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 right 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~]
164 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.
MW: OK. That’s enough.
I want Estelle back with Wilbur.
Chained together at the wrist and ankle.
And provided with enough alcohol to make George and Martha of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” look like Luann and Berniece quibbling over what to watch on TV.
@UncleJeff: Who’s afraid of Virginia Mayo….
Six Chex And A Cat Named B.C.In Search Of A Punchline: “Lady plumbers have no butt cracks!” “Now I must flush him!”
@Dennis Jimenez: UncleJeff: Who’s afraid of Virginia Mayo….
Clint Mustard.
Mary Worth – One of the people in the waiting room filmed this scene on her phone. By this afternoon it’ll go viral on Facebook and YouTube.
Not as viral as Queen Bee and the picture frame, but close.
FC – Daddy has to talk to Child Welfare after he shows the melonheads the Oglaf comic to explain the centaur.
This is the third centaur in the comics in the past week. Curse you, Oglaf!
Crankshaft – I was unaware of Crankshaft’s existence during the time this flashback took place. The difference in Crankshaft’s appearance is remarkable. He was ugly then, and he’s ugly now, but in an entirely different way.
Mary Worth Mashup: Reactions.
@Arabella: Everyone got ahead of me on the plumber without a half bare backside and butt crack. I’m pleased that so many of us think the same way.
@I can do this too: Too much filler in Marvin.
_______________________
It’s all that 100% Bran Alpo™ they feed him.
@Baja Gaijin: Mashup – “Wooing Speedo!?” (Runs to bathroom to vomit.)
@Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women: “Cracked sternum,
_________
Wasn’t that Fraser’s wife?
@Baja Gaijin: Oh no!
Marvin – A quick check shows that Tom Armstrong was not only born in 1950 but in Evansville, Indiana, so I can assure you he must certainly does recall a time when dogs just wandered freely around the neighborhood. And still do in the smaller communities of those parts, as I see from the frequent missing dog posts on Facebook from my southern Indiana hometown.
@taig: Frazz: Why hasn’t Frazz been fired yet?
__________________
Because the whole strip is the dream result of Hobbes forcing Calvin to eat those funny mushrooms.
@I speak Jive: “Wooing Speedo!?”
___________________________________
Coming Summer 2025 from PIXAR.
@I speak Jive: Gromit! They’re the wrong speedos!”
Phantom: “Let’s go to the next cave over, and I’ll tell you the tale over a game of foosball. The seventeenth Phantom bought that table at a K-Mart in Winnetka in 1973.”
@Dennis Jimenez: Virgin Mayo?
MW: Got hit by a diamond but dodged a bullet
I can accept a prince being a fantasy hero, but such a fancy boy? But then, today’s Chix also gave the plumber that ponytail and I don’t want to harsh her yum.
***
Seriously, Ed’s inability to keep his mind off work for even an hour or two just isn’t healthy and him realizing this and hiring another vet to take some of the pressure off would be a good place for this story to go. But this is Karen Moy writing this…
MW: Got a chance to place another Canine extra today! You may have noticed him if you weren’t distracted by the jutting of his “owner” or the ruckus between Estelle and Ed. He’s “all ears!” heh heh heh Good job, but I’m afraid he’ll just be a one-shot…
MT: A callback for Timmy the Timber Rattlesnake after his eye-catching appearance as a Foreground Fauna last week! So, today they went with a Rattlesnake trio, adding Dwayne “Diamond Back” (from East Coast) and Li’l Pete, the Pygmy. They worked up a special rhythmic rattler routine for your enjoyment. I hope you have your sound turned on!
@Bob Tice:
That should win the comment of the week.
@taig:
You stole my comment, but I was going to add that Stell watched him resuscitate in front of her vary eyes, only to realize what a fool she’s been.
Of course, it’s too late to rescue the marriage.
Stella becomes a greeter at WalMart.
horrified screams as he is pulled into the ~v o i d~
“He?” Are you sure? That’s a pretty androgynous portrayal of a plumber. I would normally say we cannot know the plumber’s gender. But there is a pretty significant clue in the fact that this plumber is missing that most salient of plumber motifs: butt cleavage. Women’s hips hold pants up in a way that men’s do not, and we must therefore conclude that this plumber is female.
