Crime, love, etc.
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Mother Goose and Grimm, 5/29/25
Look, obviously I’m not asking that a comic strip that deliberately has fun with a character that’s in some ways like a person and in some ways like an animal be 100% realistic or even consistent. I’m just saying that we should acknowledge that a dog telling a dentist “Sometimes I have chunks of human flesh stuck between my teeth” is fairly menacing! Like not in a cute Dennis way, but in a genuine “I attack and seriously wound those who irritate me” way.
Rex Morgan, M.D., 5/29/25
An aging roots country star wearing colorful western gear silently ruminates over his past failures as a husband while contemplating a beige-ish blob of fried (?) diner food he has speared on the end of his fork. Is this the perfectly representative Rex Morgan, M.D., strip? Well, it doesn’t have Rene Belluso trying to pull off some obvious scam, but it also doesn’t have Rex doing any doctor stuff, so it’s pretty close.
Dick Tracy, 5/29/25
“Remember, Sam. People with criminal histories? Criminals. People without criminal histories? Also probably criminals, and talented ones too. Now let’s go down to the courthouse and get arrest warrants for everyone in town, including ourselves.”
153 replies to “Crime, love, etc.”
Is that Jimmy Olsen?
RMMD:
“I don’t know if that means the odds are in my favor with this one or not. ‘Course, every marriage is an independent probabilistic event, so what happened in any given marriage ain’t gonna have any statistical effect on any succeedin’ marriage!”
RMMD:
“To protect my assets, maybe I oughta get a pre-nup, and then also record another hit song to give me some cash on the if-come. I’ve got it! — I’ll do a tune on the deterioration of an upstate New York city, and I’ll call it ‘The Night They Drove Poughkeepsie Down’ !”
RMMD – This guy’s vibes are so off-putting that the waitress filled his coffee mug to the absolute limit so she wouldn’t have to come back and refill it later.
MGG – There’s something tragic and harrowing about Grimm’s expression here. He wants to stop biting mailmen, but he can’t help himself. All he can do is floss the linen threads from his teeth after he’s torn into the seats of their pants.
“Actually, we can’t do any of that, Sam. We’re out to lunch! Wait there, Justice!”
DT: Okay, I know Sam is one of the few Jewish characters in mainstream comics. My question — does the Mogen David in the upper corner of his computer indicate that he’s searching “Jewish criminal” sites, or is it from a niche manufactuer?
I AM impressed at Buck’s eggs having the ability to go from sunny up to scrambled. Perhaps, like….his psyche! Is that a deep dive, or….no, it’s just that Rex Morgan sucks.
MW: Realizing at long last that Belle has to go, Wilbur surreptitiously activates his Escher Disposal System, and as Belle goes through the door, the kitchen walls, windows, and cabinets suddenly contract, compressing Belle into a wafer-thin version of her former self that Wilbur can easily flush away.
Blondie-“If I was to throw you out the window do you think you could hit that new car in the parking lot, Dagwood?”
MW-“Ignore me when it’s my life but when it’s the life of your fish,” Dawn angrily exclaims.
FC-Daddy needs to have a good cry over spilt milk.
RMMD: “My previous marriages were a disaster;” thinks Truck “but they say the sun also rises.”
RMMD: Maybe this is leading up to Rex holding a “How Not To Be A Crappy Husband” seminar, in the nick of time.
MW: Wilbur: ” Belle IS bad, Dawnie! She tried to hurt WILLA!”
Dawn: Pushes Wilbur’s head into the fish tank and holds it there until he breathes no more.
DtM: “Sure glad I got dressed up and came to this nice restaurant to be pestered by a grubby child whose parents have zero control over him.”
@Hibbleton: The sun also rises. But my dick won’t.
DT: “I’ll take care of these and thanks again for letting me hang up these doll clothes to dry in the office.”
MGG “And I retract them between meals!”
RMMD My God, I wonder how long he’s been sitting like that with his fork just hovering six inches from his face? Do you think that hashbrown is still even warm?
DT “Elsewhere”, a ventriloquist dummy brought to life visits a NORAD station. God I love this strip…
MG&G – Let’s see: mouth mirror, dentist chair, smock (actually a lab coat, close enough), and gaping yaw. You’ve hit all the iconography; I really don’t see the need to have the word “dentist” spelled backward on the window.
