Mostly gripes
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Daddy Daze, 9/21/24
How it started.
Blondie, 9/21/24
How it’s going.
Archie, 9/21/24
Veronica tries a little too hard to sell Archie’s lame observation—not even a joke, really. Foreground Babe knows the score.
Luann, 9/21/24
What is it with this strip and basic repairs? We’ve seen Toni use a torque wrench to remove bolts (when the torque is zero you’ll know it’s off!) and a pipe wrench backwards until the fitting broke and flooded the laundry room. And now instead of splurging twelve bucks on a good flap valve, Bets here commits to a lifetime of jiggling the handle. Which is somehow a metaphor for her relationship with Gunther but I don’t wish to explore that any further thanks.
Gil Thorp, 9/21/24
Coach Kaz—man of action—has a go-getter’s literal-mindedness. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for Gil. Here, at this table, drinking wine with you! He invited me!”
Program note: Rod Whigham, Gil Thorp‘s artist since 2008, is retiring. He will be replaced on September 30 by Rachel Merrill, who looks to me like a good fit. Congratulations, Rod and Rachel!
9 Chickweed Lane, 9/21/24
Here we see that Edda’s self-image pretty much corresponds to Amos’s image of her, albeit with subtle enhancements. And Amos, “briefed” isn’t quite the right word; the one you’re looking for is “pantsed.”
Well, that’s all for me; Josh will be back tomorrow. This was a lot of fun—thanks, everybody! But as much enjoyment as I get subbing in for Josh, it’s also a lot of work. So I think I’ll go find myself a nice park bench and sit for a while.
—Uncle Lumpy
148 replies to “Mostly gripes”
DT: Uh oh, looks like someone is grounded! Hopefully Ro-Zan is finally about to do his sinister lab invasion or whatever it is he came here to do, because I’m running out of ways to describe how ridiculous all these characters are. Speaking of which, what happened to that public fearmongering campaign against Lunarians? Mysta and Ro-Zan went to the zoo with Discount Elon Musk the following day, and it was totally uneventful. A bit of writing advice, Mike Curtis – don’t start a race war subplot if you’re going to immediately forget about it.
CS: There aren’t enough synonyms for “stupid” in the English language to fully describe this. Just go buy yourself a little plaque and fix your goddamned building so your neighbors don’t have to live next to an eyesore and your customers don’t die walking up the stairs, you vile self-aggrandizing crone.
JP: “It’s like I’m some kind of extremely underdeveloped character in a bad story, existing only as a wall for more important characters to bounce their tennis balls against over and over without ever becoming a real person in my own right. And it scares me, because I don’t know how if I have what it takes to break the cycle and create my own identi-”
“Sorry, I was checking my phone. Did you say something about tennis? Oh my God, that reminds me, Sophie borrowed my racket and I never got it back! Can you believe her?”
MW: Finally we get to meet Pam, whom Estelle (canonically at least sixty) hasn’t spoken to in thirty years, and… heh. Heh heh. Heh heh hahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, man… Estelle, you dumbass, did you get into a decades-long feud in your thirties with a literal child?
Thanks and good job, Uncle Lumpy.
FC-So no escaping from the basement.
Luann-As it was predicted yesterday so it came pass Bets would fix the toilet.
MW-Estelle makes the ‘drinky drink’ motion when she mentions Ed.
GT — Can you ever really leave Milford?
Thanks, Uncle Lumpy!
Archie: I would say that Veronica is overly acting but the quaaludes have kicked in so everything is a riot.
Blondie and DD: The irony is not lost.
MW: Pam looks like she’s both half Estelle’s age and ready to stab her with a butter knife. I think I’m in love.
By the way, Lumpy, you’ve done a great job stepping in and it’s always a fun time with you.
@jroggs: Earlier I would have said Estelle wouldn’t be that petty but with how she’s successfully managed to be as unsympathetic as her fellow Charterstone residents, I can believe she’s as much of a child hating, adult spoiled brat as the rest of them.
9cl – So Edda’s fantasy self has a chin! Who knew?
Luann – Shaking my head at the bad writing. Les correctly diagnosed the toilet problem, and then became convinced by the internet that he had to replace the toilet? That only works as some kind of political metaphor.
As for Bets spending her life jiggling? Well. She isn’t built for it. That’s more a Tiffany or Toni thing really.
But Les is back in his room with his cat. We must imagine Les content, because he is.
Crankshaft : …You have no idea who did this and why. Come to mention it, your NEIGHBORS have no idea who did this and why, and have EVERY reason to think YOU did this yourself, as a publicity stunt!
