A lady of the old school
Apartment 3-G, 10/31/09
So Bobbie Merrill has spent the week angrily thought-ballooning while wandering through a suspiciously all-female Manhattan street scene, and today we learn the reason for the setting: she’s accidentally wandered into the crazed mob desperate to debase themselves on the humiliation-TV hit I Dressed In The Dark, a cultural phenomenon that Bobbie treats with richly deserved contempt. It’s hilarious to me that a character willing to offer up a “gift basket” (if you know what I mean) (and I think you do) to a portly middle-aged head-shrinker in return for prescription sleeping pills still turns out to have more dignity than Ruby and Tommie. Sorry, lady, Bobbie won’t be having any of what you’re selling, even though you work for “TV.”
Family Circus, 10/31/09
You might have expected the demonic holiday of “Halloween” to have been completely banned over at the Keane Kompound, but in fact Billy’s parents have dressed him up as the most terrifying thing they can think of: Daylight Saving Time, which is obviously a conspiracy by the U.N. and the Trilateral Commission to undermine American sovereignty and impose One World Government.
Gasoline Alley, 10/31/09
In the latest easily ignorable Gasoline Alley storyline, centenarian strip patriarch Walt Wallet and his caretaker Gertie went to a concert, only to be separated in a series of non-hilarious hijinks. Today’s strip is notable, however, because it appears to imply that it would really save everyone a lot of trouble if Walt were to take himself to the cemetery before dropping dead.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Well, at least they haven’t introduced billy to the decadent concept of candy. They’ve got to draw the line somewhere, right?
November 1st, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Hunh. You wouldn’t think changing the clocks around could undermine an entire society, but there it is in black and white, so it must be true.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
It looks like Bobbie is trying to out-Margo Margo! Wait till Margo hears about this? WWMD?
I didn’t realize Old Father Time was actually The Grim Reaper wearing a huge piece of bling.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Not really following Gasoline Alley, but being nominally familiar with the character of Walt Wallet, I was afraid when I first read this strip that by this point in its chronology, Walt is actually deceased and this woman is trying to find his ghost.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Glad to see Bucky getting his salad tossed on “Get Fuzzy.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have put it that way.
In the meantime, “F-minus” still sucks and Judge Parker’s incomprehensible as usual.
Glad to see the world still on course.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:41 pm
I like strips set in graveyards, because they have this available space on the gravestones for incidental art and text, and when they’re not noting the joyfully anticipated death of
FruelingerFrulingerJosh, they use the stones for the author’s sig line or the syndicate’s copyright info.There’s just nothing like seeing a headstone etched with “© 2009 Tribune Media Services / All Rights Reserved” to sum up the state of printed media. Or the state of the Cubs, for that matter.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I thought yesterday’s Family Circus looked familiar:
Family Circus – October 30, 2004
It was nice of Billy to update his spiel by removing Indiana, though.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Since when does Father Time carry a scythe?
November 1st, 2009 at 4:53 pm
@ James #8- aw, Billy is just killing time thats all
November 1st, 2009 at 4:57 pm
# 7 Mike H. — Thanks for that little revelation. Geez, Keanes, just take a vacation and run some old strips and admit that you are doing it.
I was reading CALVIN & HOBBES in bed last night (that’s my idea of a Halloween celebration), and I noticed that Calvin is actually very short compared to his parents, like the melonheads. But there the comparison ends. I like looking at Calvin in all his iterations, whereas the melonheads make me fantasize about homicide.
And speaking of height, I see that in this strip, Billy is taller than usual. His head would actually reach above Neighbor’s waist if she were on the porch with him. But it doesn’t really help. For one thing, he appears to have a bosom, and on a “seven-year-old” boy, it looks bizarre.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:58 pm
“Since when does Father Time carry a scythe?”
Since like friggin’ forever.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Like Sand People through the hourglass, Billy scythes through the Days of our Lives.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:02 pm
That defensive outburst yesterthread seems to promote the notion that nobody who said Schulz was less funny in the Snoopy-Peppermint Patty era had acknowledged his greatness. I think we all know that Schulz did much to invent the modern era of comics, that he did it his own way without help, and delivered year in and year out on a schedule that crushed many cartoonists and reduced them to gibbering hacks.
Still, the fact remains that for years, I dreaded reading Peanuts, because of the inevitable disappointment. Clearly, he wasn’t drawing them for me. He still had legions of fans who doted on every stupid answer Peppermint Patty gave in class, or every appearance of Snoopy’s damn brothers. His popularity was even greater than in his years of true genius.
