Comfortably numb
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Andy Capp, 2/21/26
I have long been curious about how old Andy Capp is supposed to be; mostly, I’ve been a little nervous that he’s supposed to be shockingly young, like 28 or something. But today’s strip, which reveals that he was around to interact with subcultures best known from a 47-year-old movie that chronicled events that happened 62 years ago, makes me worried that he’s actually some kind of eldritch, immortal being. You’d think that compound interest alone would keep such an entity supplied with enough beer money that he wouldn’t have to go around mooching!
Mary Worth, 2/21/26
Normally, when someone is out on a walk with their romantic partner and says “I hear that a full moon can bring out strong emotions in some people,” they’re looking to get smooched. But not Mary! When she contemplates “strong emotions,” she immediately thinks about injuries severe enough to require hospitalization. Thank God Dr. Jeff is so level-headed! He hasn’t had to work a full moon shift in years! He barely feels anything at all!
159 replies to “Comfortably numb”
Jeff: “I’m (growl) feeling all good. My fangs are (grrrrr) sprouting in my muzzle. I just want to throw back my snout and hooooooooowwwwwlllll.”
Mary: “Dogs are great!”
MW: And so, the eternal question “won’t they or won’t they” having been answered again, the strip is ready to kick off a new story arc featuring characters we’ve seen a thousand times before and, for some reason, new pets.
Barney Smif:
Then Barlow thinks Smif’s a chickun an’ steals him an’ has him fer supper.
______________________________
Murky Tail:
“I hope yer joking, cause the last time I saw a face like yer son’s, it was on an ape being brought to Europe on a galleon from Batavia.”
MW-“My cat’s breath smells like cat food,” Mary says.
MW-Mary just keeps talking because she is afraid of the silence when she isn’t talking.
There’s nothing quite so deliriously romantic as feeling…”good?” Jesus, Jeff. Slip some tongue in NOW. You know that hospital talk is going to lead to birds.
MW:
“I only know the emotion I feel now is all good!”
“Well, since ’emotion’ is a noun and ‘all good’ is an adjective, how can you feel an adjective?”
Since I refuse to look ot up, all share in my wonderment at the term “scooterboy.” There’s no way straight guys should be scooterboys, and yet, the British seem to have done it. Jesus, guys. No wonder the Empire died.
Mary should worry less about the full moon and more about the other bright object that is reflecting water toward them on the right side of panel. I think LA exploded?
*reflecting in the water
MW:
“To be frank and poetic in equal measure, a tiny armada is about to set sail on its maiden voyage in my nether regions!”
“Well, let me see if I can find a champagne bottle to smash it in its tracks!”
MW: Interestingly enough, there is actually no link between the lunar cycle and hospital admissions.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4418782/
Andy Capp : this is just another example that despite using trappings to imply that they’re set in the current day, comics in general (and newspaper comics in particular, and Andy Capp
and Beetle Bailey/Hi & LoisSPECIFICALLY) are actually set in the 1960s.************
Crankshaft : I like how this was all done in the service of a dog that never appeared on panel ONCE in this entire sequence.
(I’d like it even more if I was the least bit convinced that was INTENTIONAL)************
Frazz : “Yeah, but Caufield isn’t actually smart, though.”
************
Six Chix : Everyone’s exercising these days, especially the superheroic Birds of Prey! Barbara Gordon likes miming kicking men in the face! Mari McCabe dances like an idiot! Pamela Isley is… in a weird, pooping-like squatting position in front of a chair while awkward holding what MIGHT be dumbbells, but could ALSO be plastic wine glasses! Harleen Quinnzel walks that ordinary dog she totally owns!
I dunno why I went with the stupid cape comic references, when my main argument is actually how crap the third panel is, sorry…AC: Oh: cults. This being British, I thought he said…nevermind.
MW: Poor Dr Jeff is so removed from his own feelings that he doesn’t even have the vocabulary to describe them. “The emotion I feel now is…all…good? Is there a word that describes that? That nice feeling that makes your lips curl upwards? I think I heard a term for that in a movie once…”
MW: Jeff thinks; “that’s a load of horseshit,” but chooses his words carefully. “I don’t know about that.”
MW:
“Mauve sky at night/
Meddler’s delight.”
— Traditional Nautical Saying
Andy Capp:
“Were you a mod or rocker back in the day, Mr. Capp?”
“Well, there’s an undistributed middle. I was a ‘mocker,’ you addlepated twit!”
