Sweet memories
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Blondie, 11/11/24
Remember just weeks ago, when Dagwood dismissed the pumpkin spice concept, now in its second decade, as a mere passing craze? Well, apparently he’s finally taken a single sip of a chain coffee shop’s pumpkin spice latte and now? Now he can’t get enough. It’s no longer a goofy, female-coded trend that Dagwood as a middle-aged suburbanite chuckles at with amusement: now it’s associated with the consumption of foodstuffs, triggering the most primal urges of Dagwood the endlessly insatiable Appetite.
Rex Morgan, M.D., 11/11/24
Remember a few years back, when Mud was Truck’s rival for Wanda’s affections? Well, now he’s been thoroughly brainwashed and those days are long behind him, to the extent that he’s now learned about Truck and Wanda’s engagement and only feels overwhelming tenderness for the two of them and wants the best for their future happiness. I swear that panel two here is the closest I’ve ever seen to someone with heart eyes without actually having hearts drawn in their eyes.
Gil Thorp, 11/11/24
Remember last month, when Gil had a massive heart attack, from coaching stress? Gil does! Gil would rather not have another one. And sure, his assistant coaches simply cannot coax wins out of the Mudlarks, but was Gil ever that good at coaxing wins out of his team, really? Something to think about as he takes a long, luxurious sip of coffee. You know, it really is better when you make it in a French press, but who has the time? Well, Gil does, now!
Mary Worth, 11/11/24
Remember when Estelle and Ed got married, just last week? Well, Dr. Jeff doesn’t think they’re going to last. Just a gut feeling he has, mostly based on their fundamental incompatibility and the way they used Mary’s trite advice to paper over a big gulf in what they expect out of a relationship. We’ll see, though! Ha ha!
Marvin, 11/11/24
Remember in 1776, when the U.S. threw off the yoke of British rule? Well, Marvin clearly doesn’t, as his new boat pledges allegiance to His Majesty Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Honestly, it makes me sick.
162 replies to “Sweet memories”
oh hey Marvin is speaking (instead of thought-bubbling) and so is the dog
This seems significant, but maybe it’s the comics version of using “quotation marks” for “emphasis.”
MW:
“Ed’s former flame used to enjoy a vitamin-packed breakfast drink out here in the ocean with Ed, Mary.”
“No. Don’t say it, Jeff.”
“Yep. Sheila See had Hi C on the high seas!”
Did Marvin turn the Amazon swoop into an anchor? That’s… actually clever. I have to lie down now.
Slylock Fox-Slylock then went off and rounded up the usual suspects.
Marvin-Kudos on the writer for not making a poop deck joke.
RMMD-“Wanda? My Wanda? You proposed to my girlfriend?”
Gil Thorp-Yay! Artwork to match the writing.
MW-And of course we get the standard cruising ending.
FC-“Such small soft hands you must be the Cowboy.”
MW-“Speaking of marriages,” Jeff asks coyly.
GT: Gil putting cream in his coffee immediately after suffering a heart attack is his way of saying “I’d rather die than go back.”
Marvin: HMS stands for “Huge Marvin Shits”
Surprised that there were no jokes about Marvin’s boat having a “poop deck”.
Since, you know, Marvin is always shitting himself.
MW:
“Hark, Mary! The porpoises are using a series of their trademark complex mammalian whistles, clicks and burst pulses to fashion a TV trope-themed song about your taking the helm of my boat! — let’s listen in!”
“They call her Skipper, Skipper
Crasser and frightening
No one, you see,
Is tarter than she
And we know Skipper
Lives in a world full of blunders
Prying thereunder
Under the sea!”
Marvin: The US Navy threatened to sue if Armstrong implied any association with the befouler of the waters on this most honored of days.
GT:
“There’s no easy way to say this, Thorp. You’ve been drawn to look like Keanu Reeves!”
GT:
“Cream?”
“Nah, I prefer Clapton solo.”
MW: “That was quite the wedding”? That’s “quite” the euphemism for the slap-dash, thrown together in two days ceremony in your neighbor’s condo, with barely five guests (including the bride’s loathsome ex), catered with your girlfriend’s pale squares of indeterminate foodstuff.
Blondie: Haven’t the Bumsteads lived in their suburban subdivision for decades? You’re telling me there are no trees? Or do they live in some kind of constant present of when they moved to the brand new house in 1956, never changing, doomed to repeat endlessly the same actions, day after day after day? Well, it’s the comics, so yes.
MW: No, Jeff, no! We do not question The Worth! We do not doubt The Worth! Pull back, man! Pull back!
RMMD: Mud’s new song is called, ” I Did Yer Woman, You Gimp-Fingered Coot,” so he’s understandably stunned.
BB: Halftrack appears to have poured burbuon on his bran flakes today.
SF: It’s got to be depressing for Jeanie to realize that Ted is the pick of the litter.
