Constant).
Shermy Glamrocker
December 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am [Reply]

Sorry I’m late for the discussion on tits, but did you know that Hooters has franchises in China? And the Chinese name for the restaurant is “The American Owl”?

Good-bye double entendre.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/business/stories/2008/12/12/china_hooters.html
Little Guy
December 15th, 2008 at 11:15 am [Reply]

90: JP: If Dixie should live through this attempted breakout, at least three NFL teams would be interested in her services, however, she would have to sit out four games as part of a Goddell-imposed suspension for “conduct detrimental to the game”.
willethompson
December 15th, 2008 at 11:16 am [Reply]

RMMD: Welcome aboard the Norwegian-registered Whoopie Cruise Lines Fun Vessel Ship Of Fools! Population: you.
Ranger
December 15th, 2008 at 11:16 am [Reply]

Monday:

FC: Hey Billy, fuck off you drunken accident!!!

GT: What is with the smoke coming out of their mouths in the last panel? They appear to be indoors, so it is either really cold in their house or they both have rancid breath.
commodorejohn
December 15th, 2008 at 11:18 am [Reply]

9CL – “LITTLE MILTON” DISQUALIFIED IN LAST-MINUTE RUMPUS

A3G – This is where Margo ransacks the gallery looking for anything illegal and kills the custodian when she finds a pirated Metallica CD in his jacket pocket.

AS – Dear Scott Hillburn: grocery store eggs are rarely fertilized and if they are they have been chilled to the point of killing the developing chick and therefore this comic would not make any sense even if there were any sort of reason for chickens to be buying fertilized eggs at the grocery store instead of just copulating.

BB – “Hibernate?” Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

BR – As far as I’m concerned, any mockery of The Day The Earth Said “Whoa” is great mockery.

Crankshaft – You know, most people would just hear these dumb puns and groan and roll their eyes. Crankshaft’s family instead looks at him like he just stomped the life out of a kitten.

Dilbert – I admit to not having actually worked in this position, but it would seem to me that being in charge of legacy systems would mean not having to deal with a constant stream of patches and service packs and working with well-documented knowns instead of new and less-than-fully-tested technology. Sounds great, actually.

FB – YOU NEVER HAVE A PUNCHLINE.

FW – And by “Winterfest Court” they apparently mean “shambling zombie horde.” Don’t eat the braaaiiiinnnsss, Rana, they most likely have tumors. No, you can’t get cancer by eating tumors, but in the Winkerverse, why take the risk?

GA – Okay, somehow Clovia turned from “hot grandma with weird eyes” to “total abomination.” I guess it fits with the rest of the strip.

GT – Gil cares not for the misfortunes of others unless he is affected.

JP – Whoa. Dixie’s claws are a nice touch.

Love Is… – remembering how narrowly you avoided being found guilty.

Luann – TJ gets it.

MT – Wow, Meganeura and Archelon, in the same comic! A great day for prehistoric megafauna, indeed!

MW – The body slam of despair.

Momma – ATTENTION COMIC WRITERS: THERE ARE CONVERTER BOXES THAT CAN BE PURCHASED TO ALLOW A NORMAL SET TO DISPLAY DIGITAL SIGNALS. THIS HAS BEEN COMMON KNOWLEDGE FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW.

PBS – Another week of wonderfulness.

Phantom – Panel one: just after the Phantom has thrown Devil’s pokeball.

RMMD – Yes, Rex. It is. And it’s going to be wonderful.

SF – And thus did Sally Forth add literature to the list of things it makes colossaly dorky jokes about. Right on.

SM – “Alarm clocks are right out!“
firegoat
December 15th, 2008 at 11:20 am [Reply]

Is it just me, or does that last panel in Judge Parker bring back memories of Wonder Woman?
Balius
December 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am [Reply]

What really bugs me about Marvin is the filler. Do we really need to know that his Mom buys economy sized toilet paper rolls? The whole “joke” could have been done better with just the first and last panels…which really says something, because even the shortened joke isn’t really funny.
Calico
December 15th, 2008 at 11:42 am [Reply]

#112 – I wonder if Mark Trail has ever set foot inside a Hooters? He could lecture the patrons on Ornithology in between watching ginourmous boobs serving onion rings and the like.
CanuckDownSouth
December 15th, 2008 at 11:49 am [Reply]

In MT, all certified Bad Guys must be smugglers? Couldn’t possibly be merely kidnappers or killers. And apparently Mark can’t go to the police about assault and kidnapping, because those aren’t crimes. Now I understand laws about the first one had to be dropped for the Fist ‘o Justice to exist, but I can’t figure out why the second is now off the books. Maybe the rule is all crimes must involve animals or misuse of nature areas. Humans are fair game.