MW:
For Mary and Jeff, exchanging sterile bromides is foreplay, play and afterplay.
MW:
Gosh, that Dr. Jeff is Silver-tongued — which is to say, the utterances that he offers are as about as meaningful as the sounds that come out of the Lone Ranger’s horse’s mouth.
Andy Capp-Andy then quizzically stares at the man. “How bloody old do you think I am?”
The full moon had begun to shimmer dimly through the night water as the Kraken rose. Its gigantic eyes tasted the pale glim, and it decided it was worth investigating closer. Its earlier and and spatulate tail pressed down, driving the black water away, pushing its huge form closer towards the surface.
Far away, something very large thrashed through the water. The Kraken’s tympani, honed to detect the tiniest movement of hadal snailfish eight kilometres down, listened with interest. Through the whirring of some form of mobile power that drove the object onwards, it could hear the faint noise of organisms communicating. One was a little higher pitched than the other, but both made the same listless whine.
The Kraken’s vast brain put together all this information, and decided that these organisms deserved closer study. Besides, the effort of swimming up through kilometres of water had made it hungry. But the huge thrashing object has already moved away, taking the whining organisms with it. Disappointed, the Kraken turned away to look for other interesting things to do and organisms to eat.
It had almost given up and decided to sink back into the inky depths when it heard the whining again. Not on a huge thrashing thing now, but stationary, somewhere close by, and just above the water; easy tentacle range.
“The emotion I feel now is all good,” whined Dr Jeff. “Perhaps if romantic impulses move you enough you’ll even permit me to touch my lips to yours, in the act known as a kiss.”
“Jeff!” Mary remonstrated. “You know a lady doesn’t kiss on the 798th date. It is just not done.”
The whining beat at the Kraken’s tympani. Its thick arms pushed, its huge tail flapped up and down, and its tentacles coiled for the strike.
Leaving a V shaped wake on the surface that shone in the light of the moon, it moved in for the kill.
MW: Emotion? I thought Dr Jeff said “erection”.
@Ukranazi Stepan: Devil replies: “Wolves are great, too!”
GT Shenanigans! You just did a flashback arc showing that Gil was a *cleancut*, *preppy* highschooler who was clearly known as being enough of a goody-goody to be trusted as some junior coach of the aspiring girls football team.
@Ukranazi Stepan:
Its earlier and and = its set of arms and
MW: This strip is beginning to seem like the Charterstone Edition of Dick Tracy’s Crimestoppers Textbook, a compendium of mostly useless factoids that don’t relate to anything in real life.
Pluggers: Yet again we get the “pluggers are massive fatasses who are too poverty-stricken to afford clothes that fit, or are so big they just don’t make people-sized clothing to fit their carb-bloated bodies.”
MW- I’ll have what he took
@Bob Tice: “Sterile Bromides” would be a great name for a band.
@Bob Tice: If it was good enough for Ringo…
MW: Ever notice Mary and Jeff only date on the full moon? I’d suspect some occult reasoning, but knowing this strip, it’s because Brigman can’t be bothered to draw another background.
AC: Wait, does this mean Andy gave blowjobs for drinks?
Crankshaft: Again, this still beats a weeks-long storyline where “Batton Thomas” goes on and on about his career, or we going in depth into the history of Batom Comics.
Gil Thorp: “It was fun to deface our rival school, back in the days when I had long hair and rand around dressed like an extra playing a criminal in an episode of a first-run syndicated cop show that aired in the 1990s. Oh man, my hair, it was so long, what happened? What happened to my long luxurious hair?” :Gil starts weeping and rocking back and forth, Keri looks on helplessly:
Marvin: So they managed to almost go an entire week without referencing urine or fecal matter but here’s one of the dogs to save it with a “dogs like peeing on trees” punchline that reads like something taken from a cheap paperback jokebook.
MW:
“I heard that a full moon can bring out strong emotions in some people…fortunately, not us.”
JP: Warden Toots “The Boom King” Maytal drops the mic on Randy.
“This place boombastic. Why you wanna leave?”
@Bob Tice: Well done!
@Kelly Kopowski’s Love Slave: Yeah, I also figured Dr. Jeff was pitching a tent. But popping a woody for Mary? That’s almost as disgusting as today’s Pluggers.
MW – “Hospitals are especially active on such nights!” “Oh, Mary! Your awkward sentence structure is turning me on!”
DT: Wrong prison – you were supposed to be freeing Randolph.
