More like “Hi fashion”, amiright
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Hi and Lois, 3/2/23
I don’t know, man, I don’t think anyone elaborately folds up a handkerchief into a pocket square, its daring bright red color chosen specifically to match their tie and the buttons on their suit jacket, because they mostly plan to blow their nose into it. It’s OK to admit that you want to feel snazzy once in a while at your office job, Hi! You look good and your kids should admit it!
Rex Morgan M.D., 3/2/23
Oh, are you tired of all the gross romance stuff in the current plot where Truck woos a diner owner? Well, good news: the strip’s other diner owner just walked into the diner, and hopefully we’re going to get some diner shop talk. What’s the best chicken friend steak recipe? What do people typically pay a line cook around here? You got a good menu laminator guy? Boy, I’m getting excited already!
Judge Parker, 3/2/23
Just to be absolutely clear: Judge Parker is not a strip where you see anything interesting happen. Judge Parker is a strip where you don’t see the interesting things happen, but you do see people emotionally processing those things, very loudly, forever.
193 replies to “More like “Hi fashion”, amiright”
JP:
“You killed my husband!”
****
“That’s nothing! — they killed this strip a long time ago!”
RM:
Topcoat — top that
But I don’t worry ’cause I’m small, at tha-at
Slacks frayed; trite schlub
Lookin’ snarked; lookin’ for gru-ub
They go runnin’ just as sassed as they can
‘Cause every girl’s crazy ’bout an artless man
Slylock Fox: Someone throwing out a perfectly good rasher of bacon is less realistic than the trainwreck storyline in Judge Parker.
JP: Sam: “It’s…it’s Gloria…shes’s -”
Gloria: “YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!!!”
Sam: “-angry.”
MW: Dr Ed: “I’ll make it up go you. Have you ever had rabbit? I might have 2 come available later….”
GT: The #2 Dad stakes announces his intentions to claim the top spot
Rex Morgan, M(ore) D(iners)
Hi and Lois-“What’s in your pocket, Dad?” A magic ring that turns Hi invisible so he can sneak out of the house.
JP-“It’s Gloria. She’s” Comes around midnight?
RMMD-“Closet thing to a time machine in town.” And it’s bigger on the inside.
FC-Soon they shall be back and overthrow Dolly’s reign and establish a Communist style government where Jeffy has all the power and reigns like a king in all but name.
MW-“Thanks, Stell.” “My name is ESTELLE!”
Crankshaft : “…wait, who’s Lillian?” “Just write whatever.”
*******
Hi & Lois : believing that the hankerchief you put in your breast pocket is something you can just grab and pump full of snot is more of a Thirsty thing, isn’t it? I guess the joke only works if a kid asks about it, and
revealing Chip, Ditto, Dot and Trixie are actually biologically hisintroducing a new kid character is a little much for this strip?*******
Judge Parker : who is Gloria yelling at? Judge Methhead, for being a criminal mastermind [citation needed], or Inspector Yelich, for his brilliant plan of “I’ll prevent the corrupt cops from SWATting your husband’s hospital room by calling the cops to deploy a SWAT team to his hospital room!” ?
********
Luann : whatever message Piro wants Luann to give to Bernice, it’s apparently obvious enough she forgot to properly deliver it the first time around that NOW Piro is giving it to Luann in writing. Will Luann go full Lillian McKenzie and NOT give the letter to Bernice?
Wary Morth:
Somewhere between yesterday’s strip and today’s, the Irish Wolfhound:
“Woof! DrEdHarding, that’s not how you hold a mobile phone! Let me show you! Woof!”
“You got a good menu laminator guy?” Laughed out loud.
MW: Mary, crouching at her awesome array of spying paraphernalia, alerts Wilbur that Estelle’s evening has just opened up.
@Liam:
Re mw:
Yes, at what point does Eshtelle finally snap at all these people in a conspiracy to mangle her name?
Judge Parker: Wait, Gloria is what, exactly? Just because Judge Parker is a strip that specializes in nothing ever happening doesn’t mean I’m going to just sit idly by and let Sam not finish a sentence!
What is it with comic strip office workers and single buttons? At least Hi’s isn’t comically enormous, like Dagwood’s.
JP: Good. Gloria and Abbey can now have a hysterical screaming contest.
Oh, look, Tom Batiuk has found an excuse to introduce the Atomik Komix “bullpen” into Crankshaft. I give it a month before CS is nothing but comic books and Dead Lisa.
Judge Parker:
“You killed my husband!”
“Well, he was talking constantly about how he wanted to meet Grandpa Ezra, so I figured I’d do him a favor!”
****
Add the stalwart Steve to the ever-growing list of people whom the current authorship has depicted as murdered.
It’s truly offensive.
I’m waiting for the Rex Morgan, M.D./Zippy the Pinhead crossover event.
@Banana Jr. 6000:
Oh no, it’s metastasized!!
JP: What exactly was Gloria doing out in the front yard that has Sam stammering and hesitant in P1? The second scene shows she wasn’t rending her clothes like you might expect after losing a loved one. More’n likely she was wildly wielding a battle-ax which is just below panel in P2.
FC: “Get your royal rankings straight, doofus. I’m an oaf!”
I’m wondering if Hi completely ignoring Dot and literally directing the answer to her question toward her brother, without so much as an acknowledgement that she said anything or exists, is intended as cautionary example training in case they ever go to a car dealership together.
H&L: Hi’s lifelong mispronunciation of the word handkerchief as hand-kerchief finally pays off with the lamest kids-say-the-darnest-things joke ever.
H&L: My favourite part of this strip is that uncharacteristic grin on Hi’s face. Do you think he had a passion for fashion before he had kids, or that he just really into blowing his nose?
RMMD: “Yeah, this is certainly different than Mom’s place: she doesn’t have a deep fryer, or a jukebox or a wait staff — just a kitchenette in small apartment! Sorry, I don’t get out much, so i don’t have many points of reference.”
JP: “It’s Gloria, she’s…always on the run now! Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow. I think you’ve got to slow down before you start to blow it…”
Over in Mary’s apartment, Mary and Wilbur high-five.
RMMD: I’m thinking more of a “This diner’s not big enough for the two us” situation.
“This Salisbury steak ain’t fit for a dog!”
“Fine! I’ll open up a can of Alpo for you right now, Princess!”
RMMD When you can’t get the American rights to Midnight Diner, but you remember that you are, somehow, the writer of a strip about a doctor.
H&L – So, why do they call it a jizz rag, then….
RMMD – Yes…time machine. Of course, we’re still older than the dust of the Sahara….
JP – This is an advert for Thorazine or Lithium or something, right?
Adios Amigos, DJ.
JP: Gloria, not having heard any of mute-boy’s story, comes in thinking he’s the killer and pumps two slugs into his chest killing him instantly. The Judge smiles and says; “There goes your only witness, heh, heh.”
JP – Gloria could use some tips from Inigo Montoya on how to properly introduce yourself.
