The Comics Curmudgeon

85 responses to “Metapost: If you’re not reading the comments of the week, WHY NOT???”

1. Lupin the 3rd
   September 7th, 2009 at 9:03 pm [Reply]

   The scary thing is, the Spider-Man in that video is better animated than the 1960’s TV series!

2. buckyswife
   September 7th, 2009 at 9:05 pm [Reply]

   Excellent CsOTW—congratulations, all!

3. Buck Ripsnort
   September 7th, 2009 at 9:20 pm [Reply]

   COTW congrats –AND to the fact that that whole Freberg cartoon loaded before I finished reading your front page! What’s it from, if anything?

4. Metz77
   September 7th, 2009 at 9:32 pm [Reply]

   @Lupin the 3rd: It was likely an 80s promo. It mentions Annie’s movie deal, and the Annie film was released in the eighties.

5. sugarpie
   September 7th, 2009 at 9:44 pm [Reply]

   Lots of great comments! Congratulations smacky, Uncle L., Nekrotzar, Dancing Bear, Teddytoad, and everyone else!

6. AhClem
   September 7th, 2009 at 10:08 pm [Reply]

   Dancing Bear’s comment about Jumble made me squirt milk out of my nose. At least, I think it was milk. Maybe it was some other fluid, but in any case, it was funny.

7. Mibbitmaker
   September 7th, 2009 at 10:10 pm [Reply]

   Ythread’s #11 (Muffaroo) — the Pluggers one — really should’ve been on the COTW list this week.

   Or maybe next week — the week that will be known as the week Mibbit finally made the top spot! –NAH![/Theodoric of York]

8. commodorejohn
   September 7th, 2009 at 10:11 pm [Reply]

   Haha, what a great bunch we have today. And yay, I’m in there! Great job, everybody!

9. Joe Blevins
   September 7th, 2009 at 10:17 pm [Reply]

   The liner notes for the Tip of the Freberg boxed set (highly recommended) say this ad dates back to 1984. Annie’s movie came out in 1982 — Garfield’s first year in the animation biz and Marmaduke’s last. Brenda Starr hadn’t gotten her movie deal yet, but she would. I love Brenda’s openly hostile treatment of the plucky redheaded orphan and the typically Freberg-ian jingle at the end.

10. ChristianPinko
    September 7th, 2009 at 10:24 pm [Reply]

    Agghhh! My beautiful eyes!

11. Uncle Lumpy
    September 7th, 2009 at 10:24 pm [Reply]

    #9 Joe –

    Tip of the Freberg is awesome. Stan Freberg, Steve Allen, Jay Ward, Rod Serling, Jack Lemmon — smart ’50’s guys in suits, and what are we gonna do without ‘em?

12. Niall
    September 7th, 2009 at 10:53 pm [Reply]

    Congratulations to the funny people this week! Some quick wit and some good long-form snark in as well. Looks like the target spread is pretty wide too.

    Y97 queek: Yup, precisely one of the two. (And surprisingly, it’s even more likely to happen canon now than ever before…)

13. True Fable
    September 7th, 2009 at 11:42 pm [Reply]

    I knew when I read smacky’s post, that was a COTW winner or at least runner-up, and boy was I right! Congratulations to smacky and all the Floaters!

    And I will be tossing beads, candy and little bags of goat kibble from the Float, too! W00t! Thanks, Josh!

14. alamo
    September 7th, 2009 at 11:50 pm [Reply]

    a tip of the old alamo dome topper to all the COTW’ers this trip. i am in a league way over my head. yowza!

    smacky has to buy the next round!

15. Poteet
    September 7th, 2009 at 11:50 pm [Reply]

    Wow, an especially clever week. Congratulations to smacky and you also-clever runners up! Y’all deserve your float ride, and I hope you’ll enjoy it.

16. seismic-2
    September 7th, 2009 at 11:52 pm [Reply]

    #11 – Well, at least we have the man with the button-down mind himself, Bob Newhart, even if his debut album wasn’t released until 1960. We also still have one of the trademark 1950s funny guys in suits, Mike Nichols, who is still doing good work. But yeah, Stan Freberg somehow stands apart as iconic of the gray-flannel era. [singing the Winston cigarette jingle]You get a lot to like with a Freberg – sneakers, glasses, flip-top head![/singing]

17. rhymes with puck
    September 8th, 2009 at 12:00 am [Reply]

    Congrats to the cotw…

    Monday comics..

    Marvin: What really creeps me out is that the only reason I can see for Marvin fantasizing about telling his mom not to dress wear a slutty dress was…that he was in time out for dressing in a slutty dress. And crapping on it, of course.