And I usually really like SF, but today’s gives me a bad taste. Doesn’t help that’s it’s up against a week (and counting!) of Zits teenage oblivious entitlement. If they haven’t taught Hilary by now that a gift list is a set of suggestions, that others are allowed to give her things that aren’t on it, and that it is a very rare thing indeed to get everything you want, they are setting her up for a miserable life.

(obligatory FOOBfic plug)
AmazingThor
December 15th, 2008 at 11:52 am [Reply]

BB: Oh no, we’re going to see a threesome involving Sarge, Beetle, and an anonymous furry.

Curtis is starting to remind me of ~~Egg~~ Ann from Arrested Development.

GT: I was puzzled by Gil Thorp today because the two people seem to be having completely different conversations. But it made sense in the last panel as they have apparently both been smoking weed in an old shed in the woods.

JP: So a fully trained (we hope) SWAT member gets tossed aside by a 100 lb exotic dancer? Someone’s gonna hear about this for the rest of his career.
Plus the “body-block” looks more like over-enthusiastic head-banging to me.

MT: While Mark and Andy start to build up an “incredible journey” cast of animals, Pop’s dementia kicks in and he begins to talk to himself. Ms. BusinessWoman can only blame herself…

MW: So the world-class skating phenomenon trips on an acorn and falls into the talon-like grasp of Mary.

First Mark Trail, and now Phantom is saved by his loyal and more competant dog. I look for Hot Dog to be rescuing Jughead from International jewel thieves later this week.

SF: Nice foreshadowing. I suppose Hil will now get pregnant, miscarry, and end up breast feeding a noble hobo in a refugee camp. No seriously, thats how Grapes of Wrath ends.

SFx: I still think Mr. Bullfrog is gonna come out of this okay. For starters, his legal council is wearing a suit and tie while the prosecuter is in hot pants and a bowler hat.

S-M: Spiderman swings into action! Well, it’s more of a sashay than a swing, but it’s a step up from the couch.
buckyswife
December 15th, 2008 at 11:55 am [Reply]

MT: Why does Mark need to get help dealing with the “smugglers” when he has at his disposal a) a dragonfly the size of a turtle and b) a bird the size of, well, himself?

As for those smugglers, the only evidence we’ve seen is that they smuggle nature writers. Unless: he meant “snugglers,” and all the speculation about swamp sexual hi-jinks came true!

MW: How does Lynn actually win any skating championships anyway? We’ve seen her flail her way into a faint, looking more like a spastic Ralph Macchio in crane mode than a young woman gracefully crumpling in despair. And now she’s flinging herself at a tree and at… another tree, in the form of Mary Worth. What happens when she skates? I picture her flailing and flinging herself about the rink, and at the end of her routine, there’s stunned silence, for just a moment, and then raucous applause and cheers. Because this is, you know, Mary Worth, and nothing has to make sense.
AMC
December 15th, 2008 at 11:55 am [Reply]

Mary Worth – “Oh NO! She’s going to . . . touch me! Ghaaa! I only meddle from afar. I am the cruise missile of meddling. A drive-by advice giver. This is so Un-Methodist of her! This messy touchy-feely stuff should be handled by others, after my passive-aggressive bromide-terrogation! No! No! I’m meeeeeellllllltttttttiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg.”
teenchy
December 15th, 2008 at 12:01 pm [Reply]

So whaddaya suppose the market would be for a Mary Worth bobblehead?
teenchy
December 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm [Reply]

Oh, and to our host: Cornell’s site is one I hit up regularly for my Campephilus principalis fix.
Lisa (not the dead one)
December 15th, 2008 at 12:05 pm [Reply]