DT: The coats hanging in panel 2 are so funny. Dick doesn’t keep Sam on the team for his detective skills or shooting ability. No, he mostly just needs a sidekick who makes him look really tall by comparison. Same deal as Slylock and Max or Mary Worth and Wilbur.
JP: We’re finally going to learn what was up with that ‘Declan’ guy, and it’s going to be convoluted and stupid.
RMMD: This would be an awfully convenient time for Truck to have a massive coronary right there at the table, and Mud pick Wanda up on the rebound…
MW: Three words: No shit, Sherlock!!
MW/RMMD: The character of Belle is written out of Wilbur’s life, but the actress quickly lands a new role in Rex Morgan as one of Truck’s ex-wives! Has she come for money — or murder!!
CS: So you invited yourself to his house, caused a traffic incident, his wife let you in, and then you called him 14 times? I hope this Roger Bollen this gives you some tips on writing narrative.
MW: @Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars! Do you represent those amphibious land clams in the aquarium? If so, kudos on securing such effective, straight-man talent! They make a perfect counterpoint to the emotive Willa, and give weight and gravitas to the flighty and even absurd performances of the two-leggers in the scene. Also, they could come in handy as a blunt instrument heh-heh.
MW: SO…now that Wilbur does see that MAYYYYYBE Belle is dangerous, does he ACTUALLY end it with her, or does he get gaslit into staying with her longer than he ever should and try to change things about himself, like stopping wearing glasses and not eating like a slob?
Not that we’ve seen that storyline recently or anything…
Josh’s riff reminds me of back in the day, there was a recurring plot in cartoons, where one character would be given a position of authority, get drunk with power and literally arrest every character in the show, and then arrest themselves out of shame for what they’ve done.
The only one I can completely remember was a U.S Acres segment in Garfield and Friends but I know that there have been many other examples.
“Icarus Lovejoy doesn’t have a rap sheet”
*She hands Sam a piece of paper*
Sam reads: “Fly into the sun, sizzle sizzle… Fo Shizzle…”
Rex Morgan, M.D.: A cowboy’s only friend’s the Terry Beatty box / His marriages all ended up in detox / So Wanda, if he asks, don’t refuse / Let’s all help him sing the roots country blues
Dick Tracy: The existence of a yellow coat and a green coat imply an equally-sized blue coat, now missing. Get a warrant while you’re out, Lee: someone’s broken the law — the Law of Color.
Also Dick Tracy: “So just what are you trying to say, little man? You don’t like Zep?” [Nods]
HtH: is this an homage to the recently deceased Phil Robertson?
@Banana Jr. 6000:
I like how this story isn’t about a piece of advice or encouragement Batton Thomas got from Roger Bollen, it’s all about how he was a nuisance, an overeager newbie that just imposed himself on the more experienced cartoonist.
…I hope Batiuk closes the week with something like “So, at one point, Roger was doing three comics at once, and then *I* was doing three comics at once too, so Roger called me and said ‘STOP DOING EVERYTHING I DO GODDAMMIT’ “, just so the “loser new kid starts stalking and copying another kid in desperate attempt to fit in” vibe is solidified.
MW: Someting tells me Batts isn’t going to go quietly into that good night. Wilbur better hide all the kitchen knives before he gives her the heave-ho.
RMMD-“Thank god she’s got looks because this woman can’t cook worth a damn.”
@Bob Tice: But given the common factor of the same groom, those marriages *aren’t* independent events – the main question is whether we can build the Bayesian prior probability from just *his* past experience, or whether we need to look at the successful % of marriages his exes have had with *others*. Then we can apply Bayesian analysis for the next marriage observation!
MW: “Willa…I’m talking to a fish. I think the readers were right about me…I’m insane!”
*goes to the wiki for Blaze*
*reads the sentences “Blaze Rize approached the new Mr. Crime and offered to work for him in exchange for the location of Flakey Biscuits.”*
*gets up on the nearest chair to holler RETVRN*
Dick Tracy: “Really good thieves don’t have criminal records.”
Okay, no notes. That’s exactly how the cops I’ve known think about suspects. If anything, it’s too real!
“Blaze”? That’s BS. If her name isn’t actually “Lady Sam” then what even are comics?
***
Dude, you have muttonchops. If Wanda can get past those, she can get past anything. You’ll be okay.
Mother Goose & Grimm: Dogs love eating; it’s a big part of their personality. There must be something better we can drop into this punchline.