CS: Spoiler: this week will not end with Crankshaft and the other bus drivers being fired and replaced with Amazon. It really should, though.
RM: Why are these two working on an album together? I thought they were rivals or at least didn’t like each other.
RMMD:
“I got one too — it’s an 18-minute, 27-second Thanksgiving-themed opus about the dramatic tension that, as I hear tell, developed between you ‘n’ Wanda at the diner when your trigger finger went haywire and you smashed a coffee cup to bits while stormin’ out and not sayin’ what was botherin’ you.”
“Does it have a workin’ title, Mud?”
“Yep. ‘Malice’s Restaurant‘ !”
It’s not surprising Dagwood loves pumpkin spice, Zach Weinersmith explained it well: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/spice
RMMD: I think we have the start of a heart break song here.
MW: “I don’t think this marriage is going to last”
“I am an expert in human relationship and I predict many happy years for them!”
“Well, I am an expert in human medicine and I predict that the huge workload in addition to marital strife will drive Ed to an early heart attack!”
RMMD: “Hmm. Well, Truck, the rhyme’s okay, but we’ve got to work on the meter.”
GT: “There’s no easy way to say this, Thorp. We need you back. Much further back. When’s the last time you even showered?”
JP: In theory, Glen’s got a lot on his plate recently. Dead father, killer uncle, doubly devastated mother, the murder trial, his workplace in chaos after the CEO was killed by one of the other top executives, the media swarming this sensational story, and outright cucking his own brother. How much of all this will receive anything more than passing mention, if even that?
CS: Batiuk realized last Wednesday’s Amazon joke was just too good to not make into a full week. And since he’s using the company’s real name and brand, you know the commentary won’t be pulling any punches, because it won’t be throwing any.
Ahah, it’s funny because thanks to smartphones and social media, a literal toddler has a bigger attention span and constancy than me!
Jeff is questioning the results of a manipulation Mary just said she’s proud of? He’s gonna get wished into the cornfield.
JP: it seems the murder, and the part Sophie played, has been completely forgotten.
CS: is Mitch Crankshaft’s grandson or great grandson today?
Rex Morgan, M.D.: Eh, you say “heart eyes,” I say “the look of a man whose emotions are expressed in the bowel rather than the face.” Are we sure Hank done it this way?
Well, USA, you nearly made it to 250 years. Now even Marvin sees the benefits of the unifying force of a constitutional monarchy.
GT: “We are here at Gil Thorp where we’ve secretly replaced the main character they usually have with Folgers Crystals. Let’s see if anyone can tell the difference!”
Blondie: The camera pans out slowly to reveal a line of factories labelled “INDUSTRIAL PUMPKIN SPICE INC”, smokestacks billowing out cinnamon-clove fumes.
RMMD: I was going to say that that second panel is actually the first lines of Truck’s new song, but I can’t really make it work in my head in any other style but an old-school rap. Looks like Mud is into it at least.
GT: PAINT MY KITCHEN PISS COLOR, PLEASE!
MW: ” Yes, they’ll probably be disagreements, squabbles, tears, muffins and oh god OH GOD…do you have a cigarette?”
Marvin: Sail in…piss? I assume that that’s where this is going eventually….
Gil Thorp: Gil just needs some perspective, is all. If the artist would just extend the focal length to about 300mm, we’d lose some of the background, but Gil would pick up some much-needed depth.
@Hergen: If Marvin starts to incorporate jokes about how much the late Queen Elizabeth hated Boris Johnson, I’m willing to forgive a lot.
MW: Jeff hears himself saying “But….” to Mary, and a sudden roaring in his ears drowns out the happy chatter of porpoises, the seething ocean, and even the powerful engines of his massive yacht. He realizes, too late, that he has unthinkingly challenged Mary’s interpretation of reality. In an instant, as when time slows to a frame-by-frame perception of a car crash or other disastrous event, Jeff considers the myriad consequences of his stated argument—and finds that none of them is good. His vision narrows, the dangerous sparkling lighting Mary’s blue eyes merging with the sparkling ocean and compelling him. Compelling. Him. To. Jump.
I am pretty sure this is the first time I have ever understood what is supposed to be going on in a Gil Thorp strip. It probably helps that they don’t purport to be portraying sports action.
MW – Sometimes Mary waits for praise, sometimes Mary passive-agressively trolls for praise, and sometimes Mary just damns the torpedos and flat-out praises herself.
And yes, that was QUITE the wedding. All seven of you. In a living room. With none of the dangled and withdrawn conflict vis-a-vis Estranged Pam. And no animal masks. We didn’t even get the animal masks.
Rex Morgan, MILF Diver – Mud to Truck: “Really? Well, I just banged her last night.”
Gasoline Alley – Next we’ll put rings around Uranus.
