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FoxTrot, 8/2/05

Look at panel four! I believe that what we’re looking at here is the first visually confirmed case of cooties on record. Long rumored to be the result of contact between prepubescent boys and girls but dismissed as a fantasy by the medical establishment, we now know that cooties do exist — and, more alarmingly, can be spread electronically.

OK, seriously though, can anyone tell me what the deal is with Jason’s face? ‘Cause if it’s not cooties, I got nothing.

One of the problems of kids in comics who don’t age (which I suppose is every comics child outside of For Better Or For Worse) is that behaviors that are no doubt charming or at least vaguely tolerable for the year or so they last in real life become deeply irritating as they go on in eternal comics time. Jason’s anxious avoision to girls in general and his obvious soul mate Eileen in particular is a prime example. I can’t sum up this attitude any better than the Simpsons’ Jimbo Jones: “Dude, you kissed a girl! That is so gay!”