Hi: See if you can spot the six differences in today’s “Hilock’s Frock”! (hint: speech bubbles, pointing finger, bricks, just laziness really, wow)
JP: Oh, look. Gloria’s arrived with ribbons and bows to finally tie up this plot line with a revenge killing. I mean, we can’t have any P-S-Ds involved with murder.
*pause* They are wrapping things up, right?
H&L: Hi is wearing a handkerchief to work because he has COVID. Or given that it’s red, perhaps tuberculosis.
Crankshaft: If he’s a halfway decent comic book writer, based on what Lillian did to her sister, he’ll turn this bio into a super-villain origin story.
JP: The Judge asks Sam for a pen and piece of paper which Sam gives him. Yelich screams; “NO!!” but it’s too late. He’s written himself a writ of Habeas Corpus and they have to let him go.
How is it that the Loiskids grew up to the age of, what, 5? 6? without knowing what a handkerchief is?
@Little Guy:
*pause* They are wrapping things up, right?
Why, do you feel that this plot that’s been going for nearly HALF A YEAR now is slow-paced</i<?
@Tom T.:
Isn’t carrying a prominently displayed red hankie a signal that you’re a gigolo?
RMMD: Now Junior Hank is going to have to listen to Yvonne nitpick every last thing in the joint. “Oh look at this, Hank, round salt shakers! We always used the octagonal ones. Hmmph!”
GT: “That’s Gil #&@*%$ Thorp to you, bub.”
CS: I thought she was married to that douchey guy with the lame chin whiskers, but I guess that’s some other blonde. This one has even worse taste in men.
JP: And now we wait several days to find out exactly who she’s screaming at.
@Little Guy: You killed my husband, that much I know; And I’ll be there in buttons and bows….
JP:
“It’s…it’s Gloria. She’s—she’s selling Girl Scout cookies!”
“It’s…it’s Gloria. She’s—my God, she’s MAGNIFICENT when she’s angry!”
“It’s…it’s Gloria. She’s—my God, she’s not wearing any pants…!”
“It’s…it’s Gloria. She’s—she’s tracked dog shit into my house!”
“It’s…it’s Gloria. She’s—AVAILABLE!”
RMMD: “Certainly a lot different from Mom’s place. Very interesting location, yep. Completely thrilled to see it. Totally not sick to death of diners after working in one for decades. Absolutely didn’t tell you exactly that when you proposed to me. Definitely not regretting marrying you right now. No sirree.”
CS: This bio
graphyarc has been a hell of a fuss over a 3-5 sentence blurb. But since Lillian Mackenzie,writerauthor of severalnovelsbooks, isn’t up to the task, surely a stranger who knows nothing about her will handle her personal background explanation easily.DT: “I had never seen any expression on Wolfe’s face like the one he wore as he read that telegram. It was like a look of mild surprise, only blanker, kinda. Well, it was sort of weird to me somehow. Maybe you had to be there. Fritz and I stared open-mouthed, waiting to hear what the message said. Well, to be honest I wasn’t open-mouthed so much as slightly parting my lips, and Fritz’s mouth was actually shut completely tight. Not sure why I just said that, really. I’m pretty bad at describing facial expressions, it turns out.”
Luann: If anyone has an explanation for why Bernice has all these male admirers that are obsessively enthralled with her, I’m all ears.
9CL: …I’m really starting to worry about Brooke McEldowney’s health.
MW: Note to Stell: Not wearing a bra is a start but most people nowadays put their phones on speaker when having a conversation rather than holding it to their ear. It makes photo-sexting a lot easier.
@Inspector Gotcha:
On Crankshaft and the Funkyverse blondes :
This is Mindy Murdoch. Crankshaft’s granddaughter. She’s engaged to Mopey Pete, comic book writer.
You were thinking of Hannah. She’s engaged (married?) to Max Murdoch, Mindy’s brother. They own the Valentine again, unless they’re still working at the TV studio, it’s not clear.
There’s also Jessica Darling, Daughter of John Darling, her father who was murdered. She’s with Darrin Fairgood, comic book artist, and also St. Lisa’s son born out of wedlock.
Finally, there’s Cindy Summers, who dates movie star Mason Jarre. She’s supposed to be 68 years old but is consistently drawn to look 10-15 years younger than Mason, who’s supposed to be in his thirties but is always drawn as a melty Julius Caesar (who was in his 50s).
…Are there any other blonde female Funkyverse characters who are drawn to look the exact same I missed?@Charterstoned:
“It’s…it’s Gloria. In excelsis Deo !”
MW: “…the ANIMALS and your WORK take precedence. I understand.”
This sounds like a line that would be directed to Sid, Agent to the Animal Sta—hey! Am I crazy here? Is it just possible that Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars! IS Dr. Ed Harding, DVM…disguised to LOOK like a vet? Animal Hospital is just a front for his supply chain—that explains the one-eyed cat! And all those dogs in the waiting room right now. Dogs are good!
@Anonymous: Well, the literal twins looked a fair bit like that when they were seventeen, but I assume they’re back to being seven?
JP – “You sunk my battleship!”
“You got chocolate in my peanut butter!”
@Anonymous:
Thanks, Anon! I’m going to bookmark this for the next time a rando blonde shows up unannounced — preferably yelling “YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!!!”
Hi should demand bigger panels in his strip. Having to hunch like that is really hurting his posture.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Planning to do some riding, sir?”
“I’m not sure”
“Do you want to be my horse?”
“Those weirdos do this every time he comes in!”
MW: “Sorry I stood you up again, Stell. I’ll make it up to you!”
“(Play it cool, Estelle, no matter what. Remember, if this doesn’t work out, Mary will force you to take Wilbur back.) That’s fine, Ed. I look forward to it.”
“Great! I was thinking about bringing over some wine coolers and watching some boxing documentaries with you!”
“Certainly. Sounds great. Goodby-”
“Also, I’m bringing my mother to meet you. She accompanies me on all my dates after the first, so you two should get to know each other well! Though she’s a bit incontinent, so I expect you to help out with changing her diapers.”
“…Sure. It’s only fair.”
“I’m also going to bring Samantha.”
“O-okay then. I’d love to meet your… daughter?”
“Wife, actually. Well, one of them. Anyway, Sam tends to get jealous, so whenever she’s around you’re my Aunt Muriel, okay?”
“…Certainly. Pretending is… fun.”
“Also, would you mind running an errand for me? I need you to go to the strip mall and pick up my white robes. I tell you, it’s hard to find a dry cleaners’ in this town that isn’t run by filthy ni-”
“Just go take care of the damned dogs, Ed.”
50 jroggs
I’m dyin’ over here! Well done.
Hi and Lois: Back when I was an actual working pastor, I used to entertain the kids by explaining that before their adoption as liturgical kit, stoles were used to wipe hands and yes, blow noses. That was around 400 or 500 AD, so you know, about as relevant to the average kid as whenever Hi and Lois is set.
I was kind of expecting Josh to feature today’s Six Chix, but I suppose that even after spending yesterday researching bird cloacae, there were some things that are just too gross for him to handle.
Judge Parker: “You killed my husband!” is the new “Merry Christmas!” and I am here for it.
