The Comics Curmudgeon

103 responses to “Weekend roundup: Air quotes, cetaceans, taxes, Jews”

1. Analyzer
   April 16th, 2006 at 9:37 pm [Reply]

   Whenever Margo goes into full bile-spitting mode, as in the last panel, her fingers turn into pointy daggers. And some of them fall off.

2. Jim Anderson
   April 16th, 2006 at 9:45 pm [Reply]

   Regarding BC and the mysterious transmogrification: the first panel, in a multilevel allusion to classic Pogo, symbolizes the epistemological absurdity that “we have met the enemy and he is us.” In the second panel, signifier returns to sign while sign becomes signified, and somewhere in hell Jacques Derrida is trying to split the différance.

3. Danny
   April 16th, 2006 at 9:59 pm [Reply]

   The obvious explanation for the B.C. transformation is that Jonny rooted through the enormous stacks of old comics he keeps in his office and found two that look like they might go together. A quick snip and a piece of tape and no one will know the difference! This theory can actually explain a lot of B.C. comics, it’s just more noticable when you get a character switch in the middle.

4. Uncle Lumpy
   April 16th, 2006 at 10:08 pm [Reply]

   Analyzer -

   Margo can lose a coupla fingers. In Row 3 #1, she’s got six on each hand.

5. ComicsFan
   April 16th, 2006 at 10:09 pm [Reply]

   The Saturday B.C. is plainly one of those “What’s Different?” picture games. I see that B.C. (I guess) has changed positions, the cave is gone, the mountains are gone, there’s an extra bird, and Clumsy replaces that other guy. Also missing are the walking clams, from both pictures. And any semblance of a joke.

6. Uncle Lumpy
   April 16th, 2006 at 10:11 pm [Reply]

   What’s with this “your comment is awaiting moderation” business?

   It was a pretty moderate comment to begin with!

7. Chet McCord, Wildlife defender
   April 16th, 2006 at 10:13 pm [Reply]

   I’ve just gotten caught up on Brenda Starr. Now the senator’s presumed dead, but Tuna the good Chef, presumed dead, turns up alive. The warehouse is still full of chihuahua puppies, and Brenda seems to be performing a lap dance for the evil chef.

   Meanwhile, B.O. Plenty has won the lottery, which could lead to much hilarity.

   All this, and you want us to comment on this B.C. balderdash?

8. Marc
   April 16th, 2006 at 10:24 pm [Reply]

   I just noticed that Lou is feeding Kelly’s neck. Keep your eyes higher, Lou!

   Matzoh is like Mary Worth, plain, dry, and causes constipation.

9. Ron
   April 16th, 2006 at 11:04 pm [Reply]

   That shit-eating grin the caveman’s sporting in the second panel is because he’s thinking, “Anybody who suggests these opening lines could possibly be anti-Semitic is going to look like a crank, ha ha!”

   As for A3G, I thought Margo was being all sarcastic about the “perfect couple” because she knows Lucy is as big a lesbian as the three of them are.

10. mooselet
    April 16th, 2006 at 11:24 pm [Reply]

    With it being Easter, Margo is obviously making bunny shadow puppets with her fingers in that bottom row panel.

11. AwfulArt
    April 16th, 2006 at 11:24 pm [Reply]

    “BC” is 10 panels of worthless tripe. Hart has reached a new low with his religion shit.. Convert the ants & the snake Johnny… There on your level..

12. mumbles
    April 16th, 2006 at 11:24 pm [Reply]

    Foob: Gordo looks like a zombie in the third panel. Perhaps the Pattersons are the “L. Rons” of some cult that makes all followers convinced that they’d be nothing if not for the divine intervention of the blessed Pattersons? Foobentology?

13. Marissa
    April 16th, 2006 at 11:32 pm [Reply]

    Rrrraeer, Johnny Hart. Jesus ain’t comin’ to your Passover seder if you keep up that smug cattiness. What a sad Maundy Thursday that’ll be for him.

14. edgewood
    April 16th, 2006 at 11:54 pm [Reply]

    And so the GF / PBS crossover begins. I’ve a feeling this will make up for booger fortnight, hope so at least.

15. Ubiq
    April 16th, 2006 at 11:55 pm [Reply]

    “Because the Bible told me so.”
    “Oh? … Huh… which part?”
    “The New Testament.”
    “Never heard of it.”

16. Ape Lad
    April 17th, 2006 at 12:21 am [Reply]

    The original, unedited BC gag went like this:
    “What can I count on as a refund this year?”
    “The flames of hell lapping at your sinful nether-regions so long as you deny Jesus Christ, the Lord of All and the fully leavened bread of Life.”
    “—oh.”

17. Kristin
    April 17th, 2006 at 12:42 am [Reply]

    BC: Clearly IRS Cavedude took so long to come up with his snappy comeback that the original guy got bored and wandered off. IRS Cavedude just happened to finally think of something as Clumsy was strolling by, hence the look of confusion on Clumsy’s face.