***********
Dustin : nothing illustrates the relationship between Dustin and DustinDad better than the fact that when DustinDad was up the ladder, Dustin held the ladder for him, while when Dustin is up the ladder, DustinDad is standing as far away from the ladder as possible with his arms folded.
************
Gil Thorp : It’s so weird to see Coach Kaz being refered to as “Bob”, because you’d think “Kaz” would be the diminutive of his FIRST name (“Casimir”?), but apparently it’s for his LAST (“Kazarian”?)
************
Luann :
*Everyone who saw “Bets immediately fixes the toilet’s problem” coming knows exactly how dumb this comic is
*Everyone who’s still confused about the whole “But everything Les did in reaction to the toilet’s problem is how you’d fix clogging, not ‘toilet bowl is empty, but toilet is still flushing’ ” is WILDLY underestimating how dumb this comic is
@richardf8: “we must imagine Les content”
The struggle to stop the toilet from running is enough.
And that moment when he reaches out and juggles the handle is one that fixes toilets and lifts lids. The toilet, no longer running, is now a matter of human frailty. The toilet is not too much.
“There is no worse punishment than worthless, hopeless labor.”
“Well, maybe having to read Luann every day.”
— Albert Camus
Thanks Uncle Lumpy for filling in, you did a great job! :3
Also, I know a lot of people really REALLY hate Luann, personally it doesn’t get covered enough on here for me to make an opinion, but that last panel really gave me a “Daaaaawww” moment, and I don’t regret it.
Archie: Foreground Babe looks like she wandered over from Gil Thorp. Thus the cynicism.
Luann – Well, there’s your problem. What you got there is a left-handed toilet.
So long lumpy. You will not be missed.
GT – “Why did you leave Milford, Bob?”
“Well, I moved to the town where Bubba Joe Tilwells lives. Thus raising the average IQ in both places.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“As long as you have Mimosa you don’t need your limousine!”
“Because I’ll be in bed for a week!”
MW: I don’t follow people here claiming Pam looks younger than Eshtelle. To me they look practically the same, only Pam has what I’m convinced is a dye job.
Luann: Les cuddles a kitten and can’t fix a toilet. Wasn’t that just a THRILLING week of strips, folks??!! Sure gives ‘Truck sits on a bench with Parker’ over in RMMD a run for its money!
Luann: Unlike Gunther, Les got the pussy tonight.
Thanks for filling in, Uncle Lumpy!
Luann: There go those Evanses being masters of misdirection. Everyone knew Bets was going to fix the toilet, and that’s what happened!
GT: “Well, I didn’t want to leave.” {Meaningful glance in Gil’s direction}
9CL: “Debriefed” would have also been acceptable, for certain limits of acceptability.
Frazz: Oh, Caulfield will get 1 percent better each day at making Mrs. Olsen’s life hell, don’t worry.
FW: I’m going to hit my head against a wall a few times. Maybe a concussion will help me make sense of this strip. I don’t like to pull out the term “clodhoppingly stupid” very often, but this is clodhoppingly stupid.
MW: I’m surprised Pam didn’t estrange herself from Stelle again after she was forced to list to Stelle gush effusively on the phone.
Zits: Jeremy upped the stakes on Alexander and Angus.
FC: Your best bet is to lure Jeffy into the closet and lock him in there. It shouldn’t be too difficult to pull that off.
I can’t believe the GT artist has been doing it since 2008, and I still haven’t gotten used to it.
CS: Levon wears his war wound like a crown . . .
The art in Gil Thorp can be questionable at times, but if Gil is actually about to ram that wine glass into Kaz’s face, well then, kudos.
Frazz: Yeager flew dangerous missions during WWII and later as a test pilot, while you two spend every minute engaging in mutual mental masturbation. But yeah, basically the same thing, so let’s go with that.
MW: Formerly estranged cousin Pam can’t wait to give Ed an extremely inappropriate welcome-to-the-family lip lock, boob smoosh, and pelvic grind.
CS: During this entire episode, I don’t believe Crankshaft has said a single word, so we can all be grateful for that.
Luann – Was I the only one – when this gripping toilet story started – who thought Les had clogged it with a thunder turd?
And I agree with all who say there can’t be enough synonyms for stupid for both this and Crankshat.
MW – Just as long as Pam bangs Ed, I’ll be satisfied with the outcome on this one.
Pluggers: Another attempted crossover with Pickles, where they try to make feminine facial hair “funny.” Trust me, it’s not working for either comic.
@Cleveland Mocks: (on CS) Well, we wouldn’t want to ruin the gravitas by having Crankshaft utter a malapropism unfit for the seriousness of this story.
