Sunday is for lore
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Judge Parker, 10/6/24
You might recall my earlier irritation that both Sophie and Neddy were involved in family romance drama structurally similar enough that I thought maybe they were falling in with the same dramatic family? Well, it turns out not, but after Sophie experienced some family drama and rejected her initial suitor for his hunkier (?) older brother, we’re now entering a scenario where Neddy, attempting to repair her fiance’s family drama, is discovering that Things Are Not All They Seem, and also that said fiance’s older (?) brother is also hunkier (??). More on this story as events warrant! (So not very soon, honestly.)
Shoe, 10/6/24
You know, you’d think that after spending literally 20 years complaining about how the comic strip Shoe has more or less forgotten that all its characters are birds, I would’ve pretty much mentally explored all aspects of the Shoeniverse’s whole bird-person deal. But this strip made me realize that until today I had never contemplated an extremely key question: Are the Shoe bird-people characters the size of people, or the size of birds? Because a spider big enough to seem menacing to a bird is still scary, I guess, but significantly less scary than a spider big enough to menace a person (or a person-sized bird).
The Phantom, 10/6/24
Speaking of lore you’ve never thought much about, do you think of superheroes as having exactly one costume that they wear all the time (or at least all the time when they aren’t in their secret identity), or multiple instances of the costume, like a closet full of them, so they can clean them and reduce wear and tear? Today’s revelation that the Skull Cave has a “Costume Chamber” doesn’t explicitly answer this question, but it does imply that in an “only one costume” scenario, each Phantom begins his tenure by ritually stripping the outfit off the corpse of his predecessor, which honestly I wouldn’t put past them.
52 replies to “Sunday is for lore”
JP:
“I don’t believe this…”
This is what fans of Judge Parker have been saying since August, 2016.
Shoe: Also, a lot of birds eat spiders — so wouldn’t a giant spider be, like, a gourmet feast to these folks? The only thing to be scared of is too many leftovers!
Mary Worth: “What’s in these muffins, Mary? They’re so good!” “I used an old tried-and-true recipe. Wheat, sugar, bran, blueberries, my neighbors’ tears, and 100% pure, unadulterated self-righteousness. You know, same as always!”
Pluggers: You’re a plugger if you avoid alcohol all day long. (Until you get home, but that six-pack doesn’t count if you’re binge-watching “Yellowstone.”)
The Phantom-“Stop me if I’ve told this tale before.”
FC-A long “talk” with the lady next door.
MW-Mary loads up her muffins with a lot of thc.
JP: I know Prince Harry wanted a more normal life in America, but I didn’t realise he’d moved in with some random WASP family. I can’t imagine he’ll stay long – for someone born and raised in the wealth and splendour of royalty, the Parker-Drivers are probably a bit too spoiled and entitled.
The Phantom. “Funny you should say captive. Hold that thought… and these fuzzy handcuffs.”
The Ghost Who Bores — The story of the second Phantom is a long and uninteresting one–and here it is (h/t the Simpsons)
Shoe’d — The comics section consisted of one enormous Spiderman cartoon!
JP:
It’s nice of Michael Fassbender and Laura Dern to be providing Neddy with this explanation to clear the air.
Phantom:
I wonder if the Phantom ever gets a body rash from wearing that tight outfit — you know, like hockey players do sometimes.
MW: “Estelle, you’re a woman, so you’re wrong. It doesn’t matter that your boyfriend isn’t a veterinary surgeon and that he wasn’t even working on the day he decided he had to take this case instead of sending the patient to an emergency vet. I’m the only woman who’s allowed to be right, got it?”
MW:
“Jung girl, get out of my mind…”
— Gary Puckett, to Carl’s daughter Agathe
DtM: To emphasize the point, Dennis rents his jacket. Menace level: Biblical.
CS: Wait, the story’s about burning the books? That’s a lot easier than trying to burn bookstores! Thanks, lady, you’ve given our faceless, unthinking mob a great idea!
“My contemporary Sigmund took a tumble on an icy sidewalk outside his home in Vienna.”
— Carl Jung
No. Don’t say it, Narration Box.
“Yep. It was a Freudian slip!”