18. Monkey David
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:00 am [Reply]

    So where is Darby going with “Get Fuzzy” next? This “Pearls Before Swine” joke is interesting…

    (Unless THAT was that punchline from the “booger” stuff)

19. Zinco
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:00 am [Reply]

    It’s almost as though Johnny Hart is using the same sort of technology prompting the infamous Garfield Randomizer.

    As for serious theories, this is hardly an unusual transformation if you hop over to the land of the rising sun. In anime, there are facefaults in which characters suddenly and briefly appear as very nerdy sorts as they explain some appropriately nerdy thing. So rather than interpreting this as Hart’s mind turning the corner, this is instead an effort by him to take in new influences and try new things as B.C. gradually evolves into a multi-volumed manga feature. He probably could have chosen a better time for the facefault, but he is at least learning.

20. Other_Sally
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:20 am [Reply]

    I’m not even gonna touch BC. I’m interested, though, in the fact that Mary Worth seems to think that passion or romance is impossible for overweight people.

21. Ugly Kidd
    April 17th, 2006 at 2:22 am [Reply]

    I can explain B.C.’s transformation! Here it is. Ready?

    It’s because there are no peanut shells on the ground or in the bag.

22. Mysterio
    April 17th, 2006 at 2:58 am [Reply]

    4-17 “Mallard Fillmore”

    Awww, didn’t get a tax refund this year, Tinsley? So you’re gonna mock those who did?

    We all have to pay taxes. It sucks, but it’s a way of life. An earlier “Mallard” accused Liberals of not knowing where government money comes from. Now I wonder if Bruce Tinsley does.

23. Mysterio
    April 17th, 2006 at 3:06 am [Reply]

    Oh, and I think Sunday’s Slylock Fox provided an insight into why Count Weirldy et al. never stay in jail. Weirdly is a frickin’ moron. One would think that after the third or fourth Max Mouse robot, he’s realize they have no tails. But he didn’t. Basically, the powers that be in the Slylock universe have figured out that Weirdly is an evil but harmless loon, and don’t want to crowd up the prison system any more then neccisary.

24. audient
    April 17th, 2006 at 5:54 am [Reply]

    If there were truth in labeling, BC would be renamed BS.

25. Matt McIrvin
    April 17th, 2006 at 6:25 am [Reply]

    The BC tax joke is bungled, too: it ought to be “What can I count on FOR a refund”? That actually has the ambiguity of meaning required to set up the punch line, whereas the line as written does not.

26. grendell
    April 17th, 2006 at 7:15 am [Reply]

    # 7: not to forget the paris hilton cameo!
    brenda starr is something i remember from early childhood. i still wonder what her three extra long lower eyelashes are about. or how she gets her hair to be so shiny…

27. Noah Brand
    April 17th, 2006 at 7:19 am [Reply]

    Most interestingly, you notice that Hart’s piss-poor poetry doesn’t scan? Like, at all? This fits in with a theory I’ve had for a while that right-wingers lack the part of the brain that can perceive scansion.

28. ISBN
    April 17th, 2006 at 7:43 am [Reply]

    Josh, I nearly passed out when I saw I “made” comment of the week!! thanks!!! In sticking with that theme… Margo is like one of those sharkie popular girls in middle school, the way she walks in, sniffs out Tomie’s joy and proceeds to quash it slowly, methodically, until all that is left for Tomie (and Luanne) to do is the head jiggle.

    MW: Mary does seem to know about how to please a man. In fact, I’d like to see MW host one of those bizarrely popular sex advice shows. The ones hosted by older women who make you feel a little repulsed, like you’re watching your mom talk dirty to strangers. It’s the 21st century! What has all her meddling been for, if not for this?

    BC: I’d like to think if I had a little one-on-one with the big guy in the sky, that he/she/it’d possess poetry skills of a slightly higher caliber.

29. Sheila
    April 17th, 2006 at 7:48 am [Reply]

    It IS pretty awful, Noah! It’s like it started out scanning more or less, and then Hart went into some sort of spitting frenzy and forgot all about any rhythmic factors. Creepy.

30. Rozenn
    April 17th, 2006 at 7:50 am [Reply]

    OH MY GOD TOMMIE HAS A WHOLE THREE-PANEL STRIP TO HERSELF TODAY !
    Are we on the verge of a Tommie-centered storyline ? Are the creators of the strip reading this blog ?
    Seriously, can anyone who’s been following this strip for a long time tell us if this has ever happened before ?

31. Sheila
    April 17th, 2006 at 7:54 am [Reply]

    And on another subject entirely, you know what I’m sick of? That TIRED, LAME device where some kid has told lies that paint the kid or his/her parent into some kind of corner… and everybody acts like smacking the kid and outing the lie is completely out of the question! (Sitcoms have done this for years… the loooongest distance between two points.)

    * Heart of the City, where Heart pretends to have a broken leg, it backfires on her, and nobody can think of the obvious solution, which is for her mother to tell the dance teacher it was a hoax.
    * Curtis, where he forges his father’s name on a school document, his father freaks out because he hates giving blood, and nobody can think of the obvious solution, which is for the father to tell the school that isn’t his signature.