Does Estelle think that Ed being late due to an emergency will have everyone get upset because he’s not there or that she’s going to be ridiculed for something that she has no control over? At best they’ll be understanding about the situation and at worst there’s probably only one or two people who’ll grumble about the wait for maybe a minute. Either Estelle is ridiculously paranoid or she thinks that everyone else is as shallow and self centered as she is.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: That’s what the Evanses wanted you to think. Masters of misdirection!
Archie: Really like how out-of-place Foreground Babe looks. I’m 100% sure that the artist forgot to draw her in and had to cut and paste her into the strip hastily before the deadline.
Luann: I genuinely can’t believe I’m saying even the slightest positive thing about Luann, but this – devoid of all context – is pretty cute and wholesome. ACTUALLY wholesome, not the weird fakey neo-puritan facsimile of wholesomeness that Luann usually does.
Gil Thorp: Here’s hoping that Rachel keeps drawing the characters with soulless black pits for eyes!
H&L: that bartender gives bad head.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: I love your optimism, Scratchy. Ed should definitely dump Estelle, keep her much more endearing pets, and hook up with Pam. Estelle can get her shallow adoration from Wilbur if she wants a nebbish little gnome to constantly spend time with her.
RMMD: At the Morgan Clinic, Rex is puzzled as to the nature and cause of Truck’s condition. “Well, I’m at a loss here, Truck, so there’s only one thing to do: amputate [WHACK!] Sorry to spring that on you like that, but the less time you had to think about it, the better for both of us. Now let’s see if we can get that bleeding stopped. . . . HEY JUNE, DO WE HAVE AN BAND-AIDS AROUND HERE?”
Uncle Lumpy, you have been fantastic lo these two weeks! Take a well-deserved brain wash.
Crank: “Customers can stand in this bucket, and I’ll haul them upstairs with this rope.” Monday: NEXT ADVENTURE!
DT: ”The Zoo was nice. Did you know these people are descended from apes, not caterpillars like us?”
JP: Taste the pancakes TASTE THE PANCAKES
Thank you for a great fill-in stint, Uncle Lumpy! I always look forward to these Uncle Lumpy Reads The Comics So That You Don’t Have To intermissions, especially since one of those comics is “Luann”, which I definitely don’t want to have to read.
As a 60 year old long-time unemployed man who’s currently “borrowing” $1500 a month from my dad for rent/bills, I feel seen in Daddy Daze, and I don’t like it.
But thanks to Uncle Lumpy for the fill=in!
CS: NO RETREAT! NO SURRENDER! NO WHEELCHAIR RAMPS!
@Needless Exposition: Hey, why not both?
MW – Groucho Marx: That’s it! You said the secret word, “effusively,” and the duck has flown down to give you $100!”
Crank again: “It will be like the bullet holes in the walls at Pere Lachaise where the French Army executed the Communards. Ni Dieu, ni maitre. Banzai!”
Thanks for a fun three weeks, Uncle Lumpy. We always relish your bringing in alternate strips and alternate humor.
@The Quiet Man: Both is good.
@Needless Exposition: As good as dogs are?
9CL: I stopped reading this strip regularly a couple months ago. It’s good to know I’ve missed absolutely nothing.
GT: So with a woman on the team, is there any hope of moving away from “Gil Thorp is the best, most important person in any situation” or is that still Barajas’ call?
Luann: Several women have pointed out that the insult “unmarried cat lady” tends to reflect more on the men who use it, because women have looked at them and decided that a small animal that claws up furniture and craps in a box is better company than he will ever be. I know Les doesn’t fit the “lady” part of this equation, but I think he’s come to the same conclusion regarding Luann’s Designated Heroes.
FC – Dolly’s dressed for a 1950s party. This should be fun, daddio.
Rex Morgan – We interrupt this gripping week long discussion about whether to make a doctor’s appointment for an intense discussion about why Truck doesn’t have his cell phone.
Rhymes With Orange – I don’t know if most people would recognize a drawing of an actual tarot card – maybe the one with the upside down hanged man. There has to be a better way than clumsily labeling a card “tarot.”
Crankshaft – It’s like Jackie Kennedy refusing to change her pink suit. “Let them see what they’ve done.” (Too soon?) Only it’s a loathsome hag putting her customers in danger. Yeah, you loathsome hag, let your customers tramp through gasoline and then hope that the steps don’t collapse when they walk on them.
There isn’t an eyeroll massive enough to reflect just how abominable this self-important story is. Dreck isn’t a strong enough word to describe it.
Thanks, Uncle Lumpy, for filling in. It was a fun two weeks, seeing strips we don’t usually see.
@Sequitur #Y131 – Thanks for that link to the information about “gussied up.” That was an interesting read. Estelle apparently didn’t know that it implies “lurid over trying.”