Luann: it’s all part of TJ’s diabolical plan. Trick Brad into giving Toni the sleaziest of sleazy gifts. Toni will “break up” with Brad again. Voila, TJ gets Brad ALL TO HIMSELF. That Brad didn’t even bother to review the brochure says he secretly hopes TJ’s plan works.
commodorejohn
December 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm [Reply]

#120 CanuckDownSouth – I dunno, I would tend to agree with you about “ha ha teenage entitlement,” but I’m giving SF a pass because it’s obviously just a setup for a Grapes Of Wrath joke.
Harold
December 15th, 2008 at 12:32 pm [Reply]

The foolish coloring gnomes on Rhymes With Orange have confused Iron Man with War Machine! Oh, how foolish!
Dr. Pants
December 15th, 2008 at 12:33 pm [Reply]

“Some things last a long time.” Thanks for the quote, Mary Worth. I can’t wait until next week’s lesson, “Time passes…in time” and the big New Year’s Eve capper, “Things occur occasionally.”
Art Vandelay
December 15th, 2008 at 12:34 pm [Reply]

First Shoe references The Replacements, now Mary Worth quotes Daniel Johnston. What’s next? Nirvana quoted in Crankshaft? (”I Hate Myself and Want to Die.”) Schroeder in Peanuts listening to Camper Van Beethoven? Husker Du quoted in Garfield? (”It’s Not Funny Anymore.”)

Josh if you went to Cornell, did you know this guy named Andy Bernard? Everyone called him “Puke.” Or “Ace.” Or “Buzz.” Plays a mean sitar and was in an a capella group. Has issues with rage.

The Phantom remains by the tree, day 79. At least the weird guy finally stood up, only to be bitten by a dog. Would this comic be any different if the Phantom was never in it? Maybe it’d be a little more exciting, but nothing major would change.
dale
December 15th, 2008 at 12:35 pm [Reply]

116 – commodorejohn – Dilbert
If you’re dealing with legacy application programs, the only documentation will be out-of-date user’s manuals.
lesles
December 15th, 2008 at 12:41 pm [Reply]

MT: i think you’re wrong on this one, josh. given that chickadees are the main ingredient in prozac, i reckon jackelrod’s probably on the ball about their internal state.
John C Fremont
December 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm [Reply]

JP – God bless Eduardo Barreto. God bless him, every one.
Dingo
December 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pm [Reply]

MW: I’m waiting for the doppelganger moment in this Mary Worth story arc. Is Greg actually dead or did someone want Lynn to suffer emotionally? Lynn says that Greg died in the car crash but mentions nothing about attending the funeral. Must’ve had skating practice that day. My bet is that her father paid someone to tell her that story so that her mind would only be on skating instead of a joyous penis hanging like a Sword of Damocles before her flaring nostrils. It’s time for Mary to use the internets to find out more about Greg and produce the very undead boy before Lynn’s eyes so that she can take Olympic gold.

MT: Pops and Sue Butler out in the swamp together in an old buggy. Looks like someone’s gonna get his Christmas wish this year.

SF: Though I usually wish to sell Hil to Somali pirates as a buttlove slave, today she comes through with her line about the Joads. Go, Hil!

Rex Morgan: Rex is covering his crotch. Must be a woman in the room.
DAS
December 15th, 2008 at 12:57 pm [Reply]

What have we learned today?

Marvin … more menacing than Dennis, the so-called Menace.

P.J. … more menacing than Dennis, the so-called Menace.

A chickadee … more menacing than Dennis, the so-called Menace.
Perky Bird
December 15th, 2008 at 1:01 pm [Reply]

If Mark Trail were really a concerned, dedicated protector of animals, he would have, at the very least, checked that shrimp boat’s nets to make sure that they were equipped with turtle excluder devices.
UncleJeff
December 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm [Reply]

#112 – I wonder if Mark Trail has ever set foot inside a Hooters? He could lecture the patrons on Ornithology in between watching ginourmous boobs serving onion rings and the like.