    BORING AND STUPID. So there.

32. Phin Windbag
    April 17th, 2006 at 8:08 am [Reply]

    While posting a jubilant “First” in general is now sternly (and appropriately) treated with contempt, may I be the FIRST to scratch my wizened old skull over 9CL?

    I haven’t followed the strip for long, but can someone/anyone explain today’s offering?

    When GF started the “booger” saga, that was initially baffling. . .but I contend that 9CL trumps it for obtuse stupefaction.

    Someone throw us a lifeline please.

33. Lyman Returns
    April 17th, 2006 at 8:12 am [Reply]

    It’s pretty funny that after days and days of us making fun of Mary Worth putting out loads of food plus a pie in front of her two guests who are struggling with their weight, a comment about how she made only “low-fat” recipes for her guests is thrown in as Lou and Kelly leave.

    Maybe the creators of MW read this blog? If so, maybe they’ll get their heads out of their butts and give Kelly a consistent hair color. How is a nationally syndicated comic strip allowed to get away with that? Were the editors napping? Are there any editors in the first place?

34. Number Twelve
    April 17th, 2006 at 8:31 am [Reply]

    My favourite part about A3G is how in the last panel, it appears that Margo has used her penguin flipper of death to trap Tommie and Lu Ann in some kind of hypnotic trance which causes their heads to vibrate uncontrollably. That, or Margo has somehow harnessed her dark powers to transmogrify them into bobble-head dolls.

35. Harry Worth
    April 17th, 2006 at 8:43 am [Reply]

    MW is commenting on Lou’s behavior, “Well, it went ok until he grabbed the pie out of my hand and started force feeding Kelly. It was amazing. I could barely get the whipped cream nozzle into her mouth to fill her up with calories. What whales. Thank god I still have my girlish figure the drives them wild down at the marina.”

36. Pozzo
    April 17th, 2006 at 8:51 am [Reply]

    #17: My family and I were discussing the B.C. character switch and came to the same conclusion you did. We figure Clumsy strolled by and asked, “What’s up?”, to which Peter, finally coming up with a snappy comeback to B.C.’s query, responded “Your fingers.” No wonder Clumsy looks nonplussed.

37. Screamin Norwegian
    April 17th, 2006 at 9:05 am [Reply]

    Regarding B.C. and the last panel: I appreciate that He passed over me once and I don’t need that son to come back, thank you.

38. aaron dumin
    April 17th, 2006 at 9:07 am [Reply]

    Pozzo and Kritian are close on the B.C. strip, but miss the point of the strip as a comentary on the IRS. The joke being that by the time you get an answer regarding your tax refund, you’ve most likely forgotten all about it and wandered off.

39. Justafoob
    April 17th, 2006 at 9:29 am [Reply]

    I just saw Sunday’s FBOFW and I can’t wait for the Kelpfroths to show up at the door with a gun. Why the heck was Mewedeath allowed to eat candy in the house knowing that it was going to kick off a spasm of runnign and jumping and the like. The Kelpfroths must have been going bonkers for hours.

40. dimestore lipstick
    April 17th, 2006 at 9:34 am [Reply]

    Something I’ve been wondering about for years:

    Does Wiley–or Hart for that matter–believe that Christ, like the Easter Bunny, comes back every Easter?

41. dlauthor
    April 17th, 2006 at 9:45 am [Reply]

    The weird thing about Mewedith in Foob is how freaking JonBenet she looks. Mike and Lizard looked like real kids when the strip was young (and actually funny), but the Spawn of Michael has this horrendous zombie-with-eyelashes thousand-yard stare that just makes me want to claw off my skin in sheets

    OK, on to today:

    Mallard: Tins, I owe taxes this year too. 1099s are a bitch. But you really should look up the term “social contract” sometime. And also “bitter old fart.” Again, America was founded on the principle of No Taxation WITHOUT REPRESENTATION, so unless you live in Puerto Rico, which I highly doubt (I suspect Wyoming or Montana), why not try cramming it with walnuts? It’s not like impounding brown people in Guantanamo and giving Halliburton billions of dollars to squander can be done for free, you know.

    Prickly: Ah, the McKinney jokes. Stealing a page from Tinsley’s book, Stantis comes to the game a couple weeks too late. I suppose we should be thankful that there hasn’t been an amazingly racist caricature of McKinney in Mallard, although I may be speaking way too soon.

    Stone Soup: not a much-commented-on strip hereabouts, I imagine because it’s somewhat lesser known and generally funny, but today … well, ew. You know how the first Alien movie was shot in such a way that the quick glimpses you see make the creature much worse in your head than it could ever actually be? Well, that what the hairdresser’s comment accomplishes in today’s strip.