MW: Will Sunday then be a recap of the past 7+ days of recap – an interative recap?
JP: Use the wrong word, principal? Boom – NotCIApril has arrived.
Phantom: We interrupt this adventure to be completed on Monday. Tomorrow, another retelling of how the mighty striped panty one got his stripes.
Don’t even think about making a romantic move Doctor Jeff. Mary’s reference to active night for hospitals is a veiled threat – a disguised or indirect threat that strongly implies harmful intent—often violence—without stating it explicitly. Read the room Doctor!
“Mary, you and I both know the medical board doesn’t let me enter the hospital anymore, except as a patient. So let’s drop it, OK?”
S4th: ‘…and be glad I didn’t kill *you* for likening my problems to #$%&ing Star Wars again like you always do. Didn’t you watch anything else as a kid??’
JP: I laughed like a loon at Warden Pavel’s Cousin/Brother/Whoever jazz-handed ‘GOTTA DANCE!!’ pose in Panel Two. I don’t think that’s what Ces or Manley had in mind for audience reaction at this moment.
JP2: Looks like I was right a few days ago and CIApril is going to reduce this prison to a smoking hole in the ground, slaughtering hundreds of innocents and guilty alike, all to save one white guy she inexplicably thought was worthy of mixing her DNA with.
RMMD: Back to Roots Country, Proto-Vaudeville, and Diner meals!
GT: ‘…of course, back then we didn’t have to be so performatively broken-hearted when the local minorities took the blame for my antics, but it was all in the name of good ol’ sportsmanship! Anyway, as Thorps we’re free to go. You up for some ice cream?’
@Tom: You mean to tell me the 1981 horror movie ‘Bloody Birthday’ *lied* to me and lunar cycles don’t cause certain children to be born as irredeemable psychopaths??
FC: “I hafta hold mommy’s hand so she’ll be safe crossin’ the street. At least until she sobers up.”
Chix (sic): Piro tries to justify being a nymphomaniac. “What?! It’s exercise!”
Silly Josh, you can only get compound interest if you have starting capital. Andy Capp may be eternal, but he’s never seen a pound he didn’t immediately spend at the pub.
MW:
“I heard that the full moon can bring out strong emotions in humans. Shall we attack while they’re distracted?”
“I was hoping to fuck at least once before discarding these meat suits.”
MW – Jeff: Hospitals? What are these Hospitals of which you speak? I haven’t been near one in years!
I note that the Funkyverse never displayed a disclaimer for Lisa’s date rape and pregnancy; Summer’s premature birth; Bull Bushka’s long slow deterioration from CTE and eventual suicide; Susan Smith’s suicide attempt; Marianne Winters’ suicide attempt; John Darling’s murder; a wildfire that consumed most of southern California; Jeff Murdoch somehow not being killed in that fire; Becky’s dismemberment; Wally and Rana’s PTSD; Funky’s alcoholism and car crash (in different stories); Barry Balderman’s nervous breakdown, Holly’s broken ankle in her late 60s; Adeela’s arrest by ICE; a stray cat disappearing into the void via time helmet; the deaths of several characters; or all the psychological trauma Ed Crankshaft, Harry Dinkle, Cindy Summers, Lillian McKenzie and Les Moore inflicted over their entire lives. What am I to infer from today’s strip?
MARY WORTH: Mary always waits until a full moon to do this because this is where a witch’s curse is at it’s most potent.
Mary: “Hospitals sure are active on full moons like this. There usually enough blood spilled of virgins to fill a cauldron. And there are so many torn femurs that some of them ‘accidentally’ go ‘missing’ I’m sure.”
Jeff: “Mary, what are you talking abo….”
(Mary chats in Latin and does a few quick hand gestures)
Jeff: (in a daze, looking around as if waking up from a dream.): “Mary? What’s going on”
Mary: “I was just talking about how the moon can bring out strong emotions in people.”
Jeff (in robotic vapidness, as if hypnotized): “All I know is that I feel good about dating you all of a sudden, and I have an urgent need to raid the blood bank at work tomorrow.”
Mary: (Just a hint of cruelty and wickedness forming in the corner of her adoring smile): Oh Jeff, you always know the most romantic things to say!” (Given her man his quarterly peck on the cheek.)
Dr. Jeff: “I feel GOOD!
Mary: I may need a hospital.
Never has there been an exchange that points out the value of hormone therapy for the late-middle aged in sharper relief. Get your levels checked, Mary!