    Pluggers: I’m impressed by all the different ways Pluggers come up with for joking that Pluggers are fat.

18. True Fable
    September 8th, 2009 at 12:13 am [Reply]

    Sam Driver & his Pretty People I love the idea of threatening a town by bringing in crawling lawyers. I can’t wait to see how Eduardo Barreto will illustrate it. And PLEASE let one of those lawyers be Busty Duncan!!

19. Muffaroo
    September 8th, 2009 at 12:24 am [Reply]

    Darn, I’m so tired I’m going to save the COTW material for morning, when it’ll all be in English instead of Serbo-Croatian. Then there’s this to offload…

    Poteet @y50 – There were several things I liked in MAD parodies of SoM. The small panel Mort Drucker had in “The Sound of Money” with Von Trapp carrying the hulking teenage son on his shoulders instead of the tiny daughter. The scene in “The Sound of More Music” where Rolf comes back decades later to try and patch things up with Liesl. But my favorite isn’t in MAD, it’s the Bonzo Dog Band’s brief, moving tribute to the show. (I prefer their recorded version, but this conveys it all right, up to the rather sudden

    John C Fremont @y83 – Coincidence city! I still have four Medved Brothers books from when I found them amusing. As you can see, I’ve graduated to the major leagues now, where I can read quality snark every day.

    seismic-2 @y100 – I’d still like to see Don Rosa’s realization of Barks’s last, unfinished Duck story, “Go Slowly, Sands of Time.” Every so often, I look for it.

20. Poteet
    September 8th, 2009 at 12:28 am [Reply]

    9/8

    MT — At least one of the poachers isn’t bright enough to understand the difference between “safe” and “profitable,” not that he doesn’t have company in the financial world. But look! Off to the left, there’s a wood duck in semi-correct plumage! Thank you! *blows kisses to the color monkeys*

    MW — Scott, you impetuous fool, you are so going to die.

    FW — Is it me, or does Cory look different now?

    PHANTOM — You’d think those bizarre-looking children would at least be kind of tan.

    FC — Uh…what kind of school is Billy attending? Is he learning how to sell used cars?

21. bats :[
    September 8th, 2009 at 12:38 am [Reply]

    I’m not an artist or an illustrator, and I *know* drawing humans, particularly their faces and expressions is challenging. But I look at Adrian’s face, and she really doesn’t seem to be focused on that beautiful engagement ring at all, nor does she seem especially happy…

22. True Fable
    September 8th, 2009 at 12:43 am [Reply]

    Scott does not seem concerned that Adrian is about to throw up all over him. This is because the restaurant has that sort of affect on people. It’s purely calculation on his part. He’s counting on Adrian’s next words to be, “Yes for God’s sake; I’d even marry Wilbur Weston if it meant I could get out of here! Can we leave now?!”

    Meanwhile back at Charterstone, Wilbur Weston lifts his head, sniffs the air, and weeps over a lost opportunity.

23. Niall
    September 8th, 2009 at 1:12 am [Reply]

    Can’t sleep…

    Dickishness: Oh great, just as we continued to spin in place, someone interrupts the witless. We’re going nowhere fast, riding a mescaline-ridden elephant.

    Garfield raises directly the specter of Liz-John sex. My actions in Brain Bleach Inc are going up!

    Thorp: am I wrong in thinking at first The Gazelle was the nickname for the dreaded dancing beauty? I mean, usually, gazelles are thought of as something feminine…

    Hi & Lois: Gloom, despair and ruin. In other words, back to normal.

    Mary Worth: Why is Defective Scott wearing Wonder Woman’s metal bracelets? Then again, it will certainly be useful in the coming raid when the bullets hail around. I have to admit, that’s pretty good undercover work for an amazon.

    PBS: …that was random.

    …I have nothing else. Either it’s a less snarkable crop, or I’m running out of steam.

24. Honeypot
    September 8th, 2009 at 1:32 am [Reply]

    Ya know what’s bugging me? Why is Archie thinking about getting married when he still goes to high school and lives at home? For like the last 50 years or so? The same with his intended, the newly broke Veronica and her terrified father. Why aren’t any of his friends suggesting that he’s too “young” to get married, instead of acting like he’s a catch?

    Wouldn’t it make more sense to let all the kids in Archiverse graduate and at least get a job before they tackle the next phase of life? College?

    Oh, hell, just let Archie get her pregnant, then we can have an “unpleasant consequences” marriage. Cause it sure isn’t a romance.

    Carry on. (And congrats to the COTW winner and float riders…!)

25. BenG
    September 8th, 2009 at 1:33 am [Reply]

    S-M: Check out the cop in panel one. Wolverine is bringing those mutton chops back in style.