JP: “It all started when Declan bought a used 1958 Plymouth Fury…”
MW – Estelle adds a GULP to her litany of SOBs.
Phantom: I, for one, have so many questions about the “Hall of Costumes.” Which Phantom began it? If it was a later one than the second or third, did he know what his predecessors wore because they provided some kind of description, or was he just guessing? Are any of these originals that have somehow been preserved by keeping them deep in this cave, away from the hot and humid jungle air, or are they all replicas?
Also, for some reason I have been under the impression that Bangalla was in East Africa. If so, why would a Phantom be involved in events that occurred in West Africa?
That having been said, that the strip is actually acknowledging that significant historical events occurred in sub-Saharan Africa before it was completely colonized puts it a few steps ahead of 90% of modern media, so kudos. Complain about the colonialist/imperialist implications of the premise all you like, but the strip really isn’t reactionary at all.
So, I’m guessing we’re expected to think that Neddy was incredibly stupid to believe her fiancé claiming that the entire family worked to help frame him for a crime he didn’t commit for Reasons, but she wouldn’t be incredibly stupid, and neither would the readers, for immediately accepting that no, he actually did commit the crime he was supposedly framed for, as told by the person who supposedly framed him for it? And on the off chance she doesn’t immediately believe him we’re expected to think this makes her all the more incredibly stupid? Just want to make sure I have all this straight.
MW: “What’s in these muffins, Mary? They’re so good!”
“Definitely not truth serum.”
Dustin leaves the reader hanging with the count two-balls two-strikes.
Mary Worth Mashup: What Estelle wants to do.
Shoe noticed that Crankshaft slipped up with an awfully wordy entry, and is gunning for the Laziest Sunday Strip Award.
Just when you least expect it, here comes JUNGLE JIM! (from June 17, 1934)
Marvin: It’s cute because to a child Marvin’s age the twenty or thirty years the average serial killer is active before getting caught seems like a lifetime.
And Dick Tracy is back to their MINIT MYSTERIES for the next two weeks.
JP: “And after we tell you the truth, we’re going to have to kill you. Sorry, those are the rules.”
Shoe: Which do you think the writer just saw: Arachnophobia (1990) or either of Sting (2024) or Infested (2024)? Trick question, it was actually Horrors of Spider Island (1960).
Phantom: This could have been three panels, with the third panel being Phantom’s lady friend klonking him on the back of the head with the arquebus while he was being patronizing.
Shoe: A typical domestic bird’s ‘bathroom’ consists of a sheet of newsprint at the bottom of the cage which makes any creature that would dare roll it up pretty gross, or badass, depending on your point of view. Would that Spider’s name happen to be Marvin?
Fred Basset Spanish to English,
Frazz : Caufield is in love with the smell of his own farts, what a surprise.
Also, there’s no epileptic in his class to tell him they DON’T smell like burnt toast? …too far?…*************
Mary Worth : that close-up of Libby and Pierre’s horrified looks as Estelle rants about how the health and wellbeing of animals is totally unimportant to her… perfect, no notes.
*************
Phantom : … I could have sworn that it had been implied/shown that the Phantom’s outfit had always been the same throughout the centuries, with no variations… Though I guess retconning the 17th century Phantom to have worn a less anachronistic swashbuckler outfit instead of a spandex bodysuit is not a bad idea…
************
Slylock Fox (differences panel) : I did not know I would be this intrigued by the prospect of a Mutt&Jeff-themed fighting game.
…I wonder if some of the Golden Age superheroes they shared magazines with back in the 1930s-40s appear as Guest Fighters…
So it looks like Phantom costumes alter, according to the era of their tenure. Can’t wait to see the one with bell bottoms and platform shoes.
Frazz: Caulfield actually apologized?!? Did Frazz accidentally hit him on the head with a mop?
Luann: I hate the constant beeping(?!) that my phone does!
CS: NO! IT’S NOT POETIC AT ALL! IT’S F*&(ING STUPID!!!
(sorry, I’m going to smoke a kilo of weed and see if I can calm down)
9CL: It’s surprising Brooke didn’t use his young lovers for this milieu.
Assuming, of course, that those are mannequins.