Uncle Lumpy,
Your comments and columns this fortnight have been insightful and funny. They also helped us check out neglected comics. Thanks a million for all the effort and thought you shared with us. We’re in your debt. And that of Turtle Carl
@I speak Jive: “There has to be a better way than clumsily labeling a card ‘tarot.’”
I can’t think of one offhand. If you chose a specific card from the Major Arcana, people familiar with Tarot would be thinking “What the hell does she mean by showing us The Heirophant?”
This is an idea that might occur to a competent cartoonist, who would then immediately toss it in the wastebasket. But hey, golf doesn’t play itself.
MW:. Due to the copywrite infringement suit, I checked out lyrics for both “When I Was Your Man” and “Flowers”. (When it comes to pop culture, I’m always fashionably late.)
Would it not be hilarious if after dinner tonight, Ed finally shows. When Karaoke Night begins, as it must per MW contract, Wilbur appears and sings the Bruno Mars hit. Ed feels a punch in the gut.
@I speak Jive: “Death” gets wheeled out as a trope for a tarot card, even though it doesn’t mean what popular culture says it means.
@The Rambling Otter:
#10. LUANN:. I’m guessing this is the first Les has ever felt needed or has had unconditional love. Ahhhhh indeed. :-)
@25 Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: You’re not the only one.
C’shaft: Good idea, Lillian, I’m sure there’s absolutely no structural damage from the fire, and the water used to put it out hasn’t seeped into the walls, spawning toxic black mold that will proliferate in the humid Ohio climate. Why don’t you just admit that living next door to Crankshaft makes fire insurance premiums prohibitively expensive?
DT: “I mean it, no more terrorist activities or I will seriously consider taking away your Space Coupe privileges!”
Dustin: “Your delight in simple pleasures is annoying and inexplicable to me. Learn to be a mindless drone who thinks of nothing but the hollow drudgery in front of him, like me.”
JP: Just spitballing here, but maybe you can start with “My crazy ex-roommate is dragging me on a road trip to meet the estranged parents of her fiance whom she contacted without his approval or knowledge is some half-assed attempt to fix his family drama”?
MT: So after all that, no mauling. *sigh*
MW: Heeeeey, Pam is just Estelle in a blonde wig! Are we sure this isn’t leading to one of those Tyler Durden situations?
Pluggers can’t pluck their own damn chin hairs like the rest of us, apparently.
Thanks as ever for keeping us entertained while Josh is away, Uncle Lumpy! You’re the best babysitter ever!
@Buck Ripsnort:
#38. BR:. Sorry to hear about your long-term unemployment. May I suggest lowering your expectations just to get something on your resume? Maybe temp or seasonal employment. I’m working seasonal concessions, which not only gets me out in the community but lifts my mood.
@I speak Jive: Thing is, that is a reasonably accurate rendition of the Wheel of Fortune–not as detailed, but enough of the basics that if you know the cards you can tell which one it is–which, considering the context of the joke, is pretty funny. Alas, Ms. Hilary has kind of painted herself into a corner: she cannot trust that the average comic strip reader will know tarot cards enough to recognize one on sight, and actually labeling it “Wheel of Fortune” would only confuse them further, most likely making them wonder what a long-running game show has to do with any of this. But she’s committed to this punchline, dammit, so she must convey it with a heavy hand.
@Ukulele Ike: @taig: I wondered if the cartoonist could draw an actual tarot card that an average person would recognize as a tarot card. It kills whatever joke there is to draw a plain card and label it tarot. Not to mention that it’s lazy cartooning.
I was interested in tarot when I was younger, so I know what the cards are and that their meanings are not what the name of the card implies.
She should have thought this through and then thrown it in the wastebasket.
@ectojazzmage: Rachel’s Gil Thorp models look a lot like Rivera’s Mark Trail. You can see her art, & a bio which assures she’ll follow in Whigham’s inside out basepaths, at her Xitter page – https://x.com/ohhhaeee
@TheDiva: You’re right – it didn’t register with me that the card does look like the Wheel of Fortune. That would be the most appropriate card for the joke, even if its actual meaning is not “you’re gonna be rich.” The average person would not know that, and I doubt that the average person would recognize Wheel of Fortune as a tarot card without the clumsy label.
“But she’s committed to this punchline, dammit, so she must convey it with a heavy hand.” Amen.
I love it when Uncle Lumpy takes the help! It’s nice to get a new comedic voice and some different strips. Thanks, Lumps! I can call you Lumps, right?
@Downpuppy: I love the urban hipsters at the top of that page. Bring ‘em to Milford, they can start eating all the pets.
