No phones, just living in the moment (they don’t know how to use phones yet)
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Slylock Fox, 6/12/25
Years ago, I read a book about the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and one of my strongest memories of it is that after the Communist dictatorship had been overthrown, even in their euphoria the leaders of the broad alliance that had pulled off this transformation — which included conservatives and liberals, free marketeers and social democrats, unionists and Czech and Slovak nationalists — began to realize that they would soon be political opponents, but allowed themselves to enjoy the moment of victory together before that turn came. The story of Slylock Fox is in many ways the story of how the animals came into conflict with one another after overthrowing humanity, and how they learned to manage that conflict. But sometimes you get a glimpse into the origins of their society, like the little story captured here. These guys are free, they magically know how to operate a motor vehicle, and they’ve just violently killed and eaten all the zookeepers who’ve been holding them captive their entire lives. They have a world to build, and that’s important, but in some ways it will never get better than it is on this night.
Dick Tracy, 6/12/25
Sam, not to tell you how to do your job, which I assume is disparaging suspects without much evidence, but if the way you want to disparage this suspect is by calling him a drunk, you should be making a little “drinky” gesture in front of your mouth, with your thumb and pinky extended to make it look like your hand is a bottle of liquor. What you’re doing is a “crazy” gesture, which is not the same thing at all!
Gearhead Gertie, 6/12/25
Sorry, Harold, you know I am usually sympathetic to your plight, but how could you possibly be asking this right now. Your wife is named “Gearhead Gertie!” You’ve been married to her for a decade! You know this is the only sport you’re allowed to watch. You know that very well.
175 replies to “No phones, just living in the moment (they don’t know how to use phones yet)”
DT: Nice to see Maynard G. Krebs enjoying a brew in the second panel.
SF:
Let’s see: trige; kruct; doar; amne; allirog. How’d I do???
GG: When Gertie passes she’ll wake up in hell, i. e. Canada. “What!? Hockey again!?”
DT: 12am! Whoa! Those are some crazy hard-core part-EE-ers! They had to head home to catch Nightline!
GG: Harold experiences the early signs of dementia. He asks this same question on the daily and Gertie being patient but pleased breaks the news to her soul mate every day.
GG – If you’re going to complain about something, Harold, how about the fact that you have to watch TV from a 90-degree angle instead of facing the screen like normal people.
Clearly the writer of Gearhead Gertie studied under the masters, and learned from Marmaduke that a comic strip only need one joke.
Beetle Bailey : “No, it’s just that every cook voted for themself, and so every one of them tied.”
************
Gearhead Gertie : suddenly, a new car, a white pickup drives onto the track, and starts ramming the other cars, taking out ALL the racers. Then, the occupants of the car pile out and start EATING the drivers’ carcasses, and the audience as well! Because the interlopers were escaped zoo animals : a parrot, a lion, a tiger, a gorilla, a warthog, a crocodile and- and…
***********
Slylock Fox : EXTRA DIFFERENCE : in the image on the left, the last animal is meant to be an oppossum. In the image on the right, it’s a wallaby.
GG- Is the joke that he keeps watching it even when he’s tired of it?
MW-Threaten Dawn it’s alright. Threaten Wilbur’s fish and you know there is trouble afoot.
FC-“We strike at dawn! We shall throw ourselves into that window until it breaks. Many lives will be lost but your sacrifices will not be in vain.”
Slylock Fox-Sadly we don’t get to see the shocked and horrified people who just watched a group of animals who rampaged through the zoo mauling and killing anyone in their path.
DT: To add to the confusion of Sam’s misleading finger twirl, the word ‘wasted’ invokes in Tracy’s mind a bullet-riddled corpse.”
Dick Tracy may always have one foot firmly in the past, but it’s nice to know that it lives in the modern as well, ie: Brownliquor Manbun taking the time to post a photo of his fries to Instagram.
FC: Worst remake of “The Birds” ever.
SF:
With the psychedelixized looks on their faces, I’m surprised that these peripatetic fauna aren’t using Ken Kesey’s bus “Furthur” for transportation.
GG – What is this wild motorsport where the cars apparently jump over one another? I thought that Gertie only liked NASCAR.
LUANN: Glad to see fish made it back to water. Next five pages, let’s see fish invite dragonfly to swim, spin, and zip BELOW the surface.
GG: old World custom said man ruled business and politics while wife ruled house. It’s time Harold became liberated and moved his household to at least 20th century. With Gertie’s permission of course.
The strip was supposed to be Icehead Isaac, about an obsessed curling fan, but the syndicate rejected it as too niche. That’s why Harold’s so resigned.
GG: It’s a good thing I don’t write Gearhead Gertie because: (1) I know nothing about stock car racing. (2) I would be tempted to write a few strips in which Gertie finds her interest in the subject waning, which would then cause her to have an existential crisis. (“But I’m Gearhead Gertie! If I’m not a gearhead anymore, what even am I?”)
DT: Try as I might, I cannot imagine a world in which Sam Catchem lives alongside skinny millennial dudes with beards and man buns.
Slylock: It’s a known fact in the animal kingdom that warthogs are just happy to be included in, like, whatever. So if you’re a giraffe who’s moving his mother-in-law into a nursing home this weekend, there’s a warthog who will be more than happy to carry some boxes for you.
I really enjoyed Zits today.
MW: WAIT WAIT WAIT. Dawn DID eat some of Belle’s poisoned cooking???
