Sunday sadness and/or marketing opportunities
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Family Circus, 1/10/21
Ha ha, it’s funny because kids instinctively know that adults long ago lost their capacity for make believe and are trapped in the dull, grey prison of everyday life!
Crankshaft, 1/10/21
Ha ha, it’s funny because Crankshaft desperately needs to hold onto some small specific joy in life or else he gets terribly depressed!
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/10/21
Well, that got … too grim, probably! Anyway, let’s talk about horses. You wouldn’t know it now, but back before Snuffy Smith was ever dreamed up, Barney Google was a wildly popular media property, and that popularity was almost entirely driven by Spark Plug, Barney’s universally beloved horse, to the extent that for a while the strip was called Barney Google and Spark Plug. And yeah, it’s been a while — like, literally 99 years — but surely King Features Syndicate and Hearst Communications, the current owners of the Spark Plug intellectual property, can capture lightning in a bottle here again, right? Spark Plug may have had his day, but Li’l Sparky will be the character whose ancillary marketing products every child will be asking for this summer, probably! Kids like horses still, right? Horses and wordplay? Horses and … newspaper comic strips?
120 replies to “Sunday sadness and/or marketing opportunities”
Aunty Acid: Preach it, sister!
Hi and Lois: Mark you calendars: Ditto is enjoying life instead of his usual downtrodden plodding and droopy-eyed despair.
Mark Trail: It’s not a plague mask. Mark says that. I’m not sure I believe it.
Mary Worth: Someone took a lot of time to draw just the right lines on the guy’s crotch in the first panel to be sure the readers can’t tell if he has a scratchy scrotum.
Luann: I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, YOU WICKED EVANSII !
9CL: I don’t get it. Is the joke that Xiulan’s bow is going into Hugh’s butt-crack? And what difference does the dynamic make?
Snuffy: Rather than trying to “capture lightning in a bottle here again,” I suspect the syndicate is trying to keep its trademark alive. In comic books, I vaguely recall that this means trotting out all their obscure properties at least once a decade. When was the most recent appearance of Spark Plug? Was it a suspiciously even number of years ago?
Family Circus: “Sorry, Daddy, you’re too old to pretend that your life could be enjoyable in any way, like it was before you had us!”
Crankshaft: “Sorry, Dad, you’re too old to pretend that your life could be enjoyable in any way, like it was before you had me!”
Snuffy Smith: Charles “Sparky” Schulz was nicknamed after Barney Google‘s Spark Plug — so if the syndicates want to make more money off of this intellectual property, they’d be better off suing the Peanuts empire. (Or maybe they should just go for the whole enchilada, and sue Google.)
RMMD-Buck better maintain that diet or it will resort to insulin shots.
Slylock Fox-You too can read a password without your glasses. I can read something if I put it very close to me.
MW-Eve’s former husband was a mannequin.
JP-Sam and Abbey also couldn’t have been any more rich too.
FW-A joke has been made and now the writer wants you to laugh at it and think he’s the greatest writer in the whole world.
FC-“Okay but you are the roadie.”
Spiderman-“Well I’m sorry but there are no flying spiders.”
Blondie: Confused about whether to be happy or anxious, Dagwood goes for the ever-ready “third option”: drowning all of his potential feelings in a sea of meats and cheeses. Of course, this isn’t psychologically healthy, but at least it’s wildly dysfunctional in a way we’ve been familiar with for decades, so it’s actually kind of comforting. Say, I wonder if there are any cold cuts in my fridge?
Mary Worth: Daniel Goleman is the science journalist who popularized the concept of “emotional intelligence.” Why he’s being quoted by Mary Worth — in which the characters are about as emotionally intelligent as your average tree stump — is anybody’s guess.
Hagar the Horrible: “Don’t order the fish!” says Lucky Eddie’s mermaid girlfriend as he leaves for a restaurant. But does she think it would be cannibalism, or is she weirdly jealous? (If he’ll be choosing the most attractive live lobster in the tank, the second possibility might actually make sense.)