Calico: having had a relationship with a Hooters waitress, I am offended by your suggestion.
The ginourmous boobs are the ones eating the onion rings and the like.
The servers are women. Educated women with very large and well-displayed tits.
Spunde
December 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm [Reply]

#107: Yes, but remember, Spider-Man quips with the proportional speed of a spider, and by the cartoon laws of physics, the smaller the creature the faster they speak.
Huntch
December 15th, 2008 at 1:18 pm [Reply]

RMMD – Have been hoping through the last two story lines to get June in a bikini at some point – but now I’m not so sure I want to see that with all the hair on her back!
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
December 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm [Reply]

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, Mary Worth style:

There was a boy in a village who liked to entertain himself by shouting “Wolf!” even when there wasn’t one. The villagers would come to his aid, but then become annoyed when they saw there wasn’t really a wolf. Then one day, the boy died in a car crash.

“The Gift of the Magi”, Mary Worth style:

Jim and Della were a young couple who were in dire financial straits with Christmas approaching. Jim wanted to buy Della a set of tortoiseshell combs for her beautiful long hair, and Della wanted to buy Jim a chain for his pocket watch given to him by his father. But then, one of them died in a car crash.
tizzy
December 15th, 2008 at 1:49 pm [Reply]

I think the reason Santa is so gleeful is because he knows exactly what he’s going to do with Marvin’s Christmas List.
One-eyed Wolfdog
December 15th, 2008 at 2:00 pm [Reply]

#140 – SQB – I’m going to be curious to see how that comment manages to fit the into narrow margins of the sidebar this evening.
Spunky N. Tadpole
December 15th, 2008 at 2:01 pm [Reply]

@ #141

I’m not so sure Santa is going to be particularly eager to use Marvin’s “list” – for anything: I mean. the little bastard IS shown holding a crayon: but we have no guarantee (but hope) that those are actually crayon marks on the TP….
Hibbleton
December 15th, 2008 at 2:40 pm [Reply]

#121JP: So a fully trained (we hope) SWAT member gets tossed aside by a 100 lb exotic dancer? Someone’s gonna hear about this for the rest of his career.

I’m guessing that he and all the other men on the scene have near paralysis-inducing, painful erections in the presence of Dixie and Detective McTits’ estrogen-fueled, tension-induced, explosion of pheromones. Sam, immune to such effects, will rise (or in this case, not rise) to save the day.
bats :[
December 15th, 2008 at 2:41 pm [Reply]

I was pretty much okay with the 9CL plot through last Saturday. So, of course, Brooke is going to draaaaaaaaaag it out even more.
This retraction of the prize because of his “loose morals” is reminiscent of Vanessa Williams losing the Miss America crown for different but nonetheless “loose morals.” I always get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I see Ms. Williams on TV or in a movie — in spite of her heinous (heinous, I tells ya!) behavior, and the evidently stunning blow that being stripped (ahem) of the Miss America title dealt her, she’s managed to eke out a living somehow…
Remember, Amos, can you (or anyone) name the first runner-up who replaced Vanessa? You’re just like her, aside from the fact that even less people give a rat’s ass about the Forrestier cello competition…
Calico
December 15th, 2008 at 2:50 pm [Reply]

#124 – Holy Moley – I was thinking about a MW Bobblehead this AM. It would fit in with the squeezie rubber Cartman, tiny plush Garfield, postcard of Tintin looking completely discombobulated, and my Gary Larson cartoon of God creating Earth in a Dutch Oven, plus other cartoons like Backbench, C & H, and The NY’er.
(Yes, my office looks like an insane asylum.)

And, I still want a MW design on my damned snowboard. So there.
Calico
December 15th, 2008 at 2:56 pm [Reply]

#137 – Oh my – I humbly apologize!
These ladies are indeed far from stupid…and yes, the boobs are most likely on the serving end! : )
One-eyed Wolfdog
December 15th, 2008 at 2:57 pm [Reply]

The great thing about reading A3G day in and day out is that it grinds the scale of your expectations down to the point where the sudden appearance of a non-blue article of clothing delivers the relative comic-soap impact of a dozen real-life Tunguska events. Did you see that bright yellow shit today? Holy shit, yeah! You know you did! WHOOO!
Al of the Christian Single Jungle Patrol
December 15th, 2008 at 2:59 pm [Reply]

116-commodorejohn– From my point of view, legacy systems support is hell, condensed.