Mary Worth Mashup: Am I the only one who wanted to see this happen?
LUANN: “At least our date is going better that the one that poor schmuck think he’s on” Mary Worth’s Dr Jeff smugly proclaims as he finally “scores” (AKA: get a firm pat on the shoulder from his lady love*)
*This is still more action than Ox is ever going to get out of these encounters, so, as Charlie Sheen would say, “WINNING!”
Andy Capp – “Are you a mod or a rocker?”
“Um, no. I’m a rod.”
“…”
“Well, it worked when Ringo did it!”
@Baja Gaijin: Wonderful – clearly it must be the fault of the full moon.
@Baja Gaijin: Actually, I think you speak for all of us, Baja. Although I would like to have seen the parrots drop that air conditioner on Mary and Jeff.
@Hibbleton: I have to give Dr. Jeff credit. “I don’t know about that” is a great all-purpose response when someone says something batshit crazy (especially on a subject that you personally know a hell of a lot more about than they do) but it would be unwise to argue with them.
Andy Capp has a canonical son, Buster, who debuted in his own eponymously-named comic (“Buster: Whitsun Fun For Everyone!”) in 1960.
Buster was typical comic-mischief-making-child age in 1960 (c.8-12ish) so presumably Andy was around his mid-20s. That puts his date of birth around 1935, so that makes him an unconvincingly elderly mod or rocker. Not to mention he looked exactly the same in the sixties.
Don Abundio, translated:
“May I examine your dog?”
“Okay. Are you looking for fleas?”
“No”
“Gang tattoos”
GT/real world crossover:
The powers-that-be in the greater Buffalo area are now offering a $100,000 reward for the arrest of those responsible for spray paint graffiti around the inside of the $2 BILLION stadium for the NFL Bills.
They won’t say what was sprayed, but it happened in and around several of the luxury boxes.
GIL THORP: “Plus graffiti was a fun downtime pastime to do in between performing my one hit, ‘Rico Suave.'”
Mary Worth: “You know what else rises with the full moon, Mary?” “Yes, yes, insatiable blood lust, you made that clear back at the Bum Boat.”
Andy Capp: I’m more concerned about how old “Young Alan,” with his suit and thinning hair brushed in tribute to Andy’s cap, might be.
And why does Young Alan have his hands folded like that? Why doesn’t he order a drink? Are they going to share that colossal beer on the bar?
MW: Mary associates “strong feelings” with painful and probably terminal trips to the hospital. This explains a lot about her.
@Banana Jr. 6000: …when an obsessed fan casually revealed the grisly murder memorabilia he was collecting about his object of desire to his traumatized daughter (maybe that evaded a “trigger warning” because he “didn’t tell her about the autopsy photos.” That’s more appropriate to keep as a bedroom activity after all….)
MW:
“Mary, if you were to take a stride off this pier right this instant, it would be, to paraphrase Neil Armstrong, ‘one small step for you, one giant leap for our readership’ !”
@Banana Jr. 6000: Same principle that lets movies show people being killed, but forbids animal deaths. I’m sure it’s in TV tropes somewhere.
Mind you, that attitude might be from the sordid history of animal use in movies.
The Andy Capp maths checks out if you assume he started drinking at age 5 which, yeah, that checks out.
DT: Wait, don’t Russian tactical drone operators have, if not exactly better things to do, then at least things their superiors would consider higher priorities than providing assistance for a prison break in America?
Dustin: Much like New Yorker cartoons, you can append “Christ, what an asshole” to any installment of Dustin and it works perfectly.
GT: ….Why did Young Gil do his nefarious vandalism while wearing a Greek Orthodox priest hat? Was it part of some kind of Bansky-esque performance art?
JP: Man, when the prison DJ drops the beat he goes all out!
Mary Worth: It’s usually a bad sign when your date randomly begins talking with a gleeful smile about overflowing hospitals and lunar-prompted violence. Dr. Jeff should probably think about preemptively calling 911 before Mary decides to sacrifice him to the moon gods.
REX MORGAN M.D.: I call foul! How can things be “getting back to normal” if there is no crusty, grizzled, middle-aged man playing roots country in the background? Come on, now!
@Banana Jr. 6000:
I’m guessing it’s because it’s not actually a sincere attempt at putting a disclaimer about content people might find upsetting or shocking, but Batiuk trying to do a “No animals were harmed” joke.