DT: Well I never! A group of men in t-shirts and jeans drinking pints of light beer and chain-restaurant BBQ? Glad Sam was there to brutally bust up this wild debauched hellraising.
GG: “Huh, one car just rear ended another, sending tons of wreckage cartwheeling through the air into the crowd. This turn of events has earned a wry smile.”
“Sport”
*reads the Skylock Fox entry*
YAWN! Wow, this comparison is just as ridiculous as some of the reviews of the Looney Tunes cartoons on imdb where they are treated with some really weird political fanfiction and imagery. Read the room, Josh. Those are the kind of reviews that are voted as least helpful
Slylock Fox and Comics for Kids: That gorilla, open-mouthed in hoot, filled with youth, freedom and excitement, is a masterwork. Hats off to Bob Weber Jr. for capturing lust for human blood as never before!
Dick Tracy: >toctoctoc< “Ils sont fous, ces voleurs d’art!”
Gearhead Gertie: Ah, found your problem right here: that’s not a sport, that’s The Dukes of Hazzard.
@Yesyo: Y’know, I try not to feed the trolls, but “read the room” is pretty rich coming from you.
Dick Tracy: The crossover between super cop Tracy and 80s-90s lovable miscreant Lovejoy I didn’t know I wanted is coming to pass, but I can’t tell who’s who as not a single person in panel 2 resembles Ian Mcshane. And don’t get me started on Tinker or Catchpole in a manbun, although the bevvies seem accurate.
Also Slylock Fox and Comics for Kids: Do the animals know about underpass height warnings yet? The little birdie will be okay, it’s the gorilla I’m worried for.
Hagar: This kind of perversion I expect to see in Blondie but not a wholesome family strip about a murderous Viking, no thank you! Can we please go back the teratophilia please?
MW: Dawn finds the perfect Father’s Day card:
“I’m second banana to a fish,
“Thanks for nothing, you son of a bitch!”
RMMD: Please, say there’s an Express lane at the DNA lab.
GT: Are they actually playing with a gumball?
SLYLOCK: The fox thought it would be smart to team up with the big predators. Poor little guy’s on the appetizer menu.
@Joe Blevins: It’s a good thing I don’t write Gearhead Gertie because I know nothing about stock car racing.
Why? It doesn’t seem to be an obstacle to the real strip.
SF:
…and on the car radio, Shirley Temple warbles “Animal Slackers in My Coupe.”
RMMD: Truck gets a cup of lukewarm coffee from Wanda so he goes for a long walk to clear his troubled mind. He doesn’t tell Wanda what’s bothering him.
SlyF – It’s the bus scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest! The lion is Jack Nicholson!
Slylock Fox – The reason for the running “spot the differences” feature has always been to train animals to be mindful of propaganda, especially the air-brushing out of political opponents. While the Slylock Universe has resorted to a strong police state, there remains resisters who fight for democracy, and media literacy is among the most important tools for that.
Dick Tracy – All that second panel proves is that art theft, and other heists, are the cure for male loneliness.
Gearhead Gertie – Harold knew who Gertie was when they got married. Not only were they married by a pit crew chief (it’s legal at NASCAR tracks), instead of “you may kiss the bride”, the officiant said “start your engines”.
It’s nice to see that this Bread tribute band could afford a night out on the town. Until, you know, midnight. Can’t be gettin’ too crazy there, Lovejoy.
SFx – I like it cuz z they’re breaking the dimensional limitations of the panels. The matrix isn’t gonna like that….
DT – They held off on the tip until it wasn’t subject to income tax….
GG – All squarely confined to the limits of the panel – the strip may suck, but it’s matrix approved….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
GG: It might be worth more than a tenth of a second read if Gertie actually knew something more about carz than thems that wuz on teevee.
I think I’m beginning to get Gertie. Sure, automobile racing as we know it appears to be a dull affair, but put them into a a void where they’re forced to jump over each other while debris falls off their vehicles? Yeah, I’d watch that.
***
A single bowl of fries in Dick Tracy is more recognizable as food than hundreds of plates of grey something we’ve seen depicted in other comics. You don’t have to live like that, denizens of Charterstone!
Critics disparage Dick Tracy for relying on the idea that Neo-Chicago’s grotesque villains wear their evil on their disfigured faces. However, it’s important to remember that it’s not entirely biased; Sam Ketchum is also very ugly.
The animals riding in the zoo’s truck make me think of Rat Fink, the beloved cartoon grotesquerie associated with tattoos and hot rods. However, there are no rats in that stolen vehicle! How can this be?
RMMD: dumbass Truck has to wait longer than usual for a walk signal so he goes for a long walk to clear his troubled. He doesn’t talk to Wanda.
MW: Dawn’s naivete is infuriating. Of course Wilbur was in on her poisoning. How else would he know to knock over the poisoned dish when he got cold feet? She might not be as dumb as she looks, though. Notice how she sniffs each fry before eating it. “Not poisoned…not poisoned…not poisoned…”
@Victor Von:
Thought that too! Weber is awesome. What a story in one panel, it’s exhilarating in a gloriously silly way.
@Guts Dozier: All this time she’s actually been watching Speed Racer!
MW: Everytime Wilbur whines about his goldfish being in danger, it’s important to keep in mind that the goldfish is just a placeholder for a dead relationship he refuses to let go of.
If I may get literary for a moment: Belle’s attempt to consume Willa symbolizes Belle forcing Wilbur to choose between his current relationship and his past one. She even thought-bubbled “now you can get those things (love and affection) from me” just before she did it. For a crazy person, this was a very logical thing to do.