When she says “New Yorker cartoonist,” does she mean she’s a cartoonist living in New York, or that she was actually paid cash money drawing for The New Yorker? Pretty sneaky with the resume padding there, Rache.
@taig: @TheDiva: @I speak Jive: Yeah, big pet peeve in the movies or teevee, when someone turns up the Death card and the soundtrack goes “bum bum….BUMMMM” and everyone starts murmuring “lost and doomed, lost and doomed.”
The freakin’ Death card means liberation and freedom to change and move forward. Right side up, anyway.
@Ukulele Ike: Back when I was reading Harry Potter (before JK Rowling went sixteen kinds of bat guano crazy), I was pleasantly surprised to see she foretold Dumbledore’s death with the Tower, a much more appropriate harbinger of tragedy. (It can also mean “collapse brought about by hubris,” which feels imminently appropriate for the author’s recent behavior.)
CS: Lillian wants to turn a simple crime scene into a shrine?
CS: “…but of course I’ll still file an insurance claim.”
Pluggers: Asking someone which hair on their chin is being troublesome seems reasonable when that someone is a dog.
Archie (@ectojazzmage): Maybe the syndicate forced the artist to do a quick fix because Veronica clutching her notebook to her chest in panel one created a critical boob shortage.
I suspect Uncle Lumpy is just Josh’s weird alter ego, because I never see them together. But okay, I’ll play along… Thanks for minding the store, “Uncle Lumpy.”
I’m hoping Merrill starts out close to the Whigham style to minimize transition shock and reader complaints, but develops or moves into her own over time. The work she posts on Xitter is really compelling; I’d love to see what she does in the smaller format, and how she handles sports action.
@Chance:
If you can take your Chances, I can take my Lumps.
@Uncle Lumpy: Thanks, Uncle Lumpy, for the welcome avuncular interlude!
@richardf8: Luann: If this comic continued as just Les sitting with his cat, that would be good.
@Uncle Lumpy: I certainly won’t begrudge Mr. Whigham his retirement, but I’ll miss his distinctive style.
Edit: Now that I look at Merrill’s art, I join you in looking forward to what she brings.
@69 Lord Flatulence: Seconded.
AC: Today in “what decade is this anyway?” the idea of a “Country Tours” bus, taking people from the industrial cities of the North to learn what trees look like, is a concept I strongly associate with the mid-20th century, before most people, even in the industrial North, at least knew someone who owned a car.
FC: So Adult Jeffy has just stopped even pretending this thing has jokes, huh? It’s just Dolly Keane Says Stuff from now on?
GT: Actually, we never did learn why Coach Kaz left Milford; like so much in the strip these days, it was just presented to us as a thing that happened. Today we learn he didn’t want to, and he owes it all to Gil, so I guess he was fired!
Luann: I only read this strip when it’s featured here, but based on comments from my fellow ‘mudges, I gather that the character who’s kind of depressed that he can’t be more help around the place, but comforted by how much he loves his cat is … the bad guy? Is that right?
Pluggers: You’re a Plugger if you’re inexplicably insulted when your spouse suggests you’re covered in fur.
S4th: A “fun” thing some people on the internet do is take a story in an ongoing media that featured hallucinations, waking dreams, and characters unable to even tell what reality was any more, and suggest that the characters never really escaped from that. Buffy really is in an asylum hallucinating that she’s a slayer; the Red Dwarf crew never left the Better Than Life machine; the Doctor is still in the Land of Fiction/the Gallifreyan Matrix/the Gallifreyan Matrix a second time, and so on. It’s not a way of thinking about stories I usually have much truck with. But by directly following “they’re back on the patio, but nope it’s a hallucination” with “they’re back in the car, but can’t recall how they got there”, there will now forever be a part of my mind that suspects the Forths are still trapped in that corn maze and always will be. Thanks, Ces!
@Flipper:
Hah!
@72 Horace Broon: on Sally Forth: The corn maze owner shot the Forths with some propofol, set ’em in the car, and let ’em loose.
@taig: I dunno, dogs are pretty damn good.
Nice. You bookended your show time with comics that Josh has declared verboten.
Rebel!
Archie: I’ve got to agree with several other commenters. The foreground babe is definitely not drawn in the decades old Archie style.
@Horace Broon: “The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away….” I’m sure Andy and Flo quickly downed the complimentary pints the purser passed out before the bus left Hartlepool, and they were spiked with 1500 mikes of the very best LSD. Wow, Nature. Goo goo g’joob.
@Uncle Lumpy: Yike, 15-year old photo of Unc in his salad days, barefoot and innocent with cheeks of tan, young and easy under the apple boughs about the lilting house and happy as the grass was green.