    Foxtrot: Bill Amend remains completely on my wavelength. For four and a half seasons now, I’ve been waiting for an episode of 24 where a character goes loopy from sleep deprivation. I used to pull an all-nighter every week, laying out the student paper in college, and inevitably there’d be a point when someone would lose it and start screaming at the laser printer, or playing Sesame Street music on the stereo and laughing like a crazy person. I’m not suggesting CTU would be quite like that, but come on.

    Spidey: Does every electronic device in this strip go >KLIK

42. Treadwell
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:03 am [Reply]

    I know the first panels of any Sunday are generally expendible, but with the tiniest bit of effort the writer can can avoid making them blatantly redundant, as the they are in this A3G.

    Maybe today’s GF is an admission that the lame two-week “booger” runner was because he cranked ‘em out on autopilot prior to a vacation. Or was playing Battlefront.

43. Howard Erk
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:21 am [Reply]

    Maybe today’s GF is an admission that the lame two-week “booger” runner was because he cranked ‘em out on autopilot prior to a vacation. Or was playing Battlefront.

    or an admission that he phones em in just like Garfield.

44. gnome de blog
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:22 am [Reply]

    Today’s 9CL:

    Erk.

45. Dwayne F. Schneider
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:24 am [Reply]

    When did Margo join a gang and start flashing signs?

    Should we be afraid?

46. Maughta
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:28 am [Reply]

    Am I the only one who screams, “Die, Wally, Die!!!” everytime I read Funky Winkerbean? The suspense is…ummm…slightly irritating. Like a rash.

47. Chet McCord, Wildlife defender
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:37 am [Reply]

    Peter Parker’s making quite a production about disposing of a costume. He could put it in the trash, or he could drop it into the salvation army dropbox. Or, he could take it straight to a salvation army thrift shop. Or, he could return it to the store he looted it from. None make for great comics entertainment.

48. Irina
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:41 am [Reply]

    A3G: Tommie’s “favorite patient” will be on Tommie’s mind all during her vacation, and will have expired by the time Tommie returns, thus ensuring that our orange-tressed heroine never has the audacity to take another vacation (or plot) for herself again.

    Chickweed: I think BE just took a break today, Phin, and did a generic artistic strip. Most of the folks here prefer the ones of edda dancing.

    Pibgorn: Speaking of appreciating the effects of watching edda dance, am I the only one who has to take a little break to get the hormones back under control after seeing Puck (Pib) frolic with Oberon (Seth). Whew! (I’ve only been reading Pib for the past 2-3 months, so I haven’t seen enough history of her to know if this is her standard behavior with Geoff or not).

    Foob: It still confounds me that LJ continues to age poor Gordo at 5x the rate as everyone else in the strip. I’d imagine, even though he’s not a blood relative of the St. Foobs, he’s pretty well as close to them in foob-piety as you can get. Update: Come 2007, Gordon will grow a testicle chin, and be first in line at Remembrance Day Parades.

    Slylock: Why on earth would Wierdly clone Max?? His arch-enemy’s faithful sidekick? Did he change their brain patterns, so they all are loyal to him? Seems unlikely, since they all seem to just be wandering about in Castle Wierdly, doing Maxlike things, instead of either (a) attacking Slylock; or (b) trying to convince him that THEY’re the real Max. Stranger still that the “real” Max sits placidly eating an ice cream cone instead of completely wigging out that there are now a dozen copies of him buzzing about the room.

49. Schlimmerkerl
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:46 am [Reply]

    B.C. Means “Before Christ” so what’s going on anyway? I think Wiley lost his leg in a time-machine mishap.

50. treedweller
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:50 am [Reply]

    #22: I read MF for the first time in awhile because I found this blog with people who could commiserate with my pain. It actually made me chuckle. Oh, not the tax joke, of course. But did you follow the asterisk to his source material? Ah, the scholarly, revered tome of “USA Today.” No wonder his political commentary hovers around first-grade level.

51. Hogenmogen
    April 17th, 2006 at 11:08 am [Reply]

    MW: Maybe Lou and Kelly Stirling are like that episode of Seinfeld where George couldn’t distinguish between desire for food and desire for sex.

    Mallard F: I can’t really fault Tinsley for poking fun at the people who are under some delusion that a refund is something other than merely getting your own money back, especially when he uses a comic format instead of a comment with a picture of a duck in the corner. I can, however, fault him for using the same joke on Saturday and again on Monday. Not a similar joke, but the SAME joke. I read Get Fuzzy, I generally like Get Fuzzy, I am a fan of Get Fuzzy. But you, Mallard, are no Get Fuzzy.

52. Backswitch
    April 17th, 2006 at 11:19 am [Reply]

    MT: Nice cut-and-paste job from Saturday’s panel 3 to todays: 4 characters all in the same positions. Yet somehow Tony’s shirt changed from blue to mustard, and Mark’s clone, the roadside bomber’s shirt changed from khaki to blue. I’m sure all comix artists use the cut/paste method from time to time, but c’mon…just 2 days apart? Give it at least a week, Jack. My short term memory isn’t THAT bad yet.