Six Chix: Where’s the Crypto-Scam Artist or the Freak-Off Sex Party Organizer?
@Lauralot:
Maybe we were lazy, but my future spouse and I were both working full time jobs when we decided to get married.
When we had a tour of a wedding reception venue, it was already set up for another wedding the next day. We took one glance at the flower arrangements and said, that’s exactly what we want. What’s their name and number? Took about ten seconds.
Likewise, we fell in love with the first caterer we met. Loved the food, loved the prices. They even provided us with a special separate section of the cake to put in the freezer for our first anniversary so we didn’t have to scavenge the traditional top tier of the cake.
See, Wilbur is totally meant to be a sympathetic character. The character assassination of any Mary Worth character who gets any story focus is a naturally occurring process in this strip.
@BigTed: And c’mon, we’ve all seen Shady Shrew’s truck. He could probably make more money stealing pop to resell from Rachel Rabbit’s fridge than building an insurance scam around that rattletrap!
@Hibbleton: Truth! If a copier’s flux oscillator is off by even 50kHz, it can open a portal to a void stacked with all of the possibilities for our universe that didn’t materialize. You’d wish you simply got pulled into the void with the plumber.
None of this applies to the Tech Support Analyst because even when Stephen King and Peter Straub teamed up to write a novel, they couldn’t come up with a horror that surpasses working in a call center.
@richardf8: “I cannot fix this boy’s toilet! He is my son!!!”
Crank: I am absolutely gobsmacked that this is Pam — I figured it was some anonymous Adult Education specialist (you know, someone who could teach an old fart to read) and thought it was nice of her to offer to buy Ed reading glasses. I guess back in the ‘80s Pam would go to her hair stylist and ask for the “Full Dorothy Fuldheim.”
JP: There’s a joke here to be made about Declan’s parents getting in trouble for supporting local White Supremicist secret societies, selling them snacks and smokes, and nearly getting put in jail for “aidin’ de Klan,” but it’s Sunday and I don’t feel like putting in the effort. Bob Tice can have it.
@richardf8: “I cannot fix this boy’s toilet! He is my son!!!”
Crank: I am absolutely gobsmacked that this is Pam — I figured it was some anonymous Adult Education professional (you know, someone who could teach an old fart to read) and thought it was nice of her to offer to buy Ed reading glasses. I guess back in the ‘80s Pam would go to her hair stylist and ask for the “Full Dorothy Fuldheim.”
JP: There’s a joke here to be made about Declan’s parents getting in trouble for supporting local White Supremicist secret societies, selling them snacks and smokes, and nearly getting put in jail for “aidin’ de Klan,” but it’s Sunday and I don’t feel like putting in the effort. Bob Tice can have it.
@Anonymous: Mary will contrive some platitude that convinces Stelle to take Ed back, and he’ll promise to put her first (June Brigman will have cleverly hidden his hand with fingers crossed behind his back).
MW: So a selfish woman breaks up with her man because she couldn’t parade him around like a trophy and he couldn’t spend every minute of the day with her because he had other responsibilities. Did this strip just rip off the Luann and Quill break up?
Marvin: As many others have noted, Tom Armstrong really knows how to pad his lame jokes to fill a Sunday strip. Cartoonists often use just one or two throwaway panels, but as usual Tom used eight.
Six Chix: Why is the ponytailed plumber crouching behind a tiny folding screen? Is his fiancée mad he stood her up at the engagement dinner?
Luann Spanish to English.
@70 Baja Gaijin:
Come Tuesday you’ll find out just how close you are with your Mary panel.
H&L: Chip’s high school English class has finally gotten around to reading Walden Pond.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, dad.”
In a rare turn, Hi enters the last panel smiling. “You don’t know the half of it, son. Heh, heh.”
June Brigman always lets us know how interested she is in what’s going on in Mary Worth. Today must be a record. She put herself in as a background character!
MW – For God’s sake, Estupide, Ed very clearly told you why he missed the dinner. Stop pretending you don’t know. What an awful, selfish, narcissistic pig she’s become. I take back everything I ever said – she and Wilbur totally deserve each other.,
FC – “So, I said if a centaur fucked a mermaid she’d give birth to a half-human, half-seahorse. But Dolly said the mermaid just squirts her eggs into the water and then either the centaur or the unicorn has to…”
“Kids! Kids! This subject is too advanced for you. Let’s just forget about it and watch some furry porn.”