But we all saw the choice Wilbur made. He angrily rejected Belle, to save the symbol of Stella. The story promptly deus ex machina’ed Belle out of Wilbur’s life. But the truth is that Wilbur rejected Belle just as rudely as he rejected Stella. And, in a way that parallels his rejection of Stella. Wilbur didn’t respect Stella’s pets, but he demanded that Belle respect his pets. When Stella is a genuine animal lover, while Wilbur’s pets are a cheap emotional crutch.
All Wilbur’s fussing and preening over his goldfish is just his way of pretending his relationship with Stella is still alive, and needs his loving attention. It’s way past time somebody called him out on this behavior. Especially after Mary literally arranged a funeral for it!
DT: Wait…this guy works the night shift at a factory but he can afford a penthouse? Neo-Chicago may have its problems, but I really envy its housing market.
GG: In the ongoing debate of “what counts as a sport” auto racing occupies a firm gray area, requiring a certain amount of physical and mental acuity while at the same time involving the participants sitting on their butts for the duration of the competition. I humbly submit that auto racing, therefore, is at least as much of a sport as competitive video gaming, and leave it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.
Harold, just watch TV in another room! It’s not like she’s forcing you to watch by threat of force! [Note being passed] Oh, she is! Ok!
SFx – Two weeks ago, some guy down south of Nashville had a pet zebra that got loose and stayed loose for a whole week. Technically, zebra are classified as livestock here, but I can’t imagine he was prepping the animal (named Ed) for slaughter. You typically don’t name your foodstuffs.
Point being, you couldn’t get online here in middle Tennessee without either an actual Ed Update, or without some local business showing a photoshopped image of Ed enjoying their product or service.
If an actual van filled with zoo animals got loose, it would shut the entire state down. Kind of like a half inch of snow. That said, I would very much enjoy that roadtrip.
9CL: Great. We get to revisit the nun & priest arc too. And now we know that they were, of course, inspired by the love of pre-teen Edda and Amos.
Don Abundio, translated:
“It must be fun to work with so many sexy actresses!”
“Oh, but this movie is a serious endeavor”
“What’s it about?”
“It’s a contemporary retelling of ‘Titus Andronicus'”
DT: Usually in the fictional police/detective universe, the heroes offer careful balanced and rational approaches. Occasionally, a hunch or educated guess is made. This is way Sam is stuck on second string. He hasn’t quite gotten over that he can’t nail Lovejoy for calling in his own crime – that last bit of why and where’s the motive is something he just can’t quite lick.
MW: The two Westons sit there in the dark lit only by a baleful moon eating their grub. They are both mulling over what is unspoken. Wilbur – gee, it was nice to have Bats around and regular sexy time, too bad she was nuts and cruel to Willa. I hope Willa isn’t traumatized. Maybe next trip I can find the right lady or maybe we can just hook up down there. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Dawnie – wow, if Bats hadn’t tried to eat Willa, she’d still be here trying to get me to swallow some noxious stuff. Dad is really losing it – I wonder if I can get a conservatorship on him?
RMMD: Ok, Truck, all of the elements are there – now, see if you can just put it together, or will you use your next option after getting blotto – skip town and leave Wanda hanging at the altar (diner).
GT: Really at this point, the only logical explanation is that the artist has subcontracted the work to some poor high school student who is just trying to make some money to buy a legitimate copy of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I want desparately to believe there must be some good reason behind the lack of effort.
GG: I would think that if I were going to create a comic strip about a woman who is obsessed with NASCAR, I would learn how to draw something that looks like a NASCAR race.
The cars in NASCAR typically have big numbers on the side and are covered with corporate logos. I can understand a cartoonist being reluctant to put actual corporate trademarks in his strip, but where are the numbers on the cars? (And there should at least be some fake logos on the cars, if not real ones.)
The cartoonist also forgot to draw any kind of track, so it looks like the cars are in some kind of void.
@Maltmash3r: I’m not sure if “being forced to endure partner’s interests” is my most hated domestic comedy trope, but it’s certainly the one I find most baffling. You don’t just…let them have fun with their thing in your absence? I mean, I have music theatre, Mr. Diva has his obscure European prog bands with names that sound like rejected Tolkein characters, we both bitch about Amazon pulling Wheel of Time, everybody’s happy.
(This philosophy, of course, requires a person to have multiple interests or even acknowledge that other interests exist, which is not something that fits into Gearhead Gertie’s concept.)
There are very strange feedback loops between Josh and the various comic strip braintrusts. We know that the Archie Central Committee and those living in the Crock literal tarpaper shack respond negatively to Josh’s humorous but loving critiques. It seems Bob Weber Jr enjoys the meta, and is playing to it.
@Hibbleton: I suppose henceforth, all bottles need to be uncapped or uncorked in front of her, decanted or poured. She probably starts carrying litmus paper to test all drinks for their pH as well. This the price to be paid for Drano vigilance.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: Amen! When did driving cars fast become a “sport”? Not denying that it takes talent, but so does opera singing. . .
One can only hope that other racing leagues will jump on the Gearhead Gertie bandwagon. Make way for Formula One Fanny, Dragster Dolly, Karting Karen, and Dirt Track Denise. Oh, I’m sorry, I’m being informed these are not follow-on strips to Gearhead Gertie, but an upcoming group of villains in a Dick Tracy storyline focused on drift racing.