53. mere cog in the machine
    April 17th, 2006 at 11:35 am [Reply]

    #12 mumbles: I love the concept of foobentology. It makes alot of sense, especially when you compare the glassy-eyed gaze of rapt admiration on Gordon’s rapidly aging visage with the look on Katie Holmes’ goopy mug during a Tom Cruise interview. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

54. saint ruby
    April 17th, 2006 at 11:46 am [Reply]

    I would just like to point out that today, the Kansas City Star got rid of Funky Winkerbean. and I am FURIOUS.

    (they got rid of some other crap too. but not Zippy or the Boondocks, which are always rated as the least favorite strips. Phew).

    Needed to vent.
    On a note related to the post itself: I don’t find this to be a particularly inspiring religious truth. It’s sort of lukewarm lameness. Mr. Hart should go write Chick Tracts instead.

55. Mibbitmaker
    April 17th, 2006 at 12:08 pm [Reply]

    Spiderman: Oh, great; now he’ll discard the Justice Guy suit, and some poor soul’s going to find it – and the whole furshlugginer thing starts all over again!

    FW (Sunday’s): That’s got to be the most shameless thing about Iraq I’ve seen yet from that side! Even Michael Moore’s gotta be seeing this, rolling his eyes and saying, “Oh, give me a break!!” (Today’s) Augh. McKeever’s out-Batiuking Batiuk. And not the earlier, funny Batiuk, either.

    Lockhorns: Yeah, but when is Dr. Phil’s problem(s) coming up? Besides whenever he opens his mouth. The man’s a cornpone Mary Worth!

    Apt 3G: (sung like a teasing little kid) Tommie’s got a storyline! Tommie’s got a storyline! Tommie’s got a stoeyline! (end singing) What’s the sparkle in her eye? Her evil roommate brainwashing her into how beautiful she (not Margo) is. Yeah, when she was drawn by somebody else.

    Monty: The parrot in the last panel: “I used to sing the theme from ‘Shaft’, but my doctor said I was developing nodules on my larynx” …Not to mention being brainwashed by $cientology and soon being forced to quit the strip by his new “handlers”.

56. Mibbitmaker
    April 17th, 2006 at 12:17 pm [Reply]

    Josh, if you decide to use my 3G chanting in #55 for COTW (yeah, right), feel free to correct the obvious typo.

57. Benicillin
    April 17th, 2006 at 12:22 pm [Reply]

    What’s with Johnny Hart’s crappy-ass birds flying all around? If he’s going to put the effort into making individual sand-grain dots, grass-blades, and 5 O’Clock shadows, can’t he do a little bit better than little “m’s” for birds? Although, I notice the crapadactyls fly away after two panels of the prosthelytizing poetry by peg-leg.

    Oh, and someone oughta make the “airquotes” panel in 3-G a T-shirt.

58. gnome de blog
    April 17th, 2006 at 12:46 pm [Reply]

    Since Tommie is incapable of romance, her visit to the “perfect couple” will be an opportunity to sharpen her Mary Worth skills and leave them snarling before she departs.

    Meanwhile, what kind of “trouble” will Margo and LuAnn get into now that Tommie’s out of the way?

59. gump worsley
    April 17th, 2006 at 12:53 pm [Reply]

    Sunday’s Rex Morgan apparently isn’t online, but someone ought to find a way to get (I think) the third panel posted — a weird-perspective shot that basically had Rex’s head at the other guy’s crotch. Subtlety, thy name ain’t Rex.

60. tsimer
    April 17th, 2006 at 12:56 pm [Reply]

    Wow. I can’t believe Hart did the whole Red Letters things for his own poetry! I’m a Christian and even I think that’s bogus. And he also can’t write “poetry” either. In his attempt to make the relationship between people and Christ more intimate and understandable, he seemed to dumb Jesus down and throw his concept of meter out the window…sigh.

    I do love the transformation strip. I’d love to hear Hart’s explanation for that.

    And, in MW, I can’t wait to hear Mary’s analysis of the heavy couples’ marriage.

61. mere cog in the machine
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:13 pm [Reply]

    MW: Why doesn’t that nosy-parkering old bizzom keep her sanctimonious thought balloons to herself! I’ve known more than one guy that has made a concerted effort to turn his wife/girlfriend into a bloated piewagon simply for his own sexual gratification. News flash, Mary: Not everyone likes em’ old and crusty!

62. Lady Penelope
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:30 pm [Reply]

    Has Tommie been outside of the apartment unchaperoned anytime in the past 10 years?

    Perhaps she should bring along the professor.

    Maybe the perfect couple will convince her to get a new haircut.

63. The Rhino
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:34 pm [Reply]

    gump, here’s Sunday’s Rex Morgan. You just have to hack in the date in the address bar to see the Sunday strips.

    Can anyone tell what Chesty is reading in today’s Rex? I can’t read the title of her book on my screen.

64. Donut
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:45 pm [Reply]

    So why is one of the Google ads underneath Josh’s comments at the top of the page:
    “Meet Hundreds of Thousands of Gothic Friends and Singles”?