It’s just weird because he’s also seemingly using it as a way to get ahead of “Wait, does Crankshaft make his dog sleep OUTDOORS, even when it’s very cold out!?” criticism (which really just has a Streisand Effect of bringing MORE attention to it, really).
Sorry, I meant Andy would have been in his mid-THIRTIES in 1960.
On the other hand, this is Hartlepool…
@Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women:
In “Are You Being Served?” the department store owner was Young Mr Grace, who was pushing a hundred. Old Mr Grace? “He doesn’t get around much anymore.”
Young Alan is probably Young to distinguish him from Old Alan.
That light stripe in the water behind Dr. Jeff? I don’t want to get into too much lurid detail, but when Mary leaves he will stay there for a while to… bask in the memory of her. As the evidence shows, he’s been doing this for years, so why stop now? It’s probably for the best if even the ocean can’t absorb his essence.
***
Quadrophenia is a younger movie than Star Wars, which turns 50 next year. I’m looking forward to the mix of anniversary celebrations and Gen X’s cries of existential anguish.
MW Are they tripping on bad oysters? What is this conversation? “My allergies are cured because I didn’t react to a hypoallergenic cat.” “Then I’ll get a cat! Full moons make people go to the hospital!”
What the fuck is wrong with that bartender’s head? Was his skull ritually shaped by shamans when he was a newborn?
I don’t think you realize how much Andy capp drinks josh.
BF: “And I could be near my beloved grand-pere, one of the 850,000 poilus buried in that military cemetery in the backyard.”
On a very special Andy Capp, Andy takes off his Capp and reveals himself to be none other than Richard Starkey… “I was a Mocker, Son.”
Dustin: “It’s that Mitchell kid.Why I let him into our house I’ll never know.”
BG&SS: Here’s the chance for the wolves to team up and eat like kings for a month.
Sunday’s Mary Worth quote…. “It’s nice to be nice to the nice”- Franklyn D.Burns,MD.
@Miyo: I don’t think you realize how much Andy capp drinks josh.
____________________________________________
DRINK NEW JOSH!™ brand imitation English Pub Liquid!
JOSH! THE OFFICIAL IMITATION ENGLISH PUB LIQUID of the 2026 Comics Curmudgeons.
@20 Ukranazi Stepan: Here’s the next scene of your story, illustrated.
AC: Think, Young Alan. If Andy ever possessed enough money to buy a motorcycle he would’ve drunk it up instead.
BTW: Those unfamiliar with the whole Mods vs Rockers thing Mods rode ridiculously overaccessorized scooters and were
Arlo & Janis – The water is different from the water at your previous home.
Crankshaft – Re the “no dogs were harmed” disclaimer: If we don’t care about the beloved horrible characters who appear regularly, why would we care about a dog who has never been shown before and never will be?
FC – Hold on tight. Those 1970s cars don’t have the safety features cars made in this century do.
Frazz – Yeah, but this kid will never be insufferable like Caulfield is.
Jump Start – Darren Stevens? Which Dick is it – York or Sargent?
@Baja Gaijin: Mashup – That is brilliant. It’s exactly how I feel. I especially love the “parrots parrots parrots” speech balloon. However, in my mind it’s “fucking parrots.”
Goddamm smart phone jumped again. As I was saying, Mods rode ridiculously overaccessorized scooters and were decked out in the latest Carnaby Street fashions with mop top haircuts. Rockers looked like our 1950s greasers (think Fonzie) and rode hooligan bikes, standard motorcycles bobbed down to the bare essentials making them barely street legal and usually painted black. Andy couldn’t afford to be either one.
DT: Hey, it’s our three favorite jailbirds!
I hope the escape is successful; BB Eyes looks pretty stupid without his hat.
@A Grave Mind: I looked it up for you.
Nothing to do about sexual preferences.
“Scooterboys” just liked fancy stuff on their mopeds. Patches and stickers.
It was a reaction against the greasy guys who rode motorcycles that leaked oil and spouted exhaust smoke.
@Guillermo el chiclero: Sorry, guillermo.
Aside to “The Quiet Man” — do not use the pickup line referenced in today’s re-Doonesbury.
@Tom: #11. Thanks for providing verifiable facts, Tom.
SF: Very funny final line from Ralph.
GA: It would’ve been funnier and more relatable if Gertie had given Generic Jerk the packages that HE left at the register.
GT: I’m reminded of a police chief I was interviewing who grew up in a rough section of Newport News, VA: “When I was a kid we soaped windows. Now they shoot them out.”