“I floss after every kibble.” (no)
“I floss after every cat” (better… but weird and violent)
“I floss after every pile of–” OKAY, NEVER MIND, THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE CORE CONCEPT
MW-“For a woman who supposedly drove drunk off the Aldo Kelrast Memorial Curve why was she tied up in the trunk of the car?”
MG&G – I really hate that “let’s just re-use the same artwork but slightly zoomed in” gambit. It’s lazy and has become all too prevalent in the comics.
Also, one of the Dick Tracy cops is literally in an out lesbian relationship with an ex-criminal who she met through undercover work, who was granted immunity? That’s kind of interesting!
DT: Sam is consistent – always double check that the person who called isn’t a perp. Good work Sam.
JP: Is it a romantic issue, or another hacker issue?
MW: Wilbie now goes into a decision making process. He lists the pros and cons of Belle. Cons – Belle MAYBE a nogoodnik and pose a threat to Willa, and MAYBE MAYBE Dawnie was right. MAYBE. Pros: regular intercourse and sexy time every single day and night. So hard – he’ll take the list and bounce it off MW.
RMMD:So was Truck’s penny pinching what broke his prior marriages?
RMMD: Hey, look at the left side of that plate. Is that… Ernie Bushmiller’s three rocks?? I’d like to think so, but I doubt that the “creative” team devotes that level of care to the product.
H&L: “What’s for dinner? Something which dissolved the last spoon I stirred it with, so I had to get a clean one.”
Blondie is months and months behind the curve. Compared to their usual years, or decades, today’s entry is fairly au courant.
Beetle Bailey: Radical comic talking about cutting military spending? Walker Comic-Like Substance Amalgamated will get onto someone’s shit list.
@CanuckDownSouth:
Easy for you to say!
MW: “See you later;” says Belle as she exits through…a waist high curtained window in a door frame? Voting booth? Loading dock?
H&L: Same dialogue but replace Ditto with Hi and the comic takes on a whole different tone.
GT: We take a break from his soccer “action” for an onomatopoeia dance off!
@Anonymous: Batton’s self-entitled pushiness is the entire joke, but somehow neither Batton nor Skip realizes this. So it just goes on and on and on with increasingly awful, pointless, disjointed anecdotes. I hope Friday or Saturday’s strip is the person at the next table standing up and reciting the Steve Martin “have a point” speech from Planes Trains and Automobiles. With most of the rental car counter speech mixed in.
@Charterstoned: re MW: No, those Land Clam Pebbles are repped by the Rock and Mineral Guy, who handles those large specimens along the Charterstone pathways. Despite all precautions, they sometimes reproduce… and we offered to place some of the offspring in with Willa. They’ll get moved back to the path when they get some size. Meanwhile, they offer some companionship for Willa, and maybe some protection, too.
Would you look at her expressive face? Is that not ACTING at its finest? The reactive trauma from her out of water experience, the hopeful realization that maybe Wilbur has a clue, plus the fear that’s she’s not out of danger as long as Belle is there. She makes it look so real!!
Despite what you may read on the internets and in the gossip rags, Stellan couldn’t be more happy for Willa’s success! He is so proud of her accomplishment and acclaim, and does not feel it overshadows his death and funeral extravaganza AT ALL!! And those rumors about his “swimming in forbidden waters” is balderdash! You can see *anything* on the internets…
Why does Blaze look like Jimmy Olsen from one of the several stories in which our intrepid reporter goes undercover as a girl? Or is this a hidden crossover?
@Colonial: OK – since it is not a handball in the box, I guess Milford’s goalie forgot her goalie bib (which identifies her clearly as someone who can use her hands).
FC: Bil buys his milk in British gallons to make up for the spillage.
MG&G: The good news is Grimm is taking care of his teeth. The bad news is he only does it after biting the mailman, ensuring the maximum possibility for infection.
RMMD: “I suppose I could reflect on my past marriages in a little more detail to see if there were any circumstances or behaviors which led to their favor and which I could learn from, but I’d rather leave things up to chance! More exciting that way.”
“I don’t know if that means the odds are in my flavor with this one or not. I’d love to give her a wedding bland, but maybe that’d be tasteless.”
Rex Morgan, Key of D – Everyone knows you throw the first pancake out* because it’s ugly. Let that be a metaphor for your multiple marriages.
*Or gives it to the dog.