    How did the discussion here trigger that? Cavemen? BC? Bible?

    Maybe they just figure people weird enough to care about comic strips must be Goths…

65. BassoGap
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:45 pm [Reply]

    Rhino (#63) — Looks like Chesty is reading “Trend Magazine”…though it also seems the cover illustration is a woman scrubbing a floor…not the trend I’d expect to see her studying.

    Maybe there’s a feature article inside re: gay doctors’ wives going to the beach house for a long weekend together?

66. dee
    April 17th, 2006 at 1:54 pm [Reply]

    I wonder……were the writers of the ohso neurotic show sex and the city possibly inspired by apartment 3G? i mean, three impossibly single women ::as near as i can tell:: doomed to spend eternity with each other, one red head, one blonde, one brunette…..however there is no carrie. Hrrmm……

67. Pelagius
    April 17th, 2006 at 2:01 pm [Reply]

    GF: Thank god the noogie boogie era is over (shuggie?) – one question about the set-up of the new story, though: Alex and Steve are apparently work colleagues. Is there some company called “Funny Comics, Inc.”? How is their stock performing compared to “Awful Legacy Comics, Inc.”? How do they get any work done in between mocking the Harts and Keanes of the comics world?

    BC cut and paste: Hart cleary has a machine similar to the late, great Garfield Randomizer. He should use it more often.

68. Happenstance
    April 17th, 2006 at 2:25 pm [Reply]

    Mallard Fillmore: Of course the Democrats want to raise taxes, silly. Someone’s going to have to pay off that massive crushing deficit the Republican-controlled government has piled up over the last five years…you know, the one Li’l Dubbie turned the Clinton Surplus into.

    (All together now: Clinton was bad!! He lied about sex!! Booooo!!)

    And Tinsley knows this. In one of those very rare moments of criticizing his own, he chastized Li’l Dubbie for “spending like a drunken Democrat”–which I’m sure he thought was a brilliant attack against Ted Kennedy, but in fact only served to remind everyone how much Li’l Dubbie himself enjoys substance abuse.

    However, Tinsley also believes that government revenue goes up when taxes go down. (…You know, the same way your salary skyrockets when you take a pay cut. What? It doesn’t? Then you must be a stoopid Liberal who doesn’t believe in Jeebus!! Quack quack quack!!)

    …Look, it had a footnote! So it must be true!

69. finrod
    April 17th, 2006 at 2:34 pm [Reply]

    The girls from Apartment 3-G appear in today’s Rob and Elliot

70. JIM
    April 17th, 2006 at 2:35 pm [Reply]

    Speaking of 3G:

    Run immediately to today’s Rob and Elliot for chasm-mouthed Margo cameo!

71. Zorba the Geek
    April 17th, 2006 at 2:41 pm [Reply]

    #41: “Again, America was founded on the principle of No Taxation WITHOUT REPRESENTATION, so unless you live in Puerto Rico, which I highly doubt (I suspect Wyoming or Montana), why not try cramming it with walnuts?”

    dlauthor, the citizens of Washington DC, while they are able to vote for President, have no voting representation in Congress, despite the fact that they must pay taxes, too. (They even have license plates available that say, “No taxation without representation.” ) But I do agree with your assessment of Tinsley.

72. dlauthor
    April 17th, 2006 at 2:55 pm [Reply]

    71: Good point; I’d forgotten about DC. Don’t (some of?) their license plates actually _say_ “Taxation Without Representation”?

    Ah, and I see from Tinsley’s bio that he lives in Indiana. Must hurt him that Bush has only a 40% approval rating in a red, red state. (Yes, I know he pays lip service to disliking Bush, but it sure as hell ain’t for the reasons most Americans dislike him — you know, the torturin’, leakin’, lyin’, got-us-into-a-war-we-didn’t-needin’ reasons.)

    Sadly, I also note that he’s only in his early 40s, which means that, barring any kind of miracle, we’ve got another 30-40 years of the same damn cartoons over and over again.

    Also, from his bio, this:

    “Tinsley was a Reader’s Digest Fellow at Indiana University’s graduate school of journalism.”

    … which says so much …

    … and:

    “He says he hopes to teach someday.”

    … and is working toward it by not really being able to do.

73. Irina
    April 17th, 2006 at 3:03 pm [Reply]

    Finrod/Jim

    That’s a pretty nice representation of the 3 girls in a very different style. Funny, even though the drawing is less detailed than 3G, Rob and Eliott manage to make more cartoony people look more realistic.

    Thanks for the cross-post :)

74. Zorba the Geek
    April 17th, 2006 at 3:37 pm [Reply]

    #72: dl, you’re right- the plates do say “Taxation without representation.” I think they’ve issued a million or more of them, at this point. And I’d better warn my brother- he, too, lives in Indiana, and I don’t think he’ll want to run into Tinsley. Actually, I’m visiting him and his family later this week, and I don’t want to run into Tinsley, either, lest I wind up ripping his eyeballs out and his hands off, so he can’t “draw” (and I use the term loosely) any more strips.