MW: Do you think Moy knows that the actual effect of drinking drain cleaner would be caustic burns through the mouth and throat? In fairness, I probably would feel queasy if I had chemicals eating through my esophagus. Granted, I’m not sure I’d feel that queasiness over the agony, but still.
C’shaft: “Amelia” and “Emily” are essentially linguistic variations of the same name, akin to the Smokestack twins Elijah and Elias in Sinners. I’m not saying this portends a violent standoff against vampires that eradicates the entire cast of Crankshaft, but it’s a better idea than any the strip has had in a long, long time.
Dustin: “You know I’m a joyless, bitter bastard who only laughs at the expense of others.”
MT: “Losing their shirts” is one of those half-baked euphemisms you’d hear in an “edited for cable” movie. (Also, Kelly Welly is apparently enby. Not sure if that’s more or less arbitrary than Keri Thorp.)
MW: The moral of the story is that mentally ill people are inherently repulsive and should be kept locked up at all times.
Pluggers have undiagnosed ADHD.
@Lauralot: It would at least be an underlying symptom, esophagus is especially rich, especially when coated in Drain-O
MW: In panel two, it looks like a world-weary Dawn is smoking a joint as she reviews what just happened to her. I was disappointed when I took a second look at panel one and realized it’s a french fry, which for some reason Dawn holds between her index and middle fingers like she’s having a few tokes.
@Stacker: @Stacker:
This reminds me of a little something. It’s been a while since I watched Dexter’s Lab, but I remember it having this total lack of science jokes. Which annoyed me a little.
@Yesyo: Sick burn dude!
DT: “Days after the art theft…” . Insert Gil Thorp strip of playing Cricket in the desert with a golfball…
MW: In a future story, when Brigman reuses some of her art, that second panel could also depict Wilbur and Dawn sitting in bed after a lackluster round of sex. Wilbur hangs his head in shame as a disinterested Dawn holds her cigarette. Wilbur’s word balloon reads, “I’m sorry I couldn’t…perform. I should have taken my pill earlier.” Dawn looks bored as she answers, “I guess I’m used to that by now. Always a day late and a dollar…short.”
GG: Sorry, Harold, we only watch NASCAR, AS YOU WELL KNOW!!!
So many Gearhead Gertie strips involve sitting on a couch and watching TV. It makes me nostalgic for Spider-Man.
MW: Just for the record, I think Moy using DANGLING WILLA and OPEN MOUTH in the same sentence was no accident.
Dustin continues to be uncannily accurate in its depiction of how senior lawyers in a large firm spend their lunch breaks: not entertaining clients, or discussing work with each other in a nice restaurant, but grabbing some vendo food in the break room, like warehouse workers.
@brendancalling: YES, exactly! It looks like a re-used smoking image.
Dick Tracy: I like how the guys in the middle panel look like normal modern day people, complete with cellphones. Gives the impression that most people in Neo-Chicago aren’t caught in the weird 50s sci fi time warp that Tracy and his cast seem to inhabit, which creates some hilarious scenarios. Imagine if you called the police and a guy in a yellow raincoat showed up declaring that the crime you’re reporting had something to do with aliens from the moon.
Gearhead Gertie: The original script for this probably had Gertie violently beating her husband to the brink of death for even suggesting a non-NASCAR sport, but the damn woke censors are scared of the truth and demanded it be changed.
@Charterstone: Dune: Thanks for ma\king me look up “teratophilia.”
Mary Worth: Rant incoming. Because it just dawned on me how extraordinarily offensive and downright disgusting this plotline has actually been with the hindsight of the resolution.
Belle was a hideously ableist stereotype of mentally ill people, portrayed as a cartoonish and childlike lunatic who likes to kill and has to be “controlled” with medication and constant supervision – the exact sort of ideas used to justify the mistreatment of the mentally ill, who are far more often the victims of abuse in real life, not the perpetrators. And the reveal of her condition means that Wilbur was likely casually having sex with a woman in the throes of a manic episode, meaning her ability to properly consent was nearly nonexistent and he was arguably raping her. This is all without getting into all the bizarre incest vibes being sent throughout the plotline, like Belle apparently wanting to bang Wilbur because he looks like her brother.
This storyline has not only been badly written, but also absolutely revolting from a social perspective. Maybe I’m just being sensitive to this kind of thing since it hits home (me and my wife are both diagnosed mentally ill; me with OCD, her with borderline personality disorder), but its how I’m feeling. Its a new low for a comic that you think just can’t go any lower, but always can.
Don’t let Judge Parker’s Neddy see this: Take a peek inside unique shipping container home on the market in upstate NY:
RMMD: Don’t be so hard on your old self, Truck. You wrote some of your best songs while drunk.
@ectojazzmage: Cosigned.
@Bryan, yLuann: Well, since we’ve had years of Tiffany as
that Cheerleader than dumped Greg in High SchoolAntagonist before they rehabbed her and gave us Steffi as a substitute, maybe we’ll see Shannon’s Mom come inwith the misogyny raised up to eleven.GG: I was at a bar seated next to a hardcore NASCAR guy.
He was getting obnoxious with his opinions on the drivers’ personal characteristics.
So I asked: “Whatever happened to that Jeff Gordon guy? I liked him a lot”.
He started shaking and then moved down the bar to get away from me.
@ectojazzmage: You’re not being sensitive; you’re spot on. The social stigmas against mental illness are numerous and varied, and it’s astonishing just how many of them Moy has managed to promote with this infuriating denouement.