26. True Fable
    September 8th, 2009 at 1:48 am [Reply]

    One-Line Wonders

    AJGLU3000 Jughead Jones has a tapeworm the length of a city block inside him.

    Crocco of the Desert I want to get a veil with moving lips on it.

    Menace Dennis slowly reaches a five-decade-old conclusion.

    I still don’t read Dick Tracy just so’s you’d know.

    Generic Comic Herbs MIL is the bitch. Just sayin’.

    Scenes from Suburban Hell Or, maybe it’s because you’re a suck-up, Dot.

    Master Poopypants Is this even funny? It’s an observation and a little kid’s idea of how his parents would react, but it just isn’t funny. If he described this in real life, we would still just shrug and say, “okay, whatever.”

    Trinkets Preceding Hogs “Feral Ballerinas”! I always suspected they existed.

    RMMW Becka’s Peter-sense is tingling! And not in a good way!

27. Hobbes Fan
    September 8th, 2009 at 1:48 am [Reply]

    FW: Wait a minute, Cory’s surprised that an adult in this town is acting snide and unprofessional? Doesn’t he know what strip he’s in?

    ReFOOB: So how come the new versions of Lil’ Mikey and Lil’ Lizzie always look like ill-conceived mimes??

28. True Fable
    September 8th, 2009 at 2:01 am [Reply]

    So what if Logan DID suspect MJ was Spider-Man’s wife? Why sweat it?

    Spider-Man is little more than a whiny simpering little buttmunch who occasionally battles less-than-threatening villains. He’s got a lousy job working for an even bigger douchebag than himself, and he’s married to a gorgeous woman who for some incredibly unexplainable reason, loves him. It seems to me that he could use a friend in whom he can confide.

    Maybe Logan can suggest a different employer, at least.

29. Uncle Lumpy
    September 8th, 2009 at 2:05 am [Reply]

    #24 Honeypot –

    National Lampoon did a wonderful Archie followup: Archie–drafted; Jughead–suicidal heroin addict; Betty–trailer momma; Veronica–thrall to Moroccan pimp (“I cot you op, beech!”); Reggie–manipulative record producer. There was also a far less satisfying TV movie, in which Big Ethel matured into a supermodel.

30. curlyfries
    September 8th, 2009 at 2:08 am [Reply]

    PBS: “Feral ballerinas”? God, is it tutu much to hope for that Edda will turn rogue, stomp Amos and then unleash a wave of toe-shoed destruction, leaving the bloated, trampled corpses of Thorax and Monty in her jeté’d wake?

31. curlyfries
    September 8th, 2009 at 2:25 am [Reply]

    Flunky Weenerwag: I guess in Batiuk’s living hell of a “future” they don’t even keep up the pretense of trying to teach “the millenium kids” anything new – you just get the same books and the same shitty curriculum this year that you did last year. Only the sweet kiss of cancer or a successful teenage murder-suicide pact can release you from Les’s relentlessly incoming tide of snide.

    Meddle House: Welcome to Indigestion Theater! Scotty obviously has colossal heartburn from acid reflux and Adrian looks like projectile vomiting is next on the menu. Either salmon squares have ruined their gastrointestinal tracts for good or these two are professional heroin mules who are used to ralphing up balloons on command.

32. Godjesus
    September 8th, 2009 at 3:54 am [Reply]

    Ah, Project Wonderful. What would I do without the filth you dredge up from the bottom of the internet and splatter over practically every site I go to? This “Morning Squirtz” in particular is unspeakably vile. The front page comic as of September 8th is a relatively tame visual pun. I go back one comic, and I’m staring at an mspainted cum-encrusted vagina, and the joke in this comic is “Literally everybody in town has boned this chick.” Let no one say this comic is too predictable.

33. Frank Parsnip
    September 8th, 2009 at 4:40 am [Reply]

    Congrats to the COTWeekers!

    Jugs Parker: I think it’s awesome when Stephen King makes cameo appearances. The good news is that I’ve heard Tia Tequila is available for next week’s episodes as well now that the paparazzi has been effectively banned from the Parker turf.

    MT: Meanwhile the poachers discuss their good fortune. “Man, cutting up alligators in a swam sure is a lot more profitable and a heck of a lot less dangerous than work back in that mill!”

    MW: Judging from Scott’s outfit, I’m guessing that his big tragic secret is going to be that he’s really a priest and not a cop.

    DtM: This could be menacing if Dennis is explaining why he repeatedly slammed Mr. Wilson’s head in a car door. (“Say it like you mean it, bitch!”) But unfortunately we’re likely hearing the ramblings of an insecure and decidedly unmenacing child as he worries about whether others genuinely wish him well.