Blondie and Dag are walking about 100 yards from the Bumsteads’ house. New settings aren’t a thing this strip is famous for, but can’t they have at least put them someplace which doesn’t set up a “meeting Elmo” or “Dagwood running into Mr. Beasely” gag?
CS: Yep, that Amazon sure is getting big, aren’t they? Why, they’re getting to be almost as ubiquitous as that there Star-something coffee place!
JP: ‘No, I’m Sophie. Neddy’s over there.’
Could Daisy’s leash be any shorter? It’s almost as short as the leash Blondie keeps Dagwood on.
Mary Worth Mashup: Missing Final Panel.
MW – I wasn’t paying attention to the word balloon structure in the second panel and thought that Mary was doing all the talking and second-guessing herself. “Yep! I made it all happen!…Oh my god! What have I done?!”
Blondie: OK, time to get away from La La Land to real America. Pumpkin Spice is now a tradition around Thanksgiving. But going back to 1700: “What, you’re eating turkey? Man, I thought that craze was over years ago!”
H&L: Walk like an Egyptian.
MW: Dr Jeff wonders how Mary knows the names of the two dolphins he just married but, as usual, goes along to get along.
Mary is proud that she has a part in making sure nobody will ever discuss Mary and Jeff’s wedding behind their backs.
Phantom: (simpering) “…..but you can call me ‘Binky.’”
RMMD — Oh, by the way, I proposed to Wanda the other day.”
“Don’t know that one, but if you hum a few bars I can fake it. B-flat chord?”
GT — That “Number #1 Dud” t-shirt is on-brand.
Oh, and “We need you back” seems like a pretty easy way to say it.
@Baja Gaijin: I like it.
It has the Rodney Dangerfield piloting the “Seafood” in “Caddyshack” vibe.
MW: And it’s the triumphant re-emergence of the Dolphins o’ Delight, with a great celebration of Mary’s …. wait a minute, hold it! They just sent them a radio message that Dr. Jeff had uttered a possible foreboding comment! Whew, they were able to pivot quickly to the changing news! They’re not leapin’ quite so high, and they’ve made their smiles a little forced. That’s why they’re the best in the business! I just wish they’d let us know these things ahead of time.
At least we can now prepare the Terrific Trio for possible rough seas ahead…. Don’t worry, they’re all good swimmers, though Pierre has to use floaties.
MW: OH DEAR READER…you thought you were done with the Estelle/Ed/probably Wilbur/DEFINITELY Mary story line did you? BWAHAHAHAHA YOU FOOLS!
At least that’s how I read what Dr Jeff was saying, maybe that’s just me IDK
Don Abundio, translated:
“Should I turn off the light, Don Abundio?”
“Not yet, Polonio… I think I’ll read a little”
“This always guarantees me sweet dreams”
[Book: ATLAS SHRUGGED]
Wow, I figured Gil to be a percolator guy. Isn’t a french press a lot too elitist for a Man of Millford (no matter what state it’s in)?
Blondie – My favorite autumn thing? Motorboating your boobs! Also, winter, spring and summer fun….
RMMD – They call me the Wanda-er; The Wanda-er; I get around-around-around-around-around….
GT – Naw – just the whisky is fine….
MW – Oh – not a chance in hell there….
Marvin – I dub thee, the SS Excrement….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
GT: Given his kitchen color scheme, during the recuperation Gil has become King of the Winkies.
MW: “That was “quite a wedding . . .”? What are you talking about, Jeff? It was about the dullest three hours of anybody’s life.
MW: “. . . between Stell and Ed.”? Uh, exactly how many weddings did you two attend yesterday?
MW: “But I wonder, with absolutely no concrete basis for doing so, about their future as a married couple.”
“Dr. Cory, if you are suggesting for one second that my match-making has been in some way ill-advised then you may turn this boat around right now and return me to my home.”
MW. I was going to say that Dr. Jeff isn’t getting any tonight, but who am I kidding? He never gets any.
Blondie: Good thing they’re not mall walking. One whiff of Yankee Candle Company and Dagwood would devour half their inventory.
GT: Uh-oh, Gil has the Beard of Indolence, a sure sign that he has both hit rock bottom and that it will take a major crisis to force him out of retirement. Maybe the Goshen coach will hold Milford’s starters hostage?
Marvin: Adding another wrinkle to the eternal “how old is Marvin anyway?” question, Marvin is apparently old enough to both print words legibly and have basic knowledge of either the British Navy or Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
MW: Tired of waiting for other people to praise her, Mary gets the ball rolling herself.
After the endless stream of articles in the mainstream media has made poly relationships completely boring and obnoxious, it is no surprise that “Rex Morgan MD” would start exploring the topic of throuples
Blondie – Now that middle-aged suburbanites like Dagwood have embraced it, the end is near for the pumpkin spice trend. By that time Generation Alpha has kids it will be sneered at like black licorice, hard butterscotch candy, Turkish delight, Necco Wafers and all sorts of “old-people” flavors.
