Sunday is for lore
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Judge Parker, 10/6/24
You might recall my earlier irritation that both Sophie and Neddy were involved in family romance drama structurally similar enough that I thought maybe they were falling in with the same dramatic family? Well, it turns out not, but after Sophie experienced some family drama and rejected her initial suitor for his hunkier (?) older brother, we’re now entering a scenario where Neddy, attempting to repair her fiance’s family drama, is discovering that Things Are Not All They Seem, and also that said fiance’s older (?) brother is also hunkier (??). More on this story as events warrant! (So not very soon, honestly.)
Shoe, 10/6/24
You know, you’d think that after spending literally 20 years complaining about how the comic strip Shoe has more or less forgotten that all its characters are birds, I would’ve pretty much mentally explored all aspects of the Shoeniverse’s whole bird-person deal. But this strip made me realize that until today I had never contemplated an extremely key question: Are the Shoe bird-people characters the size of people, or the size of birds? Because a spider big enough to seem menacing to a bird is still scary, I guess, but significantly less scary than a spider big enough to menace a person (or a person-sized bird).
The Phantom, 10/6/24
Speaking of lore you’ve never thought much about, do you think of superheroes as having exactly one costume that they wear all the time (or at least all the time when they aren’t in their secret identity), or multiple instances of the costume, like a closet full of them, so they can clean them and reduce wear and tear? Today’s revelation that the Skull Cave has a “Costume Chamber” doesn’t explicitly answer this question, but it does imply that in an “only one costume” scenario, each Phantom begins his tenure by ritually stripping the outfit off the corpse of his predecessor, which honestly I wouldn’t put past them.
88 replies to “Sunday is for lore”
JP:
“I don’t believe this…”
This is what fans of Judge Parker have been saying since August, 2016.
Shoe: Also, a lot of birds eat spiders — so wouldn’t a giant spider be, like, a gourmet feast to these folks? The only thing to be scared of is too many leftovers!
Mary Worth: “What’s in these muffins, Mary? They’re so good!” “I used an old tried-and-true recipe. Wheat, sugar, bran, blueberries, my neighbors’ tears, and 100% pure, unadulterated self-righteousness. You know, same as always!”
Pluggers: You’re a plugger if you avoid alcohol all day long. (Until you get home, but that six-pack doesn’t count if you’re binge-watching “Yellowstone.”)
The Phantom-“Stop me if I’ve told this tale before.”
FC-A long “talk” with the lady next door.
MW-Mary loads up her muffins with a lot of thc.
JP: I know Prince Harry wanted a more normal life in America, but I didn’t realise he’d moved in with some random WASP family. I can’t imagine he’ll stay long – for someone born and raised in the wealth and splendour of royalty, the Parker-Drivers are probably a bit too spoiled and entitled.
The Phantom. “Funny you should say captive. Hold that thought… and these fuzzy handcuffs.”
The Ghost Who Bores — The story of the second Phantom is a long and uninteresting one–and here it is (h/t the Simpsons)
Shoe’d — The comics section consisted of one enormous Spiderman cartoon!
JP:
It’s nice of Michael Fassbender and Laura Dern to be providing Neddy with this explanation to clear the air.
Phantom:
I wonder if the Phantom ever gets a body rash from wearing that tight outfit — you know, like hockey players do sometimes.
MW: “Estelle, you’re a woman, so you’re wrong. It doesn’t matter that your boyfriend isn’t a veterinary surgeon and that he wasn’t even working on the day he decided he had to take this case instead of sending the patient to an emergency vet. I’m the only woman who’s allowed to be right, got it?”
MW:
“Jung girl, get out of my mind…”
— Gary Puckett, to Carl’s daughter Agathe
DtM: To emphasize the point, Dennis rents his jacket. Menace level: Biblical.
CS: Wait, the story’s about burning the books? That’s a lot easier than trying to burn bookstores! Thanks, lady, you’ve given our faceless, unthinking mob a great idea!
“My contemporary Sigmund took a tumble on an icy sidewalk outside his home in Vienna.”
— Carl Jung
No. Don’t say it, Narration Box.
“Yep. It was a Freudian slip!”
JP: “It all started when Declan bought a used 1958 Plymouth Fury…”
MW – Estelle adds a GULP to her litany of SOBs.
Phantom: I, for one, have so many questions about the “Hall of Costumes.” Which Phantom began it? If it was a later one than the second or third, did he know what his predecessors wore because they provided some kind of description, or was he just guessing? Are any of these originals that have somehow been preserved by keeping them deep in this cave, away from the hot and humid jungle air, or are they all replicas?
Also, for some reason I have been under the impression that Bangalla was in East Africa. If so, why would a Phantom be involved in events that occurred in West Africa?