From being the sole point of contact for a system that can never be shut down, to porting these ancient applications to machinery and OSs they were never meant to run on, from endless streams of backwards compatibility testing, to the knowledge that you’ll be both fired and unemployable the second somebody figures out that newer systems are both cheaper and easier to run… I’ve turned down raises and quit jobs to avoid these (and more) calamities.
One-eyed Wolfdog
December 15th, 2008 at 3:01 pm [Reply]

The good sergeant, having made a quick, quiet mental note of Beetle’s apparent preferences, was observed surreptitiously purchasing economy-size bottles of hair tonic at the PX next day.
Old School Allie Cat
December 15th, 2008 at 3:18 pm [Reply]

#140 – Cinderella by Mary Worth.

…and so Cinderella’s fairygodmother conjured up a new gown for Cinderella, and a pair of glass slippers. She then turned a pumpkin into a carriage, which, while en route to the ball, took a wrong turn off a steep embankment, and burst into pumpkiny flames, killing Cinderella, several mice and ruining a perfectly good pumpkin.
Al of the Christian Single Jungle Patrol
December 15th, 2008 at 3:22 pm [Reply]

151 — Old School Allie Cat –

Bippity, Boppity, Boop!
Al of the Christian Single Jungle Patrol
December 15th, 2008 at 3:29 pm [Reply]

9CL — All snarking aside, I think Amos is THE MAN for sticking by and defending Edda like he has.. A lesser strip character (say, like Marty Moon) might have just gotten drunk and told everyone to go to hell.
bats :[
December 15th, 2008 at 4:02 pm [Reply]

153. Al: I think you raise a valid point. Granted, Amos could just be a shallow bastard who’s thinking, “Cripes, if I don’t defend Edda, I’ll never get laid…by anyone…again.” (I call this the Asshathony Caine Gambit), but I really don’t think that’s in his make-up. I think he is being very honorable.
shermy glamrocker
December 15th, 2008 at 4:05 pm [Reply]

“The Hobbit,” by Mary Worth:

After staying with Elrond at Rivendell again for a while, and digging up the trolls’ gold, Bilbo finally got home to Bag-end, Hobbiton again just in time to stop an auction of his house and belongings.

He was no longer respectable because of his adventurous nature, but he was now very, very rich.

But then he drove his car off the Bree Bridge and died in a fiery crash.
Artist formerly known as Ben
December 15th, 2008 at 4:08 pm [Reply]

#140 & 151 SQB & allie cat

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Mary Worth

Goldilocks tried the first bed and it was too hard. She tried the second bed and it was too soft. The third bed was just right. Baby Bear said, “Someone’s been sleeping in my bed and she’s still there!” “For shame!” all three bears shouted. Goldilocks was ashamed. She bought a cheap bottle of bourbon and drove over a cliff.
Poteet
December 15th, 2008 at 4:11 pm [Reply]

9CL — The public TV station here has a major frequent thing for Andre Rieu concerts, especially for on-air fundraising. So now I’m envisioning a concert in which Edda and Amos show up dressed like they were for that Belgian cello competition and boink each other on stage, to the strains of The Blue Danube. And viewers are asked to pledge money to make them stop.
bats :[
December 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm [Reply]

155. shermy glamrocker: well done, but Bilbo wouldn’t have a car; he’d have a cart-and-pony, which would veer off the Bree Bridge and all would die in a fiery crash.
Hey, if anything going off a bridge or crashing into a tree can turn into a fireball on The Simpsons (including an Amish buggy a few seasons back), I think this is a feasible end to Mr. Baggins.
Todd
December 15th, 2008 at 4:14 pm [Reply]

Josh is a fellow Cornellian? Awesome!