    Beatle Bailey: Malingerer? Hey, it’s not like Lt. Fuzz stuck the cast on his own leg, set up the IV line. Maybe the thermometer is going a little far, but given the rest of the treatment he’s getting I figure he’ll get that out of his mouth long before he gets the cast off his leg.

    A3G: As soon as Margo asks if Lu Ann told her family about Alan’s death, Lu Ann gets that 1,000-yard stare. In her family, death is simply a topic that is so routine as to be avoided. If mentioned or commented upon at all, it is only at “harvest time”, when they release outlanders for sport.

34. Frank Parsnip
    September 8th, 2009 at 5:23 am [Reply]

    curlyfries (31): In the Batiuk future, the only textbook necessary for American schoolchildren is the King James version. And on the lighter side, the school nurse’s office will be equipped with everything necessary to detect cancer too late to do anything.

35. Just some guy
    September 8th, 2009 at 5:51 am [Reply]

    Was that BC on the TV screen?
    Please don’t tell me BC was ever a TV show.
    Although I kind of would like to see the Christian train wreck that would be.

36. Danny Lilithborne
    September 8th, 2009 at 5:55 am [Reply]

    What was seen cannot be unseen.

37. curlyfries
    September 8th, 2009 at 6:10 am [Reply]

    #34 Frank Parsnip, since King James’ offers hope, let alone redemption, I figure Batiuk will avoid it like, uh, the plague. So even though the (black, natch) cover reads “English Literature” it probably contains such uplifting and inspirational fare as Kafka’s “The Trial,” Orwell’s “1984″ and Goethe’s “Sorrows of Young Werther.”

    I’ve also come to the conclusion that while it may be endemic in lab rats, in Winkerville it’s really Les who causes cancer.

    And a very belated shoutout to COTW winner smacky and the rest of the float riders! Funny as hell, guys!

38. John C Fremont
    September 8th, 2009 at 6:22 am [Reply]

    FC – Does Jeffy even wear pants anymore?

    That’s all I gots. Back to work.

39. Talking Squirrel
    September 8th, 2009 at 7:27 am [Reply]

    FC: Aaaaaand the kids are finally ready — melonheads nicely waxed, spitshined and gleaming. They can put away the shoe-polish box now.

40. Niall
    September 8th, 2009 at 7:28 am [Reply]

    38. John C Fremont: Doesn’t look like it. At first glance I thought he had nothing at all, frankly. Not that I particularly care or would get traumatized by the view of a penis not my own, but it does tend to clash with the intended spirit of the strip. (Then again, on this blog we’re all about the unintended clashes with the spirit of the strips…)

41. Little Guy
    September 8th, 2009 at 7:32 am [Reply]

    PBS: I smell a 9CL sendup….

    Curtis: Yet, we are the ones being punished with this plotline.

    JP: “If you’re threathening my town….” “No, Sir, we’re not. Just accept this gift of a Komodo Dragon egg, from Camelot!”

42. Talking Squirrel
    September 8th, 2009 at 7:47 am [Reply]

    Cathy: It looks like Oyving’s last visit to the barber resulted in him literally “getting his ears lowered”. Gah! All the way to his chin!

    If your head looks like a knucklebone, adding ears at the jawline actually makes things worse. They need to be relocated to his ass, which will add extra years and mirth to his Odyssean quest for manly jeans, and enable him to ignore Cathy simply by plopping down onto the sofa. “Speak up, I can’t hear a word you’re saying”

    As he ages, they will of course get larger (cf. Pickles) until hopefully he’ll be able to twitch his butt cheeks and fly away à la Dumbo.

43. MolyBendum
    September 8th, 2009 at 7:56 am [Reply]

    Tuesday. And congrats to the COTWers.

    Archie – Again with the whole, raw fish. What, it’s just laying, unwrapped, on the shelf in the refrigerator? Sure, why not.

    Baldo – While I totally believe Baldo has a tiny baby penis, I think the joke here is that Tia Carmen can swallow a 15-inch kielbasa without blinking.

    Cathy – God, Irving, don’t ‘woman up’ too much more, your cock-n-balls will fall off.

    Crank – OK, what happened to the principal asking him about charging students for rides on his bus? That was a joke? Silly me for not realizing it.

    FC – Haha. Bill gets to leisurely sip his coffee on his way to work where he will read the paper and harrass his secretaries for 8 hours while the rest of his family suffers. Ah, suburbia is grand indeed.

    Marm – How many licks does it take to get to the center of a human head? One….Two…..Three…..CRUNCH!!…THREEEEEEEEE!!!!!