MG&G – HA-HA – Dogs bite mailmen! You know what else they do? They eat cat turds. I hope he brushes after eating cat turds. Otherwise, it would be kind of gross….
RMMD – I’ve never been a fan of mandatory three strikes crime policies, but I could get behind a three strikes and you’re out limit on marriages….
DT – And today, the best performance in a supporting role award goes to…the coat rack….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
@Pozzo: He’s looking for love and suspects on J-Date.
C’shaft: Battom is why number blocking was invented.
GT: Sorry, got distracted by that car accident that happened off-panel.”
JP: Abby, the fact that neither of your adoptive daughters wants to confide in you is very much a you problem…
MW: “Thank God that I now have personal experience with Belle’s toxic behavior, because there was literally no other way I could validate Dawn’s feelings about her! What was I supposed to do, just listen when she told me she felt threatened and unsafe?”
MW: Again, Dawn is referred to in the past tense. She’s so dead.
Rex Morgan: Of course you’ll be a disappointment, you old fool. Your new bride won’t care because she will be MRS. Old Fool and not a fat lonely spinster….I am predicting Old Fool is going to have a coronary or something at the wedding…luckily Rex Morgan will be there! If he can tear his gaze away from the delicious yummy looking cake…
@Old School Allie Cat: Hah, I thought I was just a terrible cook (despite all of the later Pancakes coming out fine)
But then again, there was that line from Everybody Loves Raymond, where Allie was making pancakes.
Allie: They’ll be ready in a minute Grandpa, I just have to throw out the weird ones.
Frank: The stomach does not know weird.
Damn I want to make pancakes now. But I lost the recipe, I think. I took a photo of the recipe just in case, but the photo ended up deleted from my tablet in a big cleanup, which I stupidly accepted. But it might have saved to my online photo Cloud. I don’t know if I had the cloud set-up back when I took that photo, and I really don’t want to sift through thousands of images to see if it may or may not be there.
But that was the only pancake recipe I ever liked.
REX MORGAN M.D.: “My previous marriages were a disaster. I don’t know if the odds are in my favor with this one or not.”
Yeah probably not. We can tell, Truck, because you feel the need to sullenly keep this apprehension to yourself instead of sharing with the person you’re pledging to intimately trust as your life partner. Something you’ve already demonstrated a habit of doing (Gee, wonder if that’s why your previous marriages failed, Truck?*)
*Ok, ok. He’s perpetual freeloading probably have a lot to do with it too.
@The Rambling Otter: I found the recipe! *Triumphant music*
But we’re out of syrup…
@Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars!: Uh, Sid – this is NOT acting!! I’m afraid for my life here! Belle almost ATE me! And now I have to do a close-up with Wilbur-face… this is getting to be just too much for me to handle!!
These baby Land Clams are a nuisance, snapping and popping as they grow… and the whining! I’m not sure they’d be much “protection” if I needed it, since I can’t LIFT AND THROW THEM! Honestly, Sid. You’re as clueless as Wilbur sometimes…
What’s that about Stellan….??
@Bob Tice: #2
Truck aced his courses in differential calculus and probability & statistics, but after hearing a lecture by Joseph Campbell, followed his bliss and became a roots country singer. Go figure. (ha ha…”figure”…get it???? :-p )
JP, panel one: “Fine, fine….just stop touching me.”
@The Rambling Otter: #23
Good one, ha ha!!
Mother Goose and Grimm – That dentist is now worried that stereotype-reinforcing Grimm is going to chase his car when he leaves work.
Rex Morgan, MD – I’m not saying Wanda should have to put up with a bad marriage, but at her age her only other option is Mud Murphy.
Dick Tracy – In crime-ridden, fascist Neo-Chicago, the absence of a criminal record is more suspicious than having one. A criminal rap sheet, even for minor offenses, gives the state leverage over a person, while an honest man is a threat to power. Police cannot justify their own corruption when someone stands out as upholding the values society claims to hold, but everyone knows it doesn’t. If he isn’t guilty of a crime, they will have to invent one, because the innocent are a threat to the public order.
Mother Goose and Grimm: Inside Grimm are two wolves, one proficient in nature red in tooth and claw, adept in the ways of intimidation and psychological warfare, easily able to frighten a human into motionlessness before he moves in for the kill. The other one is a wolf, just doing wolf things, maybe he hunts deer, I don’t know.
