The Comics Curmudgeon

27 responses to “Ready for their close-ups”

1. Marc
   June 4th, 2006 at 9:40 pm [Reply]

   That’s the weirdest water bottle top I have ever seen…looks more like the top you’d find on a bottle of Palmolive.

   AHH FOOB CLOSE UPS!

2. captainswift
   June 4th, 2006 at 9:46 pm [Reply]

   Fortunately, Dr. What’s’Is’Name has more than enough nostril to make up for the fact that Elizabeth has NONE!

3. deeeeeeeeelightful
   June 4th, 2006 at 9:54 pm [Reply]

   Why did the Rex Morgan team pick such an obscure childhood disease to focus on? with mosg comics today having kind of an eisenhower-y era feel, wouldn’t it make more sense to give that little girl of his Polio? Ooooo or TB! Now tuberculosis, thats something that hasn’t been quite covered the comics yet!

4. The Paradox
   June 4th, 2006 at 10:25 pm [Reply]

   A3G- Damn LuAnn…YOU GOT SERVED!!!

5. Bill Peschel
   June 4th, 2006 at 10:45 pm [Reply]

   Off-topic, but I’ve been thinking about Mike’s atrocious letters home — and isn’t that a sign I need help? — and wonder if Lynn isn’t describing him to a T.

   After all, he has a basic Canadian education, has shown no interest in learning how to write good fiction, and despite his status as head of the household is emotionally immature. So, why wouldn’t he write like this? I envision him inserting huge copyright warnings at the tops of his manuscripts and bombarding editors and agents with his wretchedly scrawled missives. Eventually, he’ll save paper by typing single-spaced, with margins that reach the paper’s edges, then continue in handwriting around the rim.

   After that, he’ll go into journalism.

6. Lydia
   June 4th, 2006 at 10:52 pm [Reply]

   Liz’s nose is nearly the same size in all of the last three panels. D:

7. Jay Nickola
   June 4th, 2006 at 10:56 pm [Reply]

   And now, Deep Thoughts: Tear = tear. Whoa. Cosmic, dude.

   Come on. That’s, like, a Family-Circus-level observation. I can all too easily picture Jeffy pointing it out to Mommy in a pwecious little Out O’ The Mouths O’ Babes moment. Shame on you, Foobston. I’d expect . . . well, I can’t say I’d expect better from you. I’d expect differently crappy from you.

8. Dingo
   June 5th, 2006 at 2:12 am [Reply]

   A FOOB haiku (foobu?):

   Lizardbreath, my love
   Pouty lips, drag queen lashes
   Trade both for nostrils

9. Mr. Pink
   June 5th, 2006 at 2:54 am [Reply]

   But what really makes this strip is the soundtrack. I hope we see Elizabeth chewing her cereal tomorrow morning!

   Translation: Tap Tick Ticka Tap Tap Tick Tick Tap Ticka. Tap Tick Tick Tap Tappiticka Ticka Tap Tappita Tappita Ticka!

10. mentarman
    June 5th, 2006 at 3:25 am [Reply]

    If you block out the first panel, you can imagine Lizardbreath is telling us all this through some sort of interpretive tap dance.

11. mentarman
    June 5th, 2006 at 3:28 am [Reply]

    Meanwhile, the good doctors have their discussion whilst (thank you, Pappy) clutching their not-at-all-phallic water bottles.

12. TheMagicMel
    June 5th, 2006 at 7:43 am [Reply]

    My loathing of FBOFW has reached a new low with St. Mikey’s latest letter. He is written as such a vorpal ass, and how much more evil must Lynn try to convince us the Kelpfroths are? ‘They had a small wedding and everyone wore black…their war collection is enough to keep us up at night…’ Cracker, please. I could pontificate more, but all this tip tack tappita is getting on my nerves.

13. Joan
    June 5th, 2006 at 8:18 am [Reply]

    Bonus optical illusion. If you stare at Lizardbreath’s gleaming white-iris’ed eyeballs in the last panel, the signature looks like she’s wearing a hideous ruffled collar. Like this: http://www.contemporaryposters.com/images/201.jpg

14. Lyman Returns
    June 5th, 2006 at 8:32 am [Reply]

    Ah, FBOFW characters…they get more realistic-looking the closer you get to them!

15. Hogenmogen
    June 5th, 2006 at 8:35 am [Reply]

    Saturday’s Rex: I liked the strange head-twist in panel 1. In general, I’m rather struck by the fact that Jack Wilcox, soldier injured in a war zone sent Rex into a dark funk. However, he remains strangely clinical at the prospect of young Sarah with a debilitating disease. She’s not only just a kid, she’s your kid, Rex! Show some emotion, please!

    As far as the Foobs are concerned: Yes, “Tear” and “Tear” are the same spelling. Wow, that’s about as coincidental as a quarter hour being 15 minutes, but a quarter only being worth 25 cents. Oh, wait, that wasn’t a coincidence. But it is about as coincidental as “lead” as in the metal, and “lead” as in be in front of. Or, “read” (present tense) and “read” (past tense). There really ought to be a word to describe these strange coincidences. Being a teacher, maybe you can help me with that, Liz.

    Actually, as we zoom in, I think Liz is lookin’ pretty hot. No wonder why half of the Great White North is clamoring for some action.