    Pluggers – After reading yesterday about the Plugger Kabal responsible for putting this crap together, I’m left just feeling bad for people like Reed Hoover, who no doubt sits every morning with his family, opening the paper at the breakfast table, hoping to see his name and his idea published in his favorite comic. He opens it today, his wife pats him on the back, his kids say “Dad, you’re a Plugger!”, he feels immense pride inside. I only pray that someday he realizes that he, and everything he loves, is meaningless, pandering dreck that should be hanging from the end of a rope.

    Ziggy – “No, Geneology is down the hall. This is Proctology.”
    No it isn’t, yes it is, no it isn’t yes it is…wait, this isn’t an argument….yes it is.

44. Lorem Ipsum
    September 8th, 2009 at 8:03 am [Reply]

    FW- oooh crash and burn as in crashing bore and burning hatred. Or in other words…”you are the first to die in my scenario of wonton rampage of death and destruction Mr. Les.”

45. Lorem Ipsum
    September 8th, 2009 at 8:06 am [Reply]

    sheesh…I fail!

46. The Spectacular Spider-Brick
    September 8th, 2009 at 8:10 am [Reply]

    Lorem Ipsum @ 44: Can I get a side of pestilential egg rolls to go with my wonton destruction?

    Also, I hereby disavow any relation to the Spectacular Spider-Ass.

47. 8th Man Fan
    September 8th, 2009 at 8:41 am [Reply]

    y#96 bats :[ re:Sam Jaffe: He was actually in “Ben Casey”, not “Dr. Kildare.” (A pet peeve: Why isn’t “Ben Casey” or “Dr. Kildare” out on DVD yet? Or, for that matter, “8th Man?” Oh, right. Comics….)

    Baldo: Could always try the “Hamptons” defense: “I was in the pool! I was in the pool!”

    Pluggers: Up yours, PLGRMOM.

48. MolyBendum
    September 8th, 2009 at 8:47 am [Reply]

    Gil – “C’mon Duncan, it’s peer pressure man, you gotta give in. Look, you drink the beer while I blow you. No? OK, you drink the beer while Robb blows you. Yeah, there we go, I thought so….”

    Nobody could make out what Duncan’s shirt said at first because it’s…..the Incredible Morphing Shirt™! With 15 different displays! All at the touch of a button! Yours for only $19.95!

    Mark – OK, I know they’re going to need the rowboat with the Evinrude on it for the inevitable chase-thru-the-swamp scene, but c’mon. C’mon. Did Mark have it in his backpack? Maybe that’s why Rusty looks so fucked up all the time: Mark crammed a boat up his ass and made him hike it into the woods.

    And there’s 3 guys in that boat that’s the size of a canoe. They just hacked up a 12 foot alligator. Where, exactly, are they carrying it? Somehow I think this 3-man poaching operation is going to be less profitable than panhandling along the freeway, Bob. You’d be better off going home robbing your little girl’s piggy bank.

    Mary – “I don’t know what to say!” seems like a prelude to “Jeez, god, no Scott. Not just no, but hell no!”

    Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick – Yes Dick. Restate the obvious about the Witness Protection program, because you’re only a cop and have only vaguely heard of it.
    And no, Ringo, you hadn’t mentioned you were in the program for whistleblowing. Did they force you to grow that ridiculous mustache/goatee combo?
    Aaaaaannd, in the interest of delaying plot progress, in case you forgot this was happening at the circus, here’s a chick in a bikini riding a pygmy elephant!
    “Excuse me, gentlemen…” Just arrived is an undercover FBI agent who made it from DC to Bumfuck, Circusville in 14 seconds flat.

49. buckyswife
    September 8th, 2009 at 9:23 am [Reply]

    MT: A belated Labor Day message: As the elite intellectuals relax and have fun, the workin’ man has to keep on poaching alligators just to make ends meet.

    In other words, you know you’re a Plugger if the bottom of your canoe is covered in flayed alligator parts.

    DtM: Hyper-sensitivity to affective nuance? Not so menacing.

    BB: Unless Lt. Fuzz put the casts on his leg and arm and hooked up the IV himself, “stub his toe” is Camp Swampy slang for “beaten to a pulp; condition: critical.”

    Baldo: Ha ha! Baldo has the sexual development of a 7 year old!

    JP: Isn’t Spencer’s Corners already crawling with lawyers? Seems like you can’t swing a story arc without hitting one.

50. anonymous
    September 8th, 2009 at 9:23 am [Reply]

    Pluggers: A pluugger not only has gone to college, but graduated? Where, ‘cow college’ (Morrisville)?