I do have mixed feelings about this Wilbur and Dawn post-mortem, though. On one hand, it’s salt in the wound that is the treatment of Belle: she’s not given the dignity and humanity of having her condition explained beyond “she cray-cray,” she’s just led away by Deus ex Brother while the Westons blink in astonishment for a few seconds before going “Well, that was weird, let’s go get a burger.” On the other, it’s almost impossible that Moy would be able to elaborate on the situation in a way that didn’t make it even more insulting.
Gasoline Alley There are blurgits (speed lines) behind their truck and the deer is keeping pace with them? We all know what’s happening tomorrow.
I’m not expecting this to be Action Comics, but please, make a little graphic sense.
H&L: Ditto has a career in newspaper editing; Dot had better stay on his good side or he won’t redact everything he knows about her.
BG&SS: This is a good go at a vaudeville gag.
GT: The body language here is actually pretty good. It helps that this is a wide shot.
RMMD: Truck holds a door open for someone who doesn’t thank him. This troubles him so he goes on walk to clear his head. No, he doesn’t tell Wanda what’s bugging him. Truck is an idiot.
Mary Worth – Wilbur is still harping on Belle’s attempted murder of Willa, after he brushed off Dawnie’s alarmed feelings. Maybe it’s just me, but if I were Dawn I would be at least resentful, if not angry at Wilbur.
And “…her fake talk made me so wary…” What twenty year old talks like that? What human being talks like that?
Rex Morgan – Truck is doing his usual fumfering around, when he really needs to identify and examine two separate issues:
1. Is Cody his son? Take a DNA test and find out.
2. How does he explain to Wanda that he was such a piece of shit that his ex-wife didn’t want to tell him that she had his child? That’s a tough one. Too bad Mary Worth doesn’t live in Glenwood, because she has a trove of platitudes that she could spout about it. Maybe she could confer with Truck on Zoom.
I suspect that either Parker will appear and help him out, or Rex will stumble upon him and help him out. Rex would buy him a hot dog while he talks to him, but I’m betting on Parker.
Does Gearhead Gertie watch Formula 1 too?
@ectojazzmage: I’ll cosign this too. Somebody called the story a 1930s Looney Tunes version of mental illness. I thought was pretty accurate.
To your point about mentally ill people often being abuse victims: you made me imagine some very dark scenarios that would explain everything that’s happened in this story. I’m more suspicious of Avery, though. What right does he have to show up at someone’s home, and claim an adult who had permission to be there? What right does he have to dictate where a mentally ill person goes? Is he a doctor? Does he have Power of Attorney? Can it be confirmed that Belle even has a brother? Why did Wilbur ask none of this? Why did Wilbur let her leave with this man, on his word and nothing else? Especially when Wilbur said he “thought he loved her” in yesterday’s strip?
@Johnny Q:
No, she ONLY likes NASCAR and thinks every other style of automobile racing is lame and boring.
@The Rambling Otter #Y158 – Thanks for the information about the Barenaked Ladies song about Brian Wilson. I was aware of the group, but I didn’t know about the song. Apparently I’m much older than you, and my knowledge of pop music is stuck in the 1960s.
@Anonymous: I bet no one had to bribe the inspector to approve that house. That was amazing. I’d live there, except that the loft beds would have to go. Not a good idea for people who get up a few times during the night.
@ectojazzmage: I agree with you. Totally.
THIS is why I read Gil Thorp every day. The sports action!
@Little Guy: LUANN: Ugh, thanks for reminding me of this strip’s habit of suddenly turning mustache-twirling villains into protagonists we’re expected to root for, without them ever making any amends for their previous actions. And it sadly worked with Tiffany, as she’s never even expressed any regret for her past yet we’re far more invested in her than Luann (probably because Luann is so damn boring as a character.)
@Anonymous: Very interesting house, if you’re into that 1920s Bauhaus aesthetic, or living in warehouses. The biggest thumbs down would be living in the middle of Weird Upstate NY, halfway between Spook Town and the Love Commune.
@Banana Jr. 6000: I made the Looney Tunes comparison, and I’ll go one further. I’m currently re-reading Dracula, and somehow Renfield, the bug-eating madman written in the 1890s, is a more nuanced and sensitive portrayal of mental illness than what Moy’s given us.
@Anonymous: I hate to say it, but Gearhead Gertie is actually correct when it comes to Formula 1….especially when they stick with “Tradition” and hold events on completely outdated tracks like Monaco.
The only excitement is seeing the post-race transcripts of the devious behavior of the teams and drivers RIGHT OUT IN THE OPEN on their radio transmissions.
Dustin-“Istopped you because I’ve heard you tell jokes before. I don’t want to sit through another HR seminar.”
Blondie-I’m surprised they don’t show the glass on the vending smashed in with a sledgehammer.
@Little Guy:
We’ve seen Shannon’s mother. It’s what’s her name. Bwad’s wife.
Ziggy-The car was owned by a little old lady from Pasadena.
@Bob Tice:
Of course, the bird prefers the B.B. King classic “The Trill Is Gone.”
@Joshua K.: They got the cargo netting at least…seems weird they would go out of their way for that detail but fail in almost every other.
RMMD: I suspect I’m supposed to like Truck but I’ve developed a real hate for him. I am conflicted.
@Anonymous: Is that a fault line I see, or just really bad mowing?
