Josh rattles off some lists
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Mary Worth, 9/29/24
I’m going to remain neutral on some the big moral questions being raised by this storyline for the moment (Is it fair to fall in love with a passionate man then demand that he give up his passions to focus on you? Why, in a relatively small community that nevertheless can support a whole convention’s worth of veterinarians, is Ed somehow the only vet available for seemingly every emergency call? Does it make sense to put “a reunion dinner with a once beloved but subsequently estranged family member” and “a visit to the bakery to taste cake” in the same “wedding stuff you can skip” bucket?). Mostly, I want to say that chucking your engagement ring directly into your fiance’s chest at full speed and watching it bounce off is a very funny move, and I’m glad we got to see it in today’s strip.
Marvin, 9/29/24
There are all kinds of dubious things that I am willing to accept as part of the Marvin world-building, such as the fact that babies and dogs have adult-human-level cognition and ability to communicate, but neither has mastered the simple art of shitting in a toilet. However, seeing dogs just casually wandering around suburban neighborhoods unleashed immediately exceeds my ability to suspend disbelief. I realize that the idea of this has been ossified into comics lore but I refuse to believe that anyone actually involved in producing the comics in the futuristic year 2024 personally remembers a time when this was commonplace.
Six Chix, 9/29/24
I find the drawing of the plumber at bottom left interacting with a undersink cabinet that has been removed from its context (the sink) very funny. “Welp, let me see if the problem is from inside your Portal and–” [horrified screams as he is pulled into the ~v o i d~]
64 replies to “Josh rattles off some lists”
MW:
“I’m going to give you a piece of my mind, Mister! Not only are you insensitive and uncaring, but you have an appalling lack of literacy — I don’t think you’ve ever read a great historical novel or a best-seller — and you only provide the most basic of services to your animal charges. In fact, a turn of phrase about you comes almost spontaneously to mind!”
“No. Don’t say it, Estelle.”
“Yep. You’re a little-read core vet!”
“Baby, you’re much too fast!”
FC: “Uh, you see, kids. In the olden days, people used to marry animals and they had weird looking children.”
Later on, he walks in the room and sees the dog humping Dolly. “Daddy! Me and Barfy are getting married!”
MW:
If I were Estelle, I would have thrown it in his eye. That way his face would have ended up looking like Libby’s.
MW: I may be reading intention where there’s just incompetence, but I’ve noticed something about the past week of Mary Worth strips. The Sunday strip prior to this is the only one that actually mentioned the dead puppies and the emergency surgery. Every strip since has just featured Estelle crying over Ed standing her up. If your paper only gets the weekday strips, you would never even know that the delivery went wrong and would just assume that Ed decided helping a poodle with a presumably successful delivery took precedence over the dinner.
This culminates in today’s strip with Estelle asking why Ed didn’t come to dinner, as if he didn’t text her the exact reason why. I feel Moy may have realized that having Estelle act outraged over dead puppies and emergency surgery was not it, but she realized too late to change the strip and so instead is just trying to pretend it didn’t happen and hoping we forget.
But I’m probably giving this too much thought. I still can’t tell who Moy even thinks we’re supposed to side with here.
MW: Ed: smart enough to get through veterinary school. Smart enough to see the army of red flags flapping in his face? We can only hope.
Marvin: “Hi, it’s the syndicate here. We noticed your comic for September 29th is only three panels. You remember that’s a Sunday, right?”
“Oh, uh, let me just, uh” [hastily hits ctrl-C, ctrl-V on a drawing of Bitsy]
MW:
“But I already have plans in place to make it up to you, Stell! I’ve learned a new piece on piano that I want to play especially for you — it’s a little-known Gershwin work from early in his career when he wasn’t sure what precise thematic direction he was going in.”
“Really? What’s it called?”
” ‘A Parisian in America‘ !”
That plumber is clearly the deepcrow plumber from penny arcade.
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/03/21/the-crevice
“Love me, love my thousand dying dogs”
I’ll be damned. That quotation is actually from Confucius, or at least ascribed to Confucius in the Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor. Is brainyquote developing standards or something because I don’t think I could take that.
MW: There’s a lot to like here, but my favorite has to be the receptionist who looks like she wandered in from another strip altogether. “Jesus, this is kinda heavy stuff. I think I’ll just head back over to Dustin”
Marvin: Hey have you ever written a standard 3-panel strip and then realized it’s for a Sunday? No worries! Just throw in a few panels of your character walking, and then maybe reacting to something out of shot. Bingo bango, you’re off to the links…
6Cx: It’s been a while since we’ve had the Xerox guy by the office, but do they typically show up to jobs with old-timey Gladstone bags filled with double-pronged forks? Far be it from me to question the work of heroes…
Poor form on Estelle’s part. Confronting Ed before loading up on sympathy muffins is just not done in Santa Royale. Hope she can find a new place to stay.