Far above Cayuga’s waters,
With its waves of blue…
Saluki
December 15th, 2008 at 4:17 pm [Reply]

Is anyone else creeped out by the fact that Veronica’s father seems to have cut a spyhole in the wall to watch his daughter make out with Archie?
Dingo
December 15th, 2008 at 4:19 pm [Reply]

The Night Before Christmas by Mary Worth

‘Twas the night before Christmas in Santa Royale
Not a creature was stirring, drunk on muscatell;
The stockings were hung by the fake fireplace,
And the smell of a casserole stunk up the place;
Dr. Jeff and his Mary were snuggled in bed,
And visions of Christmas sex filled her with dread;
Ol’ Mar’ in bubushka and an ermine-lined merkin,
Led Dr. Jeff, sleeping, to a somnolent jerkin’;
When out by the pool there arose such a clatter,
Ol’ Mar’ thought that Rita’d returned, the mad hatter.
Away to the window she flew, in the flesh,
Tore open the curtains in nothing but mesh.
The moon on her breast gave an ominous glow
The lustre of death with diseases in tow,
When, what to the wondering eye should appear,
But a ‘66 Skylark, which struck her with fear,
A little old driver, so tipsy and blue
He looked so much like that Captain… Kangaroo!
Mar’ clutched at her bosom to see this repast
‘Twas the ghostly return of one Aldo Kelrast!
He picked up a stick to use as a bludgeon,
And shouted out names of those who curmudgeon.
“Now, Jamus! Now, Calico! The strips, you patrol!
Now bring me Al of the C-S-J Patrol!
On, bats! On Deena! On Poteet, you vixen!
Gadge Cubic’s furred ass, on that I’m-a fixin’!
To the top of the porch! Across the lanai!
To the leathery bosom of which I do spy!”
As dry as her cootch or a James Bond martini,
He opened the lock on her door, that Houdini.
Through the drapes Kelrast came with a bound.
Aldo stood before Mary and looked all around.
He was dressed all in fur, from his feet to his nose,
And then Mary realized, “He ain’t wearin’ no clothes!”
A bundle of sex toys were flung on his back,
And a sweet line of sweat drops dropped down to his crack.
His eyes — how they twinkled! He said, “You’re mine, Mary!
And tonight is the night Aldo’s poppin’ that cherry!”
Miss Worth’s little mouth drew up like a bow.
“That ‘cherry,’ dear sir, dried up long, long ago.”
Aldo jiggled his junk. “You like this big schwans?”
Mary sniffed and said, “You should be giving me swans.
My husband, you see, on the night of first bliss
Gave me a set and then gave me a kiss.
Swans mate for life so you’d better relax
If you’re wanting to make me the beast with two backs.”
With a wink of his eye and a twist of her breast,
Some porcelain swans appeared on cedar chest.
Mary looked at the swans, filling with glee,
And then noticed, “Aldo? These swans. There are three.”
With that Dr. Jeff appeared out of the trough
And greeted the two with a mighty hard cough.
“I hope I’m not in the way of this folly.
It seems a menage could be somewhat jolly.”
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Cupping her breasts, giving Aldo a jerk,
And laying his fingers aside of his nose,
He went down on fair Mary, in flagrant repose.
He sprang to full manhood, making sweet Mary whistle,
And to bed they all flew, without even a bristle.
The Camerons exclaim that later that night,
Shouts were heard, “Happy Christmas! They’re getting me tight!”
Joe Btfsplk
December 15th, 2008 at 4:20 pm [Reply]

Mary Worth – What Mary doesn’t understand about figure skating competitions is… is… heh… Heheheh! The word “competition” has “tit” in it! Heheheheh! Uh… what was I going to say?
Joe the Plugger
December 15th, 2008 at 4:23 pm [Reply]

9CL: “New petitions against tax”! “Building Code Under Fire”
Crankenstank
December 15th, 2008 at 4:35 pm [Reply]

Dingo for comment of the week! Dingo for comment of the week! And I frankly find Mary Worth so boring that I rarely even bother to read Josh’s commentary (which has otherwise, curse you, hooked me on actually reading Rex Morgan every morning, the last remaining soap strip in the local rag.) I mean, I don’t even get most of the references in the hommage, but the sheer craftsmanship is evident.
Joe Btfsplk
December 15th, 2008 at 4:36 pm [Reply]

# 163 Joe the Plugger – Heheh! Petitions! Heheheh!

I need help.
AhClem
December 15th, 2008 at 4:45 pm [Reply]

I was going to post “The Night Before Christmas” by Mary Worth — something about Mary refusing to serve Santa milk and cookies, Santa flying off in a tearful rage, the sled crashing into a TV tower and plummeting to the ground in flames.