@Professor Well Actually: FIFY:
RMMD:
Truck holds a door open for someone who doesn’t thank him. This troubles him so he goes on walk to clear his head. No, he doesn’t tell Wanda what’s bugging him.Truck is an idiot.@TheDiva: I mean, it’s not like Gertie has a gun to his head forcing him to watch… oh my God, she has a concealed gun, that she’ll pull out if he tries to stand up doesn’t she?
@Human-eared Dragon: Yeah, it focused less on (intelligent) science humor and more on just sadistic chaos.
And I loved it for that.
I think that maybe Gertie’s husband forces himself to watch shows that he doesn’t like because he’s a maoschist.
After all, he married Gertie.
The Family Circus Spanish to English.
Lalo Y Lola Spanish to English.
Marvin Spanish to English.
@Doc Wonmug: Yes, Mr. Weber does rather enjoy Josh and the CC community. Go back into the archives a bit and you’ll find the nicest C&D letter (and follow-up commentary) ever written.
Aunty Acid: Hey, Aunty! If you achieve that ruler of the world thing, get rid of Gearhead Gertie!
DT: Just a carefree night out with the bros: Abe Lincoln, MCU Thor, Errol Flynn, and original DC Comics Professor Hugo Strange.
GG: The thing is this isn’t even a NASCAR race. Gertie’s husband slipped a Dukes of Hazzard DVD in to see how long it would take her to notice.
9CL: If you’ve always wanted to see two young people in Catholic religious orders having a threesome with a tree, well, hi Brooke.
C-Shaft: No doubt Emily and Amelia will trade nametags for hilarious hijinks, i.e. Lillian calling them by the wrong names.
Dustin: “If you had any original jokes you’d be in a different strip. It’s the sad truth.”
GT: When the Foley artists mix up their “baseball” sounds with their “drinking champagne” sounds.
MW: It’s just so wrong that Wilbur and Dawn are blathering on about stuff we’ve already seen and meanwhile they just had a disastrous tour through Willy Wonka’s factory that we completely missed.
Pluggers: Is this a funny Pluggers or a tragic Pluggers? What’s that? They’re all tragic? Well that would explain a lot.
RMMD: Whitacre’s Bar & Grill would like the public to know that their clientele go for the delicious nouveau cuisine and craft cocktails, and that fewer than 5% are ne’er-do-wells drowning their tawdry sorrows in whiskey and beer.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: I had to back and look; you’re right, two out of the three beardies SHAVE THEIR MUSTACHES. This biscuit factory likes to hire the Amish!
”Come on, Lovejoy. Grow a beard. You know you want to.”
“No, no, guys!”
“Lovejoy, grow a beard!”
“Really, I don’t think…”
“GROW YOUR FUCKING BEARD.”
@Ukulele Ike: Oh how Mark Trail’s fist would have itched if he saw them 20 years ago.
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: That was the Cassandra Cat thing, right?
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Crankshaft: I am all for gaslighting Lillian until she cracks.
“I’m not Emily, my name is Nancy and she’s Carol”
(The next day)
“Nancy and Carol? Our names are Sally and Candace… how long have you known us?”
(The next day)
“We’re your assistants? We’ve never seen you before in our lives, we just came to buy books.”
Crank: We’d actually have known this yesterday if the panel where Amelia refers to Emily in the third person hadn’t been a speech bubble coming from the wall of the bookshop. Lillian could see them, but I guess she wasn’t paying attention.
Anyway, having failed to follow through with previous attempts to differentiate the twins (“Emily’s an optimist, Amelia’s a pessimist”, “Emily’s a girly girl, Amelia’s a tomboy”, “Emily’s the nice one, Amelia’s the sarcastic one”) Batty has decided to go for a level of characterisation he’s more comfortable with. Emily’s the one in the white shirt, Amelia’s the one in the black shirt. That’s all you need to know! Might this imply some or all of the above characterisations? Maybe! But, and this is important, without Batty having to do anything.
GG: It’s funny because Gertie likes NASCAR and other people don’t like NASCAR as much as she does and she either fails to recognise this or refuses to accept it!
There. That’s my Gearhead Gertie comment sorted from now to the end of time.
FC: “Who’s Daffy De Murray, anyway?”
MW: The more this gets dissected, the more it somehow feels like Wilbur missed really obvious red flags and Dawn leapt to conclusions without any actual evidence simulataneously. It would actually be some impressive writing if Moy was doing it on purpose.
Bliss: So with death trapped on a tiny deserted island, does this mean no one is dying?
A bodily function you’d never see mentioned in the old days is mentioned in today’s Take it from the Tinkersons. Bathroom humor
leakssneaks onto the comics pages once again.@Voshkod: There was a period years ago when Weber, Jr, posted here regularly, every few weeks. Not snark, just explaining what he had gotten up to in the Slylock mystery strips. It was kind of nice. Not like if Batuik or McEldowney or Evans came barging in, spitting invective.
I don’t remember a C&D letter. Was Junior upset with us for over-sexualizing the Cat? After the infamous Schoolgirl Uniform strip, it was his own damn fault.
Slylock – I will quote one of my favorite poems, “The Tiger,” by Nael, age 6:
The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The tiger is out
I quote this poem partly because it depresses me that I will never write anything that good.
DT: As a non-follower of DT who hasn’t seen Sam in a while, I am here to reluctantly assert that Sam used to be better-looking. I don’t know what inspired the artist to make your face less handsome, Sam, but it happened. And I hope the artist will change it back. Even seeing DT only when it appears on CC, I can tell that there is so much DT facial weirdness that you, Sam, shouldn’t have to join in.
Crankshaft: Hey, Lillian! Punch one in the nose, then you’ll be able to tell them apart!