“Aw, Dad! Heathcliff cartoons suck!”
@Ukulele Ike: hey! I deleted the first one after it was banhammered for “speci@list!”
Just my luck that Uncle Lumpy and Josh are peppy and alert today so they could zip in and make me look stupid.
MW: Stell is too angry to realize there is already a new receptionist replacing her. Good one, Dr. Ed, as he goes all passive aggressive. I even got her to throw the ring at me, whew, wasn’t looking forward to asking for that back. Good luck with your future vet needs, Stell, as you will be paying for them from now on, and I’m canceling the lease on the Volvo.
Mary Worth: Ed may not have dodged that ring, but he certainly dodged a bullet.
Marvin: The title panel provides some hilarious, heartwarming context to today’s strip. Marvin’s dipshit parents let him try to take the dog for walkies even though he’s a literal toddler and the dog proceeded to dash off uncontrollably, dragging Marvin behind him and presumably pummeling the horrid brat to death against the hot sidewalk concrete before leaving his bloodied corpse rotting in the street as the dog walks off to tell lame jokes. Fun for the whole family!
Six Chix: Six Chix has been very disappointingly veering away from it’s signature dadaist inscrutable punchlines in favor of flitting back and forth between the writer’s poorly disguised food fetishes and your usual “things for maladjusted seniors to glue to their fridges so they can pretend they haven’t alienated their families and friends” content that dominate newspaper comics. Now it’s fallen so far as to be reduced to pitiable “you know who the real heroes are?” pandering comics. You hate to see it.
@104 Ukulele Ike:
You don’t need Josh and Uncle Lumpy to make you look stupid.
JUST KIDDIN’!
This week’s Oglaf introduces us to the God of Sex. She has lions (fortitude), giant owls (wisdom), feathery wings, and — oddly — chicken feet. She also don’t care about birthin’ no babies.
NSFW because, Oglaf.
@Sequitur: I put that line in there as an early birthday present for you, but you could mail me a dollar if you want to.
@pugfuggly: re MW, bwahaha!
MW – Ed’s made it very clear that he loves little animals. Little, wild animals. Angry little animals. So maybe this is some elaborate type of foreplay?
@11 pugfuggly:on MW
I don’t think that’s a receptionist. Just a head on a table.
I feel like Marvin is really leaning into doing 2-panels gags in a 9-panel Sunday spread
Six Chix: I call no way! A plumber isn’t a hero unless he exposes his butt crack when he bends over. Giving me a little free show is the height of chivalry, especially if toilet repair is involved. It’s a pity they don’t take tips.
MW: So, does this sort of thing happen often in California veterinary clinic waiting rooms? Just curious.
@Sequitur: HAR!!!
@Ukulele Ike: You know how it is. Every coven must have its virgin, its bawd, and its crone. Baba Yaga is the bawd.
@Ukulele Ike: I’m disheartened to learn that the God of Sex seems to read 9CL. Oh wait, in 9CL they somehow manage not to get thrown out of restaurants.
PV: If I had a way cool magic spear like that, I’d be happy, but would insist on a nickname. “Addy” would do.
@Ukulele Ike: I certainly don’t mind the chicken feet, but I don’t understand them. Huh.
@Anonymous: I had assumed the woman talking to Crankshaft was Lena. Pam lived with her father her entire life, probably at least 30 or 40 years, and she never realized he couldn’t read? Either he’s just THAT GOOD at faking it, or she never in her life has paid any more attention to him than absolutely necessary.
@Scott: At least Ed presumably got laid though. He didn’t have to be involuntarily celibate the whole time like poor Quill.
6C: “Sure, some people say ‘the real heroes’ are paramedics and firefighters, but are they going to be any use if your computer stops working just when you’re about to e-mail your latest nonsense to the syndicate? Of course not! In fact, if you call 911 for that, they act like you’re in the wrong somehow!”
Curtis: And he can never try that scam again, because the pizzeria that gives giant free pizzas to anyone who claims it’s their birthday went out of business seconds later.