9CL-In the audience the Peanuts gang is watching the concert. “Why do they keep taking us to this?”
Luann-You don’t need lotion, Greg. They have pills for that.
@BigTed: (on MW) Someone should do a study of MW quotes and their sources, to see if they can figure out which quote book Moy picks them from.
Either the animals in the BarneyGoogleverse can talk, or Snuffy’s having an intensely vivid hallucination brought on by a bad batch of hooch. I’m leaning toward the second option.
@Zla’od: I’m pretty sure it’s a website called “BrainyQuote.” It’s easy to search online, and whenever there’s a misquote they seem to have the same one.
FC: “Daddy, you’re too old to pretend”
“Really? And what about my marriage with your mother?”
[Laughtrack]
FC: “You’re pretending to play jazz music instead of pretending to play the Lord’s music! I will pretend I have no son!”
Daddy Keane has missed his chance to recapture his college glory days as lead singer in a Molly Hatchet cover band.
9CL: Man when Chedda cuts the cheese, she does it fortississimo.
RMMD: Not to tell you how to do your doctorin’ and stuff, but the much more important number from a blood test is your A1C. Gives more of an average of where your sugars have been. A regular blood sugar test is good but can be influenced by many many factors: what you ate and when, exercise, stress, if your phlebotomist is hot, and so on.
Study up on the sugars Rex before you start handing out insulin pumps.
@BigTed: MW: Eve’s husband was Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, Norway’s Favorite.
Barney Google is blatantly attempting to recapture the lucrative comics market in Pawnee, Indiana.
@avh: That…actually explains the comic strip, which otherwise had me mystified. Thanks!
(“Fartississimo” was right there!)
Rex Morgan, MILF Diver: Give June credit for her commitment to the hippocratic oath or whatever it is. In her spot, I’d be telling Dork to have more milkshakes and do anything that would hasten his demise – just to rid the earth of this miserable piece of shit. Christ, what an asshole.
Wary Morth:
“Take all the time you need! Like 2022. 2022 should be fine. By then there’s a fair to middling chance that the COVID pandemic could be under control, and I could start looking for someone I’m suited to outside Charterstone!”
“Suited to? You mean?”
“Right, some woman who’s into wearing sleeveless pullovers and bow ties as well!”
@avh: By the way, has Brooke given up on Pigborn?
I applaud “Barney Google and Snuffy Smith” for making Li’l Sparky Spark Plug’s grandson and not his nephew. No easy road of Nephewism, no sir! They want you to know that Spark Plug FUCKED and he produced sons who FUCK!
@Jihadi Colin:
His penis hasn’t recovered enough to keep drawing it.
BGSS – Welcome, Li’l Sparky! Can’t wait to introduce you to Scrappy and Poochie.
FC: Bil’s children think he’s a dim bulb, and they don’t want to play with him because he’s dull and useless. YAY!!!
Crank: A man in his mid-eighties has no joy in his life, suffers from deep depression, and is hostile and bitter towards everyone around him. And he drives a bus full of young kids to and from school every day! YAY!!!
Snuffy: Is that final panel on the throw-away title line, “Oh, how I love him!”, a shout-out to the very first Peanuts cartoon by Charles “Sparky” Schulz? If so, then note that they completely reversed the whole concept of that original Peanuts strip that made it clever and insightful, and instead they turned it into something banal and cloying, and of course that’s exactly what you would expect of Snuffy Smith. YAY!!!!
BGSS: What th–? I can’t believe this! They’ve placed a juvenile Equine actor in the same panel with that old pervert! And they’re nuzzling! Has the prohibition order against Spark Plug expired? I guess they thought they could get away with this in the throwaway panels. This justs shows how juvenile actors get so messed up…
And even more shocking, the lascivious old fool is portrayed as a “role model” … when will Li’l Sparky start asking “wanna peek under my blanket?” Oh, if I had a sugar cube for every time I’ve heard that … Well, this has got to stop before the cycle of lecherous behavior continues. I’m calling Colt ‘n Filly Protective Services right now!