51. Hank
    September 8th, 2009 at 9:44 am [Reply]

    RE: Baldo. Ha ha. It’s funny because his Grandmother told him that he has a small penis.

52. Artist formerly known as Ben
    September 8th, 2009 at 9:56 am [Reply]

    9/8

    Congratulations to the COTWers. That was a nice surprise this morning. Yes, if you’re forgetful enough life holds plenty of surprises. Anyway, today’s comics.

    MT: I look forward to the day when a gator rolls over and lets the poachers close in with their pocket knives, then yells “Psych!” and starts chomping on them.

    A3G: “Oh, my family doesn’t care enough to ask questions. They know my name is Lu Ann and I live somewhere back east. That’s as much information as they can handle.”

    Ziggy: “… and by ’squirrels’ I mean ‘inces’, in case you didn’t catch on.”

    Popeye: If we’re about to learn all about the male enhancement properties of spinach, i really wish we wouldn’t.

    JP: Newsflash, Quasimodo. This hick town is already crawling with lawyers.

    Baldo: Baldo’s penis hasn’t grown since he was eight, and Tia Carmen knows this. Nothing will ever be good again.

    RMMD: Becka is a nurse who tends to the elderly and demented, and she’s (kind of sort of not really) forgiven her husband for cheating. That’s apparently the threshold for sainthood, judging by her glorious halo in the last panel.

    Luann: Frank DeGroot tells his son that Toni is a fun ride but that he–the son–will vomit as soon as he gets off. And you were afraid the old man had no wisdom to offer.

53. fnord3125
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am [Reply]

    awww, first time i get on the CoTW list and my comment has a stupid typo in it. i am simultaneously filled with shame and pride.

54. commodorejohn
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:02 am [Reply]

    A3G – Are we sure they didn’t accidentally switch bodies sometime last week?

    Blondie – Uh…there a joke here?

    FC – WHY DOES JEFFY ALWAYS HAVE HIS PANTS OFF

    FW – Christ, what an asshole.

    GT – What’s on Duncan’s shirt? Is that Zira from Planet Of The Apes? Good choice.

    JP – Oh, I think that’s the sheriff from O Brother, Where Art Thou? who’s strongly implied to be Satan. Explains a lot.

    Luann – I tried to think of something snarky to say about today’s Luann, but I guess I’ll just take this moment to applaud Mr. deGroot for taking steps to move the goddamn plot forward. Of course, his wife is doubtless going to come along and sabotage it to keep Brad to herself, as is her wont, but at least he tried.

    MT – Bob doesn’t seem to be actually doing anything. Is he doing a job-shadow with the poachers to see if it’s a good fit, career-wise?

    MW – Is he commanding her to accept his proposal? What a charming fellow! And with a facial expression worthy of Charley, no less. Even Adrian seems horrified by this.

    PBS – Oh hey, it’s Edda!

    Phantom – I like this method of covering up failure by fudging verb tense. I think I’ll keep it on file.

    RMMD – So why is it that a storyline about a wife who doesn’t trust her husband gets this kind of epic art? Just look at this thing. Rex Morgan hasn’t looked this awesome since Lee was telling Rex to “SLEEP TIGHT!”

    SM – Peter, I’d say you should worry less about him figuring out your identity than about him thinking that Mary-Jane is here to make Lil’ Wolverine go snikt.

    Ziggy – Ziggy is the product of generations of bestiality. I’d say that fits.

55. Islamorada Girl
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:04 am [Reply]

    I would love to see that old National Lampoon Archie parody again. It was hilarious. Anyone got it? Anyone have a link to it?
    Junkhead! Haw!

    Great week of CPOW! Winners all!

56. Sequitur
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:09 am [Reply]

    SQUID!!!

57. TheDiva
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:14 am [Reply]

    Grats smaky!

    C’shaft: Oh, just dump him in that home already and be done with it.

    DT: I can’t decide if that’s an extraordinarily tall woman or a very short elephant. It’s like those pictures where you can see either a vase or two people in profile.

    FW: “You see, I hate you for your youth and promise, which only remind me that I’ve squandered my own life and have nothing to look forward to but the grave, and petty remarks are the only form of revenge I have left.”

    Marvin: Damn, I hate being right. (Also, is Marvin facing forward or backward? It’s another one of those vase/two people things…)

    MW: It’s not that Adrian doesn’t know what to say, it’s that she dislocated her jaw and needs to pop it back in place before she can answer.

58. Calico
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:16 am [Reply]

    #54 Re: FW – which one? I’ll be so happy if you’re thinking both of them.

    FC – Is P.J. bleeding profusely from his nose? Or did Dolly give him another early morning beating?