MW: Now I’m empathizing with Stelle.
Dustin: Haaaa! Gay panic was so fresh and funny in 2010!
FC: “I’ll let everyone know my dad is a lazy drunkard!”
Zits: I enjoy the absurdity of this strip. No notes.
@Baja Gaijin: Yes! More of this, please!
JP: Declan’s brother (I know he has a name, but I’m not willing to look it up right now) initially believed that Neddy was part of Declan’s latest scheme, but after a few minutes of conversation he’s (correctly) concluded that she’s not smart enough for that.
Phantom: I’m just wondering when a cape ceased to be a part of a Phantom’s traditional ensemble. Did one of them Isadora Duncan himself on a tree branch while chasing down miscreants in the jungle?
@19 Baja Gaijin:
My, my. So much pent up violence.
MW: “What’s in these muffins, Mary? They’re so good!”
“Oh, the usual. Eye of newt, toe of frog, leg of lizard.”
Phantom: The air quality in the Skull Cave could be much improved if they would ditch those burning torches for battery-operated lanterns or head lamps. It would also decrease the safety risk of carrying around open flames. They might be able to save 15% or more on their homeowners insurance.
What kind of bird? An ostrich is a lot bigger than a human sized bird.
Wary Morth:
“The distilled sweet, sweet agony I wrung out of 10000 meddles, Eshtelle.”
C’shaft: Tom Batiuk has the unique gift of making any position he argues unappealing, regardless of how favorably disposed one is to it. I’m a pretty staunch freedom of information advocate, but after a month of this arc I’m not only okay with this mob burning books, but with using them to make a pyre to burn Lillian and Crankshaft as well.
Dustin: Let’s see, what could make Dustin’s gross dating behavior even more unappealing? I know, how about giving him a gay panic moment?
MW: “Yes, but he was supposed to use those do to whatever I wanted him to!”
Sunday comics used to mean something.
@Liam:
#3. MW:. Meddlin’ Mary’s muffins aren’t working automatically for good reason. Apple– in OCTOBER? Has she never heard of Pumpkin Pie Spice regulations?
@taig: Ph – But this is a Sunday strip. Just think of all the other plcws they could have shown her clonking him with those extra panels!
@Anonymous:
The didn’t invent spandex until well after 1591. ;-)
SlyF – This scene occurs just after Ed blows off his and Estelle’s breakup date at the local coffee shop, saying he had to treat a fish with pneumonia. Smitty’s giving an accurate account of his conversation with his vet, Dr. Ed. I think I may be shipping Estelle and Slick Smitty, because why the hell not?
Family Circlejerk – Omitted is the long shower Bil took after his long talk with the lady next door.
Fudge Packer – It looks like Declan-brother is wearing a merkin on his face.
MW: “Mary, is there anything in these muffins that will make me look less like a toddler in a tantrum?”
RMMD: Lou comes into the diner every day, so that he and Wanda can relive the terrible transgressions of Mud Murphy.
@Activist: Mary was “Apple Mary” before Pumpkin Pie Spice was invented.
@Bob Tice: To be fair, I was saying that way before then too (The pre-Ces premise of the strip after all was a judge and his extended family (both literal and metaphorical) benefited from all sorts of “crazy” schemes and mayhem because they were all a bunch of rich privileged assholes who were apparently immune to consequences, so “incredulity” was kinda baked into the comic from the get-go)
@richardf8: I’m on board with that.
@2+2=7:
Very true. But at least the old strip wasn’t (a) gratuitously and graphically violent like it has been since August, 2016 (throat-slitting; garroting; shootings; blood-spattering of all sorts) or (b) relentlessly political (and tilted in one direction at that.) And lapses in logic and unfinished story lines abound. It simply isn’t fun to read anymore.
Crank: The silent crowd shifts uncomfortably, hanging their heads in shame. “This old woman is very wise,” they murmur among themselves, nodding their heads.
Batuik puts his pen down with a satisfied air. “The Pulitzer is as good as mine.”
SFx: Well, there’s certainly no reason an exotic tropical fish salesman would know fish don’t have lungs.
6 Chx: Xunise is ready for Halloween fun! This year she’s going as Joan of Arc.