Yes, I was going to post something like that. But how can I possibly follow Dingo’s wonderful interpretation of that Christmas classic?
kalki
December 15th, 2008 at 4:50 pm [Reply]

9CL: Washington (AP)-Lazy cartoonist beaten to death by angry mob…

Archie: Veronica is going to make somebody a happy ex-husband someday.

Beetle: Sarge should just sneak back later and dump salmon all over Beetle.

Blondie: So the animated corpse of Ronald Reagan carpools with Dagwood?

FW: And what does this entail for Summer? Did we miss something? Did Les’ conversation with Keisha’s mom actually end???

GA: Wow, Clovia unbitched herself in record time there.

Luann: Kick TJ’s teeth in, Brad!

Ugh…Maybe because it is Monday, but the comics were even more suckass than usual today.
Islamorada Girl
December 15th, 2008 at 5:10 pm [Reply]

114: Once again, Wille shoots! He scores. This is why he’s my god.
Little Guy
December 15th, 2008 at 5:11 pm [Reply]

9CL: “Conservationist Punches Celloist While Armed Stripper Shoots Pianist”
Lorem Ipsum
December 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm [Reply]

I am not sure if this has been snarked, but how did Mark Trail come to the conclusion that Salty & Co. were smugglers? Clueless Outdoor Writer (AKA as Fist O’Justiceman) smugglers maybe but that’s all they be ferrying on the S.S. Rustytug. Did they all fall asleep at 4:25 after smuggling some awesome chronic from the drained wetlands? Inquiring minds want to know?!
One-eyed Wolfdog
December 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pm [Reply]

Oh, yeah, big props to Ray Billingsley for the Enchanter reference today. Absolutely 100% guaranteed to have been unintentional, but it was still the only interesting thing I’ve seen in Curtis for months.
Gabacho
December 15th, 2008 at 5:45 pm [Reply]

Mary Worth – Mary should stroke ~~Vera~~ Lynn’s ponytail and softly tell her, “Stand proud, child. It’s your first kill. You are a meddler now. You have joined the bitter sorority of which I am queen. There is much to learn.”

Rex Morgan – How come June’s back is all hairy? She looks like a Greek sailor, not that that’s a bad thing. In fact, in the right circumstances, down by the docks after closing time for example, it can be a very good thing indeed. It just doesn’t work for her.

Sally Forth – wow.
Gabacho
December 15th, 2008 at 5:47 pm [Reply]

#161 Dingo – Damn, papi, that’s a great piece of satire. It’s a keeper.
CanuckDownSouth
December 15th, 2008 at 5:55 pm [Reply]

#170: at 82 and 120. Never fear – we nitpick it all :-)
One-eyed Wolfdog
December 15th, 2008 at 6:00 pm [Reply]

In situations such as these Mark is mighty glad he carries his “Jump To Conclusions” mat with him wherever he goes.
Hogen Mogen
December 15th, 2008 at 6:01 pm [Reply]

I don’t know if I should be dismayed at the lack of commentary on Rex Moron’s “surprised” look two days in a row or elated, because that leaves the coast clear (pun intended) to snark on it myself. I did see Commodore John make mention a few posts ago, so the field isn’t exactly virgin turf.

The bad news – that puckered up look when June mentions officers behind closed doors – it’s just so balant that it kind of just speaks for itself. I just imagined Rex licking his lips and getting his chops ready for some red hot sailor boy action.

And the day before, when Rex casually says “Bankrupt? I guess that would explain the deck hand throwing chairs overboard.” got me the biggest laugh of the week. I seriously can’t wait to see what kind of unintended hilarity Wilson & Nolan are going to dish up next.

Rex did save a disabled vet from eviction, but can he resuscitate a dying cruise line? Doesn’t that take more than just a lucky hand at a poker game?