Rex Morgan, MD – Mud Murphy is going from roots/outlaw country persona to crooning country singer because of this. Throw in a lonely search for love and it’ll be better than any of the “red dirt road/red solo cup” bro country on the radio.
Gil Thorp – Gil Thorp died, and these poorly drawn images of Gil, his friends and family, and Milford are the last gasps of his dying mind telling a story as he slides into the eternal abyss.
Mary Worth – Those dolphins with the little smirks on their faces? They represent us, the readers. As much as we snark on Mary’s nosiness and trite advice, there we are, following along close enough to observe, but far enough away not to be caught up in the wake, cut up in the propellers, or worse, become the focus of Mary’s meddling. We know Mary will meddle with Estelle and Ed later, we’re just swimming along wondering whether we’re getting a new character or another Wilbur storyline next week when this boring wrap-up is over.
Marvin – Say what you will about the shortcomings of the Biden administration, managing to get Marvin and his family deported to the United Kingdom will be one of the most celebrated acts and a centerpiece for the eventual Biden library.
Blondie: Dagwood is totally just saying this in the hopes of having sex with Blondie for the first time in probable decades by pandering to her interests.
Rex Morgan: Mud is actually making that face because he’s having a sudden onset of stomach problems. Actual ones this time, as Truck is soon to discover.
Gil Thorp: “Cream isn’t a date, Coach.”
Mary Worth: In the folklore of peoples native to the Amazon Rainforest and it’s surroundings, dolphins are often depicted as shapeshifting fae seducers who impregnate women in human form before returning to the river, similar to changeling myths of European origin. Which is to say, I don’t like the look of those dolphins and I think Mary is gonna be in for a bad time this night.
Marvin: I gotta admit, Marvin calling his boat just “My Boat” is a really great sight gag. Too bad it’s in the piss and shit fetish comic instead of something actually good.
I can’t see any way that HMS My Boat would catastrophically implode like the Titan submersible but I can dream.
GT: Now that he’s drawing disability pay and marijuana has been legalized, Gil’s got a whole new set of priorities.
Frazz: Veterans Day and Memorial Day are two distinct holidays, each with its own purpose and its own set of honorees. You’d think a smug little know-it-all punk like you would already know this.
Dustin: Dustin and Dustsis are both too young to remember the early days of The Simpsons. In other news, I’m going to go sit on my front porch and yell at kids to stay off of my lawn.
Luann: “Hi, Dad, it’s Karen. Listen, about the new panels…Dad, we’ve been over this…yes, I know it’s just an imagine spot detailing their rivalry, but the syndicate will not allow you to show Tiffany and Stef mud wrestling…yes, fighting in skimpy gladiator costumes is out too…Tiffany booting Stef through the air? I think that could…NO, Dad, Stef’s skirt can not be flying up past her hips; have you been talking with Brooke McEldowney again…?”
Sometimes the human flesh suit he wears is so convincing that Blondie briefly forgets she married an infinite void that she must constantly feed lest it devour the universe who will never return her feelings of affection.
@Baja Gaijin:
Ah, Baja, that mash-up is fantastic!
Why is Marvin’s interest in boats is intense and long-lasting? It ties with his passion for floaters
I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really hope that Wilbur has fallen off another boat and those dolphins are excited that they’re on their way to bat around his unconscious body.
***
After all these decades, why does Blondie still look shocked when she finds out that everything triggers Dagwood’s appetite?
***
Marvin trying to set out to sea in a cardboard boat is not the dark and twisted way I expected this strip to come to an end. Kudos for not having the end be poop-related.
On the contrary, Marvin; we’ve seen you maintain revolting enthusiasm for something over several upsetting decades.
Blondie: What exactly is supposed to smell like pumpkin spice here? The brisk fall air? Leaves falling off trees? People’s fireplaces burning in the distance? I don’t know if “pumpkin spice stroke” is a thing, but if it is, I think Dagwood’s having one.
Rex Morgan: The thing I like about country music is how authentic it is. Just a coupla down-home guys pouring their hearts out with folk guitars, and an AI-powered computer program behind them to make it sound palatable to the Spotify algorithm.
Gil Thorp: “I’m still recovering,” he lies, while pouring coffee from a two-foot height without spilling a drop to show that he’s actually perfectly fine.
Mary Worth: “I wonder about their future as a married couple! In fact, I think marriage itself is an outdated, obsolete concept, just like monogamy itself! Which is something I figure I’ll tell my longtime girlfriend as we travel directly into dark storm clouds, which are not a metaphorical omen about our own relationship at all!”
Marvin: Marvin is clearly at the point in his toilet training where everything he builds will turn out to be shaped like a kids’ potty — and you don’t need to read his copy of The Adventures of Young Sigmund Freud to know the reasons why.
