Post Content

Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/7/04

The avant garde-est of the soap opera strips (in terms of art, of course; surely there’s something avant garde about the recent dog vs. shark battle in Mark Trail) just keeps getting avant garde-ier. Today’s strip starts out normally and then starts getting trippy in panel two: Heather’s disembodied head smiles knowingly as it floats against an abstractly patterned background. Then in panel three, all hell breaks lose. Is it just me, or does June look deeply freaky? Her eyes have ballooned to 12-year-old-anime-girl size, and all her facial features seem pushed forward, focusing on the shiny, shiny object, while one taloned claw reaches out to snatch it. It took me a minute to figure out who she reminded me of — and then I realized that it’s another ring-loving character from fiction:

I also think she kind of looks like a parakeet, but I couldn’t find an appropriate picture by press time. Anyway, the whole thing is pretty weird. Did someone put some PCP in June’s morning coffee?

Bonus observation: in the first panel, Heather is holding her hand in that weird, contorted position typical of newly-engaged women who want to draw attention to their rings without, you know, actually mentioning them — except that it’s the wrong hand. Give her time, she’s new at this.

This week’s alarming search term: “‘Canadian Ballet’ mints”. Classy!