MW: Even Willa caught on faster than you did, you self absorbed tub of goo. But of course you only care about the situation now that you’re personally affected rather than listening to your only child. You know, the one person who actually cares about you despite the many ways that she shouldn’t.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV:
You owe me for the drink that went out my nose laughing, man
I really just need to stand in the middle of the field and yell: When was the last time Rex Morgan was a doctor?! Or did anything but whine about cake?!
DT: If the Chief makes Sam keep a little Star of David displayed on his computer screen, does Lee have to keep a small lesbian symbol on hers? Or the symbol for “Lesbian into Jimmy Olsen Cosplay?” And would that be a little bow tie over a vibrator?
MARY WORTH: Hee! I love Willa’s expression here.
You’re confiding in a fish, thinks Willa in stunned apprehension, there certainly IS an insane person in this house all right (glub glub)!
MARY WORTH (2): I don’t know why everyone thinks Dawn is going to be mad about Wilbur coming to his realization based purely on Willa’s survival instead of Dawn’s. Like, hel-lo?! A man gave her validation (granted it was a man she can’t sleep with this time, but, eh, close enough for now)! Sometimes y’all don’t be looking at the big picture!
@Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars!: By “forbidden waters”, are you by chance referring to Rock Creek? And if so, could that floating goldfish I spied on my morning walk actually have been STELLAN?
@2+2=7: Yeah, Dawn is so desperate for male attention and validation that she’ll forgive Wilbur for anything. Even if he arranges for her to have her organs harvested for the black market while he drinks Shirley Temples in the casino, she’ll act like nothing happened.
MW: Seriously, what kind of a room is Belle trying to slide into? Is it a closet with a window? Are those curtains in the door, or is it a cabinet? And if the room is actually as shallow as it appears, how is she going to fit inside? And what the hell happened to her right arm??
Mother Goose: Is the third panel just a zoomed in version of the second panel? Seriously? Look, I’m not exactly expecting Picasso-level stuff here, but the artist could at least be assed enough to draw the punchline of the comic.
Rex Morgan: Truck, your marriage to Wanda is gonna implode the very instant it dawns on her that she passed up on fucking Mud Mountain Murphy – the fun, pre-lobotomy version – to spend the rest of her life with you. That’s like realizing you chose a pack of expired gum over an offer of one million dollars.
DT: Blaze? Well, I’m not dumb, but I can’t understand why she walks like a woman and talks like a man
@Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars!: “You can see *anything* on the internets…”
I realized, there’s probably furries out there who have anthromorphized Stellan and Willa and drawing them in sexy scenarios and poses.
THEN I realized that there are probably non-furries out there who draw Wilbur in sexy scenarios and poses.
WHY IS THE FISH EXAMPLE PREFERABLE!??
@The Rambling Otter: Everything is preferable to Wilbur.
Bliss – The real reason is that the olive eye gives him the creeps.
Crankshaft – Instead of obsessively stalking a more successful cartoonist, maybe Batton/Batiuk should use that energy to come up with some halfway decent writing. Now would be a good time to start.
Batton’s behavior is in endearing quirks territory.
JP – Neddy isn’t worrying about her love life. She’s trying to figure out how to resurrect the clothing factory/sweatshop that perished in the sinkhole. “Let’s see – the shipping containers were too damaged to use, although I could probably bribe or threaten the inspector again. Or maybe I could browbeat that seller into giving them to me at a loss again, although the current writer is more interested in alleged witty repartee than having undeserved riches fall into my lap. Oh, well, I’ll figure it out. Rocky Ledge could give me money again. I wonder if the Chubbs are still around to run the place. Or did they die in the sinkhole collapse? If they’re not around, I’m sure that Snooty could take over.”
Mary Worth & Ripley’s – I can’t decide which is more repulsive – Wilbur in panel two or the blobfish.
FC – WTF? I ordered a chai latte.
Dumps milk on the floor.
@Pozzo: I think that’s supposed to be a representation of a sheriff’s badge. He’s on a website that shows criminal history, and that’s probably the site’s logo.
@Lauralot: Don’t get my hopes up.
@The Rambling Otter: Be sure to get real maple syrup, not that stuff made with corn syrup.
@I speak Jive: I’m Canadian ;-) I’ll be sure to find some
@The Rambling Otter: I left the room for a bit, then realized what I had typed.
I ran back to delete my comment before people’s faces start melting off of their skulls like in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
But I was too late, my comment is stuck there forever with that disturbing mental image of possible Wilbur scenarios.