Family Circus: Shut up, kid — can’t you see that Mommy is trying to read that love letter from her high school boyfriend for the 8,000th time? Once again, she’s wondering if she should have married him way back when, and had kids with normal heads.
Marvin – I had the pleasure of sharing a Scotrail car with a royalist enthused by Chucky III’s coronation. He quite reminded me of Marvin.
GT: Man, I don’t know if it’s because of the new artist or what, but this POV is giving me major flashbacks. I’m pretty sure I’ve woken up in Gil’s apartment before.
GT: That’s not Gil Thorp.
Beetle Bailey: I don’t want to think about Blips and what’s going on with her bra to make her look that way but it’s rather difficult to ignore. Ms Buxley doesn’t look like a human woman either but at least she isn’t drawn with erect boobs.
Dustin: No Zoomer generation teen is saying “don’t have a cow”. The slang they come up with is some of the most vulgar and sexually explicit stuff imaginable.
Curtis: Those are the kinds of tasks a 4 year old might get asked to do just so they can feel a sense of accomplishment. WOW, you put a new lightbulb in the lamp all by yourself!
Hi and Lois: This has become one of the most depressing comics with the family in extreme financial hardship and how that can affect their physical health as well as mental.
Dennis the Menace: Dennis really has gotten a lot more manageable since his parents decided to chemically lobotomize him. Sure he needs to wear a bib when he eats and probably diapers again but that’s a small price to pay not to have the neighbors complaining every 10 minutes.
Pearls Before Swine: The “woke” extremism movement would expect you to pay for therapy sessions to make the obsolete key feel better and would sue you for segregating it to a separate drawer. That’s not even hyperbole.
MW: I think it’s Mary saying she wonders about the future of the married couple, not Dr. Jeff. Her word balloons always have more bold words than anyone else (no need to check!), and in panel two, both of her word balloons end in elipses to ensure Dr. Jeff never gets to say another line.
GT: I bet they’re keeping Gil at home so we forget what he used to look like. A month seems unnecessary, though, because artist Rachel already forgot what he looked like in panel two when she drew panel three.
They say you shouldn’t punish the behavior you want to see, so I’d like to sincerely praise Marvin for doing a joke that a) requires actual character choices, and b) doesn’t depend on human waste to be funny. Not that it IS funny, but one problem at a time.
GT: It’s a lot to ask of Gil to do anything, now that he’s lost 80 pounds. Dude should be drinking Ensure, not coffee.
The Family Circus Spanish to English.
Mary Worth – Mary’s hurt that the entire reception didn’t turn into a praise session for her. To compensate, she’s spending both panels patting herself on the back. Today won’t be the end of it.
Frazz – I have to give Caulfield credit for thinking fast on his feet. He was going to finish the sentence with ” – and there are no holidays honoring obnoxious geniuses who are superior to everyone. ”
9CL – Wait a minute. They’re in MAINE? All this time we thought it was New Hampshire. The states are adjacent to each other, but it makes even less sense to swim in a pond year round in Maine.
@Baja Gaijin: That’s great! Except that it foreshadows that the next meddle will involve Wilbur. All signs point that way.
Marvin’s right to be proud, usually he gets on to something on a Monday, rides that interest through the week, does something unrelated on Sunday and by the next Monday he’s onto a new thing. The fact that it’s Monday and he or anyone still remembers about the boat is truly impressive.
@Bob Tice: I knew Gil looked like someone else but could not place it. Thanks!
speaking of healthcare, how exactly did Gil finance his month in a hospital and not only went broke, but can now afford not needing to get paid ASAP?
Betting odds are off the charts that Marvin is using this whole stupid boat thing as a pretext to make a joke about poop-decks. It ‘s going to happen and there’s nothing any of us can do to stop it. I know a lot has been speculated about why Marvin always goes this direction but I think it’s because he never got over the immense success of the Nickelodeon “Rugrats” cartoon in the 1990s. That cartoon made hundreds of millions in merchandising while making jokes about the fact that babies don’t have the ability to use a bathroom and Marvin couldn’t deal with it. It’s actually very sad and we should take pity on him.
Crank: “If Amazon took kids to school … they would get there and you’d know they’d got there! Amazon Schoolrun, the better alternative to terrible bus drivers like Ed Crankshaft!” How much is Bezos paying Batty for this?
DT: I think I was ranting about one of the other ways this story doesn’t make sense when Dick said the Totten Organisation was their only lead, but can we just pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that the transit police have been openly letting Totten employees go on the company’s say-so, and that’s apparently normal and fine, but Dick is there to lean on the boss because a dead guy had a Totten Organisation ID card that he knows is fake? The fact he’s inevitably going to turn out to be right and solve not just the murder but some massive conspiracy of which the murder is only a part doesn’t stop it being stupid.