Luann morphing into Loathsome Lil might be one of the better story lines the Evansii have come up with.
Rex Morgan, M.D.: There’s Zippy the Pinhead at the counter, randomly quipping “My life is a blur of roots country and romance among older adults!”
H&L: Elaborately folded pocket square? No, it just dried really stiff.
JUDGE PARKER: Ok, thank you, that’s it! Josh no longer needs to cover this comic because he has succinctly and correctly summed up every Marciuliano Judge Parker strip in perpetuity. Nothing more to see here, folks!
Hi and Lois – Handkerchief? More like a swankerchief!
Rex Morgan, M.D. – Having failed time and time again to get a network procedural medical show or medical soap opera, the creators of Rex Morgan are hoping to impress Food Network into produce a reality show about feuding diners.
Judge Parker – Judge Parker is one of those strips I struggle to follow due to lack of interest (as does anyone under 60), which is too bad, because this image is could definitely be turned into a meme
SHOE did a funnier “matching tie and handkerchief” joke, where Cosmo’s handkerchief turned out to be the end of his tie!
Oh for Pete’s sake:
“Mystery writer Lillian McKenzie, author of Murder in the Bookstore and Murder in the Library, also owns and operates The Village Booksmith in Centerville, Ohio. She is a loathsome hag who ruined the life of her sweet sister Lucy, now deceased. She enjoys the company of cats.”
Now can we move on?
JP: Who is Gloria bursting into the house to accuse of killing Steve? Is she blaming Yelich? Abbey? Neddy? Us, the readers? It couldn’t be Judge Duncan, since she has no way of knowing or reason to believe he would be at Abbey’s house or that he put the hit on Steve.
Oh, let’s not kid. Of course Gloria’s accusing Judge Duncan, and of course she knows he did it, and of course she knows he’s here at Spencer Farms, because she just does and that’s that. It’s the storytelling equivalent of a fait accompli, just roll with it. Besides, we have to get to the part that’s really important: DRAMA! Who needs cause-and-effect or narrative integrity when we can just have characters scream at each other constantly?
The comments here made me finally look at Luann again. Sigh… absolutely no one in their twenties would hand somebody an envelope to deliver a message to a mutual acquaintance instead of asking for the acquaintance’s number to send a text. This is solely to create the “tension” of Luann wanting to look at Bernice’s mail, isn’t it?
RMMD — It might well be a time machiine, considering that the woman (yes, she probably has a name) has dropped about ten years between panels.
H&L — Hi makes a mental note to watch the Teaching Your Kids About Euphemisms video that Lois has been slipping into his Facebook page for months now. . .
H&L: Hi: Oh, this, it’s a fashion accessory called a pocket square, it was popular during the golden age of Hollywood right through the 60s, and now has had a resurgence thanks in part to Mad Men…”
Kid Who I Simply Don’t Care Enough About to Know Their Name: Dammit Dad, just say ‘handkerchief’ so that we can deliver this awful punchline and the creators can go play golf.
Judge Parker: Sounds about right from what snippets i’ve seen. I will say Gloria here getting ready to murder an old man is at least better than week 80 of “Well here’s why my dad did terrible things”.
Mary Worth: I’m torn on the more sex positive turn Mary Worth has taken over the years. On one hand, it’s nice the strip no longer avoids the topic of sex like it’s still 1930, but on the other I REALLY don’t want to think about Dr. Jeff doing things to Estelle. I’m HAPPY they are, i’m not convinced wilbur weston knows what an orgasm is much less how to produce one, but I also don’t want to have that mental image or, for comparisons sake, the image of wilbur naked.. OH GOD IT BURNS IT BURNS.
Crankshaft: Speaking of “Oh God It’s Burns” I REALLY don’t want to think about the sex lives of Mopey Pete and Grandaughter of Crankshaft. I mean nothing seems wrong with them as a couple, I just saftely assumes no one wants to see Funky Verse characters get horny.
Dustin: Dustin’s Dad dosen’t seem to grasp that lending his son money is code for “I’m helping you out finacially because mayflies tend to outlast your job” not “You’ll get this back”.
Gil Thrope: YES YES YES. The Liftathon continues! And as feared it does weirdly include the students which.. no. Just no. But it does have Coach Martienez showing up just off panel just as Gil lifts, either to be the Jackass Guy to Gil’s Happy Gilmore, or to compete against him. My prediction is he’s come to do the first but Gil’s going to goad him into being the second, thus making his downward spiral get worse as his school yells at him.
Popeye and Olive: If you havent checked this one out and you have comics kingdom you should as it’s two solid stories from two great authors, with Millholand nicely tying together all the weird bits of continuity, from bringing back Olive’s brother’s wife as a goth, to having Popeye’s adopted dad Whaler Joe meet his aunt who tried to find him after he ran off and his mom who was strnaded on an island, while his obnoxious bio dad shows up to confront him. What i’m saying is this is gold.
REX MORGAN M.D.: Ha ha ha, nice try Terry Beatty! “Certainly a lot different than Mom’s Place. See, we’re not just doing the same storyline but with schlubbier characters! We’re not!“
Luann: And of course Bernice comes back into this. And the clouds opened up and god said “I hate you jake”. I REALLY hope it’s a goodbye letter or something and this isn’t opening up some weird love diamond between Piro, Luann, Bernice and Nil because I hate it already.
“My name is Gloria Sanchez. You killed my husband. Prepare to die.”
Rex Morgan, M.D.: You, a big-brained supergenius: I’m worried what the rise of ChatGPT and AI will do to our society
Me, an ordinary rando snarking on continuity comics: Nostalgia bots are colonizing our brains
@Charterstoned: re MW: heh heh heh Funny story – actually they *did* approach me to play the role of handsome, compassionate, musically-talented Dr. Ed. It woulda been a “natural” … they even wanted to cast my Intern as his hapless nephew!
But to accept a deal as a cast insider would have been ethically questionable, so we of course declined. We also have our many other accounts to consider, as we continue to serve their needs with our talented clients.
Like that Elephant we delivered to the Phantom set this morning! Isn’t she a beauty? And I have to deal every day with Melody Mare complaining about her lack of panel time there after being cast as Diana’s Horse. Well, she’s been down that trail before – she knew what she was gettin’ into.
Anyhoo, if you want to *imagine* me in the role of Dr. Ed – never let reality get in the way of your dreams…..
H&LAt least Hi didn’t call it his spankerchief.
JP: who is Gloria yelling at? Doesn’t seem to be Sam so Yellich, the judge, Abby or the void.
MW: day 2 of my boycott.
@Professor Well Actually:
Mary Worth: Oh, my God! That’s amazing!
HI & LOIS: Nice cover for the kids, Hi, but we all know this is just you misremembering how the “Hanky code” system from the 70’s and 80’s worked. (The children’s faces would be as red as thank handkerchief if they discovered what that color stood for. Hi, you little kinkster you!)
Snuffy – “Hey, wait a minnut… Thar’s no such a thing as Everything Donuts! These here are bagels!”
“Chicken friend steak”? That sounds like a really dark edition of “Pluggers”.