75. Chet McCord, Wildlife defender
    April 17th, 2006 at 3:43 pm [Reply]

    Liberal academia will, of course, conspire to prevent Tinsley from achieving his dream of teaching. Unless he wants to teach sunday school or how to draw ducks who are commentators.

76. Ubiq
    April 17th, 2006 at 3:46 pm [Reply]

    Did anybody else get a protection racket vibe from today’s For Better or For Worse?

    Nice place you got here, Gordon. Real nice an’ it’d be a real shame if somethin’ were ta happen to it.

77. Marion Delgado
    April 17th, 2006 at 4:25 pm [Reply]

    IT’s BC into Clumsy, of course we care, and if you weren’t condemned to the Lake of Fire, you’d know what it meant. As it is, rather than waste my time explaining it, I will pray for you.

78. Tim Cavanaugh
    April 17th, 2006 at 4:29 pm [Reply]

    Does Johnny Hart know that he’s channeling “The Ballad of Joking Jesus“?

79. gnome de blog
    April 17th, 2006 at 4:31 pm [Reply]

    #59: Are you a hockey fan, Gump?

80. gnome de blog
    April 17th, 2006 at 4:34 pm [Reply]

    I just noticed: In the last panel it looks like Lou is manipulating a Chucky Stepford doll.

81. Desoto
    April 17th, 2006 at 5:03 pm [Reply]

    9 Chickweed Lane: Instead of blank panels & a cat’s head & tail, why not re-run an old strip of Edda in tights? (The primary reason for reading Chickweed anyway…)

    Funky Winkerbean: Prediction #1: I predict Wally will be blown up sometime in October-November, just before the baby arrives. (with plenty of over-the-top, sentimental-schmaltz to boot…)

    Funky Winkerbean: Prediction #2: In the classic “Vietnam War Movie Cliche”, if we are introduced to an African-American solider-character, expect him to die also. (ala Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill) (As my brother once asked me, “Why does the black guy ALWAYS gets it in these war movies?”)

82. Mysterio
    April 17th, 2006 at 5:25 pm [Reply]

    In every review/history of “Mallard Fillmore” I’ve read, Tinlsey tells the story about how he tried two characters before Mallard: A hippo and a giant, talking nose. (Yes, a giant talking nose.) Anyway, Tinlsey goes on to say how PCness scuttled those two ideas-the Powers That Be supposedly nixed the hippo because it would be offensive to fat people (women in particular), and nixed the nose because it might be offensive to those of Hebrew decent. So Mallard came next.

    Does this strike anyone else as kind of doubtful? The comics are full of fat jokes-BC has a character named Fat Broad, for crying out in the night. If that’s not offensive to overweight people, I can’t imagine what is. Big nose jokes also appear in strips like “Wizard of ID” and “Baby Blues”, but they’re less common.
    It sounds like a tale spun just to pick at how the bad ol’ forces of Politcal Correctness are holding artists back. Not that they ever stopped Tinsley from drawing offensive Jewish caricatures….

83. saint ruby
    April 17th, 2006 at 5:40 pm [Reply]

    Desoto (#81): I think prediction #2 hasn’t played out in the comics yet. Back in Desert Storm, BD’s war buddy Ray got blown up in a Humvee and lived.
    Maybe there’s some math to this: as the number of black military characters in comics increases, the probability that one or more will be killed approaches 1.

84. gnome de blog
    April 17th, 2006 at 5:45 pm [Reply]

    I didn’t attend the University of Oregon, but my brother and father did. In fact, my father was still a student there (in Journalism, no less) when I was born.

    On their behalf, I am deeply offended that Tinsley uses a caricature of the a duck to promote his views.

85. jeanne
    April 17th, 2006 at 6:08 pm [Reply]

    To dlauthor: “the Spawn of Michael has this horrendous zombie-with-eyelashes thousand-yard stare that just makes me want to claw off my skin in sheets”
    Thank you, thank you, thank you.

86. Old Fogey
    April 17th, 2006 at 6:38 pm [Reply]

    Funky prediction #3: after Wally dies in combat, and Lisa dies of breast cancer, Les will marry Becky and become the father of three children.

87. Brian
    April 17th, 2006 at 6:53 pm [Reply]

    Actually, I think it’s Peter. Thor has a longer head.

    Yes, I’m anal enough to care.

88. anonymous
    April 17th, 2006 at 7:12 pm [Reply]

    RMMD Sunday – (sigh) – “Wanna come help move furniture tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.?” “Oh yes, I’d love to! Can I bring my wife, too?” followed by a manly handshake. What kind of doctor is RMMD, anyway, that he has the time, willingness, and energy to do all this extracurricular stuff? (I can only think of the crabby HMO drones I know of, and their reactions to such an invitation.) Is the thought of spending more time with his new pal so enticing that he’d jump at the chance to actually move furniture? Maybe June could paint the walls while they’re at it. Come ON! Have to say, I can’t wait to see how the deal with the mystery man who’s showed up in town is going to play out.