@Guillermo el chiclero: With her weird off-center mouth, Kirk Douglasesque chin dimple, and stylized hairdo, she looks like one of Picasso’s portraits of Dora Maar. Not a good look in an Archie comic.
GT: I know we were often critical but I’ll miss Rod Wigham. I prefer his illustrative style way more than the stiff wooden Indians and flat-topped Frankensteins of the previous artist.
CS: During the full run of this (hopefully concluded) story line, Ed Crankshaft appeared twice, said nothing, and interacted with nobody. My theory that he has quietly died at home — possibly killed, ironically, by a fire missed by the brigade in their haste to put out Lillian’s slight scorching — and now observes his neighbors as a restless spirit will remain in effect until this strip shows his body, dead or otherwise.
9CL: Today is a reminder (I used to follow 9CL) that I don’t know what Edda is, but it’s something beyond “narcissist.”
@Uncle Lumpy: Thank you for your guest hosting, Uncle Lumpy! You are like the fabled swan, serenely sailing on the surface while paddling like hell underneath. Enjoy your bench rest! CC held you green and toiling, while you sang in your chains like the sea.
@Ukulele Ike: Back when that gothic TV soap opera Dark Shadows was popular half the girls in my junior high and high school class were buying tarot card sets and playing junior fortuneteller in the school cafeteria.
@Buck Ripsnort: #38: I don’t know what state you live in but practically every school district in America are screaming for school bus drivers. If you can pass an FBI background check and have no recent serious driving violations (like DWI or DUI) you’re in. There’s also an annual DOT mandated physical but don’t worry. Even Ed Crankshaft can pass it. As for being 60, again no problem. My terminal has lots of drivers in their 70s. We even had one in her 80s but she finally had to retire due to the onset of dementia (she was getting lost on her routes). They even pay you while you train and the end result is you’ll end up with a Class B commercial license with passenger and school bus endorsement. With that you can operate any single unit (Not tractor-trailer, that requires a Class A) commercial vehicle up to 54 feet in length. With that you can operate tour and charter buses, dump trucks, garbage and cement trucks. Pass the written test for a HAZMAT endorsement and you can haul flammables. You get plenty of time off. If the kids are off you’re off. You can also do field trips and athletic events for extra coin.
Daddy Daze and Blondie – This is the comics equivalent of showing up to a party wearing the same outfit.
Archie – Archie’s oversized backpack also serves as a flotation device.
Luann – I admit I don’t read Luann outside Uncle Lumpy’s coverage, but I feel like they exist in the same timeline as Dustin.
Gil Thorp – Looked up Rachel Merrill announcement. Art looks good! That and Henry Barajas writing should keep Gil fresh. Only question: How good is she at drawing bonfires?
Fred Basset Spanish to English,
But is Archie gonna vote Reggie?
@Sequitur: Fred Basset Spanish to English,
___________________________
Awww, I was hoping to find out how one says “Odor Eaters” en Espanol
The Family Circus Spanish to English.
@Uncle Lumpy: If you can take your Chances, I can take my Lumps.
_______________________________________
Cue the wascally wabbit with the clown hammer in the wings…..
@Philip: Daddy Daze and Blondie – This is the comics equivalent of showing up to a party wearing the same outfit
___________________
It’s National Put The Bite On The ‘Rents For Twenty Bucks Day.
Off topic but it looks like we’re going to lose another beloved piece of Americana. The Tupperware Corporation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
@GarrisonSkunk: Don’t read this comment, Baja, it contains the C word!(Sorry, I didn’t know what else to call the big wooden mallets that toons bash each other with) It won’t happen again.
MW – “He’ll be along shortly.”
Spoiler: Ed will not be along shortly.
@Uncle Lumpy: Nice try, Josh. That man is barely lumpy.
@73 Uncle Lumpy: I’m glad Josh didn’t take a selfie of us when we had lunch oh so long ago. Hey! Maybe Josh meets with Curmudgeons to cadge free lunches?
@92 Guillermo el chiclero: Not so fast, pardner. Chapter 11 is simply debt reorganization. Companies typically continue running as usual while the money people work out how to proceed. Chapter 7 is the “going out of business sale” bankruptcy.
9CL: Saying nothing and remaining anonymous while saying it? What?
Archie: I remember Josh used to joke about this strip being written by a computer. Now I have to count Veronica’s fingers to make sure the whole thing isn’t AI-generated.
GT: A dinner party at the Thorp residence means telling had-to-be-there anecdotes over unfrosted Pop Tarts and tall glasses of Two Buck Chuck.
Luann: No one wants to think about Bets’s relationship with Gunther except for her legions of social media followers. Allegedly.
Hagar the Horrible Spanish to English.