JP: “Oh, hi Karen. For a second there I thought you were Gloria.”
@pastordan:
Later I heard, they put buttons on coat sleeves to prevent men from wiping snot and food from their face. Fashion promotes hygiene.
Judge Parker: Sam’s wide-eyed head-bobble reaction really makes me miss Apartment 3-G.
Gil Thorp: It is awesome every time a villain enters a scene with a “Well, well, well.” The trope that never gets old.
RMMD: if Hank Jr wanted to to take his new wife out wouldn’t Jordan’s be a better choice? Besides we haven’t seen them in a while. Have they been written out?
@Inspector Gotcha:
Terry Beatty: “Conflict? In my story?! I won’t allow it! That may be how things play in your exotic, elite neck of the woods, but here, it’s milquetoast, banal, middle-aged pleasantries or nothing!”
CRANKSHAFT: Mopey Pete: “Unpaid labor? From someone I don’t even know? Why sure!”
GT: The real story in today’s Gil Thorp is not the rivalry between coach Thorp and Coach Martinez, but how turned on Rod’s lifting gets the ladies, or at least the one lady whose name I’m too lazy to try to figure out. I can’t speak for “seven days a week,” but she’s a certified freak today, anyway.
@Ukranazi Stepan: 90-100 years ago, wearing a Red necktie signified you were gay and looking.
At first I mistook the couple in Rex Morgan as a flash-forward to an aged Rex and June.
GT: “Well, we’ll, if it isn’t Gil Thorp.”
“So, Mike Tomlin, decided to stick around, eh!”
“Well, we’ll, if it isn’t Gil Thorp.”
“So, Mary Worth, here for the bake sale?”
“Well, we’ll, if it isn’t Gil Thorp.”
“So, Les Moore, here on your way to Crankshaft?”
“Well, we’ll, if it isn’t Gil Thorp.”
“So, Spanish Inquisition, what a surprise.”
JP – Tomorrow, the judge’s golden retriever barges in with a bandaged foot and yelps “You shot my paw!”
JP: Gloria is yelling at Lil Dunc. It has been him the whole time. You think he was a mute? Nope a criminal mastermind. He killed everyone, including the dogs.
Time to move on to the next story.
RMMD: Whenever this dining car appears in RMMD, I’m reminded of Mickey’s in St. Paul. (Mickey’s is still around, right?) I always had a sense that Mickey’s was kind of a relic, and that the dining car in RMMD was a shout-out to Rex’s core fanbase of nostalgiasts in the Twin Cities, but maybe it’s not as unique as I thought? How many dining car diners are out there?
DT: I’m unironically wondering where this Nero Wolfe storyline is going
LUANN: Old-Lady-Teacher-Whose-Name-I-Forgotten-And-Don’t-Care-About-Enough-To-Look-Up: “Today, we’ll learn how to create conflict! The key is to manufacture highly contrived situations with inscrutable character motivations where no one acts like a real human being. Make sure your characters are conveniently forgetting about the technological advances of the time and leaping to conclusions while inexplicably failing to providing any explanation for your actions!”
Terry Beatty: “You see? You SEE why I don’t put conflict or interest in my strips?! See how it just complicates things?!”
@Rita “I left my heart on Summit Avenue” Lake:
We had one on the west side of Cleveland called Tony’s. It was a great place for unpretentious locals, but eventually it became trendy and fashionable and the yuppies ruined it.
Hi And Lois: “What’s in your other pocket, dad?” “A gun to pop a cap in any fool who fucks with me. Also condoms for if me and your mom decide to get freaky while out on the town. Sorry but we don’t want more you brats.”
Rex Morgan: The writer of Rex Morgan must be, like, the most boring person on planet Earth if this is what constitutes their idea of interesting storytelling.
Judge Parker: Love the shocked face from Sam in panel two. “Someone killed your husband?!”
SHOE: When the boss in FALL AND RISE OF REGINALD PERRIN constantly reminded us that he “didn’t get where he is today without…” the “where” was owner and CEO of a medium-sized company. When Art Deco in DICK TRACY claimed the same thing, the “where” was owner of an art gallery and sort-of criminal mastermind. When the Perfessor
in SHOE uses the line, we remember that the “where” is being a fat bird who works with a typewriter on a big tree branch, is often outsmarted by his nephew, and is always shot down by women.
@Shrug: Shoe – At least he didn’t say “To make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs.”
FC – We all know who the village idiot is.
I’m amazed at all the elaborate toys that show up randomly in FC. This castle, the drum the other day, various other musical instruments… These toys appear once as part of a joke and then disappear, never to be seen again. Do they have a room full of abandoned toys?
MW – “I’ll make it up to you. Next time you bring Pierre and Libby in, they’ll get a free teeth cleaning.”
Rex Morgan – Beatty must have a new interest – old diners. I guess I’d rather read about diners than roots country or comic book artists.
@jroggs: “9CL: …I’m really starting to worry about Brooke McEldowney’s health.”
The plots used to fall apart because they were too ambitious for someone who doesn’t sketch things out in advance, and who is careless about details. They would meander on for a long time before they finally were ended by either killing off the Femme Fatale or with some absurdist Deux Ex Machina, like the trial of Fleurry Spocket for murdering Edda.
Now they are just sort of randomly ending in the middle without resolving anything. And this conceit that we can go back in time and have an assortment of nearly identical child versions of Amos and Edda that can be used to rewrite the tale of their perfect and eternal love means there is no continuity anymore. It has all collapsed down to The Amos Loves Edda Show. It’s also a good example of what happens when someone has no editor and doesn’t realize that, even if it is clear to him what just happened and how it wraps up the story perfectly, he has failed to communicate this to the reader.
And of course Pibgorn has been stuck in the same “dweeby tween and medieval Edda make out in a lake” loop since 2019. A lot has changed in the world since then, but still just two tweens making out in the damn lake. The latest installment is literally just sketches from a doodle pad, and it has been up since the day after Christmas. Maybe someone told The Master about “quiet quitting” and he thought it sounded like a crackling good idea?
9 CHICKWEED LANE: Amost was surprised to see Edda sitting on a swing in the playground “by herself.” Is this like the famous trope of women always heading off to the rest room in a group, only with less frequent real-world application, at least for adults? And since Amos is one of only three people in this flashback strip ever seen in Edda’s company, doesn’t he bear some of the responsibility for leaving her “by herself” — I mean, she might fall out of the swing and bruise her young-lady gams!
My diner story: On our first trip to London in 1994, we went to Fatboy’s Diner, which was mentioned in one of the travel guides we had. It was an old diner car and was decorated in retro style. The information on the menu said that the diner was brought from the US, and we were stunned to learn that it was originally a diner along the Susquehanna River on Front Street in Harrisburg, PA. I don’t know if I was ever in it then, but I remember it being there. We told the bored waitress that we remembered the original diner, but she didn’t care. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside, but we took one of the outside of the diner.
It was on Maiden Lane at the time, but I don’t know if it’s still around there or anywhere else.