Slylock – Judging by Sir Hound’s appearance, I’d say he was the one who was desperately in need of the “safe word.”
Fumbly Circus: Look! Christmas is over, but Jeffy is still the Little Dummer Boy!
Family Squickus: Go pluck yourself, Billy! Every day Bil pretends that he can make this strip funny and original. And he pretends some day Jeffy can do the same. You’ll never beat that, melonhead!
Judge Cratered: Grandpa hopes this scene ends before Sophie dies of old age, because if she’s buried next to him, the tedium will kill him.
Rex Morbid, Missing Daily: Buck, if you won’t poke yourself, people will line up to do it for you. I’ll join them just as soon as I can find a knitting needle.
@Jihadi Colin: Get a grip on yourself, man. 2021 isn’t going to be that much better than 2020.
Phantom: “Good grief! Always guard your man, detective! Don’t look at what I’m doing!”
This immediately after taking his eyes off the men he’s guarding to see what the detective is doing.
My Li’l Sparky: Nepotism is Magic
Crankshaft : they later assumed that Crankshaft starting the car inside the closed garage and knocking himself out with the car smoke was just him being silly and forgetful.
FC – Bil – yer a daddy-aw, not a daddy-oh….
Crank – Ed’s just having his period….
GA – I cast my vote on today’s strip, nay….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
BGSS:I fear the big introduction is all to service the stupid pun punchline, and Lil’ Sparky will never be seen again.
Mmmmmm….the Bean’s End garden catalogue! Oh, Crankshaft, can we ever tire of your hilarious endless rotation of enjoyably recycled jokes? Next up: exploding barbecues!
FC is too old to pretend, otherwise it would have the kids imagining themselves as Neil Peart, Eddie Van Halen, and Miles Davis.
MW: “I…I just started thinking about drowned puppies, for some reason. Lots and lots of drowned puppies.”
@Tonio:
I was hoping that Jeffy was more like Rick Allen. After all, he is a little short handed to be playing drums.
To be fair, Daddy Keane trying desperately to connect with his children over some innocent make-believe, only to be rejected, makes this the funniest Family Circus ever.
Luann – Ok, so clearly I am not misreading it, based on what y’all are commenting.
You used to be able to get a firming cream called “Lovely Jubblies” from a company called Lush. It was advertised for your fun bags, upper arms, etc. It smelled awesome. Whether it worked, ehhh…but it was fun while it lasted.
FC – Sophie Driver visits and offers to be the merch girl. By the end of the week she’s playing in the band and has a contract to be paid more than the other members.
Pluggers – I call shenanigans. Twenty to seven? They eat dinner at five, and he’d never sleep through that.
6Chix – Something’s wrong. This is competently drawn and amusing.
FC – Jeffy, have you ever heard of Pete Best?
Rex Morgan – Buck is so dim witted that someone better work with him to teach him exactly what and how much he can eat. Vague statements like “no more butterscotch milkshakes” won’t cut it. He’ll just switch to vanilla milkshakes.
C’shaft: “Also COVID is hampering his ability to torment children and their parents, so there’s that.”
FC: Reminding an adult that their days of carefree play and innocence are gone forever? Dennis only wishes he were that menacing.
Zits: Oedipal horror alert! This is not a drill!
Luann: Sorry, Frank, no amount of lotion is going to help with your ED.
MT: I don’t care if he’s a 21st-century reboot; I can’t imagine any incarnation of Mark Trail using cutesy internet speak like “needle-nosed floof.”
Phantom: “Trust me, it’s easy when you’re a superior white man!”
“And Dolly, can’t you see our thought bubbles? This is a hard rock band, not some lame marching band. Go away while we pretend sugar is cocaine.”
BG&SS: I think we’re all missing the larger point here — sometime in his life, Sparkplug has had sex!
@Pozzo: Oh, puh-leese! Don’t act so innocent, dahling. Everyone knew about his casting stall – it was notorious!