That having been said, that the strip is actually acknowledging that significant historical events occurred in sub-Saharan Africa before it was completely colonized puts it a few steps ahead of 90% of modern media, so kudos. Complain about the colonialist/imperialist implications of the premise all you like, but the strip really isn’t reactionary at all.
So, I’m guessing we’re expected to think that Neddy was incredibly stupid to believe her fiancé claiming that the entire family worked to help frame him for a crime he didn’t commit for Reasons, but she wouldn’t be incredibly stupid, and neither would the readers, for immediately accepting that no, he actually did commit the crime he was supposedly framed for, as told by the person who supposedly framed him for it? And on the off chance she doesn’t immediately believe him we’re expected to think this makes her all the more incredibly stupid? Just want to make sure I have all this straight.
MW: “What’s in these muffins, Mary? They’re so good!”
“Definitely not truth serum.”
Dustin leaves the reader hanging with the count two-balls two-strikes.
Mary Worth Mashup: What Estelle wants to do.
Shoe noticed that Crankshaft slipped up with an awfully wordy entry, and is gunning for the Laziest Sunday Strip Award.
Just when you least expect it, here comes JUNGLE JIM! (from June 17, 1934)
Marvin: It’s cute because to a child Marvin’s age the twenty or thirty years the average serial killer is active before getting caught seems like a lifetime.
And Dick Tracy is back to their MINIT MYSTERIES for the next two weeks.
JP: “And after we tell you the truth, we’re going to have to kill you. Sorry, those are the rules.”
Shoe: Which do you think the writer just saw: Arachnophobia (1990) or either of Sting (2024) or Infested (2024)? Trick question, it was actually Horrors of Spider Island (1960).
Phantom: This could have been three panels, with the third panel being Phantom’s lady friend klonking him on the back of the head with the arquebus while he was being patronizing.
Shoe: A typical domestic bird’s ‘bathroom’ consists of a sheet of newsprint at the bottom of the cage which makes any creature that would dare roll it up pretty gross, or badass, depending on your point of view. Would that Spider’s name happen to be Marvin?
Fred Basset Spanish to English,
Frazz : Caufield is in love with the smell of his own farts, what a surprise.
Also, there’s no epileptic in his class to tell him they DON’T smell like burnt toast? …too far?…*************
Mary Worth : that close-up of Libby and Pierre’s horrified looks as Estelle rants about how the health and wellbeing of animals is totally unimportant to her… perfect, no notes.
*************
Phantom : … I could have sworn that it had been implied/shown that the Phantom’s outfit had always been the same throughout the centuries, with no variations… Though I guess retconning the 17th century Phantom to have worn a less anachronistic swashbuckler outfit instead of a spandex bodysuit is not a bad idea…
************
Slylock Fox (differences panel) : I did not know I would be this intrigued by the prospect of a Mutt&Jeff-themed fighting game.
…I wonder if some of the Golden Age superheroes they shared magazines with back in the 1930s-40s appear as Guest Fighters…
So it looks like Phantom costumes alter, according to the era of their tenure. Can’t wait to see the one with bell bottoms and platform shoes.
Frazz: Caulfield actually apologized?!? Did Frazz accidentally hit him on the head with a mop?
Luann: I hate the constant beeping(?!) that my phone does!
CS: NO! IT’S NOT POETIC AT ALL! IT’S F*&(ING STUPID!!!
(sorry, I’m going to smoke a kilo of weed and see if I can calm down)
9CL: It’s surprising Brooke didn’t use his young lovers for this milieu.
Assuming, of course, that those are mannequins.
MW: Now I’m empathizing with Stelle.
Dustin: Haaaa! Gay panic was so fresh and funny in 2010!
FC: “I’ll let everyone know my dad is a lazy drunkard!”
Zits: I enjoy the absurdity of this strip. No notes.
@Baja Gaijin: Yes! More of this, please!
JP: Declan’s brother (I know he has a name, but I’m not willing to look it up right now) initially believed that Neddy was part of Declan’s latest scheme, but after a few minutes of conversation he’s (correctly) concluded that she’s not smart enough for that.
Phantom: I’m just wondering when a cape ceased to be a part of a Phantom’s traditional ensemble. Did one of them Isadora Duncan himself on a tree branch while chasing down miscreants in the jungle?
@19 Baja Gaijin:
My, my. So much pent up violence.
MW: “What’s in these muffins, Mary? They’re so good!”
“Oh, the usual. Eye of newt, toe of frog, leg of lizard.”
Phantom: The air quality in the Skull Cave could be much improved if they would ditch those burning torches for battery-operated lanterns or head lamps. It would also decrease the safety risk of carrying around open flames. They might be able to save 15% or more on their homeowners insurance.
