Blast (?) from the past
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 11/12/24
As we move inexorably into a post-newspaper world, we do have to ask ourselves: who are the comics, as a genre and as individual strips, for, exactly? Primarily, they are for me, so I can continue to make fun of them on this blog, so I have to thank everyone involved for doing this for me personally and, downstream from that, for you, my faithful readers. But also they are for (and I suppose there is some overlap with the previous answer) weird comic strip obsessives who love the obscure history of this medium. This is a group that Dick Tracy has been pursuing with gusto for some time; Barney Google and Snuffy Smith is the second-oldest newspaper strip running, just a few months behind Gasoline Alley, so why shouldn’t they get in on the game? Why shouldn’t they bring back Bunky, the main character of a BG&SS “topper” strip that ran from 1927 to 1948? Is a new generation ready for the antics of a “strangely erudite newborn,” or at least ready to nod sagely and say “I understood that reference?” Only one way to find out!
Daddy Daze, 11/12/24
Speaking of strangely erudite newborns, I find the Daddy Daze daddy’s little smile in the final panel profoundly sad. Look, man, you know the “ba”s don’t mean anything, right? You only imbue them with semantic content because you spend all your time with a preverbal infant and are desperately lonely and understimulated, and fantasizing that you have bested this imaginary version of your child in a battle of wits is one of the most poignant and pathetic things I’ve ever seen.
Mary Worth, 11/12/24
Speaking of poignant and pathetic things, I’ll never get tired of Dr. Jeff just kind of hinting that he’d like to marry Mary and getting immediately shot down. Mary has it good now, meaning that she is no way legally responsible for the loan and insurance payments on this ridiculous boat, and she’d frankly like to keep it that way.
156 replies to “Blast (?) from the past”
MW: She may not want to be legally responsible for the loan and insurance payments on that boat but she’s not above accompanying him on his weekly drug run to Mexico to pay for it.
H&L: I’m so glad that Hi and Lois have found the time for some spicy games. Who’s playing Luigi?
MW:
“It’s not every couple that can claim to have as shallow and vapid a relationship as we have, Mary!”
BG&SS:
Li’l Sparky speaks better non-colloquial English than all of the residents of Hootin’ Holler combined.
H&L: It’s not fair, Pete thought as he grumpily opened the cabinet under the sink. His brothers got to run around in the Mushroom Kingdom all day collecting gold coins and rescuing beautiful princesses, and he was stuck here in the ‘burbs resolving the petty problems of stupid housewives. “All right, where’s your main water shutoff valve, lady?” As the idiot woman spluttered and shrugged, Pete sighed and vaulted into a nearby wall pipe to go find it himself. This useless soccer mom probably didn’t even know where the entrance to her lava level was.
JP: DRAMA! Neddy does not approve of her twenty-year-old baby sister dating some dirty old man with twenty-two or possibly even twenty-three winters behind him. Never mind that Declan was at least ten years older than Neddy, that’s not important anymore. It looks like we’re in for a week or two of Luann here as Neddy acts like a complete asshole for no reason and everyone else unhappily puts up with it because this is just what boring hack writers do.
RMMD: Yes, this discussion between Truck and Mud is a repeat of a repeat of a repeat of information we already know from the previous week that doesn’t develop anything about the plot or characters in any way! Strap in, because there’s a massive cast of dull middle-aged people that Truck and Wanda still have left to notify of their engagement. Sure, we already saw Parker’s, Rex and June’s, and Mud’s non-reactions, but you’re dreaming if you think we’re getting through this without seeing Buck’s bland response to this news.
Daddy Daze Daddy, are you giving humorously out-of-context answers to questions that we haven’t heard because they are phrased as “Ba” or are you giving humorously absurd answers to questions that you have to repeat for us because they are phrased as “Ba”? Pick a lane!
BG&SS: I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that sometime in the past couple of decades, Sparky has had sex. Of course, Judging from Tater’s age, Snuffy and Loweezy have done so in the past couple of years. The hills are alive!
I had never mentally processed the size of Dr. Jeff’s boat before. That looks like an Azimut 47, which costs more than my house.
@matt w: After the searches I did to look that up, I am expecting to be getting some hilariously misguided targeted advertisements for a while.
MW: Why does it look like the artist instructions for the last couple strips were “Make Dr. Jeff and Mary look like they are recreating the second to last scene of the original Dexter series”?
It used to be that “strangely erudite newborns” would have a “vocabulary rival[ing] that of any educated adult” and would be as much the “protector” as “benefactor” of their family. Now they’re just a vehicle for toilet humor that get abused by their own dog. Why, it’s almost enough to make you want to [POLITICAL STATEMENT CENSORED]
Luann: Can we skip the drivel and get to these two making out, already.
MW: c’mon Dr Jeff you can do better than vain, conceited and dessicated Mary. And I think Jeff finds a new lady friend would be a great storyline.
BG&SS – in the land of the homunculi, I’d think anyone could be a jockey….
DD – Which view would you prefer – wild blue yonder or pencil neck?