Crankshaft-Imagine the chaos they will cause by wearing different colored shirts.
JP: Oh gawd, it just occurred to me that in order to make some of us crazy, especially me, the creators of JP may be planning to send April to Norway. There, I said it aloud so it can’t possibly come true.
@124 Poteet:
Gee, thanks, Poteet. Now we’ll never get the Norway story!
SLYLOCK: Josh’s explanation of this joyous scene was very touching. Now I’m staring at the animals and hoping that somewhere down the highway, they’ll find a great place to eat. It’s as if ANIMAL FARM had been a happy book, way back when I was experiencing high school angst and needed more happy books. *sniff*
@Sequitur: Oops.
@Poteet: Especially if, when they’re at the diner, they have a pleasant conversation just casually chatting, laughing and enjoying themselves.
That sounds nice.
@Ukulele Ike: I think it was this.
I never saw the actual graphic.
JP – When I read this, I first wondered why Sophie was having this cloak and dagger phone conversation. Then I realized that this was April. It’s a bad sign that it already takes so much effort to keep things straight when we haven’t gotten to the plot holes and lack of continuity yet.
Crankshaft – Speaking of mistaken identity, at least these twins aren’t identifiable by which side they part their hair. And they do have different personalities (using the term loosely) instead of being one note hormone driven sex maniacs.
That’s enough faint praise for Batiuk. I loathe Lillian. She’s trying to be cute, but she’s a loathsome hag.
Slylock: “They magically understand how to operate a motor vehicle”
That’s what turned my Mom off of the original Tarzan novel. Jane was kidnapped and taken back to America so Tarzan gets on a plane to America, rents a car once he’s there as he goes to rescue her.
This was so beyond ridiculous, I mean Tarzan shouldn’t automatically know how to drive, or even know what a car is. He arrives in America and is instantly civilized? What??
@The Ghost of Jarrod: One of my favourite poems was a Haiku a classmate of mine told in grade school.
“I just saw a dog
It was peeing on a tree
Better it than me”
@Poteet: When Chester Gould introduced Sam Catchem in 1949 (he was instrumental in the apprehension of health-cure/diet fraud Pear-Shape Tones) he looked like a chimpanzee. I can only put it down to 1940s-style American anti-Semitism. Aside from the leprechaun suit and bow tie, Sam is much more handsome today.
@Voshkod: Wasn’t that just the James Bond homage Weber drew, with Cassandra re-enacting the Honeychile-Ryder-emerges-from-ocean scene from Dr. No?
In the book she was topless. Cass, like Ursula Andress in the movie, kept both halves of the bikini on.
@Voshkod: yep
@Ukulele Ike: On second remembrance, in the novel, Honeychile was completely starkers.
Even Kingsley Amis, a filthy old man in his own right, tut-tutted Fleming for pandering.
@Ukulele Ike:
Josh’s memory is likely better than mine, but I believe the image I was uncomfortable with was from a link to another site posted in the comments all those years ago. I may have instigated the situation by donating a desert island, bikini clad Cassandra image to Josh for his merch shop. One of my terrific editors actually bought the mug!
@Ukulele Ike: Your response sent me on a Google Image search, and sure enough, you are right, poor Sam has never looked great. I truly don’t like the way he looks today. But the way he looked in olden times, though I don’t recall being horrified as a child, was definitely not appealing either. I must have hallucinated a decent-looking Sam.
The best-looking two Sam images I just found via Google, to me anyway, were a Sam Catchem action figure from the Nineties (stupid costume, though) and some human actor playing Sam whose name I didn’t locate. As a non-follower of DT, I should have researched before I posted. Anyway, sorry about that, Sam! And given that the Tracyverse has or had a fair amount of plastic-surgery action, you do have that option if ever you are so inclined, just saying.
@Ukulele Ike: In the movie of “Dr. No,” Connery sees Andress come out of the water while he’s on his car phone, a rarity in those days, talking to M. He says he has to go, “Something big just came up.” I was the only person in that crowded theater to laugh. My date slugged me in the shoulder. No good-night kiss, either!
@Johnny Q:
No, but Gertie la Réductrice, her French equivalent who looks just the same but with a pink beret, can’t get enough of it.
@137 Bob Weber Jr.:
Thanks for droppin’ in!
@138 Poteet:
Here’s a picture of Seymour Cassel who played Sam in the 1990 Warren Beatty movie, Dick Tracy.
@Ukulele Ike: #133: It was worse than that. In an attempt to entrap Pear Shape, Sam went undercover, in drag.
@Bob Weber Jr.: I’ll be perfectly honest with you, and since I don’t know when my next chance will be to say so (seeing as you’re here atm)
I heavily respect your art/comic, I mean it’s just FUN.
I can tell a lot of heart is placed into it, compared to many other comics out there (notably featured on here), that either have horrendous lazy artwork or gag-a-day comics that don’t even bother with a punchline. Not even getting into Bianca Xunise using “Six Chix” just to vent her personal issues for a long while.
But Slylock Fox still feels fresh after all of these years, and I’ve been reading it since I was a kid :3
@Bob Weber Jr.:
He reappears! We luvs ya, Bob!
Mary Worth. A comic about a woman written and drawn by two women. One of color. How’s that DEI working out for ya?
@107 Sequitur: Neither. Birds have cloacae.
@129 Voshkod: That’s almost 20 years ago!
@137 Bob Weber Jr.: I thought the desert island, bikini clad Cassandra image was your consolation prize to the site for having the link removed. Always the gentleman, you.