So I looked away. Was I supposed to pretend that I thought it was up to the impossibly high standards he created in the 50s and raised in the 60s?
Perhaps I can explain it best through the medium of
interpretive dancethe comic strip. This was how it looked to me for years. I drew that in 1997, but the idea was in my head for a long time before then.It did get better before the end, but Schulz was tired of doing the things I found amusing, and I was mostly tired of the things he did to be amusing. As Robert Crumb (whose work only seems to improve as the years go on) said, “‘Tis sad.”
Yes. ‘Tis. But don’t presume that I don’t think Schulz was the greatest in his medium, especially when I was careful to mention several aspects of his greatness in the post where I was critical of his work. Don’t fucking lecture me.
I read the reprint strips at the Chronicle now with relief, as they’re usually funnier than most of the new strips on the page, and a counterexample to my frequent wish for something new.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I think it’s especially telling that Billy is the lone trick-or-treater from the Keane Kompound. Unable to memorize their lines and therefore unable to assist in furthering the family’s isolationist views, Dolly, Jeffy and PJ were forced to stay at home and suffer the most cruel Halloween-related punishment possible… bobbing for apples.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I thought the dude who carried a scythe was Death. Maybe it’s the same dude.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:18 pm
# 13 Muffaroo — Nice cartoon. I’m sorry you changed your mind about showing us an interpretive dance, though. Dang.
I agree that it’s entirely possible to revere Schulz and his incredible accomplishments while strongly preferring the early years of his work.
I also think it’s possible to revere Schulz and his incredible accomplishments while personally preferring other comics. I would make no claims whatsoever about the relative merits/genius of Schulz and Watterson. I’ve just preferred, and bought, C & H compilations rather than PEANUTS compilations. I also have a thing about the works of Albert Pinkham Ryder (and am still recovering from what A3G did to him:-), but that doesn’t mean I think he’s greater than Michelangelo.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Father Time cuts down all your past year with his scythe and cashes it all in like recycled aluminum, and buys more beer at the end of the year.
But then again, playing New Year on Halloween is about as appreciated as serving Easter eggs on the Fourth of July.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Actually, it makes me want to check Billy’s scythe for stray DNA.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:40 pm
A3G Excuse me Bobbie. Do you mean Chanel suit as in Coco Chanel? Like from Paris? No. I dont think so. Maybe you mean Tammy Lynn Chanel from Grand Rapids.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:45 pm
sugarpie, I think she means she bought it on the Cable Value Chanel.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:53 pm
TV is my favourite channel!
November 1st, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Muffaroo, 20 Hah! Wish I’d thought of that.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Father Time usually carries a scythe AND an hourglass. Talk about multi-tasking!
November 1st, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I know this interminable Gertie plot has been dominating “Gasoline Alley” since roughly the end of the Battle of Hastings but isn’t this the first indication that all of these events have taken place on Halloween? If Walt stays missing for a few more weeks, will it magically be the same night and Thanksgiving too?
The only thing that could lure me back to reading “Gasoline Alley” on a regular basis would be a prolonged crossover with John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” novels with Walt restored to youth, fighting interstellar battles, and forced to relocate to an off-world colony. Look into it, Scancarelli.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Whoa. It’s a good thing Bobbie Merrill conned Professor Aristotle out of that prescription – if she’s a foul-mouthed, vicious wench when she’s not tripping, I imagine that she’d be able to kill Margo while in the throes of detoxification.
I realize that most of us view the Keenes as a medieval-minded cult of reactionaries, but I have to say that I’m impressed by the amount of obvious trust they’re placing in Billy by arming him with that scythe. Of course, it could be part of his “angry mob training” regiment, along with torch-handling and pitchfork jabbing.
I have to hand it to “Gasoline Alley” for setting today’s strip in a terrifying, creepy setting… back in 1938. I think most children these days are smart enough to know that a cemetery on Halloween is a much less risky place to be than a downtown street corner on a Thursday night. But, hey, if “Gasoline Alley” has found its economic niche by re-enacting the early 20th century, go for it.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:56 pm
At this point, what is the Gasoline Alley target audience? People who have the strip read to them in nursing homes?
November 1st, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Where are Billy’s parents and siblings? Did he beat them into submission with his Flavor Flav clock so he could have their candy?
November 1st, 2009 at 7:14 pm
#6 Edgy DC: The Tribune Company completed the sale of the Cubs the day before this strip ran.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Bobbie, there aren’t enough symbols on the keyboard to describe how badly you need a makeover.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I thought the graveyard in GA was quite nicely drawn.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:00 pm
That’s a Chanel suit? Chanel as interpreted by Chadwick’s, and slept in for a few days.