    Zits – I see Jeremy has been raiding Curtis’ fridge again.

59. Older-than-dirt
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:17 am [Reply]

    I remember growing up in Chicago in the 40s and early 50s, and listening to the “Comic Weekly Man” read the Sunday comics on the radio “…to you happy boys and honeys…” Them days are gone forever.

60. Calico
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:17 am [Reply]

    MW – “Yes, Scott, but I need to spew my very expensive meal all over the table first.”

61. Sequitur
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am [Reply]

    Grin of the day. Grimm or Edda Wannabe.
    You decide.

62. Uncle Lumpy
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:20 am [Reply]

    #55 I-Girl –

    October, 1972 – volume 1, #31 issue: “Remember Those Fabulous Sixties?” Article, “Junkhead Comics”, By Dean Latimer and Ray Schultz.

63. queek
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:28 am [Reply]

    OBH: James likes Lio!

    Cleats: they missed [Saturn!] in the list. Funny joke, though.

    GT: partying with the Chasers from Gryffindor, by the looks of it.

    Lio: o [Boxcar] its Nermal.

    A&J: awwwwwwwwww.

64. commodorejohn
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am [Reply]

    #58 Calico – Well, I was thinking of Les, but sure, why not?

65. Pat
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am [Reply]

    Was I hallucinating or was Stan Lee the voice of Spiderman in that commerical? Also, who advertises the Sunday comics?

66. Muffaroo
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:55 am [Reply]

    Doonesbury – It’s great to watch Toggle’s development. He used a bazooke, lost his eye, went to rehab — now he’ll go to college for a while, wander the world, learn pithy wisdom, acquire a baseball cap and a friend in an extreme turtleneck, and sell bubblegum.

    Peanuts – Speaking of development, that little tree did indeed grow up. You can drive through the base of it if you have a Smart car.

    Pluggers – Somebody needs to tell Reed Hoover the difference between a bumper sticker and a suction-cup window hanger.

    Tiger – I hope you all appreciate the fact that, unless they hire a ghost to continue this strip, we’ll never see a Twitter, Facebook, GPS, iPod, or Blu-Ray gag in it.

    Zits – “…but that’s not important now.”

    Mibbitmaker @7 – Hey, thanks!

    Uncle Lumpy @11 – Indeed. I wish I could have seen Freberg’s appearance at the Comic Con, but at least he’s still working!

    Formerly Ben @52 – It’s either the spinach, or Popeye is one of those guys who gets taller when he takes Viagra.

    And C to the CsOTW, as U.

67. kuruma937
    September 8th, 2009 at 10:56 am [Reply]

    Okay… in the little video, I know that the man is saying that people can’t wait to get their hands on the comic “Peanuts”, but it sure sounds like he’s saying, “90 million Americans who can’t wait to get to get their hands on penis.”

    Probably equally true.

68. Little A and his Verkokte Magic Ball
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:09 am [Reply]

    Muffaroo: I am glad I caught the reference. Since I don’t chew bubble gum any more — do they still include those stupid little comics wrapped around the gum? And I know they don’t cost a penny any more.

    I am getting on in years, all right.

    However, please don’t make fun of Toggle. He has more life and personal dignity than most of the chracters we read about every day in the comics

69. Little A and his Verkokte Magic Ball
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:12 am [Reply]

    MW: I agree with Calico — my first impression was, Adrian’s tossing her cookies right into her dish of apple sauce!

    Oh, they are going to have a great sex life.

70. Colorado
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:15 am [Reply]

    FC- Thel is really thinkin’, will these fucking brats EVER grow up and leave home?

71. Dingo
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:22 am [Reply]

    Back from my parents’ house and forced DIAL-UP service at 49.2! If you go to the blog for J Bone, he has a great image he’s created of Wolverine you might like to see. It’s G-rated and should be safe for work but, if your office is like mine, I don’t know if the server will be flagged. Last week I attempted to get a bottle of Babe Winkelman’s Wildberry Chipotle sauce for a co-worker. I was not able to go to the Cabela’s web site because our security software blocked it for “weapons.” Why not Wal*Mart? I got flagged for pornography for attempting to view a Kellie Pickler at the CMAs video. Look up J Bone blog and go to this weekend. Nnnnnice Wolverine.

    I am so loving Mary Worth right now. Poor Scott, the red shirt of Santa Royale! The only thing left is to discern his final words. Adrian? Queenie? Oooh!? I did it for Johnny?

72. mvg
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:24 am [Reply]

    DT: Uhm, just how “protected” is a witness if he’s placed in a job where he travels the country and stands before large crowds every night with a spotlight shining on him? Just asking.