@Bob Weber Jr.: @The Rambling Otter:
Endearing is the word I was looking for, the only other art style of cartoony animals I found as endearing was of “Brok the InvestiGator”
@Kenny Copeland:I truly envy you, in never having encountered an incompetent straight white man. You would honestly think there would be some, like, say, thieving jackleg preachers.
@White Rabbit: I love Sean Connery as Bond, but my parents hated all of them except for Daniel Craig.
They were purists of the novels, where that Bond didn’t tell silly puns, or such, he was just a cold blooded assassin. Which Craig came the closest to portraying.
Personally I don’t know how anyone can hate Sean Connery as Bond, that’s like… hating on the Fourth Doctor, even fans that have only seen the Doctor Who revival latching onto David Tennent still would admit that Four was still iconic for what he was. Even just seeing an image of him, they’d be like “Yep, he’s iconic”
While Mr. Weber Jr. is here I’ll add my name to those still enjoying Slylock and his comics for kids.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: your RMMD comment reminded me that I watched a “Cheers” rerun where Lilith was sad her toddler had not spoken & she blamed herself.
She asked Sam: “What drink do you make for a hopeless loser?”
Sam looks across the bar.
“What are you having. Phil?:
@147 Baja Gaijin:
You know that, I know that but Trixie was in a quandary.
@153 Sequitur: Maybe Trixie should be in a nursery school, not a quandary. She could use the human interaction.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: your RMMD comment reminded me that I watched a “Cheers” rerun where Lilith was sad her toddler had not spoken & she blamed herself.
She asked Sam: “What drink do you make for a hopeless loser?”
Sam looks across the bar.
“What are you having. Phil?”
“A Manhattan”
“One Manhattan coming up”
@Sequitur: Thank you! Looking at him again, he is definitely the best of the Google-image bunch.
@Ukulele Ike: Also, for almost six decades, and for no particular reason, I assumed Sam was Irish. Huh.
@UncleJeff: I’m a simple guy, I always liked that joke in Garfield where Jon was at a diner, points to the guy next to him “I’ll have what he’s having” so Irma literally takes the guy’s plate (mid-consumption) and puts it in front of Jon.
@Ukulele Ike: I was going to bring up Art Dekko but… nah.
@Poteet: One can be Irish and Jewish. Can’t they?
@Poteet: It’s a natural reaction. He was from Boston!
@Bob Weber Jr.: I’m a big Hollywood producer, baby — this is your lucky day.
(Great to see you here again, and thank you for the clarification.)
@160 The Rambling Otter:
Oh, yeah.
@The Rambling Otter: There’s famous literary Dubliner Mr Leopold Bloom of James Joyce’s Ulysses. (This is my daily excuse to mention I’ve read Ulysses.)
@Voshkod: Stephanie Street Racer, Chuck Chariot, Stan Steeplechase, Michael, Michael Motorcycle.
@UncleJeff: I had forgotten it, but that’s a good one.
Interesting side note: Phil was played by Rhea Perlman’s dad.
@UncleJeff: And the follow-up joke was just as hilarious:
NORM: “‘evening, everybody.”
TODDLER: “Norm!”
LILITH: “He said ‘mommy’!”
@Bob Weber Jr.: You’re probably gone by now:-), but today’s SLYLOCK was especially great. I loved looking at it. Thank you.
@The Rambling Otter: @Sequitur: Of course yes. Thank you.
@Joe Blevins: Gertie finds her interest in the subject waning, which would then cause her to have an existential crisis. (“But I’m Gearhead Gertie! If I’m not a gearhead anymore, what even am I?”)
______________________________________
She’ll force herself into developing an ear fetish and change her m name to Earhead Ertie.
@White Rabbit: @Ukulele Ike: In the movie of “Dr. No,” Connery sees Andress come out of the water while he’s on his car phone, a rarity in those days, talking to M. He says he has to go, “Something big just came up.” I was the only person in that crowded theater to laugh. My date slugged me in the shoulder. No good-night kiss, either!
__________________________________
Maybe Mr Weber Jr will parody that scene in the “Slylock Fox Movie For Kids”
@The Rambling Otter: @Poteet: One can be Irish and Jewish. Can’t they?
____________________
As long as they love Levy’s Rye™
@170 GarrisonSkunk:
Is that the one where Max Mouse goes around doing grunt-like laughs like Beavis and Butthead?
DT: “Partied until 12AM”.
Y’know, criminals don’t get MUCH more hard core than that.
I mean, God diyaammm . . . that’s a solid 30 minutes after Granny’s bedtime, 90 minutes after our 4th grader. And if they’re not careful, they might even miss part of the Late Show, staying out so damn late.
Anyway, they’re as good as tried and convicted in the Court of Dick Tracy, because any Good Cop knows that anyone up past midnight is Up to No Good, and they might’ve been out past that curfew by as much as 15 or 20 minutes, the scoundrels . . .
@Anonymous: That would be at 986 Caroline Rd. in Waterloo, right?
@Joe Blevins: The metajoke about Gearhead Gertie is that the writer doesn’t know anything about NASCAR racing, and the vast majority of people who still read comic strips don’t either. The Wikipedia description of this strip only quotes people who review comic strips, not one actual NASCAR fan. The NASCAR reddit with over 1,5 million followers has never mentioned Gearhead Gertie once in the many years of its existence.
“Who is the strip actually for?” you may ask.
Fucked if I know.