GT: People here keep talking about Gil’s “heart attack”, but I don’t think anyone in strip has said it was a heart attack, because Bajaras is literally allergic to explaining anything. And the last Wrigham-drawn strip before the hallucination scene clearly showed Gil pushing the other assistant coach out of the way of a football player who was barrelling towards them for no clear reason. Now maybe that brought on a heart attack, but until someone says so, I am choosing to believe Gil was in hospital with a severe case of comedy trampling, and nobody’s taking that mental image away from me.
JP: If I were Sophie, I feel like “We only really met once” would have come much earlier in the conversation, like around the time Neddy was one step away from chanting “Sophie and Glen sitting in a tree” like she was twelve.
Phantom: Mollusk’s thinking “Yes, I know how surnames work.”
love is… trying to cop a feel but missing because there’s nothing to feel.
Wait…how do we know Marvin is American? Could he actually have been British this whole time? I mean, everyone does treat everyone else with polite but barely concealed contempt.
@I speak Jive: @I speak Jive:
“9CL – Wait a minute. They’re in MAINE? All this time we thought it was New Hampshire. The states are adjacent to each other, but it makes even less sense to swim in a pond year round in Maine.”
I always assumed Juliette taught at Bennington College, which is a three and half hour trip to New York City and could be a plausible weekend retreat for pond swimming. Logistically, Maine seems to be totally unreasonable. Furthermore, the Overlook Twins were born and raised in the mystical land of Manhattan- since when she start considering herself a Mainer?
@74 I speak Jive: I considered capsizing the boat, but I couldn’t figure out how to make Wilbur fall out in a humorous manner.
Blonde: Given Blondie’s entrepreneurial inclinations, I could definitely see her pitching a pumpkin spice douche on Shark Tank.
It’s not just French-press coffee that Gil Thorp has time for now. That beard is unnaturally black for a man of his age. He has clearly put in the time for a Just For Men treatment or two.
GT: It took me a couple of minutes to realize that the titular character really does look the way he looks now, which is definitely not the way he looked before. But okay. I’m used to not understanding the dialogue in this strip, let alone the plot, so this is just one more mental hurdle to jump when GT appears here. I don’t know which sport is being discussed today, either, but at least I know what coffee is. Is coffee-waterfalling yet another sport?
MARVIN: I’m curious about where that boat came from, but I refuse to read back strips to try to find out. I’m proud to realize that I do have limits, yaaay.
@Baja Gaijin: Fabulous.
JP: so does Sophie still have her cherry?
@Bob Tice: You have a gift.
@Poteet: GT: It took me a couple of minutes to realize that the titular character really does look the way he looks now, which is definitely not the way he looked before.
Honestly, that was my reaction to going from panel 2 to panel 3.
GT(MD): French press coffee is delicious, but really high in caffeine. Not the best indulgence for a guy recovering from a heart attack.
@richardf8: I always enjoyed this billboard I saw years back, when Prince Charles married Camilla. Someone photoshopped the image of the film poster “Bride of Chucky” (which came out right around the same time) to have Charles and Camilla’s faces on the cover.
The jokes write themselves.
@OId Man Shadow: Dagwood possibly being a sentient black-hole suggests that his entire family is one.
Maybe the comic could pull an “Atomic Betty” and have his Black-Hole Aunt be named Auntie-Matter.
I mean, it’s actually a form of a joke at all, what do the writers have to lose?
FC: Is Thel supposed to be some kind of pituitary colossus? Jeffy is canonically around four years old but in comparison to Thel he’s the size of a six month old baby.
Ever wonder what happened to Formally Wounded Elk?
Sid knows.
@Cleveland Mocks: Especially since the little jerk quoted Vonnegut and Frost recently.
I found the real-life Estelle.
I’d say Mud’s expression in Rex Morgan looks more like shock and horror but what do I know. That or maybe he’s crapping his pants.
@Flipper: I looked at that again and I think you’re absolutely correct about Mary owning both word balloons in the second panel. She meddles Stell and Ed into a commitment even as she has doubts about their ability to make a go of it—knowing that a second marriage ended prematurely by a workaholic husband will send Estelle into an emotional tailspin from which only Mary and a plate heaped high with her iconic muffins will be able to save her. It’s a brilliant move that keeps her meddlees from straying too far outside her sphere of influence.
MW: I need a contact for Karen Moy. She needs to mix it up in this strip, and I have a great idea: between storylines, give us a week or so of Mary’s recipes. I’d love the recipe for her muffins, and I’m sure the salmon squares are (retch) DELISH.
I’ll bet Moy could stretch a recipe out for weeks.
@Baja Gaijin: The article was tl;dr for me. However, I did skim through it, and a couple of things jumped out at me: she was having a masquerade themed reception. And most damning: when asked if the invited guests didn’t know that it was a wedding, she replied that she had been talking about it “incessantly” for months.
Yup, that’s Estelle.