@Tabby Lavalamp: I looked up the cast of “Quadrophenia”. Outside of a then-unknown actor/musician named Gordon Sumner (aka: “Sting”), the only one I recognized was Ray Winstone (although lead actor Phil Daniels did appear in “Chicken Run”!).
The Police’s breakthrough album did not come out until “Quadrophenia” was released in theaters.
@The Quiet Man:
#41. JP: your discussion of the cost to “collateral damage” (innocents) in order to save one person is like, yet opposite, the situation earlier this week in FG.
There, one hero ? was going to kill a couple dozen innocents in order to eliminate a dictator. Yet good-guy Bok stopped the hero to prevent that trade. Who did the right thing?
Crank: “Please note that Battom Thomas has already explained that nobody ever told him, and by ‘him’ we mean Tom Batiuk, that his comic strip is ‘supposed’ to be funny, so don’t write us.”
HtH: Hägar the Horrible: Prince of Thieves?
JP: “I didn’t use a boom. I used a normal phone mic.”
MW: I assume that, as Mary reflects on how people who aren’t in control of their emotions can lash out at the slightest provocation, Moy is setting up that next week we’re finally getting a new story — and it’s Wilbur.
RMMD: Good news! All the boring post-operation medical stuff was taken care of while we were doing … this. That’s the “isn’t this strip supposed to be about medicine?” box ticked for another year, now who wants to know what Buck’s been up to?
@Anonymous #69: I could write a list as long as #46 for all the ways in which this strip is a Streisand Effect for Tom Batiuk’s incompetent writing.
MW: Wrap it up, already! Wilbur won’t wait forever.
GT: I call foul. No way would a high school jock BMOC be caught dead taking an art class and hanging out with the sissy boys and creepy goth girls.
@Guillermo el chiclero: True. Gil’s soul would be more attuned to the physical grace, rebellion, and rigor of modern dance. “A tribute…to SPRING” he’d shout in his leotard, like a Jules Feiffer cartoon.
In the early years of the strip, they revealed that Andy Capp was a World War II veteran!
@Johnny Q: Yeah, his time in uniform was probably the only thing he was proud of, and anybody mocking it was asking for a boo to the nose.
@Activist: That’s an intriguing proposition, and one worth debating. Would sacrificing those few innocents now be worth the untold number who would later be victims of the dictator?
Good thing CIApril isn’t worried about all that. Just blow the place up in a big gesture that will do nothing to bring down the criminals or bring closure and justice to the families of the prisoners, so long as you and your thrall get to go home to the raspberry-haired brat.
AC: If Andy was around in the time of the Mods v. Rockers war it seems like he should look more like a wizened octogenarian rather than a horrible walking fungus.
MW: “I don’t know about that. I’m in the money laundering business. You didn’t actually think I was a real doctor, did you?”
@The Quiet Man: 101: And what are the odds we’ll hear Randy tell April, “Wait, we’re not leaving without Bogdan”? Don’t bet your kids college fund on it.
@Johnny Q: I’m impressed they managed to beat the Germans.
I can see Andy angling for a position in the Army motor pool, where he could drink the antifreeze.
@Activist: Yeah, it’s an interesting situation ol’ Bok’s got himself into. In order to save all those other lives, he had to save Emperor Ming, too. Now Ming wants Bok as a bodyguard. Flash, Dale and Zarkov (and all the other characters) know nothing of all this and they’re all going to think Bok turned traitor.
Shoe: Why does Treetops need an airport when everyone who lives there is a bird?
@UncleJeff: I always thought it would be funny, though obnoxious, to go to a Sting concert and when he comes out on stage, yell as loudly as possible, “BELLBOY!!!”
@Sonny Jim: So they can’t do the old “I just flew in from Vegas and boy are my wings tired” joke.
C-Shaft: It’s funny because Batiuk thinks there are enough people reading this comic and caring about it for there to be protests.
DT: Ah, now we know which prison just got drone blasted. If Silver Nitrate sticks around at least he’ll find it less crowded.
Dustin: Were these the cookies with Ex-Lax chunks or is she saving that for her next book club meeting?
GT: “Used to”? Aren’t you still in high school? Or are you just trying to keep your hand in?
JP: A huge BOOM shakes the building while the whole outside turns yellow, but not a single crack forms in the windows. If nothing else, the warden knows how to pick a glazer.
Luann: Ox wishes he were a rescue dog instead of a postadolescent Sluggo Smith.