PS, when was the last time Mary appeared in the strip?
Mary Worth: I like the way the receptionist is just barely popping her head over the counter, as if to say, “Oh, geez, not this again, and I still have to work with both of these nutcases! I wonder if the hospital ER is hiring? I’d really like to spend my time in a calmer environment.”
Marvin: Forget the rest of this strip, is a comic character really allowed to say “Good grief!” without an army of Peanuts lawyers raining hellfire down on them? (And then there’s the fact that the other dog looks like someone asked AI to combine Snoopy with Mickey Mouse, but now that Steamboat Willie is out of copyright I guess that’s pretty much fair game.)
Six Chix: I don’t disagree that these are valuable professions, but the job of “copier repair technician” has long been replaced by “just by a new machine, since it’s usually cheaper than replacing the ink anyway.” (Also, why is the plumber peering into my coal cellar?)
Mark Trail: Mark says, “Keep pets and and children away from any rattlesnakes you find. I know that’s, like, the most obvious advice you’ve heard in your life, but I’m a magazine writer and I get paid by the word!”
Slylock Fox: You know it’s not a good insurance scam when you actually total your car, right? This whole panel is silly, although I suppose the fact that Max is about to lose his balance and fall over a cliff kind of makes up for it.
MW: Ed is relieved when it turns out Stell’s temper tantrum is caused by an undiagnosed case of rabies she caught from one of his patients.
Six Chix:
That so-called “Plumber” isn’t exposing his backside. I call fake.
@pugfuggly:
6Cx: It’s been a while since we’ve had the Xerox guy by the office, but do they typically show up to jobs with old-timey Gladstone bags filled with double-pronged forks?
Those are tuning forks. Don’t you know anything about fixing copiers?
Chix (sic): Events leading up to today’s strip: Bannerman’s coworker exclaims; “My god, Isabelle. You fucked the IT guy!?”
Blondie: Herb returns to Dagwood the type of gloves you wear when putting on a minstrel show. “Thanks but I’d burn these if I were you.”
6C: And now I’m imagining a revamp of the Village People with the characters from the right panel.
Marvin: In the feces-filled world of this strip, a warning that a dog will lick your face is quite warranted.
MW: A dog accidentally swallows the ring, and now Ed has that to deal with.
No butt crack on the plumber? I call shenanigans!
Marvin: “I can’t think of enough material to fill a Sunday strip!”
“Have you considered inserting a couple of panels of Bitsy walking?”
“Brilliant!”
Frazz: Why hasn’t Frazz been fired yet?
Luann: Best Luann ever. No notes.
CS: I don’t know where to begin with this one. Let’s see…Lil is giving away a book earmarked for Les’s students (it fits her M.O., so fine I guess), the sudden mob that appeared in the middle of the night (I’m assuming this is all taking place during the same night as the fire), who the heck is that lady talking to Crankshaft in the flashback panels (seriously surprised Batiuk didn’t clumsily dump her name and relationship to him), and why does Batiuk think this will earn him a Pulitzer?
FC: Evidently, when Bil agreed to answer their questions, the melonheads put down the books of mythological creatures, pulled out the Sex Ed book, and asked him a lot of uncomfortable questions about the vulva.
Zits: Stop fucking the throw pillows, Jeremy!
Luann: Getting mixed messages here. I get it when Evans portrays snarkers as a dog pissing on the strip but that same dog is a beloved pet. I guess it’s his way of saying “Thanks for reading.”
@taig:
On Crankshaft : who the heck is that lady talking to Crankshaft in the flashback panels If that’s a serious question, that’s PAM. She used to have a completely different design that actually made her less interchangeable with Jeff way back when!
Also, the first on-panel appearance of the protesters, and it’s a tiny squeezed image where we can barely see them.
***********
On Luann : it really shows how much respect this strip has for its title character. Especially considering she’s been totally absent from the weeklies for like, two months.
**********
Slylock Fox : Shady Shrew tells officer Meowster he DOESN’T recognise or remember him, because Deputy Duck has always made a bigger impression on him.
@Anonymous: Thanks for that information! I’m still surprised Batiuk didn’t have Crankshaft say something like, “Thanks, my daughter, Pam.”
Instead of repeating myself several times, I’m just going to say “Somehow this got even dumber” now and add a number of stars out of a possible five to each title to indicate how strongly that statement applies to the given comic.
MW***: After 16 hours of obsessive reflection, Estelle has realized nothing and now throwing a violent tantrum in the vet clinic lobby in front of Ed’s clients. And when you’ve got a captive audience of potential court witnesses, it feels like a waste not to end your engagement with criminal battery. Estelle’s journey to the Wilburside of the Force is now complete.