@98 Baja Gaijin:
And check out this photo on the far right middle. One of the people that showed up was some sort of mannequin. No animals though.
@Sequitur: re Far Side: (snort,snort) Good one, pal! Yeah, this really takes me back… all those corpse scenes I played for laughs in my career. Usually with Vultures, but sometimes Lions playing the predator roles. And I remember the scene they’re talking about – back in the day when they weren’t too woke to show the actual prey being eaten! It was all an illusion of course, and some damn good ACTING.
Funny you should bring this up now. Just last week the Buzzards Circling Overhead dropped in for a visit! It seems I’d been napping too long! Boy, were they surprised that I was still alive! (snort,snort)
Blondie: This is not going to end well when Dagwood passes the Jiffy Lube sign advertising “pumpkin spiced oil changes.” Rest in peace, Dag… even your stomach can’t handle four quarts of pumpkin-spiced 5W20 synthetic.
@Guillermo el chiclero: “Pituitary Colossus” would be a great name for a rock band.
FC: “Say my name.”
Phantom: “Call me ‘Lam’.”
Marvin: those predicting the “cardboard boat” storyline will end with a “poop deck” joke, beware: the last legitimate poop joke in Marvin was a week or so before Thanksgiving of last year. Since then, the closest we’ve come is a couple references to fire hydrants (Bitsy) or the sandbox (Clawfull). I have to wonder if Tom Armstrong made a bet that he could go a whole year without a joke about Marvin’s toxic-waste-dump diaper. At first I welcomed this, as the poop jokes were getting almost as repetitive as Death in Paradise, but right now I’m thinking that ending this arc with one might be just that little bit of seasoning the strip needs.
However, I think Tom is committed to a poop-joke-free Marvin, at least a little longer, so maybe things will go really dark, as in CSI: New York season 4 episode 11, where the killer is avenging the death of his brother, who drowned forty years ago because he believed the cardboard submarine he bought from an ad in the back of a comic book would float. R. I. P., Marvin…
@Baja Gaijin:
Gee, that’s a shame, especially since the groom went all out and wore his cleanest dirty jeans.
@102 I speak Jive: You got both points that I got! Talking incessantly for months about the ridiculously-themed reception, and a ridiculously-themed reception. Totally Estelle.
@103 Sequitur: Just what every ridiculously-themed wedding reception must have, a ridiculous-looking mannequin.
@110 Cleveland Mocks: Speaking of ridiculous, did you note the groom’s haircut? What did he tell the barber, “I want a Moe Howard the Stooge except ridiculous?”
@Hannibal’s Lectern: #109: I remember that ad for the submarine. Good thing that I nor any kid in my neighborhood had the $6.95 plus S&H to order one. Even if we did we had better things to throw our money away on, plus our parents would’ve whaled the tar out of us if we did. Never saw one of those things in the flesh (or cardboard) but after much internet research I found someone who actually had one with pictures. It looked more like a Tesla Cybertruck than a submarine. The torpedoes and missiles were launched by rubber bands.
@109 Hannibal’s Lectern: The sitcom, Get a Life, had an episode on just this topic.
“Gil, for God’s sake, take a look at yourself! Your skinny frame is barely filling out that ‘#1 Dad’ shirt. Speaking of, how dare you take more pride in raising your own children than in briefly coaching other people’s. And look at you holding that cup by its handle like an effete prince instead of gripping it as I do, like a man. And what are you doing working a French Press and offering cream? That’s the kind of thing the woman in your life does before you brush her away to figure out plays or how to teach some kid the importance of humility. You disgust me.”
@Peanut Gallery:
Esto confirma mi creencia de que Abundio no sabe leer.
“I’m afraid Stale might have misconstrued my advice other to have herself committed.”
@Baja Gaijin: I think the groom has kind of a Jelly Roll vibe – who as I understand it, is quite popular.
I’m glad Six Chix rejected the disrespectful “Tomb of the Unknown popped balloon dog” punchline they were obviously about to make.
@35 Baja Gaijin:
I just noticed this. Ha! You got Wilbur sitting on Marvin’s poop deck.
@119 Sequitur: Based on his posture, Wilbur may actually be pooping.
@Baja Gaijin: Ah, if only.
@Lord Flatulence: That was my first impression.
@120 Baja Gaijin:
Ah, yes. The mayonnaise runs. That’s sure gonna make a mess on Doc Jeff’s watercraft.
GT: Gil Thorp is going for the Tommy Chong look.
@Bravo McGuire: Gil’s not here, man….
@123 Sequitur: Make a mess on Doc Jeff’s watercraft? Wilbur’s sitting on Marvin’s boat. Or is that shitting on Marvin’s boat?
@Philip: Re: RMMD. Given that MMM is CLEARLY modelled on Johnny Lee, that’s not too much of a stretch.
Check out “Bet Your Heart on Me.”