I deeply apologize.
Mother Goose and Grimm-“I’ve got bigger chunks of mailman between my teeth than you.”
Or:
Thank god she can cook because this woman’s got no looks.
Grimm looks concerned about that revelation
JP: What happened to Neddy in the last panel? She looks ten or eleven years old.
It doesn’t appear to me that panel 3 is a zoomed in version of panel 2. I see slight differences in the dentist. I could be wrong but I see them. The mouth and eyes specifically. I also feel dirty defending this strip.
Gil Thorp: Huff … hufff … huff .. Crash! Oof! Best dialog of the year.
Dick Tracy: Elsewhere, the police dispatcher enjoys an exciting game of Pong.
Pluggers: Meanwhile at The Golden Corral.
Pluggers: Pluggers are fat #32,845.
GT: Keri, quit huffing your amyl nitrate so loud!
GT – Worst rendition of We Will Rock You ever.
@A Grave Mind: Ooh, sorry. This is strictly a “use at your own risk” comment board. Common side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, erections lasting longer than four hours, and leprosy.
RMMD: Every time we cut to this country singer sitting in a diner booth with a forkful of brown blob, I assume we’re finally arriving at the storyline where he kicks the bucket.
Crankshaft: “By the 14th call, he figured I must be a dipshit loser.”
@Pozzo: I thing that’s a police badge, not a Star of David.
Crank: So, to recap, Batty … sorry, Original Character Batton Thomas … decided to drive to drive to Roger Bollen’s house, and on the way there almost drove Bollen off the road, but also Bollen was still in bed, but also they’d already arranged to meet at this time. We’ve got two days to go, can this pointless ramble make less sense?
DT: Huh, when I was talking the other day about how Phantom and Mary Worth are the only serial strips which haven’t even vaguely acknowledged that LGBTQ people exist, I was counting Blaze Rize as the Dick Tracy example, but I’d actually forgotten that part of the evidence for this is that she’s sort-of-maybe dating Lee Ebony. I guess that’s fine because Blaze does have a criminal record, so Lee knows she’s not one of those extra-dangerous criminals who doesn’t.
FC: Is it just me or does Dolly look kind of offended? “Wait, ‘someone’ needs to tell Daddy when PJ makes a mess? Does he think Jeffy’s going to do it? I’m the narc around here, that’s the closest thing I have to a personality trait! Jeffy isn’t taking that away from me!!”
MW: I don’t know what’s happening in panel 1, but panel 2 is perfect. Kudos to Brigman for absolutely nailing the expression of a goldfish thinking “I’ve got a memory of five seconds, and I think you’re an idiot.”
OTF: Okay, I’ve got a company-provided laptop for working from home, and I am strictly forbidden from trying to connect to the company systems on anything else for security reasons (I wouldn’t really know how to even if I wasn’t, but I’m sure someone would). I’m also largely forbidden from using the work laptop for things that aren’t work, for productivity reasons. I have never had any trouble remembering which is the machine I only use for work and which is the machine I never use for work. Maybe other companies are different. Or maybe Holbrook hasn’t worked in an office job this century and has little idea what working from home involves if it isn’t just e-mailing the cartoons to the syndicate.
@Pat O’Neill: That’s a question I’ve been asking since Blaze’s twin sister Hot Rize was introduced dressed just like this in 2011. I have yet to find an answer.
Pluggers – When the plugger goes up to the buffet for his fifth plate of food, the restaurant manager tells him, “This is an all-you-can-eat buffet. That’s all you can eat.”
Mary Worth – Mary has been absent for most of this idiocy, except for telling Wilbur that maybe he should consider Dawn’s feelings about Belle. Come on. Where is the meddling? We’re going through platitude withdrawal here. I’m still hoping for a battle to the death between Mary and Belle.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: The sun also rises. But my dick won’t.
There are times when quotation marks save the reader from wondering if we’re hearing from the fictional character or from the omniscient narrator or from the author himself.
@I speak Jive: #81
“Mary Worth & Ripley’s – I can’t decide which is more repulsive – Wilbur in panel two or the blobfish.”
I think one is based on the other…
@The Rambling Otter: #84
I have an acquired immunity to Wilbur after seeing the image of him in a Speedo…
Maybe they’re laying the groundwork for a crossover between Rex Morgan MD and Mary Worth! I’m here for it. Think about it, Buck gets questionable relationship advice, and Wilbur gets diagnosed with something painful and probably terminal.