DT*****: Oh ho! Dick didn’t bring the finger ring that completely cancels out Lunarian powers; instead, he had someone spend God knows how much money applying this attribute to a bulky lancer cuirass (which has a secondary power of being invisible in the previous two days of art). Why, you ask? Sorry, but that is a question that will never have an answer in Dick Tracy.
JP****: Welp, there goes that one tiny bit of goodwill I gave this comic yesterday. A “longtime illness” is definitely something that should have popped up in the CIA dossier, along with the embezzling fiasco resulting in an arrest and an estrangement and whatever drama bombs Marciuliano is, ahem, “planning.”
Luann*: Yes, the titular blonde is still an idiot, but any strip where animals spitefully urinate on Luann is a good day’s work in my book.
CS************** (deep breath) **************: As Lillian gives away one of Les’s books while proclaiming her generosity, a screaming yet silent mob arrives to protest her bookstore. Remember, it’s still the same night at roughly three in the morning and this is all still about five minutes after the fire department left.
MW – I can’t wait to see tomorrow’s strip. Will Ed charge the mound or simply take first base?
MW: Did I miss something? When did Dr. Ed hire Sally Forth’s older sister, Becka, to be his receptionist?
Six Chix-“Hello IT. Have you tried turning it off and back on again?”
MW-Uh, Estelle, Ed did send you a text about why he couldn’t make the dinner.
MW: Back at Charterstone, Wilbur feels a tug in his loins as his spidey-sense tells him Estelle is available once again…!
Baby blue wasn’t Prince’s color.
I remember dogs being allowed to wander in my suburban neighborhood unsupervised after Marvin debuted. This was in a comfortably middle-class area of the San Fernando Valley, too. It was basically over by before the 1980s ended, but it did happen.
MW – Fortunately, Ed has apparently acquired another receptionist within the past week. He can marry her instead and then she’ll work for free just like Estelle used to! It’s like killing two birds with one lethal injection.
MW – A Wilbur in the Lazyboy is worth two Eds in the small animal crematorium.
Anonymous
Marvin – Just remember – that’s the same tongue he’s using to clean his asshole….
6-C – And where is the Amway MLM independent business owner bravely living the American dream of having a garage filled vitamins and skin care products….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
@Naked Bunny with a Whip: ♪ Baby blue rain, baby blue rain…
MW: Once again, a veterinarian’s office provides the best entertainment in Santa Royale. This is where people take their pets to hear all the dirt about their providers’ personal lives, and if you’re lucky, see a contentious romantic breakup in real time! And where did that receptionist come from? Did Ed have to hire someone while Estelle spends her days cake-tasting?
6Cx: Those are some odd choices for fantasy heroes. Prince is an inborn trait. Pirate is a type of criminal. Cowboy is a job, same as tech support, so he should be on the Actual Hero side if you like beef and dairy products.
Marvin – As seen in My Cage.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Don’t do the swimming gag. It’s too hard to draw”
“I’m not letting that stop me”
“For this you get a paycheck?”
[Sign: CARTOONIST]
6C: I can see how vital the use of a copier and computer could be for a comic strip artist. But now I’m wondering what hell she unleashes on her plumbing.
In a Very Special Sick Chicks-Marvin crossover, Marvin finally gets toilet trained.
I am not defending Estelle. Ed is clearly an obsessive man with a saviour complex, believing that only he can help animals and this allows him to treat any human relations as worth sacrificing for his mission — “the animals take priority”, meaning his identity as a saviour takes priority over his relationship based on mutual respect. But he was always so! Estelle only imagined he was capable of human affection, he should never have started a relationship with him! The scammer, Wilbur, Ed. Estelle is always the last one to recognise what was blindingly obvious to everyone else.
@Bob Tice: @Pozzo: re 6Cx: It seems both of you got ahead of me with a “crack” about Plumber’s Butt. I’m glad to see there’s still respect for the classics.
Pluggers have an affinity for the future perfect tense.
MW – Estelle storms out. Dr. Ed sighs and goes back into his office. The receptionist says to the woman in the waiting room, “I’m sorry about all that. The doctor will be ready to see your dog in a few minutes.” The woman says, “Oh, there’s nothing wrong with my dog. I just come here for the floor show!”
@Anonymous:
Luann: This strip made me realize something. Most of us here would call Luann a ‘hate read’. Is there such a thing as a ‘hate write/draw’? Because after seeing their main character get literally pissed on, I think the Evansii are sick of writing/drawing this strip but can’t just retire for whatever reason, so they amuse themselves by writing the lamest stories and putting their characters in the most humilitating positions they can think of.
CS: ‘Hey, do you hear something?’
CS: Even though Ed’s nose job was botched, he still looks better than he did.