But as much enjoyment as I get subbing in for Josh, it’s also a lot of work. So I think I’ll go find myself a nice park bench and sit for a while.
—Uncle Lumpy
Here’s a nice place to sit, if you don’t mind running into the odd werevixen.
Link.
@Ukulele Ike: Merrill means the New Yorker online edition. There are some at her site. Looks like fashion may finally come to Milford.
Link.
C-Shaft: If there’s any structural damage to the walls or stairs Lillian has to do repairs, doesn’t she? Of course I realize I’m talking about an 80 year old woman whose store isn’t handicapped accessible, so I’m only hurting myself.
DT: Ro-Zan’s being sent to his room. Cue him blasting Slayer and bouncing a basketball against the wall.
Dustin: His mind is in the gutter. You have any idea what a rooftop deck can do for your neighborhood voyeuring?
GA: I’d never really known that Joel was supposed to be older than Rufus and Gertie. I guess surplus Beagle Boys shirts are popular across the generations.
MW: Well now Estelle done jinxed it so Ed will never show up. She should’ve said, “I don’t know, wasn’t my turn to watch him.”
Phantom: So much for Kit being the Robot Whisperer, I guess. Does he have any plastique handy?
@Uncle Lumpy:
#73. My, you certainly WERE the dashing gent in 2008, Uncle Lumpy!
@Activist:
Why thank you!
@Horace Broon: Re S4th: Which means that every development that happens after this year’s corn maze gag could potentially be a hallucination. But this would not apply to Laura Forth making obscene amounts of money in an underground poker game, leading to Jackie closing her haunted collectibles store and opening a country store.
@Downpuppy:
From the link to X you provided she describes herself as “Apathetic and non-athletic.”
She should do just fine in Milford.
@Baja Gaijin: And if Rex Morgan M.D. was just Truck, sitting alone on the bench, day after day, that would be good too.
@TheDiva: Ironically, Rowling is in trouble for not believing in magical transformations.
@99 GarrisonSkunk: @100 Downpuppy:
Please stop screwing up phones with long links!
Crankshaft-Yes leave your already rickety now fire damaged staircase unrepaired. Just hope that no falls and breaks their neck when it collapses.
@Liam: MW-Estelle makes the ‘drinky drink’ motion when she mentions Ed
_________________________
You misspelled “shrinky dink™”
@Sequitur: Please stop screwing up phones with long links!
________________________________________
How do you put the link under a different word?
@GarrisonSkunk:
I fixed it above, but the format I use is this:
<a href=”[put the entire url here]” target=”_blank”>[put your word or phrase here]</a>
The target=”_blank” operator makes the link open in a new window, so you don’t have to navigate back.
I’m not very good at HTML, but the few strings I use here fly out of my fingers after a few thousand repetitions.
@Uncle Lumpy: Thank you for both the info and fixing it.
Gil Thorp-Ah so homeless on the streets giving handjobs for crack.
Crankshaft-This would also explain why her yard is littered with the bodies of potential shoplifters.
@GarrisonSkunk:
I did a little research on the subject just now. It’s easy to break URLs without disabling them using Cascading Style Sheets (I’m told). But I don’t know of any operator in simple HTML that has the meaning “it’s OK to break here, but don’t interpret me as part of the URL.”
Thank you, you did a great job eviscerating some of my favorite love/hate comics.
@Uncle Lumpy: Sorry. I didn’t realize there would be a problem. I can’t remember the code, so when needed I open a site with a LINK button in a different tab, put it in there, then paste the result.
GT: And to think I complained about how sketchy the art was in a comment earlier this week. Now I feel kinda bad. But optimistic about the future art. Huzzah!
Pluggers: I usually find, about once a week, one long lonely chin hair. But my vision is such that I have a hard time getting the tweezers in the right place. Also, sometimes when I pluck I only get part of the chin hair–the little bastid is so tough, it breaks but doesn’t come all the way out. WTH? I’m going to end up donating my body to science–science fiction.
@Downpuppy:
It’s a problem on some phones – the browser compresses the entire page so the longest line fits, even if that line is not on screen at the moment. Since URLs don’t contain spaces and won’t work if they break, they have to go on a single line. So a long URL torpedoes visibility.
@Downpuppy:
That’s a good idea for Josh’s next site upgrade; I’ll pass it along.
@Baja Gaijin: #96: Well, I hope they make it. The COVID epidemic really hurt their Tupperware Party marketing system. Also, back in the 50s and 60s they were the only game in town. Now other companies like KitchenAid, Pyrex, and Rubbermaid offer similar food storage products.
@Guillermo el chiclero: Plus, any dollar store usually has similar products. Heck, I often wash takeout food containers and use them as Tupperware.