What kind of bird? An ostrich is a lot bigger than a human sized bird.
Wary Morth:
“The distilled sweet, sweet agony I wrung out of 10000 meddles, Eshtelle.”
C’shaft: Tom Batiuk has the unique gift of making any position he argues unappealing, regardless of how favorably disposed one is to it. I’m a pretty staunch freedom of information advocate, but after a month of this arc I’m not only okay with this mob burning books, but with using them to make a pyre to burn Lillian and Crankshaft as well.
Dustin: Let’s see, what could make Dustin’s gross dating behavior even more unappealing? I know, how about giving him a gay panic moment?
MW: “Yes, but he was supposed to use those do to whatever I wanted him to!”
Sunday comics used to mean something.
@Liam:
#3. MW:. Meddlin’ Mary’s muffins aren’t working automatically for good reason. Apple– in OCTOBER? Has she never heard of Pumpkin Pie Spice regulations?
@taig: Ph – But this is a Sunday strip. Just think of all the other plcws they could have shown her clonking him with those extra panels!
@Anonymous:
The didn’t invent spandex until well after 1591. ;-)
SlyF – This scene occurs just after Ed blows off his and Estelle’s breakup date at the local coffee shop, saying he had to treat a fish with pneumonia. Smitty’s giving an accurate account of his conversation with his vet, Dr. Ed. I think I may be shipping Estelle and Slick Smitty, because why the hell not?
Family Circlejerk – Omitted is the long shower Bil took after his long talk with the lady next door.
Fudge Packer – It looks like Declan-brother is wearing a merkin on his face.
MW: “Mary, is there anything in these muffins that will make me look less like a toddler in a tantrum?”
RMMD: Lou comes into the diner every day, so that he and Wanda can relive the terrible transgressions of Mud Murphy.
@Activist: Mary was “Apple Mary” before Pumpkin Pie Spice was invented.
@Bob Tice: To be fair, I was saying that way before then too (The pre-Ces premise of the strip after all was a judge and his extended family (both literal and metaphorical) benefited from all sorts of “crazy” schemes and mayhem because they were all a bunch of rich privileged assholes who were apparently immune to consequences, so “incredulity” was kinda baked into the comic from the get-go)
@richardf8: I’m on board with that.
@2+2=7:
Very true. But at least the old strip wasn’t (a) gratuitously and graphically violent like it has been since August, 2016 (throat-slitting; garroting; shootings; blood-spattering of all sorts) or (b) relentlessly political (and tilted in one direction at that.) And lapses in logic and unfinished story lines abound. It simply isn’t fun to read anymore.
Crank: The silent crowd shifts uncomfortably, hanging their heads in shame. “This old woman is very wise,” they murmur among themselves, nodding their heads.
Batuik puts his pen down with a satisfied air. “The Pulitzer is as good as mine.”
SFx: Well, there’s certainly no reason an exotic tropical fish salesman would know fish don’t have lungs.
6 Chx: Xunise is ready for Halloween fun! This year she’s going as Joan of Arc.
JP – “But that all sounds so stupid now.” Hey, that’s all right. It sounded stupid the first time, too.
Don Abundio, translated:
“So this is how a captain of industry makes decisions”
“Don’t you think it’s kind of arbitrary?”
“Of course not!”
“Why do you say that?”
Sometimes it’s good to listen to the inner voices saying not to say something
Six Chix – Xunise is burned out on Halloween already!? What are we gonna do with all these pumpkins?
I do appreciate the silent-film-style title card, though. I think she should start doing animation — one frame per week. The story would still move faster than Rex Morgan.
JP: “You can’t handle the truth!”
JP – What is truth? Pontius Pilate
Shoe – It siced an evil clown on me….
Phantom – Hall of stuffed Phantoms….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
MW – Notice that Mary doesn’t answer the question about what’s in the muffins. It’s an old tried-and-true brainwashing / cult indoctrination recipe.
@Sequitur: “Mile-killing dog-trot”? I’m not sure what that is, but I guess it’s better than a dog-killing mile-trot.
Slylock Six Differences – Well, you made me look up Polybius and now I am aware of the conspiracy. Well played, Mr. Weber!
@Pozzo: I really want to see the 1940 Phantom Zoot Suit — the gray jacket with the ruff cuff and the stripey pants with the reet pleat. Two-tone shoes and the Stetson Fedora.
MW – Mary’s tried-and-true meddling tactic: calling out her medlee’s hypocrisy. Works like a charm.
@Baja Gaijin: Violent!
@Pozzo: Leisure suit Phantom.
Non~Sequitor: Given the stories I’m hearing from hurricane survivors this past week, a timely strip from Wiley Miller.