We’ll leave the mystery of why a bunch of noisy, placard-waving protestors showed up at a closed book store late at night for another time.
MW: That’s right, Estelle. You mean less to Ed than every flea-bitten mongrel and flatulent hamster in California. So love it or leave it. (Nice touch having your tantrum right out in the open in front of the clientele and staff. Indicates that you’re just as screwed up as he is.)
Frazz: So Frazz taught kids how to stick pickles to the ceiling, which he would then have to climb up there and clean off. Serves him right.
RMMD: Nurse June has her own nurse to boss around? Must be nice.
Today’s “Marvin” could have been a weekday strip in three panels, but as the foremost strip dedicated to bowel movements, “Marvin” knows that a lot of fiber (padding) is necessary for a smooth piece of shit (Marvin comics)
@Naked Bunny with a Whip: @Peanut Gallery:
I was awake when I wrote this, so I probably did it all okay.
When I woke up this morning, it was just another normal day.
The sky was baby blue and there were people walking everywhere.
Not a hint of some disfunction, not that you’d even really care.
I call bullshit on Six-Chix, they forgot “Scottish Highlander” and “Vampires” on their list of woman’s stock romance novel
heroescliches.You know, a more sentimental strip might have gone with “firefighters”, “police officers”, “teachers” or “nurses” as examples of “actual heroes”, but I respect “Six Chix” for recognising that we direct our admiration to people sparing us from mild annoyances
@Hibbleton: “The colors don’t seem as bright. Did you get this tuned to A440 or A432?”
RMMD — If Estelle had taken Confucius’s advice, she would have held back her rage until after the wedding and then let it slowly seep out over the course of their life together. Otherwise known as the Lockhorn option.
Too much filler in Marvin.
Six Chix is aware of labor force diversity
6C: I can’t be the only one who took a quick glance at the “Prince” and assumed he was supposed to be the late pop music icon. I mean come on, that’s totally an outfit he would have worn at the Grammys.
MW: The lady with the chihuahua is going to post a hell of a Google review after this:
** Staff is rude and overworked, and can’t keep their personal lives out of their business. Vet apparently got engaged to a crazy lady which does not speak well of his judgement. Facilities were clean if non-Euclidian.
6Chx: Thank you, Sunday Chick. It’s high time the copier repair technicians of the world received their due recognition as bona fide heroes. Let’s get those Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremonies scheduled right away.
H&L: “. . . and then starve to death in my squatter cabin because no one wanted to publish my book and I couldn’t catch a fish to, literally, save my own life.”
JP: How many times is Neddy going to step in it before she needs a whole set of new shoes?
MW: So, Estelle is Wilbur in a wig. Got it.
@Arabella:
Didn’t want to throw a wrench into things by missing that comment!
Marvin: It’s one thing to go to the UPS store and have a ” WARNING HAPPY DOG WILL LICK YOUR FACE” sign printed up and stake it out in the middle of an open field. It’s quite another to train a dog to sit next to it all day.
Mary Worth: Next week, when Dr. Ed has breathing trouble and goes to a human doctor on and says, “Rex, what’s wrong with me?” and the diagnosis is “Cracked sternum, what bully did this to you?” Estelle is in for maybe some questioning, maybe arrest and a write-up in the police blotter column of the local paper, where their style guide allows them to use “shrew,” which will just make the veterinarian love her more. That is, assuming he goes to a human doctor: I suspect all the vets in Santa Royale just treat each other at discount rates, according to an agreement written up at their fancy convention.
The choices of fantasy heroes makes perfect sense if the Six Chix member’s idea of fantasy is not Tolkien but steamy romance novels. But that means the copier guy and plumber would be heroes in the 1980s porn sense, and the tech support guy scenario would involve sexting.
@The Rambling Otter: And billionaire, although that seems to have fallen out of favor now that Elon Musk has made himself King of the Incels.
C’shaft: Isn’t it technically on Les, since he was the one who bought the book? Also, the angry mob shows up AFTER the attempted arson? Maybe Batiuk needs to read more to get a better sense of plot development.
DT: Wait, if the tech that can negate Lunarian mojo can be contained within something as small as a ring, why make an entire breastplate for it? Obviously it creates some sort of field since Ro-Zan can’t simply aim for Dick’s head (heh heh, dick’s head) but what is its perimeter? Is the kicky gold belt essential to securing it around the body, or is it just for show? I have so many questions that will never, never be answered.
Dustin: Too bad they didn’t have a couple more panels, I’m sure there’s at least five more ways to explain the joke.
Luann: Puddles speaks for all of us.
Phantom: The Ghost Who Hoards Priceless Artifacts is just leaving a sixteenth-century arquebus lying around on some old crates? Dude needs to hire an archivist or something.
Pluggers enjoy having a nice day off. Nobody else does that.