We just had our Zoom church service. One of the people had his 10-month old granddaughter in his lap and said all she says is “Ba Ba Ba,” which he tries to interpret. It made me think of Daddy Daze.
FUNGAL WILTEDBRAIN: Nobody has yet noticed that MarkTwainCosplayingTeacher just said:
“I could here you rattling that tin of Altoids…”
instead of
“I could HEAR you rattling that tin of Altoids…”
https://www.seattlepi.com/comicskingdom/?feature_id=Funky_Winkerbean&feature_date=2021-01-10
(Shrug proofreads the comics so you don’t have to!)
BG&SS&LS: Hmm. I notice that Li’l Sparky® has a heart on his horseblanket in about the same position as the symbols on the butts of some other horses with “Little” in their trademark. These “cash in on popular trends” characters never last. Remember when Hägar decided Hamlet had a pet dragon he was trying to train for, like, a month?
DT: Wait, which balloon is the blue one? If only there was an informative arrow caption to help me!
FW: These People Should Not Be Teaching Part 2843, as Einstein Wannabe finds a new way of singling out one of the dorkier students.
MT: “These gangs are fierce but friendly!” Yeah, but you also think they told you to punch your dad’s employees, so I’m not really sure I trust your opinions any more.
MW: “Take as much time as you need. If you feel you want to stay here for the rest of the week, and won’t be ready to talk about it until next Sunday, that’s fine.”
Tomorrow, the Keane children record a death metal album with PJ doing the Cookie Monster vocals.
One Big Happy – Joe’s scrotum is way worse off than merely scratchy.
@TheDiva: Kit whitesplains professional police protocol to the Black professional police detective.
Lil’ Sparky, like this strip and all its characters, is headed for the glue factory.
@Conynaut:Christ, you’re not kidding.
FC: Did they exclude PJ from the band? Of course not! Jeffy was not satisfied with the sound until he put under the pan
C: Damn Batiuk, it’s already a tough time for me! By saying “Well, Crankshaft feels the same way as well” you’re doing the opposite of helping!
FC: “Daddy, you’re too old to pretend!”
“Me pretending to be my four children and drawing their zany actions in thousands of newspapers is what paid your bills until I was 90 — and even now when I’m dead! Have some respect little shit!”
BG&SS — So, Sid, are the Chicken Which Crossed the Road and the Hare of Tortoise and Hare Race fame only working as a team these days, or is this a one-time gig?
@Jihadi Colin: Monk butt up in pool. What else is there for Brooke to say?
FC: Somehow I know that, even in their imaginations, the Keane Trio is terrible. I mean, drums, guitar, and trumpet? How’s that gonna sound?
‘shaft: My favorite aspect of this is that Ed seems acutely aware of his own logo … and it’s uncomfortably close to his face.
Snuffy: The saddest aspect of this is that the original Spark Plug is still alive but relegated to the throwaway panels. In some markets, readers won’t even know he was in this.
MW: If that headless mannequin was mounted on horseback with a flaming jack-o-lantern Eve would’ve really freaked out.
@Shrug: #49:
@Horace Broon: #50:
Mark Twain? Einstein? I still say he’s trying to look like Kurt Vonnegutt.
@Shrug: Wow. Didn’t notice that. And me a retired copy editor and all.
@Baja Gaijin: So, the collective noun is a “plague of ibis”?
@Melody Mare, incensed: Aw, Melody, such a neigh-sayer. But — just what is with the blankets anyway? Seems running a race without one would be easier. There’s a cover-up going on here, methinks.
Ha ha ha ha, Spark Plug has a date with Snuffy Smith’s grill now. That should cheer Crankshaft up.
9CL: yeah I think the idea is that she goosed him with her bow. But why??
Luann: Plausible deniability that he just wants to sneak a gob of her girly face cream to head off his own wrinkles and double chin. Well played.
MW: Passing by a men’s clothing store at the mall, Eve suddenly remembered that her late husband used to wear men’s clothing.