DT: Despite what I said yesterday, part of me was kind of expecting that there would be some hurried and nonsensical explanations for the last
storysequence of randomeventsthings before we moved on. Silly me. Still, there’s a guest writer who isn’t Eric Costello, so lets move on with an open mind and find out why we hate him too.MW: Huh, Mary’s saying what I’ve been saying all storyline … after my fellow ‘Mudges have convinced me that Stell might possibly have the glimmerings of a point. Typical.
The quote is one of those “accurate, but what’s it doing here?” ones. Jung’s idea was that we recognise in others aspects of our own inner self we’re in denial about. Nobody in Mary Worth even has any interiority, and certainly what’s annoying Stell isn’t that she looks at Ed and sees her own workaholic nature reflected back at her.
Phantom: See, this is why Stripey married Diana. Anyone else who’d recently spent far too long listening to him going on about a weird dream he had where he was told a story about his father that probably never happened, not even that long after having to listen to The Prophecy twice, would not be this enthusiastic about it being storytime again. (I realise she doesn’t actually look very enthusiastic. I stand by my statement.)
He could cinch it by having an audience member yell, “Shut the fuck up, you loathsome hag.”
Rex Morgan – Time for RMMD’s beloved Phone Conversations™. Beatty forgot to draw the upnose view.
JP – It’s hard to believe that a young woman who came up with using shipping containers as offices could fall for a lie about being framed for a crime.
Crankshaft – *Eye roll*
Poetic? It would be poetic if the mob told her to stick the book where the sun doesn’t shine.
Mary Worth – I wasn’t expecting this angle. Why didn’t Mary say that trying to save puppies was one of Ed’s endearing quirks?
Frazz – Oh, come on. A perfect genius who mocks other people’s diets would fart rainbows and unicorns.
I never heard the burnt toast one before.
FC – I refuse to read any strip that “Billy” draws. Thank goodness Jeffy is too stupid to do it.
Shoe- a bigger concern in the debate on how big they are (human v bird), is what is the condition of the neighborhood cars if it is the former?
CS – Damn, Lillian is channeling Les.
Today’s Close to Home shows a giant ant buggering a woman. I guess that’s topical.
@I speak Jive: Wow, you hit the jackpot for the weekly Special Scrotal Award. Well played (and timed).
@Schroduck: The late Queen once said that Princess Michael of Kent was “more royal than we” because of the princess’s haughty behavior. The Queen would say of the Parker-Spencer-Drivers that they’re “more assholish than we, if that’s possible. Of course, I’m talking about Andrew and Meghan, not all of us.”
@Baja Gaijin: Yes! Please!
@Activist: I have a large collection of fall baking magazines, and they all include a lot of apple recipes. Apple baked goods are acceptable for fall. However, I think that you’re right about concentrating on pumpkin spice, because that seems to be limited to October and November.
CS: “What you’re doing here is almost poetic.”
“Well thank you. That’s nice of you to say. We’re glad you like it.”
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: Thank you. I’m humbled. I honestly was not aiming for that number.
MW: Dr. Carl Jung enjoyed sex with his lady patients. Is there some subtext to this choice of quotation? Does Dr. Ed strategically apply peanut butter?
FC-“Watches Lou Grubb fix the the car.” I’m sure Daddy was watching Lou Grubb.
FC-Dolly and friends laugh as Daddy wraps the jump rope around his neck.
Shoe-It’s a man-sized spider. In fact you could call it a Man-Spider.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: re Close to Home: Please be assured, my friend, that is NOT Emmet Pismire in the, uh, interspecies congress role. They would never lower their standards like that. I think that *may* be Emmet by the tree up front, eying the foreground picnickers.
They all look alike to meMW: An eye-opening performance by our superstars, Libby and Pierre! They see that Estelle is about to cave to Mary’s mind games, and possibly those “tried and true” muffins. We warned ’em not to be tempted by the suspect baked goods, stick to the brand-name Pet Treats, in sealed packages…
@Cleveland Mocks:
This is what happens when you replace the word “ironic” at the last second (because you realised it would be an incorrect use), but don’t think through the connotations of the word you used to replace it.
@Anonymous: “OK, we used the word ‘poetic’ – is that enough to be considered in the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry category?”
@Sequitur: Jim’s dead, Jim.
@Arabella: Cave owner’s insurance?
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: Ye Gods!
@Lord Flatulence: So easy a caveman could do it..
@Wally: “I’ll take a Pulitzer for Poetry. Or for Memoir, or History. Hell, I’ll take one for International Reporting or Music Composition.” (Sob)
(Narrator overlay) “Thomas Batuik would never be awarded the Pulitzer Prize…in any category.”
Phantom has become ‘the Ghost Who Gaslights and Rambles”