@Rube: #123:
“I often wash takeout food containers and use them as Tupperware”
That would make a great Plugger submission.
Luann: The Luann characters are an unlikeable bunch and Les is a worthless, unambitious lump on the level of, say, Brad DeGroot before his redemption. Don’t get the pro Les sentiment.
@106 Lord Flatulence: Hmmm…
@109 Liam: Someone needs to lure Crankshaft up to the bookstore…
@122 Guillermo el chiclero: Some venture capital company’ll buy it, cheap out the product, then when there’s absolutely no brand equity left, sell the name to WalMart for its Chinese-made plastic kitchenware to dupe Pluggers who remember Tupperware’s heyday.
In the Archie comics universe, is there a canonical explanation for why Veronica hangs out with Archie when he’s clearlly her social and intellectual inferior and her father hates him? Or is it just the standard teenage low self-esteem, like Betty has?
@Jeffmcm:
her father hates him
THERE’s your reason. Also, a weird narcissistic streak where she’s Edda and he’s Amos.
@127 Jeffmcm: Veronica just luuurves her some waffles. Rule 34 waffles.
@Ukulele Ike: Yeah, but if you draw The Fuzzy Bunny… “Oh, dear Lord! We call that card the widowmaker!”
Uncle Lumpy: So I think I’ll go find myself a nice park bench and sit for a while.. Say hello to Truck, eh? And thanks for a job better-than-well done.
@Cleveland Mocks: On CS: That’s because Ed set the fire. And now he can put it all on the anti-book vigilantes.
@Ukulele Ike: The 10 of swords would be a good one, too, just on looks. (Hard to draw in a that tiny space, though.)
@Guillermo el chiclero: Oh, no, how are people going to carry around Baja’s Late Night Cuisine dishes?
6Chx: How sweet, the ocean waves good-bye to the vacationer.
@Dr. Pill:
10 of swords
Ooh, the Sword of Damocles… except when people talk about Tarot, they never mean the Minor Arcana. They always mean the 21 specialty cards you can’t use a regular card deck to replicate…
And yet they do thing like believe Death is literal death, or that Strength is represented by a big strong guy, rather than a Regal, Rampaging Kaiju… being dominated by a tiny waif dressed in rags, simply because she dared to put a leash on it…@Guillermo el chiclero“”I often wash takeout food containers and use them as Tupperware”
That would make a great Plugger submission.”
And, in the spirit of Pluggers, next week you could use “You’re a plugger if you still go to Tupperware parties”.
@Baja Gaijin: #126: That’s exactly what happened with Curtis Mathes televisions after Mathes was killed in a plane crash. The most expensive television made, and darn well worth it, is now a Walmart price leader brand.
Today is Bill Murray’s 74th birthday. Yesterday was Sophia Loren’s 90th.
@131 Dr. Pill: Try fitting this into a Tupperware.
@Uncle Lumpy: Her movie posters are gorgeous, and I really like her Lucy Liu portrait as well.
BTW, I add my thanks for chaperoning the blog in Josh’s absence.
@Baja Gaijin:
#136. I know this one– hot dog luau! It was a big thing in the 60s, along with pineapple pizza. Yum_- pineapple with pork was exotic, and exotic was almost erotic.
@138 Activist: Close; it a Frankfurter Spectacular!
@Rube: I used to do that until the Ukulele Lady put the kibosh on it….Chinese food containers are supposedly made out of some kind of evil enzyme that was slowly killing me. Now I have to use quart and pint-sized Mason jars and occasionally find broken glass in the freezer when the food expands and explodes ‘em. Good times!
@Dr. Pill: Ouch! Talk about your overkill. (I personally find the Waite-Ryder Eight of Swords even more menacing. What is UP with that shit?)
@Downpuppy: I’ll be happy if Rachel is able to draw pretty teenage girls who look like pretty teenage girls, instead of the grotesqueries GT has been foisting on us for decades. Remember the cardboard-carton bikini?
Ba.
Deep mystery as to why my comment at 140 has been Waiting Approval for three hours. I can’t wait to find out why!
MW: Will Estelle be freaking out at her vet beau in public: “How dare you try to save a dog’s life on the day of my engagement party? Grrrr!”
CS: “This is what fear looks like, this light cross-hatching, right here!”
GT:
“Bob, I understand that you’re going as country crooner and sometime actor Jerry Reed for Halloween!”
@Ukulele Ike:
I have no idea. Strange are the ways of the modbot.
The
I’m really digging Dagwood’s modern athletic zip-up-at-the-ankle track pants
9 chickweed Lane is a comic that baffles me everytime I read it. Brooke has to constantly remind the reader how much he loves women’s “gams”