@Shrug: Am I missing something, or did Edda (and newly-arrived Amos) age 15-20 years between yesterday and today?
@Hibbleton: #22
“H&L: Hi’s lifelong mispronunciation of the word handkerchief as hand-kerchief finally pays off with the lamest kids-say-the-darnest-things joke ever.”
And just in time, too, since apparently cloth handkerchiefs have become passe (with almost everyone using tissues?). I had a terrible time finding a store that actually carried them a few months ago when I was in the market for same.
Next time around for this joke the kid will ask “Why do they call it Kleenex if you don’t use it to clean off your Ex?”)
@Calvin’s Cardboard Box: Fleurry Spocket
Of the West German Television Spockets?
@Ukulele Ike: 9CL – “Am I missing something, or did Edda (and newly-arrived Amos) age 15-20 years between yesterday and today?”
I was about to mention that. This isn’t Squished Edda with the prehensile tongue. This Edda is tall and skinny and looks to be the Teen Hottie Edda version. Which makes it even more difficult to guess what is going on. Inevitable in a strip where the characters age forwards and backwards between strips with only vague visual clues as to what happened and how old they are now.
@teenchy: Is this the time on spockets when we dance!?!
@Weaselboy: I laughed at that line too. I have no idea why, because I have no connection to the restaurant business, but for a while I was getting ads for this company that makes a sturdy, glossy stock specifically intended for restaurant menus, so that the owner, manager or chef can run out new menus any time on their office inkjet printer, changing items or prices whenever they need to. I was fascinated by the idea of it and wondered if it would catch on. That’s just the kind of wonk I am.
@Hibbleton: #33
“JP: The Judge asks Sam for a pen and piece of paper which Sam gives him. Yelich screams; “NO!!” but it’s too late. He’s written himself a writ of Habeas Corpus and they have to let him go.”
That’s reminiscent of the facepalm climax of Thomas Kyd’s THE SPANISH TRAGEDY:
HIERO. Indeed?
Thou mayst torment me as his wretched son
Hath done in murd’ring my Horatio;
But never shalt thou force me to reveal
The thing which I have vow’d inviolate.
And therefore, in despite of all thy threats,
Pleas’d with their deaths, and eas’d with their revenge,
First take my tongue, and afterwards my heart!
He bites out his tongue.
KING. O monstrous resolution of a wretch!
See, Viceroy, he hath bitten forth his tongue
Rather than reveal what we require’d.
CAS. Yet can he write.
KING. And if in this he satisfy us not,
We will devise th’ extremest kind of death
That ever was invented for a wretch.
Then he makes signs for a knife to mend his pen.
CAS. O, he would have a knife to mend his pen.
VICE. Here; and advise thee that thou write the troth,–
Look to my brother! save Hieronimo!
He with a knife stabs the DUKE and himself.
@Calvin’s Cardboard Box: You’re right — they only advanced to teenagerdom. Brooke toned down Amos’s scraggly teen hair so much I mistook him for post-highschool groomed Amos. And of course Edda is in her Catholic schoolgirl fetish clothes
@Calvin’s Cardboard Box: Only after we watch Germany’s Most Disturbing Home Videos!
CS: That’s why you’re my big lump of shh-hh-hh-ugar!
@Ukulele Ike: On the 27th, she is clearly much shorter than the nun. By the 2nd, they are the same height. Presumably, she has been meeting the nun at the swing for several years. Or, just hallucinating that the nun was there, as today’s strip may be trying to imply. Same difference, really. Note that we also have slightly cleaned up Amos today, and not hideous feral orphan Amos.
@Shrug: Nice! Now do The Duchess of Malfi.
CS: Will Mopey Pete keep it simple and say Lillian’s parents were gunned down in a dark alley, or will he go for it and say she was sent to Earth to escape her home planet’s exploding sun?
6Cx: Yeah, we sent those Ants over for today – they assured us there wouldn’t be any close-ups and no one would be recognizable. We just sent some newby Workers, no special talents were needed for these crowd extra scenes.
I haven’t heard lately from Emmet Pismire … assume she’s still free-lancing in The Business. I hope she didn’t show up for the casting call for this Chix episode – I’ve warned her about Thursdays over there. And she’s much too big a talent to be a dot in the crowd…
Mutt & Jeff: Mutt loves to get fresh with Mrs. Mutt. And she keeps it fresh, with organic, minimally processed chicken from the Chicken Farm!
“Ah, my love! So ample, but firm!”
@Shrug: Oh you Kyd!
Rex Morgan: There has been a literal dining car diner with a ’50s theme everywhere I have ever lived. I moved 3,000 miles, looked over my shoulder, and there was another one.
This is a very weird Bridge Too Far, but it’s mine and Rex & Company have crossed it. Good day.
@jroggs: #62
“JP: Who is Gloria bursting into the house to accuse of killing Steve? Is she blaming Yelich? Abbey? Neddy? Us, the readers?”
It should be Ted Forth, but Gloria absent-mindedly burst into the comic strip. Tomorrow she’ll apologize and burst out.
https://tinyurl.com/ycktvcan
@Calvin’s Cardboard Box: Maybe it’s for the best that Pibgorn is left as doodles, forgotten.
Archie: I’m not the least surprised. How many English teachers teach technobabble? And if Archie’s teacher is as stereotypical as most teachers in comics are, does he even understand technobabble?
Archie: This strip probably seems ultra-modern to most of its readership, but its age really is showing. How many teenagers today burn things to disk?
@Jacob Mattingly: #66
” I REALLY don’t want to think about Dr. Jeff doing things to Estelle. ”
Neither does Dr. Ed. Or Mary.
@Hibbleton: “MW: Note to Stell: Not wearing a bra is a start but most people nowadays put their phones on speaker when having a conversation rather than holding it to their ear. ”
You must have the superpower of seeing beyond the panel borders to be able to tell that Estelle isn’t wearing a bra in today’s strip.
@jroggs: “9CL: …I’m really starting to worry about Brooke McEldowney’s health.”
I’ve been worried about that for a long time, and I have a bit of a bad conscience for being so hard on him.
@Professor Well Actually: Me too. I’m assuming that has to be Fritz Brenner, Wolfe’s chef, acting as doorman, and serving the meal in yesterday’s strip. But I had always thought he would simply wear a chef’s toque and uniform all the time.
@gardenornament: The strip has to be over a decade old, could be two. But like you say, it doesn’t matter, because its unironic readers will take it as a dead accurate version of how kids today talk.
The Seattle Times is currently running an online survey for potential new strips for its print edition, due to the recent Dilbert unpleasantness. It may be just for us paying customers, but it could be fun.
For the record, I was a hard NO for 9CL. Sorry, but I’ve moved on.
Dustin: Is it just me, or have the characters actually become a bit nicer lately? Granted, Ed is a bit hard on Dustin today, but it’s at least justified, and Ed isn’t being a total asshole. Has the writer listened to us?
CS: You know Mindy, this bio job might be a little too much for me, a mere comic book writer. I know a guy over in Westview who’s an actual published author. Meanwhile, over in Westview Les Moore is thinking, “Why are my ears burning?”