Was Truck married to Mary Worth?
@Daisy:
As you aptly out it, “Gaaaahhhh!”
@Daisy:
That’s “put” it.
JP – Abbey, see? This is why I went dark last semester and am moving to Norway!
JP: There are many slow learners in soap strips, and Abbey is way down there among the slowest of the slow.
DT: Welcome back to the strip, Blaze Rize. Hope you don’t mind cooling your heels at…someplace…with bulletproof glass. Doesn’t really narrow it down much in Neo-Chicago.
MG&G: “Ha! Yeah, I thought that shin flesh between your incisors looked familiar. Good old Floyd!”
RMMD: Without the dialog ballons I’d swear this is a comic about a man slowly realizing that his scrambled eggs are powdered.
GA: Yet more misinformation. Oh well, I’ve calmed down now. Have at it, GA, it’s 2025.
Pluggers-Pluggers eat their feelings.
DT, panel 2 – I never realized before that Dick Tracy and Sam Catchem are Lemon and Lime. Together, they’re the Uncola of law enforcement!
Don Abundio, translated:
“Smile when you say that, pardner!”
“Our big movie festival continues!”
“And now… ‘Political Film of the Week’…”
[On TV: THE SPECTRE OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM]
Don Abundio, translated:
“Smile when you say that, pardner!”
“Our big movie festival continues!”
“And now… ‘Political Film of the Week’…”
[On TV: THE SPECTRE OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL*SM]
(Had to repost this because I got caught by the Cial*s filter)
C-Shaft: For some reason—perhaps an artist mutiny—the sepia-toned flashbacks leave off here in favor of present day Batton, Skip, and Montoni’s extruded pizza product.
FC: Bil’s assumption that only PJ will make a mess here is the very height of optimism, as I’m sure Thel could tell him.
GT: I don’t think two teenage girls coming elbow-to-elbow will make a big crash noise, but maybe everyone’s been replaced with a killbot.
JP: Ah, let Neddy be. She just needs to go up in the hills and sing a few numbers from The Sound of Music and she’ll be right as rain.
Luann: Rookie babysitting error. If a four-year-old does a character read on you, don’t deny it, ignore it.
MW: If you didn’t already have the context of everything Belle’s done from her entirely self-invited cohabitation in the condo onwards, she’d still be reaching dangerous levels of pretention by saying, “I’m going to perfect my dinner plans.”
If only this was “Dick Squad!” (In 4 colors), Lt Drebin would pull Icarus’ rap record ICARUS LOVEJOY RAPS THE BEST OF LAWRENCE WELK while saying, “I don’t think you’re gonna like this, Chief.”
DT: “I’ll take care of these.” Good. It’s time someone tossed those ridiculous garments into the rubbish bin.
If you eat a scoop of green M&Ms, hoping people think they’re peas, then you might be a Plugger.
What a Frazzhole!: “Yes, the whole world needs feet for something, and I need feet to run away from you.”-Edwin Carp, Esq.
Pluggers must be careful when eating, or else they might eat their fingers,.
Pluggers: What the heck does “eating colors” mean? Peas and carrots and corn on the cob and tomatoes and blueberries? What purple food is there?
@Ukulele Ike: Purple cabbage, I guess. Some grapes, at least on the outside.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: The blue raincoat is at the tailor’s, having been torn at the shoulder.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Cabbage and grapes are RED!!!
@Ukulele Ike: Eggplant, at least on the outside. And some grapes ARE purple.
I have seen variations of eat colors as a way of promoting vegetables and a healthy diet.
@121 Ukulele Ike: For Pluggers, “eating colors” means a half-pound of jelly beans (no-name brand).
Is this burger something I Photoshopped out of nothing or a real burger for sale?
@Baja Gaijin: I sort of think it’s real but am not sure about its structural integrity.
@Baja Gaijin: It is a fever dream.
@Baja Gaijin: Ted Forth called. He wants his Burger of Summer 2025 back.
@31 CanuckDownSouth: You could run a Monte Carlo Analysis, too. It’d be far more fun to hit the baccarat tables at the Grand Casino than all that other statistical crap.
@111 Liam: “Pluggers eat their feelings.” And a pterodactyl leg and a Mt. Fuji of mashed potatoes and gravy and a passel of orange plastic tiddlywinks and a browned chef’s toque…and the stoneware plate holding it all.