November 1st, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Gasoline Alley: Please be the morgue from Phantasm! Please be the morgue from Phantasm!
November 1st, 2009 at 10:15 pm
This is the best tertiary female character / female news reporter interaction since the “I’LL DENY YOU, MISSY!” incident of 2006.
http://joshreads.com/?p=868
November 1st, 2009 at 10:36 pm
#10: In Keane’s defense, I think that it is literally the same strip, just re-colored. Wait, did I say in his defense? I meant in his laziness.
The thing that really bugs me is that Billy doesn’t know what state or US territory he lives in, yet nonetheless knows which ones are changing clocks, so he treats every adult he meets to the same litany. I wonder if, like Santa Claus, Old Father Billy Daylight Savings Time Keane Grim Reaper William Jonathan Drayton Junior Junior visits every household in the country on Halloween night, finding it easier to memorize the list of non-participating territories than not visit them. Like Santa Claus, but lamer in every possible way.
Another interpretation that just occurred to me, which makes grammatical sense if nothing else, is that in KeaneWorld, this woman’s house spans the entire United States, and therefore she needs to know which governor-vassals to alert. Such a dystopia would certainly put a different spin on the possible purposes of the Kompound…
November 1st, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Anyone notice My Cage? That’s all, folks? Ed Power posted something here last month or so about possibly ending the strip. Has it come to pass? :o(
November 1st, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Billy should drop by the DeGroots. Any kid dorky enough to dress up as Father Daylight Savings Time would be jazzed to get a beat-up copy of “The Poky Little Puppy.”
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:21 am
=v= FC (Josh): Keane Kompound? Surely you mean Keane Korral! Mmmm, melon-flavored baby paste …
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:41 am
=13= Peanuts (Muffaroo): Certainly the strip changed in the 1970s, and Schulz has been clear about the reasons for that — namely that he’d become an older man and was trying to be less mean, less sarcastic, more gentle. So of course it’ll be like a different strip. It’s worth taking another look at the stuff that happened in the 1990s, when he abandoned the strict four-panel format and got another creative wind.
As for Crumb, I realize this is not a popular viewpoint, but he’s extremely overrated. He has a nice line, but basically he just took the Terrytoons and Professor O.G. Watasnozzle, drew them with thicker lines, and added crosshatching. Most of his visual inventiveness vanished when he stopped taking LSD in the late 1960s and switched to misogynistic self-confession. From there on out, his stuff looked mostly the same, except that he’s steadily improved his craft until he’s just short of where Bill Elder was in the 1950s. He ran out of things to write, so his best stuff of late has been written by others.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:40 am
Apartment 3G – highly underrated. Often the best example of a cartoonist who spends decidedly less time and effort on the background art.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:02 am
I’m pretty sure that Bobbie’s “bad word” is the “f word”.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:12 am
I’m in agreement with those who claim that Peanuts is overrated. To me, what sent it over the shark for good were the TV specials, the Hallmark cards, the dolls, the movies and all the other tie-in merchandise.
One thing that perplexes me to this day: When Schulz announced the end of drawing Peanuts about ten years ago, why did the newspapers continue to show old Peanuts cartoons, especially when it was announced that they would be from the early 1970s on? (As an example, the Des Moines Register only runs the Peanuts cartoons from the 1980s and 1990s.) More newspapers should have dropped Peanuts and tried new features. Are the comics pages that stale?
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:40 am
Ah, I see Bobbie’s discovered vintage Chanel from the designer’s “Welch’s Grape Juice” period.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Why is Billy dressed as the ghost of Flava Flav?
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:57 pm
A scythe? Would you give something like that to a child who is known to take long, meandering walks through the neighborhood harassing animals and people alike?
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
It’s Halloween, and thus the lady in panel one of Gasoline Alley appears to be turning into a werewolf.
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:40 pm
FC: Oh, those a adorable Keene kids and their hilarious gaffs. Obviously what Billy should be saying is “except in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and non-Navajo parts of Arizona…”. Hahahaha luv those kids.
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Walt is obviously already the undead, to still be kicking around at 120 years +.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:20 am
Jym @37 – I think your viewpoint on Crumb is probably quite popular. Critics love to point at it and say he’s losing it. I’m going by the work itself, which continues to grow in complexity and storytelling, and the art, which keeps becoming an ever better vehicle for expressing whatever he wants it to. Of course, his old stuff was great too, going back to the earliest stuff he penciled on notebook paper.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:01 am
Not to be a total dick, but I’m going to be a total dick.
Billy would actually be dressed as Standard Time as he is reminding people to turn their clocks back.