FC – “Two can play that game,” thinks Jeffy, as he envisions Dolly’s head on a pike, Those cardboard walls won’t offer much protection against his and PJ’s raging horde.
6Cx: Ant cake – yuk.
@Shrug:
” ” I REALLY don’t want to think about Dr. Jeff doing things to Estelle. ”
Neither does Dr. Ed. Or Mary.”
Nor does Wilbur, but I’m sure he can’t stop thinking about it.
@Banana Jr. 6000:
” I give it a month before CS is nothing but comic books and Dead Lisa.”
I’m dreading the moment Les is introduced and takes over the comic.
@Uncle Lumpy:
“Mystery writer Lillian McKenzie, author of Murder in the Bookstore and Murder in the Library, also owns and operates The Village Booksmith in Centerville, Ohio. She is a loathsome hag who ruined the life of her sweet sister Lucy, now deceased. She enjoys the company of cats.”
That blurb may actually help her sales quite a lot. Who wouldn’t buy a book by an author presented as a loathsome hag?
Phantom – No, Dianna’s going to ride into the midst of the Bandar attack full gallop, then launch herself at Savarna screaming “I know this is all just a scheme of yours to fuck my husband! I read the Mozz prophecy, bitch!”
Family Circlejerk: Apprise me if I’m getting details incorrect. About everything I know about the French Revolution is from The Scarlet Pimp and/or from Marie Antoinette saying “Let them eat my pie,” but is this foreshadowing Dolly losing her head – maybe even her cankles – in the guillotine?
@Peanut Gallery: They did a Spanish version of “Are You Being Served”?
@Liam: #6
“ FC-Soon they shall be back and overthrow Dolly’s reign and establish a Communist style government where Jeffy has all the power and reigns like a king in all but name.”
I look forward to the kids re-enacting the last days of the Romanovs. Bil and Thel are the Czar and Czarina while PJ and Dolly represent the doomed children and Jeffy and Billy are the murderous Bolsheviks.
(And Sam, Barfy and Kitty Cat play the symbolic roles of the Capitalist Running Dogs and Fat Cats.)
That’s what they get from home schooling “Modern World History.”
@gardenornament: “9CL: …I’m really starting to worry about Brooke McEldowney’s health.”
I’ve been worried about that for a long time, and I have a bit of a bad conscience for being so hard on him.“
I’d have a worse conscience if there weren’t obvious and simple fixes to a lot of this. WRITE THE PLOT FIRST BEFORE YOU START PUBLISHING THE STRIPS. HAVE SOMEONE ELSE READ THE STORY AND SEE IF THEY CAN FOLLOW WHAT IS HAPPENING. BRING BACK OTHER CHARACTERS SO ITS NOT ALWAYS ALL ABOUT EDDA AND HOW MUCH AMOS WORSHIPS HER!
I don’t think it’s.the stroke from several years back as much as he is just convinced of his own genius and keeps doing the same things – thesaurus search-and-replace, multiple versions of the same character from different ages shuffled in and out without warning or explanation…
@Ned Ryerson: #17
I would honestly love to see that!!
@Merry Mirth: #24
Yes!! Their scheme to bribe random dog owners in Santa Royale to show up en masse at Dr Ed’s clinic that night worked beautifully!
@nscud: Somehow, Señora Slocombe talking about her “gata” just doesn’t produce the same belly laughs as the English-language version.
FC: When the revolution came, Dolly’s head was the first to roll. But those who had hoped for democracy were sorely disappointed, when a progression of melon-headed tyrants succeeded each other on the throne. When at last the bloodshed ended, only Thel, the queen mother, remained of the dynasty; she wisely refused the crown and finally gave the downtrodden masses their liberty.
@pastordan: #56
Perfect!!
@Liam:
She comes around every night around midnight. You’d think everyone would know her by now.
“What’s her name again?”
“Gloria! G-L-O-R-I-A, Gloria!”
JP – Tune in tomorrow, when Abbey screams at Gloria, “YOU MADE MY SOUFFLE FALL!”
Heath: It’s … a multi-panel Heathcliff? On a weekday? I’m intrigued that this is the point where Gallagher thought “Hmm, if I distill this down to one panel, maybe it won’t be obvious what’s going on and it’ll just look like baffling surrealism.”
JP: Hey, remember when Gloria went to the hospital because it had finally dawned on her that if you couldn’t trust the cops, maybe having them guarding Steve wasn’t a great idea? Well, since then, of course, we’ve learned that Steve didn’t have his sights on the crooked cops after all, but the crooked judge (who had already arranged for literally all the crooked cops to be shot by that point anyway), so obviously he’s the one who killed Steve. The only remaining question is whether there weren’t any cops guarding Steve after all, or whether they just watched it happen, because nobody told them to be on the lookout for Judge Duncan (except possibly Steve, who was quite vocal on the subject the last time we saw him, in contrast to the second-to-last time we saw him, when the idea clearly hadn’t occurred to him at all), and what’s the point in stopping someone after they’ve killed? That’s a real locking-the-stable-door situation. Anyway, it’s now clear that Judge Duncan was away doing that when Yelich picked up Li’l Dunk from where he was waiting for his familicidal father to come back, so who says this storyline makes no sense?
Pluggers: Huh. So I saw this strip on the Seattle Times site, and my first thought was “That was Monday’s strip! I know because Josh featured it on Monday!” I went back and confirmed this, and then I checked to see if there was a different strip on GoComics. And nope, it’s the “whistleblower” one. But there was a different strip on GoComics on Monday. And then I checked Monday’s coments, and this had already been noticed at the time, but I missed it. LOL.
S4th: Hmm … unexpected person at the door … scene in which the most interesting thing that happens is someone talking from off-panel … dragging out whatever the reveal is going to be for absolutely no reason … Has Ces got his scripts mixed up again?
@Dr. Larry Erhardt:
“The Seattle Times is currently running an online survey…”
The only paper in town just cannot add 9CL. They don’t give many choices and it is odd that two of them (Rhymes with Orange and Pickles) are already on their comics page. But anybody can vote at stnews/surveycomics. Stop 9CL!
Phantom: Oh, please – let us ride on at full gallop and make a grand entrance! I’ll even do a *Splitz* if you like! Anything besides cooling my hooves here for weeks in the holding camp.
Oh, I’ve got a nice, private trailer with all the amenities, but it’s just so freaking boring here. Hero and I exchange pleasantries, if necessary, but we’ve never really hit it off. He’s been here so long his trailer is covered in vines. And he has his own crowd who visit him to play cards and watch polo. As well as those young Fillies they slip into his trailer after dark.
And now they’re bringing in an Elephant – it looks like Eloise – to trample the grass where I like to forage! Maybe if I ask her nicely she’ll stay off my patch. I don’t want to have to call Sid about it – he’s so far up the butt of his precious Libby and Pierre that he never bothers to address any of my problems. He won’t even put forward my request to give my character a name! After all these years! All they’d have to do is let Diana call me “by name.” It’s not like I’m asking for a full backstory…
@MKay: MW: Trust me, Wilbur already knows. Who do you think secretly injured all those dogs, causing Ed to suddenly have to stay late taking care of them? Attacking pets is old hat for Wilbur, after all.