16. Hogenmogen
    June 5th, 2006 at 9:06 am [Reply]

    Foobs: Panels 3 and 4 went with “Tap Tick Tap”, but for the wacky punchline frame #5, Lynn Johnson switched the order to “Tick Tap Tick”. I think that she must have deliberated for hours on exactly what would be the proper background sound for maximum effect. Well, Lynn, you did it. This is the rip-roarin’-est strip you’ve done in years. What a knee-slapper. They’re rolling in the aisles – no, wait, that’s mass waves of stomach cramps.

17. Hogenmogen
    June 5th, 2006 at 9:09 am [Reply]

    My mistake – 3 & 4 are “Tick Tap Tick” and 5 is “Tap Tick Tap”. Well, that changes everything. What the hell. No one is reading this post, are you?

18. Sean-o
    June 5th, 2006 at 9:30 am [Reply]

    Dear #15, para 2: there is indeed a word for these phenomena, specifically “homograph,” i.e., a word that looks the same but has a different meaning or pronunciation (as oppose to homonym and homophone, among other neat-o variations).

    No matter, the entire Foobiverse makes my skin crawl off my bones and the sooner LJ ends the damn thing, the better off we shall all be.

19. Adfella
    June 5th, 2006 at 10:21 am [Reply]

    QUESTION ABOUT MARY WORTH

    My local paper doesn’t carry Mary Worth, and I started following the strip after discovering this website.

    I have now lived through two story lines….the Jane Hand divorce saga featuring Wilbur, the combover-sporting advice columnist, and now the soon-to-end (thank God!) tour-de-force involving Lou, Kelly and assorted casseroles.

    My question is this: does anything actually ever HAPPEN in the world of Mary Worth? Is there ever any ACTION? Are all of the problems experienced by Mary’s acquaintances so mundane and easily resolved?

    (Incidentally, something happened to me recently that would make a GREAT Mary Worth storyline. You see, I thought I was out of contact lens solution, but it turned out there was another bottle in the house. I was sad, but then I was happy! They could drag that out for three or four weeks, with Mary dispensing platitudes about planning ahead and solving your own contact lens solution shortage problems, etc.)

20. 420
    June 5th, 2006 at 10:23 am [Reply]

    I’d hit it.

21. Dub Not Dubya
    June 5th, 2006 at 10:24 am [Reply]

    And I thought homograph was the definition of the artwork in RMMD. Wow, I learned something today.

    PS: In case anyone is offended, I’m gay myself and meant no harm.

22. Josh
    June 5th, 2006 at 10:27 am [Reply]

    Adfella (#19) –

    Much as we love to mock Meddlin’ Mary over here, I have to say that the last two storylines in this strip have been particularly action-free. Previous plots have featured meth-dealing and drug overdoses, a drunken houseguest who destroyed Mary’s precious property and then fled into the ghetto, and a high-school reunion hookup that resulted in a “honeymoon baby.” So yes, it’s been better. Check out the Mary Worth archives in this blog for details — see the “pick a comic” drop-down list under the “archives” heading in the left-hand nav bar.

    Josh

23. Bigfoot
    June 5th, 2006 at 10:48 am [Reply]

    Despite how action-filled the drunken houseguest & other MW stories may sound from Josh’s description, it should be noted that even they were sucked of all true action by the painfully slow timeline of everything Mary Worth. It’s a special talent…

24. Gershwin
    June 5th, 2006 at 11:58 am [Reply]

    Re: 13:

    And if you perceive her as wearing such a collar, she looks like one of those tragic-huge-eyed harlequin children in the tacky narrow paintings that hung on my bedroom wall when I was 7.

25. punk
    June 5th, 2006 at 7:18 pm [Reply]

    FBOFW — Who in their twenties writes a melodramatic last line like that, in an e-mail and to a sibling, especially a younger one? Why can’t Liz just write, “I need some support from you guys” instead of an equivalent to “Oh, I’ll get through this crazy life of mine somehow…no, no, don’t mind me, I’ll *cough*…survive…”? And does she expect April to do anything but roll her eyes, mumble “Whatever”, and go back to Googling ideas for crappy band names?

    …I guess the answers are: 1.) Only a Patterson, 2.) Lynn Johnston’s unrelenting love of punnery in the face of painful emotional turmoil, and 3.) oh no she best better not be expectin’ nothin’ from all that drama.

26. Mibbitmaker
    June 6th, 2006 at 2:04 am [Reply]

    How about – 4) The strip is being written by an older, out-of-touch woman who invents made-up teen slang and makes bizarre observations about the male gender being cowboys with cellphones.

    Or 5) Lynn wants to badly emulate Mary Worth.

27. Anonymous
    June 6th, 2006 at 7:24 am [Reply]

    What’s up with today’s super-closeup on June’s left eye in RMMD? Also, I don’t mean to be insensitive, but here I go. I’m an ophthalmologist who has treated a lot of kids with eye complications of JRA. It is a difficult disease, but it’s not a death sentence. Keeping that in mind, I found June’s reaction on Sunday (running away, clutching at her face, heat rays emanating out of her forehead) a bit over-the-top. OK, I’m a callous insensitive jerk. I admit it.

All the cool kids…

…buy Comics Curmudgeon merchandise!

Randomly Selected Post O’ Mystery

• Warning: Today's Dick Tracy strip elicits the least unpleasant commentary