MG&G: In a reasonable quality crossword—the kind the New York Times runs, say—the compiler might well clue “pizza” as “a kind of hut”, maybe with a question mark at the end. But Mother Goose is working on a puzzle where all the answers are between one and four letters, so Grimmy’s suggestions will remain too hip for the room.
Phantom: Colonel Worubu will wish he had been more specific about getting a count when the other Jungle Patrollers bring him a purple felt vampire.
Well, there’s nothing I can add here.
Andy Capp – Andy perhaps has his origin as a local dionysian god, drawn to this plane by offerings of early booze from forgotten pagan tribes as far back as 12,000 years ago.
When you’ve existed that long modern economics like banking, compound interest, and capitalism are merely the latest fad. Besides, as a god buying your life sustaining essence doesn’t count, it must be given, eagerly or reluctantly, from adherents.
Mary Worth –
When the moon hits your eye
But your entreaties die, that’s a Mary
When the world seems to shine
But your flirting’s declined, that’s a Mary
The Familliar Mucus: “Mommy holds MY hand,Dolly! She doesn’t care if YOU get run over!”
GT: That full moon also has an effect on Gil. He’s turned from a clean-cut ultra-WASP to a swarthy-skinned Hispanic hooligan, the rare werecholo.
@Sonny Jim: So they can figure out what the deal is with Jerry Seinfeld.
@Johnny Q: In the early years of the strip, they revealed that Andy Capp was a World War II veteran!
____________________
He was much taller back then.
Does Young Alan still see that talking horse after he leaves the pub?
@Bob Tice: Be sure and add the “Good luck, Mr. Gorski” (or personalize it to Dr. Jeff).
@Philip: Andy is the Green Man, but he’s found it less upsetting to non-initiates if that part just shows on his cap.
@Deadly Goon Bugs: Jeff is a reverse werewolf.
MW: Josh says Dr. Jeff hasn’t had to work a full moon shift in years. Is that not also true for vampires? Just sayin’.
These Mary Worth passages where nothing happens for multiple weeks…is this when they’re writing the next storyline? Shouldn’t they have already done that before the last one ended?
@JeffMcm: Nobody knows, to be honest. It’s not as if any given Mary Worth storyline demonstrates a degree of coherent thought and planing.
@Guillermo el chiclero: Bogdan will probably be the lone survivor, waving goodbye with a smile and hearty laugh as he strikes out back to Wherever-stan on his own, never to be mentioned again.
Late Thread Cuisine: There’s a lot going on here.
@YY164 The Rambling Otter: Those are some supersized veggies. Did you get them at the Real Canadian Superstore?
@Baja Gaijin: Yes, actually ^^ my Sister bought them.
@Baja Gaijin: And none of it good.
@GarrisonSkunk: Funny about Alan Young, I just started binging on “Ducktales” today.
Although the new one with David Tennant replacing Alan Young as Scrooge.
@Baja Gaijin: Cuisine – What is that – meat loaf surrounding steak? Whatever is in the middle, it looks rare and bloody, and I can’t handle that. I’ll pass.
I love the peas in tomato halves and the little bundles of what I’m guessing are asparagus. The only part of that that I would consider eating is the potatoes on the left, and maybe the pastry. The cook did do a nice job on that decorative pastry, seriously.
@Peanut Gallery: I was thinking of this cartoon Fillmore! which was a police drama but took place in a middle school.
One case involved a sabotaging amongst rival novel fandoms.
One fandom was for a book about a vampire astronaut, and another was of a werewolf senator.
One thing I liked was that both fandoms bashing the other, made valid points.
“A vampire astronaut? What about, you know… THE SUN?”
“The senate can only be held during a full moon…?”
@Baja Gaijin:
Sheesh!
@Baja Gaijin:
Watch me eat this like the fat king and his men in that seemed-okay-at-the-time Beowulf!
@Baja Gaijin:
This looks like way too much effort for too little reward. Now if you will excuse me, that glass of wine isn’t going to drink itself.
@UncleJeff:
Fair enough, nice research. Same time, I know times have changed, but stickers and shit? On your MOPED? Wow, that’s gay.
@Baja Gaijin: Things stuffed into other things! I LOVE things stuffed into other things! They NEVER taste good, but it’s so much FUN.
It looks like a Russian….coulibiac? But with beef instead of salmon.
Wow! Artichokes, white asparagus? What’s not to love?