@Guillermo el chiclero:
CS: You know Mindy, this bio job might be a little too much for me, a mere comic book writer. I know a guy over in Westview who’s an actual published author. Meanwhile, over in Westview Les Moore is thinking, “Why are my ears burning?”
Ha haaa! Yes, this is what actually happened earlier in the day:
“Lillian, what about that nice author who lives over in Westview? He helped you once before, remember?”
“Oh Christ, not that asshole again. I’d rather have some loser comic book hack write it.”
“Ooo, I know just the guy!”
@Unca $crooge: RwO and Pickles are currently running as weekday comics; the survey could determine which one gets the plum Sunday spot. The Times used to run 9CL after they took over from the P-I, but apparently circumstances changed. (Brooke drove it into a ditch, politely speaking.)
@Unca $crooge: Shouldn’t weblinks have a .com somewhere? If you want us to vote you’ll need to provide an accurate link, because I really do want to stop 9CL.
@Drew Funk: Indeed. You just gotta love the classics
@Shrug: My bad. I got the names mixed up. Though now I have an even worse image. And let’s face it. .mary .. mary watches and if I have to live with that fact so do all of you.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: Ninety-nine percent of the time the melonheads look like their heads have been plopped backwards on their shoulders. It’s already happened.
Dennis the Menace: this is what happens when you start letting chatgpt write your captions.
Judge Parker: Quality of the comic (overall) aside, I love this!
This should be a meme, just insert it into any other hypothetical scene in a comic where someone is going to open a door.
(Classic) Garfield-
Jon: Well, my date is here, see you later Garfield (opens the door)
“YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!!!”
Hagar: Now that we secured the moat, let’s invade this castle! (opens the castle door)
“YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!!!”
Mary Worth-
Estelle: I can’t believe Dr. Ed cancelled on me, I’d better talk to Mary about this (opens Mary’s door)
“YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!!!”
Did the DICK TRACY team clear the use of Nero Wolfe et al with the Rex Stout estate? I assume they did so, but if so I seriously wonder if the estate has been reading the strip in the last forty or fifty years.
Wolfe lives in a world where killers kill for logical reasons (usually money), have “normal” names and physical appearances, and seem to all (if male) dress in suits and ties etc. rather than strange costumes. And when they are exposed, they are usually arrested and led off by Inspector Cramer, rather than being impaled, dropped headfirst into tall smokestacks, or being eaten by rats.
Even decades back, Wolfe’s world wouldn’t seem to be logically cross-canonical with, even, the two-way wrist radio, and that was before the madness started. Nowadays Tracy’s world includes a hidden Antarctic city of Moon people (who have fleshly zapping horns on their heads, are interfertile with earthfolk, and for some reason all speak English). The Space Coupes (the Nation That Controls Magnetism Controls the Universe!) and the one-person “flying umbrella stands” have been pretty much written out (Diet Smith suppressed the tech) but could be back at any moment. There’s a mad scientist named Yeti who has a giant spider. There was a small town in the middle of Lake NeoMichigan where the citizens were brainwashed into believing WWII was still going on. There’s a woman with an immportality potion for sale (though she’s dead now.) There’s even time viewers, for pity’s sake (again, we just know they’ll be back soon.)
But it gets worse. The regular cast of the defunct LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE are now semi-regulars, and this includes Mr. Am, who is hinted to be millions of years old and quite possibly G*d Himself (even though he now runs a hotel and was conned by his lookalike) and Punjab, who can “disappear” people and travel with them between dimensions or some such to get them away from captors. And in the old ANNIE strip, Annie encountered genuine ghosts more than once.
Still not enough? Thanks to guest stars, the world of Dick Tracy and NeoChicago is cross-canonical with scads of other comic strips, comic books, radio shows, pulp magazine heroes, etc.. Some of these, like HAROLD TEEN and LUM AND ABNER and MR. MAGOO are fairly harmless, and even THE GREEN HORNET can sort of logically fit into corners of the TracyVerse, and at least THE SPIRIT (a real witch, a sentient toy gun, a man who learns he can fly by thinking about it, Martians) mostly operates on the East Coast. And we were told during the “immortality potion” storyline that Doc Savage was “real” in the 1930s TracyVerse, so presumably all of his pulp adventures are canonical, including lots of lost races, superinventions (including dehydrated water) and the superscientifc civilization beneath the earth (“Murder Melody”) and (probably) literal demons from a literal Hell (“Up from Earth’s Center”). There are also hints about KandyKane Lane’s sisters Margo and Lois, said to each be involved with powerful/interesting men (presumably The Shadow and Superman, respectively).
Then there’s GASOLINE ALLEY, which (aside from a 125-year old protagonist) has the Old Comic Characters Home; a plethora of talking animals; and Santa Claus. I could go on, but D.D. Degg did it for us three years ago:
https://tinyurl.com/5fxj3jnr
(Yes, I know Rex Stout published at least one sf-ish novel, UNDER THE ANDES, back in 1914, but that was not connected to Nero Wolfe’s later world.)
I’ll now never be able to reread a Nero Wolfe story without reminding myself that while our lads are hanging around New York City solving mundane murders, over in NeoChicago their old colleague Tracy is having to deal with Moon people, time travel, underearth civilizations, talking animals, and Santa Claus.
MT: After a very long post-childhood break, I have read MT every single day ever since a good google fairy landed me on CC years ago. But I need to quit for a while, because just the prospect of following The Bros again is too much. If anything interesting happens that has to do with actual natural history, I’d appreciate knowing. Best of luck to all of you who will be staying the course.
Apparently the effort of drawing the handkerchief matching the buttons and the tie and all that was so much that they had to basically duplicate the panel with a few very small differences, and boy it seems like modern comics are a huge scam.
GA: Boog keeps morphing, as the days and months go by, from little boy to adolescent back to little boy up to near adult and back to adolescent again, over and over. It’s creepy as hell, but the rest of GA is so distractingly weird that the morphing is just part of the overall…yeah, I know, I’ve tried.
@Poteet: #161
It’s okay…we know the feeling. Sometimes you just have to bow to the absurd.
@Poteet: #159
Re MT: I had to take the off-ramp on that superhighway of silliness a long time ago…and haven’t looked back. :-)
JP: I read JP now largely because I want to understand the cogent jokes, analysis, anguish, outrage, and desperate laughter of the Mudges who are trying to make sense of a senseless Judgiverse. JP is now a tale told by an idi…never mind.
@Shrug:
It’s simply just non-canon?
Rex Stout died ages ago, so there is no longer any canonicity involved. Same with how current Sherlock Holmes, Winnie the Pooh or Wind in the Willows “continuations” are spotty at best and no-one would dare even consider them canon.
The Nero Wolfe books will live on, but they STILL died with him. As far as anything is concerned.
@Shrug: I realize that Thomas Kyd deserves credit, but I still informally award you the Poteet Daily JP Comment Award for 3/2/23. And the competition was very stiff.