Seriously, though, if I were on a ship staffed by people that couldn’t care less about thier job, the first thing I’d do is hit the bar, because you know the bartender has to be dishing out shots on the house.
Hogen Mogen
December 15th, 2008 at 6:05 pm [Reply]

Sue: Aren’t we going to look for Mark?
Pop: Yes, as soon as I get my old buggy back from the shop. Yeah, the serpentine belt broke, and they needed to order a special one because they don’t keep it in stock. The manufacturer had to do a custom job because that model was discontinued, then we had to replace a spring valve on the… Who are we looking for again?
Lorem Ipsum
December 15th, 2008 at 6:14 pm [Reply]

Thanx Canuck, I just hadn’t read that far into my oxysnarktin today.
queek
December 15th, 2008 at 6:15 pm [Reply]

having wandered back to mention that “I saw the joke coming” in Candorville today, and that it was a very nice shout out to several other comics, I stand transfixed and in awe of Dingo’s verse at post 161.

well DONE, sir! *applause*
Alfred E. Neuman
December 15th, 2008 at 6:16 pm [Reply]

#112 Shermy Glamrocker— Is it possible that “American Owl” is Chinese slang for “big tits”?

Here in North Texas it is 28 degrees with a wind chill of 15. Yesterday it was 80 degrees. My body has been too whipsawed by this violent temperature change to do much snarking, but MW is usually snarkable under the worst of circumstances.

MW— OMG, Lynn actually TOUCHED Mary! No one touches (much less hugs) St. Mary of Charterstone without her express written permission. I fear that a Fist o’ Meddling may be headed Lynn’s way.
Amanda M
December 15th, 2008 at 6:24 pm [Reply]

Family Circus: Wouldn’t it have made more sense for the FC kids to, I don’t know, put PJ in the playpen so they wouldn’t have to move the board and all the pieces, and climb into the pen? God, those kids are stupid.
Lorem Ipsum
December 15th, 2008 at 6:29 pm [Reply]

AmazingThor says:
BB: Oh no, we’re going to see a threesome involving Sarge, Beetle, and an anonymous furry.

I was think more along the lines of My Bodyguard type of thing. Paying for protection with a little Beetle injection.
docweasel
December 15th, 2008 at 9:16 pm [Reply]

“saliva” fouled if he’s LUCKY!
Anonymous
December 15th, 2008 at 10:04 pm [Reply]

#181 – Somewhere some doting grandparents are reading this FC right now and chuckling :p over the whimsicality, but – when li’l Miss Anonymous was a toddler, we did put the Christmas tree, that year, in her playpen, to keep it (and her) safe. And the cat took his catnap in the playpen. SHE sure as hell wouldn’t spend any time in it.
Amanda M
December 15th, 2008 at 10:09 pm [Reply]

#184- I guess you’re right, but those family circus kids are still idiots. :-D
Muffaroo
December 15th, 2008 at 10:20 pm [Reply]

I mostly stopped reading the Sunday Mark Trail when I realized we were never going to see panels of animal noises apparently coming from the heads of seemingly giant human beings thrust for no reason into the fronts of panels in which they don’t figure at all.

I mean, what’s the point?
ms. docweasel
December 16th, 2008 at 1:45 am [Reply]

I don’t expect cartoons to have a great deal of logic, not even FC, but why not put the baby in the playpen instead of crawling in it themselves? And what’s to keep the baby from getting into poison, drowning in the toilet, falling down the cellar steps, etc., or is that the point?
kostia
December 16th, 2008 at 4:24 pm [Reply]

Kudos to whoever that is who dressed her right arm in an outfit just like Mary’s, then snuck into the bottom of the last frame specifically to slap her across the face. Kudos.
GoBigRed
December 20th, 2008 at 11:03 pm [Reply]

Glad to see Cornellians continue to make the world a better place. Its nice to see a fellow alum pointing out the intricacies of Mary Worth. I am 100% sure that is exactly what every class at Cornell prepared you to do. I am sure you honed your craft finding humor in the many “riveting” classes you took over your four years. Great Blog.
pyano
January 9th, 2009 at 11:43 pm [Reply]

Is it just me, or does it look like Mary’s hand has flipped itself around in the final panel?

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