@Baja Gaijin: The beef looks so rare that I was wondering if it was actually dark raw tuna. I’m not sure it’s even done enough to be called “bleu” – my dad would love it!
@Baja Gaijin: Yep, a whole lot going on. And it does not look like a Weight Watchers recipe. I, for one, raise my high-carb glass to that.
@126 The Rambling Otter: I figured. The Real Canadian Superstore has a great produce section.
@127 Peanut Gallery: Agreed.
@129 I speak Jive: That’s chopped chicken livers surrounding the “beef fillet.” I guess it could be considered rare as it’s in a “moderate oven” for 25 minutes for the two pounds of fillet. You guessed right: asparagus is one of the garnishes, as is stewed artichokes.
@132 A Grave Mind: Not surprised. It’s pretty much a beef wellington with a lot of other stuff strewn about the dish.
@133 Deadly Goon Bugs: You’re right, it’s a lot of work. Let the chefs at restaurants take care of the beef wellington for you.
@135 Ukulele Ike: Were you to see the recipe, you’d notice it’s pretty much beef wellington. With a bunch of unrelated garnishes. By the way, this is an Israeli recipe card, if that makes a difference.
@136 CanuckDownSouth: I guess you could leave it in the oven a few minutes longer…
@137 Poteet: Definitely not a Weight Watchers recipe. As others have noted, if you don’t like the meat, there’s a lot of other stuff to nosh.
JP: BOOM?? Oh noooooo, I smell April. And I don’t mean the lovely-fragrant-blossoms springtime April. I mean the very irritating character who remains inexplicably and maddeningly alive in spite of apparently having enemies in a variety of nations. Ye gods, can’t you Enemies-Of-April finally get your collective act together and kill her once and for all? It’s not like we readers can do it.
@Baja Gaijin: I really liked Beef Wellington on the one occasion when a good-cook friend made it. But the beef was nicely pink, not so red that it looked like it died a couple of hours ago. This version looks too interesting for me to want to actually eat it.
@Baja Gaijin:
YUP! It’s beautiful, Baja! Appreciate gloriousness!
Low and Hi-less: “Come on, babysitting Trixie will be fun,she basicly takes care of herself, you should see all the things Mom and Dad don’t do for her.
Calling all “Safe Havens” super fans, got a question for you….who is Pam’s son, and is he a cat,human,or other?
@Poteet: Heavens to Betsy!
We’ve never seen you so….bloodthirsty before. (reaches for the smelling salts)
@Poteet: I had Beef Wellington once, back in the 1970s, where it belongs. An odd experience and not one I would repeat. Now, a nice Gruyere fondue, you could talk me into.
Did you know insurance companies did the research on the “moon madness” myth and found that in fact it’s related to paydays? Yes, the full moon often coincides with the end of the month, but it’s really about people having money to spend and getting drunk. Dr Jeff should probably know this, being a physician, but eh.
Dirk Twacy Hollistic Defective presents The Three Stooges in “JERKS IN THE JOINT”
@Baja Gaijin: I didn’t know I wanted to see that happen until I saw it.
@Ukulele Ike: I’m not that bloodthirsty, honest. A gentle painless poisoning would be fine, as long as it worked.
@150 Poteet: When I saw the roundhouse kick, I knew Mary was gonna have a reason why she has no nose when she’s viewed head-on.
@Ukulele Ike:
@Baja Gaijin: Things stuffed into other things! I LOVE things stuffed into other things! They NEVER taste good, but it’s so much FUN.
___________________________
The mission statement of “96 Weirdchick Lame”
@Poteet: We’ve replaced the fine blood usually served at Baja’s Cafe with new Foldger’s brand blood crystals, lets see if Poteet notices……
Six Chix And A Flying Dog Butt In Search Of A Punchline: Sure, filling your dog’s hinder with helium will help you walk him better.
Judge Parker and Dick Tracy in a battle to see who can depict a prison break more unrealistically.
This just the UK equivalent of Pluggers. “A Bri’ish Plugga cadges pints off the scooterboys and the bikers. (Andy C., Hartlepool)”
Mark Trail Mix: Isnt it romantic the way Cherry’s neck lovingly recalls Mark?
Andy Capp: Andy’s pint of Guinness is surprisingly well-rendered. Now that I look at it, the draftsmanship in the strip is actually remarkable; the stylized fingers looped together in front of Andy are incredibly uniform.
Was Andy Capp‘s art always good? I’m not used to the idea of good art on the comics page anymore.