    RisR: Get lost, kid. Mommy’s huffing “magic” markers again.

    JP: So, destruction of evidence, threatening a civilian with a taser for not turning that evidence over for destruction, threatening civilians with jail or unspecified physical harm because they’ve suggested they might sue the city for their treatment (see previous). Yeah, quite the medieval justice Sam & Abbey’s little burg dispenses. Was Sam in Skull & Bones?

73. Sequitur
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:24 am [Reply]

    63. queek
    re: OBH. And Ferd’nand.

74. Sequitur
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:26 am [Reply]

    When I read Mark Trail today, I at first thought it said in the 2nd panel, “As Mark and Rusty enjoy their campy experience…”.
    I think that should actually be the correct dialogue.

75. Calico
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:32 am [Reply]

    #71 – Your server seems kind of paranoid!
    What would happen if you typed in Mary Worth, I wonder?

76. buckyswife
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:38 am [Reply]

    A3G: Extended Margo-Luann interaction goes against the natural order of things—as evidenced by their disoriented bobbley eyes in panel 2.

    MW: Adrian might be experiencing PTSD (Post-TedConfey Stress Disorder): “That’s… that’s just like the ring that he picked out for me…. No, no—don’t call me Queenie!”

    But if I wrote Mary Worth, Defective Hewlett would, of course, get shot in the line of duty. In an unlikely twist of fate, Dr. Adrian is the only surgeon on duty when he’s brought in to the hospital. Too shaken to operate, she must be assisted by elderly candy-striper Mary Worth, who performs the rare and risky “medi-meddle,” counseling Adrian into doing the surgery and walking her through it. Defective Hewlett pulls through, but Adrian discovers her engagement ring is missing. There’s much bemused chuckling over the possibility that she lost it in her fiance’s lower intestine during surgery—until, of course, the inevitable infection develops, and Hewlett dies a prolonged and agonizing sepsis death. Luckily for Adrian, Mary will be there for every little step of the grieving process have moved on to fresh blood by then.

77. Amateur
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:42 am [Reply]

    PBS: A feral ballerina.

    Um.

    Huh.

    Well . . .

    Nope, I got nuthin’.

    Curtis: You never spoke a truer word, kid. A parental “I’m disappointed” could always shrivel me like a salted slug.

    I would like to think that this could be the beginning of Curtis leaving behind his spoiled, selfish, junior-stalker ways and developing into a mature human being. Dare we hope? Or am I just being Charlie Brown running at the football, with Billingsley Lucy poised to yank it away?

78. Brick Bradford
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:55 am [Reply]

    MW: Man, look at that rock! He’s obviously on the take.

    Phantom: Chicks dig the Skull Cave.

    A3G: So, there’s something else that didn’t happen while LuAnn was in South Dakota (most pointless plot development EVER).

    Archie: My favorite Archie related National Lampoon moment was when Vinny Shinblind, the Invisible Sex Maniac, met Betty and Veronica.
    ‘Nuff Said!

79. Darkefang
    September 8th, 2009 at 11:57 am [Reply]

    A3G: I know this is like asking if Funky Winkerbean has become more depressing or Dennis the Menace has become less menacing, but has the artwork in Apartment 3-G noticeably degenerated in the last couple weeks?

80. Josh
    September 8th, 2009 at 12:02 pm [Reply]

    #53 fnord3125 — Ooops! I fixed.

    Josh

81. Mars
    September 8th, 2009 at 1:49 pm [Reply]

    I’m the one who sent you that link, and you darn well know it was me, because I DID put my name AND my website address into the link. Punk.

82. Josh
    September 8th, 2009 at 3:08 pm [Reply]

    #82 Mars — By “sent me the link” I meant that an individual who specifically asked to be indentified as “Mr.???” sent me an email with the link in it. If you also sent me an email with a link to the video, or posted a link to it in the comments, then I missed it, and I apologize.

    Josh

83. Islamorada Girl
    September 8th, 2009 at 4:26 pm [Reply]

    Uncle Lumpy, thanks for the info. Now where can I get my hot little hands on a copy or a repro? Mmmmwah!

84. Laziestmanonmars
    September 8th, 2009 at 5:40 pm [Reply]

    Brenda Starr gestures like an old vaudevillian.

85. GP_Guy
    September 8th, 2009 at 9:39 pm [Reply]

    Great to see folk that are “hip” to the great Stan Freberg. We have a fairly active group on Yahoo for those who would like to know more, catch up, or find fellow Frebergians. Sign up with freberg@yahoogroups.com if interested.

All the cool kids…

…buy Comics Curmudgeon merchandise!

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