@128 Artist formerly known as Ben, @129 Ukulele Ike, and @130 richardf8: More context. Surprised?
@Baja Gaijin: Black ones?
@133 Popcorn jelly bellies are trash: For considerations within this non-scientific comment section, yes, black ones are considered a color in the food rainbow.
PHANTOM: thinking back on the failed SpaceX test flight a few days ago, day do you too think of this strips arc in which a “SpaceX” rocket exploded due to sabotage be a clear-thinking employee?
@Maude R. Fawker: I thought of that line as I recalled Tommy Lee Jones as Ty Cobb saying, “The South may rise again, but my dick won’t.”
Careful. A buffet place tried to stop Homer (by closing at 2:30 a.m.) and he got Lionel Hutts to represent him.
@137 Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: As if a Plugger could afford an attorney as competent as Lionel Hutts.
MW: ‘I’m just lacking leather straps and flensing knives! Toodles! Ha heh!!
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: “That’s all you can eat” actually happened to someone Mr. Jive knows. It was a long time ago – I’m not sure, but I think it was at a Howard Johnson’s and involved all-you-can-eat fried clams.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: @Hibbleton: The sun also rises. But my dick won’t.
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Have you tried encasing it in a roll of Pillsbury™ crescent dough?
@I speak Jive: Check out John Pinette’s comedy bits on buffets.
In Vegas, at a prime rib all-you-can-eat: “I got 21! Hit me again!”
RMMD: I can’t wait for his next hit, Seed Oil Hashbrown Heart Attack. Ha! That being quipped, I have to admit I couldn’t remember dickheads name here. Mutt? Jeff? Whatever. I went to the internet for certainty. Well, turns out that Rex Morgan is so fucking boring that even the internet doesn’t remember this guys name. Could not find it. Comics Kindom Archives! Unusable for searching. Comics Kingdom is so fucked I ended up in 1996 RMMD. It was terrifying. There were multiple doctors, nurses, and real art all over the large pages. So much color! I had to get out. So in desperation I tried Grok. Grok cranked and cranked and cranked through source after source, compiling a massive reply. Once narrowed and tidied up he replied ‘Based on the information available the singer depicted in Rex Morgan MD is an aging roots country star’. The lazy little Grok bastard used Josh’s blog from today as a source and circular referenced me! I had by then remembered it was ‘Truck’ but the larger joke I had in mind was not more entertaining than my reality. My conclusion is that Fruhlinger’s blog and Rex Morgan are melting the arctic. That explains a lot.
Dustin: *24 hours later when the hypnosis wears off*
“…OH MY GOD, I’VE KILLED THE PRESIDENT!!!”
@143 Mikey: “Truck Tyler.” Instead of all the machinations, you could have just asked. Someone on this comment thread would have answered. Like me.
@I speak Jive: Back before Scott Adams went totally insane, there was an Dilbert arc (within the comic and the animated series) where Dilbert’s father abandoned the family in favor of an all-you-can-eat restaurant.
His Dad treated it not only as a challenge but a philosophy and literally never left the restaurant since the last 20 years. He’s still there (probably)
The franchise is sort of dead to me now, I’m torn apart because I still have very fond memories for the show, but I really don’t care for Scott Adams at all.
@Baja Gaijin: There’s an encyclopedia of fake bands?! And Truck Tyler is in it?!
@The Rambling Otter: Sometimes you can’t justify separating the art from the artist.
@I speak Jive: You have my attention
@Baja Gaijin:The machinations are interesting. There used to be up to date blogs with the characters on lots of strips. I’m not going to post here to ask a character name. it should take less than a minute, but now the info is layered down there in the depths with swing sets on the moon.
@GarrisonSkunk: Have you tried encasing it in a roll of Pillsbury™ crescent dough?
You’re confusing the “Pigs in a Blanket” recipe with “Ancient Hog in a Blanket.”
@The Rambling Otter: Scott Adams has cancer, and from what he said in the news story I read a few weeks ago, he may not be alive by the end of the year. Very sorry, but thought you might want to know.
@UncleJeff: Check out John Pinette’s comedy bits on buffets.
Yeah, when he get his laughs from the imitation of restaurant owners’ Asian accents (Chinese AND Japanese), oh, that’s gold, Jerry! Cutting edge material.