@odinthor: re BGSS: All the Animal “talent”, and I use the word loosely, that you see in Barn & Snuff is provided in-house by the producers… it’s traditionally a closed shop. Occasionally I’ve sent over some lower-tier clients in emergency situations, like when Loweezy fried up their featured chicken by mistake.
But today’s Chicken and Hare aren’t part of my stable. Although I see some promise here with these two – it’s unusual for the Hootin’ Holler Animal cast to have speakin’ roles. And you notice their enunciation is much superior to that of the two-legger cast! With a little grooming and polishing, they might be ready to move to greener pastures, so to speak. I may have to put out some feelers…
BG&SS: I will ask about the elephant missing from the room: Why the emphasis on Spark Plug being the grand-sire and not the sire of Li’l Sparky? What happened to the middle generation? I assume that Snuffy ate him decades ago and the strip’s creators are too committed to the Googleverse continuity to retcon him back to life.
Family Circus: The Keane kids are so far behind on pop culture, they have just recently discovered third wave ska.
@Wolfdude: #70
That suddenly gave me an idea for a PLUGGERS contribution: we see a Plugger surrounded with shelves of souveniers branded with Coke, Pepsi, Dad’s Root Beer, Moxie etc. logos, and explain that some Pluggers with collecting instincts are very much into Pop Culture.
(Unfortunately I don’t think they’d want to do it with real soda names, and I don’t think it would work without them.)
Barney Google – a century of not knowing what the hell horses’ bodies look like. (“Oh, it’s just a big yellow bag with four potato-like blobs at the bottom.”)
@FE: Most people don’t know about Spark Plug’s neer-do-well son, Spark Plague. He was a general badass, into minor crimes like knockin’ over fences and stealin’ vegetable crops. Got busted when they found out he won a race by havin’ a gasoline engine under his blanket! So he’s now doin’ time on a work farm, and Li’l Sparky was left in the care of the Patriarch. Li’l Sparky’s dam left and went into show biz, under an assumed name. At least this is what Melody told me ….
@40 I speak Jive: on Six Chix: O.M.G. That was actually funny. I think I’d better call a psychiatrist for a checkup.
@49 Shrug: There’s the other side of the coin: “I could smell your stankbreath because you hadn’t sucked an Altoid recently.”
@50 Horace Broon: on Snuffy Smith: Do you remember who else wore a heart on her clothes? Cathy. I’m not saying Cathy boinked Spark Plug, Jr. Then again, I’m not not saying it either.
Crankshaft: Ed is looking at that giant logo…really creepy…
FC: Remember what someone said about the Beatles: “Groups with guitars are on their way out.”
Luann:What I infer is that Frank is planning to murder Nancy. Before he gets to finding out what she knows about Delta’s whereabouts.
@Shrug: Given Batiuk’s propensity for using puns, and the repeated use of “here” in the previous panels, I think the teacher saying he could “here” the student — meaning to mark him present — is intentional. I coud be wrong. All I know for sure is that I now feel dirty.
And yes, I spelled “could” wrong. It was a pun.
@Joe Blevins: Meet Doctor Worm.
BG/SS:
I completely agree.
Ditch the humans and just have the comic be about cute talking animals.
Actually… make the animals live like humans in houses with cute little hats and such.
Actually… give the animal-people deep dramatic realistic scenarios that make them seem even more human.
Actually… make them so realistic that they can casually discuss sex
Actually… just make the comic into furry porn.
MW: Eve was having flashbacks of her husband’s unfortunate incident at the Floating Head Emporium, something a few muffins will easily cure.
@The Dimensional Otter: #79
“Actually… just make the comic into furry porn.”
Actually…just revive OMAHA THE CAT DANCER.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Omaha%22_the_Cat_Dancer
Prince Valiant: Could we get a list of characters and a genealogy chart? Maybe a map, too? Do they expect us to remember all this? Will there be a quiz?
Snuff: L’l Sparky’s father regrets to inform you that he can not make an appearance today, due to being long dead from tripping over his long burlap dress during a race.