JP: So, it literally never occured to Neddy that the golden boy who Declan’s parents thought could do no wrong might be visiting them? Anyway, I’m calling it now: Aiden didn’t frame Declan and he’s as confused by the whole thing as anyone else; it was actually their dad who was the embezzler, and he’s dead now, so once that’s discovered there’s nothing standing in the way of a family reunion. It’s exactly the right combination of dumb, convoluted, and trite.
Phantom: Oh, wow, there was a “Next: New Adventure” box last week. I didn’t even notice! I mean, I’m not complaining that we’re finally leaving the weird John X gaslighting story, I’m just kind of surprised we’re leaving it there.
PV: The main difference between Prince Valiant and most of the other “action” strips is that the Prince Valiant creative team know they’re writing Val as sometimes being a complete idiot.
@TheDiva: 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?
Based on the blast shadow behind Dick, exactly contoured to his body (the hat counts as part of his body).
PHANTOM:. Heads up to the Phantom-curious–. Today is a good day to start the once/week Sunday strip. Not only are they begining a new arc, but they’re delving back to when the legend started.
Just wondering, why Kit is so anxious to make a good impression on the Chronicles if later Phantoms don’t bother with reading them all?
CURTIS:. He’s just as scheming and manipulative as Barry. It’s just that Curtis isn’t very good at it.
JP:. Troubled family redux.
MW – Disembodied Head on a Table is my new favorite character. I hope they do more with her.
6CHIX:. I’m going as a pirate for Halloween, using kid accessories I got years ago at Dollar Tree. But MY kit also includes an eye patch. Hope I don’t get shot or arrested for having a 4″ rubber blade in my pocket.
@I speak Jive:
Yeah, it’s not like it’s the most obvious stereotypical plumber joke ever muttered.
@richardf8: I would LOVE to see Amos-Edda/Tall Guy-Chedda bounced on their ass out of their midtown coffee shop by one of the Parisian waiters in the long white aprons. (Pro tip: servers in midtown coffee shops DO NOT dress like Parisian waiters in long white aprons.)
@made of wince: Your plumbers must be way handsomer than mine.
CS: That’s no angry mob of protesters. It’s a bunch of city and county building inspectors ready to slap Lillian with a stack of code violations. Up to now she’s been flying under the radar but by sticking her nose in Les Moore’s business she’s flown right into the bullseye.
@Ukulele Ike: Butt crack is butt crack. Just a little peak, that’s all I need. Even if it’s hairy. But for God’s sake, I never want to see a dirty one. That would be very unsatisfying.
@Bob Tice: great gag, Bob, especially about a car-toon.
Luann: No one seems concerned that Puddles, who’s been house-broken for decades, has started peeing in the house, even on his owner. This could be a sign of some underlying urinary infection, mental decline on his part, or some unresolved stress in his life. I would advise them to get on up the road to Santa Royale and have him checked out. I’m sure Dr. Ed would make time for him.
CS: So that’s old Pam in the photo album pictures. Kind of like how Blessed Saint Lisa looks nothing like High School Lisa. Wonder why they aren’t colored in sepia tone like all the other flashbacks? Crank was a lot uglier and meaner looking in the old days, with bushier eyebrows, a hawk’s beak nose, and pronounced chin nuts.
@Ukulele Ike: #94:
“Full Dorothy Fuldheim”
When Crankshaft first premiered in the late 70s the fully-permed Art Garfunkle look was real popular, for both men and women. I remember coming to work one Monday morning in ’79 or ’80 and five co-workers showed up with permed hair, three of them male.
@Arabella: #133: What tipped me off that one of our older dogs was diabetic was the constant drinking and peeing in the house.
MW: Ed! What we need to discuss is whether you spayed Mitzi while you were in there! Obviously she shouldn’t have any more puppies!
@Guillermo el chiclero: I hope they didn’t pee on you. Any unusual behavior in dogs (or cats) especially older pets, can be significant, except in cartoons about clueless characters. I’ll admit this was highly satisfying, even if it did raise health concerns about Puddles.
@Guillermo el chiclero: Remember how faaaaabulous Gabe Kaplan looked in Welcome Back Kotter?
@Horace Broon: Re JP – “It’s exactly the right combination of dumb, convoluted, and trite.”
Don’t forget contrived.
@Lord Flatulence: Extra Virgin Mayo
@Arabella:
Luann- Aren’t they outside? She told him to do his bidness.