89. Happenstance
    April 17th, 2006 at 7:38 pm [Reply]

    #82: At this point, anything Tinsley says should be considered horse manure until he can prove otherwise. If you’ve seen Tinsley’s caricature (for lack of a better word) of Jon Stewart, you know editors don’t have any “political-correctness” problems with openly anti-Semitic “hook-nosed Jew” pictures*. (Just in case that was too subtle for his audience, Tinsley added the suggestion that Stewart was a child molester. Classy.)

    …Hey, where were all the complaints about “politcal correctness” back when Jim Crow laws were the norm and women couldn’t vote?

    *Award-winning political cartoonist Pat Oliphant has a long history of drawing every offensive racial caricature known to man, for the express purpose of offending everyone he can. Tinsley’s story is about as realistic as Bill O’Reilly’s “War On Christmas (and Easter)” nonsense.

90. MLH
    April 17th, 2006 at 9:05 pm [Reply]

    As to the transmogrifications issue, Occam’s Razor directs us to conclude that the simplest explanation is the most probable. I therefore conclude that we are watching Johnny Hart publicly take leave of what few senses he hever possessed.

91. AwfulArt
    April 17th, 2006 at 9:38 pm [Reply]

    If anybody cares both “Unfit” & “Barkeater” were funny today.. A little change of pace…

92. 2fs
    April 17th, 2006 at 10:36 pm [Reply]

    #81: That’s what’s on the other side of 9CL: we’re seeing the back of the panels, and the cat’s peering around the back out of curiosity.

    #82: A giant talking nose? That would have been amusing only if Frank Zappa were still around to score the snorks (as he did with an ad featuring a giant animated nose in the ’60s – some sort of decongestant, I believe).

    As a Canardian-American, I too am offended at Tinsley’s duck caricatures.

93. Mysterio
    April 17th, 2006 at 11:05 pm [Reply]

    #89-I think part of Tinsley thinks racist/sterotypical images shoud still be OK. I recall a “Mallard” series a few years ago wherein the plot called for Mallard to be mugged. Tinsley basically spent the entire week complaining that the evil PCpolice wouldn’t let him draw a black mugger-as thought that was somehow critical to the plot.

94. joeyjoejoe
    April 18th, 2006 at 8:00 am [Reply]

    What is up with Tommie’s face in that second panel? She goes from exuberance to ennui in under three seconds. She’s either trying to hide something from Margo, or she’s an android.

    “Why are you so happy, TommieBot 4000?”
    “OLD FRIENDS HAVE PLACED A CALL TO ME ON THE TELEPHONE. END COMMUNICATION.”

95. RichM
    April 18th, 2006 at 8:30 pm [Reply]

    FW: Maybe Wally won’t die after all. His arm will just get blown off. (Cue spooky music.)

96. Alex
    April 19th, 2006 at 10:21 am [Reply]

    First off, I think the IRS guy is Peter, and quite possibly he could just be trying that lame joke out on all the cave people to see who gives him the most sardonic expression. By the way, I always thought the Fat Broad was the most recognizable cast member. She seems to be the only one who isn’t the same body with a different face, anyway.

97. K
    April 20th, 2006 at 12:55 am [Reply]

    B.C. turns my stomach. Another pathetic attempt at proselytizing from Hartless. Nothing new there and yet still so barf-inducing.

98. moe99
    April 24th, 2006 at 11:19 pm [Reply]

    Just read For Better or For Worse. Please oh please do not let Liz go back to that dweeb whose wife just left him. Please oh please.

99. Pantsman
    April 25th, 2006 at 1:13 am [Reply]

    Dunno if anyone actually reads these threads a week after they appear, but I just wanted to post a link to some B.C. mash-ups I created, inspired by this confusing as hell 4/15 comic. Check it out here.

100. Pantsman
     April 25th, 2006 at 1:13 am [Reply]

     Dunno if anyone actually reads these threads a week after they appear, but I just wanted to post a link to some B.C. mash-ups I created, inspired by this confusing as hell 4/15 comic. Check it out here.

101. rich
     April 25th, 2006 at 10:20 am [Reply]

     Those are pretty funny, Pantsman! They actually make sense. Yes, I do check old posts to see if the numbers have changed. Sad, but true.

     You probably should post your stuff in whatever the latest thread is, though, unless you’re specifically responding to a comment in that thread. Don’t worry if the “topic” is Pluggers and you want to discuss BC — people do it all the time.

     Quite often the best posts get lost in the no-man’s-land at the very bottom of a thread.

102. Pantsman
     April 25th, 2006 at 1:02 pm [Reply]

     Thanks Rich! And if I post to a newer thread, maybe I’ll post just once…(lousy sleep deprivation.)

103. alex
     December 9th, 2008 at 8:02 pm [Reply]

     Add to my Bookmarks ;)

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