@Joe Blevins: FC: Somehow I know that, even in their imaginations, the Keane Trio is terrible. I mean, drums, guitar, and trumpet? How’s that gonna sound? Cake “The Distance.”
@Ukulele Ike: Oh, that’s good one, too.
Rex Morgan, M.D.: Diabetic treatment compliance in the U.S. runs at about 35%, and Buck’s “oh noes not neeeeeeedles!” reaction and June’s cutie-pie “not on the recommended list” advice nicely illustrate why. Patients are happy to act like helpless victims, and medical staff are happy to condescend to them. At least everybody’s emotional needs are taken care of.
@Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars!: #68: Since Mark Trail is now into talking animals maybe talking chicken and hare’s best bet would be to seek work there. The only problem I see is Mark works for Woods and Wildlife magazine, not Farm and Livestock.
@Joe Blevins: Hush yo mouth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feels_So_Good_(composition)
(Even Dr. Strange knows this one. Hey, you can’t prove that Dolly isn’t imagining herself playing a flugelhorn.)
@made of wince: So is Sparky swaybacked as well? Are horses normally born swaybacked?
@Arabella: Don’t forget everybody’s heraldic arms.
@The Dimensional Otter: Or ditch the animals, and go straight to hillbilly porn. (Come to think of it, there might be roles for a few animals after all.)
@Baja Gaijin: (See?)
C-Shaft: The sad lull between stock gags?
SSmith: Barney Google doesn’t just have goog-goog-googly eyes, he’s also got a horse(?) that can reproduce asexually.
@Joe Blevins: Snuffy is drawn according to a similar schema.
@FE: Actually, we should be calculating how many generations could plausibly separate a horse that was already elderly in 1919, and one that was a colt in 2021. You’d need at least five, unless Spark Plug gros père’s sperm could have been frozen once the technology for that was available. And since we actually see Spark Plug alive today, I guess we have to either retcon all those interwar adventures, or consider Spark Plug to have attained immortality. (Meanwhile, in the Phantom, GWW may be faking immortality, but pretty soon we’ll have to explain how Devil and Hero have achieved it for real.)
@Anonymous: (on Melody) Maybe it’s a modesty thing. Can mares be Muslimas? Buruk, the winged steed of the Prophet Muhammad, was no doubt a faithful servant of Allah.
@Uncle Lumpy: Buck should see a Certified Diabetes Educator to set up his diet and exercise plan and learn how to check his blood sugar. But that would mean adding a new character, which would be too much work. Perhaps we learn that Nurse Michelle has “special training” we didn’t know about.
@Zla’od: JB – But ah do de-clay-ya….
@richardf8: This is what heaven looks like for Catholic religious.
@Victory Garden: Now that I think about it, it occurs to me that “fff” would mean Xiulan’s bow would reach farther than the softer dynamics. I think we’ve solved it. (No farting, alas.)
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: It’s the Unknown Tongue, praise Jesus!
DT: Sigh. Tiger Lilly entered the crime trade to hotwire cars, break into jewelry stores, rip off drug dealers. Taking balloons was something he thought he left behind in middle school.
JP: It occurs to me that maybe this heart-to-heart that Sophie is having with her late grandfather would be more credible if his death date were a couple of years later. Like, as it stands she’d have been preverbal when the events she’s talking about and only “remembers” what Neddy told her.
Luann: Come on, Evansii, you don’t need to work blue to be funny. Or more to the point, it’s not going to help you be funny.
@Pozzo: Which means that Barney Google never had him gelded, but raced him as a stallion. Interesting…
FC: The next panel should have shown the whole family in church, with invisible angels fluttering about.
@Conynaut: I think that was just to distract us from the butt-scratching in panel 3.
It would have been hideous to look at, but if Mr. Wilson had the courage to out himself to Mrs. Mitchell in the full uniform that Mrs. Wilson loves to see him in, he might have rid himself of Dennis forever.
Pluggers are filthy slobs with no regard for personal hygiene.
