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Ack! I used faithful reader Brown-Eyed Girl’s pic of an anarchist Santa, but have been terribly remiss in relaying her meetup report! Let’s make amends now! Here it is, straight from her mouth (or typing fingers, anyway):

Oregon mudges Deena in OR, Brown-eyed Girl, gnome de blog, and redlikerubies met up at Powell’s Bookstore in downtown Portland. (leathermessiah was supposed to join us, but foolishly chose academic obligations over fun. Silly leathermessiah). The sun actually shone that day, which I take as a sign that the deity was well-pleased that another Comics Curmudgeon meet-up had occurred. As it happened, our table was right next to the comics section. Of course we posed in front of
the display. Deena in OR is holding Dykes to Watch Out For, I have Family Circus, gnome de blog chose a general book on comics, while redlikerubies found a particularly heinous For Better or For Worse. (Photography by Mr. redlikerubies, who patiently waited while we scrabbled through the shelves and was an all-around good sport.)

If you’d like to meet up with your fellow readers, check out the meetup forum! A quick glance shows that there’s a big one brewing in New Orleans for December 26…

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Slylock Fox and My Cage, 12/17/07

Ye cats! It’s a sexy feline trans-comic crossover scenario! I’m ashamed to admit that I hadn’t yet added My Cage to my Chron custom page, mostly because rebuilding a page with 70+ strips is a pain in the ass. But I’ve liked what I’ve seen of it, and its writer, Ed Power, is a faithful reader, so Cassandra’s glamorous appearance in the strip’s humdrum office setting has finally gotten me off my butt to do so.

Norm will pay for dismissing Cassandra based on her appearance, though. She’s 100 percent qualified — to steal the hell out of all your crap, buddy.

Meanwhile, with Cassandra off running some kind of white-collar long con, her cousin Carla is picking up her slack, theft-wise. I find it kind of endearing that Carla is wearing a cat-burglar suit despite being an actual cat. And today’s Slylock actually teaches a valuable lesson, namely: DON’T EVER TRUST CATS.

Mark Trail, 12/17/07

Everyone knows that Mark Trail has incredibly powerful fist and an inability to feel distracting human emotions; but you may not know that he also boasts a supernaturally discerning palette. Some years back, he proved his ability to identify illegal narcotics by taste, always a useful skill when you get involved in high-stakes adventure as Mark is wont to do. Today, however, as we watch him gobbling up the soggy, week-old off-brand cigar butts that Andy is faithfully digging up for him, I’m beginning to worry about the guy a little bit.

Family Circus, 12/18/07

Dad bellows Charles Dickens to nobody in particular. The kids stare around dumbly, then smile in a greedy, Pavlovian response to a stray phrase that sounds like something they want. Enjoy this Christmas card straight from the heart of lunacy.

Gil Thorp, 12/17/07

YES! YES! After weeks of waiting, Milford is finally unleashing its nutty Wing-T offense!

…

…

Wow, so it turns out that confusing and badly-drawn football action in a comic strip is actually kind of boring.

They’ll Do It Every Time, 12/17/07

Yet another Comics Curmudgeon idea in TDIET! This one comes from eco-minded faithful reader Dave, who I urge everyone to refer to as “Gus Greenearth” from now on.

I love the way little Junior almost forgets his line in the first panel. “Uh … [damn it, I know it’s one of the classic TDIET catchphrases] … oh, yeah!” Also, bonus Scaduto-ism: “sooper-market.”

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Stupid work will delay Monday comics until the wee hours, but I didn’t want to deny you the joy of the comment of the week.

“It’s tough to get yourself into the rhythm of a street fight when you spend so much time on exposition: ‘Look! It’s the teenager with sallow skin whose membership in a higher socioeconomic class I resent! And the now-teenager who tormented me in first grade, leading to a long-harbored animosity on my part! Get them!'” –Hubris

And the runners up! A particularly hilarious batch.

“Or else Pitfall Harry is Ted’s stripper name for himself. That would make more sense.” –The Uncola

“But why does Ziggy even want cable? Other people watch TV to enjoy movies without leaving the house, or to escape their daily troubles, but Ziggy can’t even see a gum wrapper on the sidewalk without it somehow serving as a reminder of what a loser he is. I’d say the best thing for him would be a sensory deprivation chamber and massive doses of lithium, or maybe thorazine. There is also a definite possibility that this has already happened, and what we see is the result.” –Donald The Anarchist

“Francie’s right. Everything does smell like legs.” –Red Greenback

“Ah, Brad and Toni — it’s like Tracy/Hepburn for imbeciles.” –Uncle Lumpy

“What the hell does that mean. It makes no sense. It makes negative sense. The Family Circus owes us sense, and a lot of it, too.” –Lord-z

“The face of utter despair on daddy Keane clearly indicates that those papers are of the paternity tests he does every month. Today’s papers, as every time, indicate that Jeffy is indeed his son.” –Wili

“Whenever Mary says the ‘important’ (using the term loosely) line of the day’s strip, she always looks up as though something is on the ceiling. I like to think that the drivel she spouts is actually written on cue cards, and she’s just forced to say whatever is pasted on the ceiling. It makes me feel slightly better when I read the strip.” –Jemmy

“I think it would be a cosmic act of mercy if a giant flaming meteorite landed right on top of that gingerbread house while Brad and the perpetually-grinning TJ were sound asleep and could be instantly flambeed. The funerals would provide material for a couple of weeks and add some much-needed gravitas to the strip. And the mournful eulogies about TJ’s perpetual smile would actually be true.” –Poteet

“‘What’s with the Santa hat in the office, Bumstead?’ ‘I thought it would make things a little more festive, boss.’ ‘It’s not festive! It’s black, you feckless slop-gobbler!’ ‘So is your soul, you withered old crustacean! [fisticuffs]” –Keg of Curd

“Just because I don’t completely understand [the second panel of this Gil Thorp] doesn’t mean I don’t find it completely awesome! Spider-Man and Phantom take note: this is action! I think.” –PeteMoss

“It looks to me as though Mary is accosting random passers-by with her inane platitudes. ‘Hey, you with the ball! Who knows what tomorrow brings or takes away? You there in the jeans, let’s just enjoy today! Don’t walk away from me like that! I know you can hear me!'” –Cheese-n-Pear

“Look, kid, I already expelled you from my uterus. Can’t you take a hint?” –cheech wizard

“In the third panel of Funky Winkerbean, I can’t tell if Pete’s black pen is meant to signify the little black cell phone on which a lady would make a booty call, or Pete’s little putrefied penis, which he enjoys cradling at a 45-degree angle, to brush against the various covers of his comic books. Either way I hope he never contacts me on J-Date.” –RaJ

“‘Wombo’ is the most disturbing name ever in the They’ll Do It Every Time canon. ‘Are you disobeying me? Have you forgotten where you came from? I don’t see how you could, considering I named you after it. My womb, that’s right. So unless I’m mistaken and you didn’t come out of my body, you’ll do what I say. Now go tell your sister Utera that it’s time for dinner.'” –Francis

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