@Calvin’s Cardboard Box: Edda is DEAD? I didn’t hear any bells…
@I speak Jive: There is an institution in Des Moines called the Salisbury House & Gardens. I visited once, and it’s the sort of house you might expect from a cosmetics magnate who was building in the Roaring Twenties and had three million dollars to spend. From Wiki: “The home was modeled after the King’s House in Salisbury, England. The historic home contains authentic 16th century English oak woodwork, English flintwork and rafters that date back to the time of Shakespeare.”
A diner seems like a small return:-).
JP: Ah well, RIP Steve, I guess. Hey, maybe Gloria can finish what Sophie started. How good is Det. Yelich at falsifying reports?
RMMD: Our best hope of dramatic development is if Mrs. Hank Jr.—a name I’d be able to provide if Rex Morgan fans followed Dick Tracy’s lead and created a wiki—decides that it’s unacceptable that this be Glenwood’s best diner, not while she’s in town. So yeah, a slim hope on a couple of levels.
@Bryan:
It works for me but maybe because I have cookies or something. Anyway, try this to stop 9CL: https://seattletimes.surveysparrow.com/s/Comics-22023-new-additions/tt-gf1ADQHnC4GXqR5cgJ4sNh?
@Dr. Larry Erhardt:
“The Times used to run 9CL…”
I remember that when they brought over five strips from the PI. 9CL was way different back then.
9CL: Maybe this Sister Steven was a ghost or a fetch or something. Or maybe she just did the sensible thing and got away from Edda ASAP.
GT: If you’ve been waiting for the part of the story where Luke Martinez does something stupid to antagonize Gil, your time has come and your loved ones are concerned for you.
Lockhorns: Yeah, yeah, ha-ha women drivers. What I want to know is what condition Leroy faked to get a scrip for the medical marijuana he’s obviously been indulging in?
Luann: You keep telling yourself that, Tara.
MW: How many dates does Ed have to cancel before Stell starts wishing she were still dating a guy who can bang out his ridiculous advice column in fifteen minutes, leaving the rest of his time for her? Realistically, it would have to be a lot. A lot a lot.
@Horace Broon: I have a feeling it’s going to take a while for the info to come out while Gloria is busy being unhelpfully loud and emotional. But it’s possible Steve died of his previous gunshot wounds, not a second attack. One might very fairly point out that he was completely fine when Gloria last talked to him; this is true, but you have to remember this is Marciuliano we’re talking about. If Lil Dunk can speak perfectly after a decade and a half of being completely mute, it’s a small feat for someone with a dozen bullet holes in his neck, chest, and shoulders to survive for another day and be fully alert and coherent with speaking impairments (apart from… from the… the usual ones) for a lengthy conversation right before taking a U-turn for the worse and dying anyway. Meh, whatever’s easiest to write in the moment.
Late thread snack. It’s not a Mid Century Menu Monstrosity, I promise!
@Shrug: ….have “normal” names….
One thing that bugged me reading Stout in the ‘70s was how incredibly WASPy everyone was. Sure, most of his supplicants were from the upper classes, but it was NYC, for god’s sake. You never meet a Wisniewski or a Torres or a Lombino. Black people appear in Too Many Cooks (1938) — the waiters and busboys at a fashionable resort, brought in as possible witnesses and for Rex to prove how liberal he was (by 1938 standards). One of the young men reappears in A Right to Die (1964), now a respected anthropologist, and Wolfe’s client during the Civil Rights era. There may have been an odd Schultz or O’Brian, but those guys had been around long enough to be considered real Americans (nearly).
@Poteet: #159 Re Mark Trail – I gave up on it completely several months ago. I gave Jules Rivera a chance, but I can’t stand the changes she made to Mark’s character, as well as the cartoony artwork and the hip attitude. I’m sorry I had to do it, because I started following the strip when I was in my teens, and I had a lot of affection and feelings of goodwill toward it. More power to you if you go back to it eventually.
@Poteet: #168 – That sounds amazing, although I’ve never understood importing pieces of European buildings to use in buildings here.
@Baja Gaijin: Ye gods, you’ve outdone yourself. That was hilarious and revolting at the same time. The first one – with the hot dogs and SPRINKLES?! WTF? And it was all downhill from there.
@Unca $crooge: Do you have a link to the survey? I’m having trouble finding it.
@Ukulele Ike: I dunno. Ace investigator Saul Panzer and Archie’s newspaper contact Lon Cohen were pretty clearly Jewish. I’d have to do some rereading to further specify, but the books gave me the impression of New York as a city of immigrants. Especially with the lead character himself having come from the Balkans.
Vintage comics:
Juliet Jones – The comments on Comics Kingdom include the previous day’s Sunday strip. These people are the most immature I’ve ever seen. Eve is behaving like a thirteen year old with PMS, and Earl is a petulant fourteen year old boy. I haven’t seen anything to disprove my belief that this was written by a girl who tells everyone she’s thirteen but is really twelve.
Vintage JP – Another link in the comments to the next day’s Sunday strip. The scheming villain, the Colonel, arrives by bus and calls Kevin collect to tell him to pick him up at the bus station.
The best thing about this is that Abbey hasn’t screamed at anyone.
JP: Ces better hurry.
The Dunham trial closed final arguments.
Rita Lake: Mickey’s Diner has been closed for the past two years due to COVID and construction issues.
They’ve had some GoFundMe fundraisers and said recently they plan to be open raised spring.
They also said that last year.
Bummer.
@UncleJeff: Re JP – The jury reached a verdict in the Murdaugh trial – it was announced just after 7:00 Eastern time.
GT: Gil can do his best Morty Seinfeld impression but he’s no match for Izzy Mandelbaum.
@Baja Gaijin: Good lord! I went through the entire disgusting list! That makes molded fish salads look appetizing. Is bleach safe for laptop screens?
@I speak Jive: #181: Good. Now maybe Ces can finally wrap up this trainwreck of a story and spring will come to Cavelton.
@Shrug:
Excellent.
@Baja Gaijin: #174
Dear Lord…it’s going to take a long time and a lot of therapy for me to get over what I just saw…
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Completely forgot about Lou Cohen. And I never realized Saul Panzer was Jewish.
“Heya Boss, I got da lead in “Guys and Dolls” ! Is dat for showin’ or for blowin’?”
For any Lil’ Abner fans in the house, DECADES is set to rerun a Dick Cavett interview with Al Capp next Thursday.
@Baja Gaijin: Gaaaah. Reminded me of decades-ago awful potluck food poisoning. Obviously I didn’t die, but I almost wished I could.
“Judge Parker is a strip where you don’t see the interesting things happen, but you do see people emotionally processing those things, very loudly, forever.”
So, basically, *any* soap opera …
H&L – Since it’s dripping with snot, shouldn’t it be called a snot rag….
Judge Parker has completely nailed the art of opening the door at the wrong moment in a sentence. “It’s… It’s Gloria. She’s [flings the door open wide] a total wreck. Gloria! Why, we were just talking about you!”