EEK!: Something you don’t expect in the comics yet there it is. Mummy boobs.
@126 Baja Gaijin:
Isn’t Doc Jeff about to plow into Marvin’s shitty boat? Shit will fly everywhere!
@127 brendancalling: Your link has an extra character; try clicking Johnny Lee here.
@128 Sequitur: Miss Blips has nothing to worry about.
@129 Sequitur: Yeah, I guess that could happen. Wilbur, of course, won’t die even after being pulled into the larger boat’s propellers.
Late Thread Cuisine: Burger King’s holding its Million Dollar Whopper poll. To me, they’re all about as appealing as a Mary Worth muffin three days after Wilbur sat on it. What say you?
@Baja Gaijin: I thought the second one sounded good until jalapenos came up.
I can’t eat anything spicy, and cream sauces are out, too. I vote for none of the above.
@Baja Gaijin:
I found the real-life Estelle.
Perhaps this would be a good time for the
happycouple to ask themselves, AITAH?@Hannibal’s Lectern: #109. One just those cardboard $6.98 mail order subs (unopened) recently sold at a collector’s auction for $22,000.
@132 Baja Gaijin:
Hard pass on all.
I notice that the first burger was created by Fabian. So he’s into creating crapburgers in his golden years..
9CL: Since when is Xiulan from South Korea?
@Horace Broon: Bwahaha!
@136 Sequitur: I agree. They all have far to many strongly flavored ingredients. Maybe they want to drown the flavor of the meat? Hm.
@I speak Jive: What you said. I cannot eat anything spicy, and while I can handle some cream sauces, pickles do not appeal. Nix to this trio.
@140 Poteet:
Even though I don’t want real spicy, I don’t consider jalapeno all that spicy. What I didn’t like was the bacon on the first two burgers. I can’t abide bacon on a hamburger.. The third one had corn. Corn on a burger? I don’t think so.
I’d love to point out that Mary Worth is literally taking credit for someone else’s marriage, and openly bragging about her control over other people – but it’s not even subtext. It’s just text.
Mary Worth is a sociopath.
@Sequitur: Complete agree. Bacon on your burger is like buttering your cheese (thanx and a tip o’ the hat to a Zits strip from many years ago).
All three of those things suck. Not that I would attempt to ingest Burger King “food,” anyway. (I will happily eat fast food from certain places. Culver’s when I’m in the Midwest, and Five Guys. Is Five Guys considered fast food, or “counter diner?” Is “counter diner” even a thing? Oh, and Al’s Italian Beef when I’m in Chicago.)
@Sequitur: About ten years ago I was in a Sioux City, South Dakota, burger joint and had a burger that was voted not only the BEST BURGER west of the Mississippi, but the BEST SANDWICH.
Medium rare patty on a toasted roll with a heavy schmear of Philadelphia cream cheese, a dollop of salsa verde, and a sprinkling of minced jalapeño chiles. Sounds a little bizarre but try it, try it.
@144 Ukulele Ike:
I could like that.
@BigTed: Blonde’s farts. She had a Pumpkin spice latte with a pumpkin spice scone at Starbucks.
@146 Kenny Copeland:
Hmm. Blondie’s farts. I do believe that’s a new exploration on this site. Checking gas instead of the bosom. Not as much fun… but interesting.
@143 Ukulele Ike: Buttering your cheese…is something Ed Kudlick does.
@148 Baja Gaijin:
Ed Kudlick wipes his ass with cheese.
Then eats it.
@Ukulele Ike: Sioux Falls has more Pluggers per capita…um…well…I bet there’s a shitload of Pluggers there….
@149 Sequitur: Sounds like you have a Meddlevision 2000® installation at home.
@151 Baja Gaijin:
Ha! I have the new and improved 3000 version!
And all the hell that it foments.
@152 Sequitur: Ah, the one with the Pottyvision option.
@153 Baja Gaijin:
With great power comes great responsibility. Unfortunately, I have neither.
@154 Sequitur: Please don’t post those videos…
@155 Baja Gaijin:
A prudent suggestion.
Compare today’s Blondie strip with this strip from 2019. I suppose that it saves a lot of time to reuse art and just change colors, a couple of facial expressions and different text.
@157 GrafSpee:
Them sumbitches. Can’t really blame them since it’s SO HARD to draw a new strip and they have so many other things they’re being paid to do.
@Sequitur: I don’t eat bacon often, and when I do, I’d rather savor it all by itself.
Slylick Fox And Comix For Kinky Kids: Is Sly picking his nose or smelling his finger?
@I speak Jive: As a native of New Hampshire, I can only say thank God!
GT: Nice to see that Gil Thorpe and Mark Trail have defied the proliferation of AI art. Their use of ESA (Elementary School Art) is a brave attempt to hold onto whatever humanity survives in corporate controlled comic strips.