RIP Kris Kristofferson. He was 88.
@Guillermo el chiclero: RIP
John Ashton also passed away today.
MW: Shame that Dr. Ed has to learn about Estelle’s great throwing arm this way. The vets’ network softball team could really use her come springtime.
6C: Loving Isabella Bannerman’s idea for a new Village People.
C-Shaft: Davis tracing over the old character models makes it clear that Crankshaft got a little work done in the nose department. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that his campaign of self-improvement so closely resembles Frances McDormand’s in Burn After Reading.
DT: Mr. Bribery, who resembled Joel Grey with a broken neck, eventually got hauled off to prison like any other schmo. Kind of weird for the guy who had the Ring of Invincibity.
Dustin: Well she hasn’t had a boyfriend named Max yet but I’m sure that after a few weeks of Fitch an 80s relic who’s just a snarky head on a TV screen looks pretty good. You’re on deck, Mr. Headroom.
JP: If the illness was long then it should have shown up on that CIA scan of the Declan family’s whole existence, no? Or did it just roll down to an overburdened intern?
Luann: Careful, Puddles. That’s what got Aaron Hill bounced out of the strip.
Phantom: Never mind the arquebus. I want to know which Phantom acquired that sweet foosball table?
SFx: Shady meant to be in the truck when it went over. Only instinct made him jump out at the last minute. Shady’s ignoring a cry for help.
@Peanut Gallery: #39
I love My Cage! They’ve subtly referenced other comics in their own strip many times.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: re: Phantom: All is explained at post #80.
@taig: Come on, you can’t equate John Ashton with the guy who wrote “Me and Bobby McGee.”
@Ukulele Ike: I never tried to equate them. I was just noting the passing of someone else.
Kristofferson had less of an impact on me, because of my age. I remember him mostly as Whistler from the Blade trilogy, and I’m pretty safe in guessing that wasn’t the highlight of his career.
John Ashton also happened to be on my mind, since I just recently rewatched Midnight Run.
On the one hand, I appreciated that Six Chix actually has two full panels containing actual art, and not just a few art-like sketches surrounded by a blank void (even if the “joke” is pretty insubstantial). On the other hand, today’s Marvin contains only 4 panels that are actually needed to tell its joke, meaning that more than half of it is filler. And not just throwaway panel at the top filler, but two panels that are just a dog walking around not saying anything.
@142 Guillermo el chiclero:
So, Willie Nelson is the only remaining member of The Highwaymen.
@Ukulele Ike: Ah, so it is. Well, I’m sure they could get a few months’ Sunday strips out of it anyway.
@astroboy: Scary Gary crossover?
The fantasy hero formally known as Prince?
@taig: John Ashton also happened to be on my mind, since I just recently rewatched Midnight Run.
________________________
Not to be confused with John Astin, who was the creepy, kooky, and absolutely spooky Gomez Addams.
@astroboy: Jan in the Pan got a new gig? Good for her.
@Sequitur: I wouldn’t claim that Head On A Table is a really great name for a rock band, but I’ve certainly heard worse.
MW: Yelling and gesticulating at your partner in a medical waiting room, with ring-hurling as the finale, is so very un-classy. I don’t see Estelle’s reputation coming back from this.
Congratulations, Estelle. You are now Wilburine.
@156 Poteet:
Maybe not a great band name but it might be an interesting album title.
@157 Poteet:
I read ahead and Mary’s got apple cinnamon muffins. Can they fix anything?
Early Monday comics
Crankshaft is really becoming comical in its histrionic self-stroking melodrama.
Is that Kamala Harris giving the news in the new Gil Thorp?
@160 Gladly, the cross-eyed bear:
Speaking of Early Monday comics, Berkeley Mews has a comical sight.
@GarrisonSkunk:
Marvin! Watch out!!
TFW you find out someone you wanted to marry is a busy adult with many important things to do am I right
Mary Worth: Chucking an engagement ring into your fiance’s chest isn’t anywhere near as compelling as projectile-vomiting turkey vultures, but I’ll take what I can get from my Sunday funnies.
Marvin: You know what’s embarrassing? Taking what could have been a daily strip-sized gag and stretching it to fit a Sunday format with unnecessarily repetitive drawings of the principal that serve no storytelling utility. Bill Watterson weeps.