@Zla’od: Nah, flugelhorns don’t look like that. And cool jazzbeaux like me opt for the optimal trumpet variant known as the Cornet. Especially the Pocket cornet.
@Ukulele Ike: Then maybe, uh, Dolly is imagining it wrong? Or thinks “Feels So Good” was played by a trumpet?
@101 Zla’od: Dolly? Imagining something wrong? Are you serious? I can.not believe it. Where’s my fainting couch–I’m swooning in shock!
@Zla’od: An unschooled meatball, I think, would be unable to distinguish a trumpet from a flugelhorn from a cornet. Or a valve trombone, for that matter.
@Ukulele Ike: But….a five-year-old unschooled meatball?
Strong Matt Groening vibes from that rabbit, though. Kids love that wacky “Life in Hell,” right?
MW: Eve is going to break down and tell Saul that her former husband was the masculine lesbian and she was the lipstick one. Eve’s ex loved to wear Armani suits and refuse to give Eve head.
That display hit too close to home and she just broke down.
@Zla’od:
Which means that Barney Google never had him gelded, but raced him as a stallion. Interesting…
Are you implying it’s not impossible that Old SparkPlug was involved in an incident similar to the one featured in the Simpsons episode “Two Dozens and One Greyhounds”?
I am loving this upstart hippie Aquarius in Dick Tracy. They know their constitutional rights and made Tracy’s bust a “bust”. His team knows how to use a Farmers Market to lose the heat. And now Aquarius just outsmarted unrepentant and non-incarcerated, mass-murderer Pouch (well, at least 2+ so far). Pouch is the most gnarly Rouge Gallery fiend to not only get away but to do so since 1971 and still be doing crimes.
Tracy/Gould hates hippies! If the team finally does part ways with him, seems too perfect to be brought down – being outsmarted by- and accidentally selling a balloon to- a hippie, doing what Tracy could not do for 50 years.
Hi and Lois-Has Ditto been hanging out with the Keanes again?
@The Dimensional Otter: Those suggestions are also good for Mark Trail.
@Peanut Gallery: So – haven’t followed the MT reboot, but I hope those cabins still palaver. Some of the more erudite commentary…or should I sat cabintary….
MT – Yay! It’s the Right Fist ‘O
JusticeI Stole My Daddy’s Phallic Symbol And You Can’t Make Me Give It Back Neener Neener!JP – Don’t worry Soph, Guest Rooms and Home offices go in the barn now. They’ll be turning your room into a stable.
BG & SS: I’m torn here. I have freely insulted the appearances of certain human comic strip characters in the past, but now that so many of the animal characters turn out to be Sid’s clients, snarking on them feels mean. So this is not a snark, just an observation that I don’t understand how the Spark Plug family feet work. But it’s clear that Li’l Sparky can run faster than me on whatever kind of feet he’s got, and the foot observation isn’t amusing anyway, so never mind, and congrats, Li’l Sparky, on your starring role.
PV: So now I’m wondering, just idly, how bosom support worked back then.
LUANN: Here we go again. Shannon is supposed to be six years old. Unless Luann is more than six feet tall, Shannon should not look so short compared to Luann. If the Evansi are once again trying to persuade readers that Shannon is cute rather than an unbearable brat, mass brainwashing will be needed.
MT: Has Mark switched boats? I believe this is known as the “Cap’n Jack Sparrow Manuever.”
9CL: Aside from the awkwardness of the thought balloon emerging fartlike from Xiulan’s ass, my first thought was that men are concerned about duration, while women are free to just zoom up the scale.
Luann: Don’t tell me there’s a problem with….wait for it…the Fuse!
@Poteet: I figure it must have involved metal cones.
CRANKSHAFT: Arrrrrgh, the Bean’s End Catalog week. May he not order another coyote this year.
MW: Saul, you bonehead, you are the only person who can’t hazard a good guess as to why Eve was crying. Even your dog could do better.
9CL: Alas, the respite panel-border strips have ended and we’re back to Perpetual Boink.
@Zla’od: Bwahaha!