MW – Mary and Jeff be stylin’ in the SS Medicare Fraud….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
I just wanna know what the hell kind of shoes Daddy Daze Daddy is wearing. They look like roombas strapped to his feet. Maybe moon shoes? They look like they have baleens, so maybe each one is the skull of some form of sea life? Is he on the run for poaching whales to make his shoes?
Just out of residency, naming his boat “Forever Happy” matched his outlook and his ambitions. Now in the twilight of his life, Dr. Jeff is wiser and the stern taunts him with the brash promise of his unfulfilled youth.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith – Bringing back old forgotten characters from almost 80 years ago is the newspaper comic strip’s version of having their lives flash before their eyes before death. But because of the pacing “flash” will take place over many months.
Daddy Daze – Angus is warning Daddy that he is getting them lost and walking toward the bad part of the park.
Mary Worth – All Mary needs is to be in Dr. Jeff’s life insurance policy, which doesn’t require marriage.
@matt w: Look how tiny they are in Panel Two. That’s a tech billionaire’s boat.
Mary Worth: Last time Dr. Jeff bet on something, he got this insanely-big-for-one-or-two-people boat (and a pinky ring!). This time, he stands to win. . . a self-righteous old biddy? Maybe that will finally cure him of his gambling addiction!
Hi and Lois: This guy is a kinky sex worker who likes to masquerade as a plumber but he’s disappointed when he gets a job where all they want him to do is fix the plumbing and then pay him with money. He tries to make it obvious by growing a mustache that emulates his favorite porn stars but somehow people still don’t take him seriously.
From that Wikipedia link to topper strips: imagine any cartoonist being given a full page today.
@matt w:
You can always refer them to Dr Jeff; he might want to woo Mary by gifting her one of her own.
Luann:
Battle of the Shoogs 2: The Shoogening.
BGSS: I’m not saying Lil’ Sparky is oblivious, but Hootin’ Holler is filled with people with stunted growth due to childhood malnutrition.
Uh oh. Someone at the syndicate was bored and reading through the archives, only to discover they own an IP that’s getting close to entering the public domain. Well done, faceless cog in the machine. Bonus points if your last name is “Smith”.
***
Ooooh, Dr. Jeff is aiming for some hot action tonight! If he plays his cards right, instead of a firm handshake he might get a hug, or… or… or (dare he dream?) a chaste kiss on the cheek!
MW: I will say this for Mary Worth, it’s kind of refreshing for the man in the relationship to be the one (not-so-)subtly angling for marriage while the woman does everything in her power to dodge it. It’s like a gender flip on the old Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane comics.
Translation: Mary just wants commitment-free boning.
FC-“My adverbs are…”
MW-Another marriage proposal sunk.
MW-Mary, just tell Jeff that you don’t want to get married again after your first husband killed himself and only left you with a mountain of debt and a floundering apartment complex.
BG&SS: I’m not sure whether Bunky is supposed to be related to the Smiths, the Googles, or neither, but that hand-to-head ratio is impressive to say the least. It’s like the opposite of the design of a later baby with language abilities, Stewie Griffin.
@TheDiva: To make the analogy complete, Dr. Jeff would need to hatch ridiculous schemes to reveal that Mary has a superpowered alter ego. She uses her superspeed to meddle in relationships across the nation.
Luann: C-c-c-cat fight!
H&L: Seriously? Easiest $250 ever, more like it.
6Chx: Well, kid, if you’re looking for a good idea, here’s one. Don’t go around with an open safety pin dangling from your earlobe. You’re welcome.
H&L: “You called me all the way out here just to hire me to do an extremely simple job for which I can charge you for parts and labor on top of the standard service-call fee? Sheesh, lady who needs that kind of business?”
CS: Awriiight, Batty’s gonna beat the Amazon thing to death for the rest of the week. Tomorrow Mitch is being transported by one of Amazon’s drones, which inadvertently flies into some high-voltage power lines. Hilarity ensues.
DD – Are those Six-Year-Old-Using-Microsoft Paint clouds a product of Daddy’s imagination as well?
C’shaft: Meanwhile in poorer neighborhoods, students are shut up in warehouses for 2-5 days before they are sent home.
Dustin: Everyone in the Kudlik Family is Horrible, part 532,215.
GT: Damn, Milford must have a sweet pension program if Gil can seriously consider retiring at forty-five.
JP: This is probably supposed to read as Neddy being overprotective of her sister, but there are corners of the internet that consider twenty-one and thirty to be a “problematic age gap,” so.
Phantom: “Look, lady, I left South Africa just so I wouldn’t have to call that (inappropriate racial term) Mandela “Mr. President,” I’m not starting with Luaga here.”
Pluggers haven’t heard from their children since 2016 and can’t figure out why.
RMMD: I know, Mudgus, I’m just as surprised as you are.
H&L: “Take a video and your husband can do it next time.”
You’d think after twenty odd years of marriage, Hi would know every possible “it” there is.
JP: Nice move, Neddy. Because if there’s anyone who can spot an ill-fated relationship on the horizon it’s you.
MW: “You see, Jeff, if I were to marry you, I’d just be another wife living in the shadow of her husband. I *cast* shadows, Jeff — big ones. I don’t live in them.”
Frazz: Does Frazz not do certain things because he disapproves of them, or does he disapprove of certain things because he doesn’t do them? I think we’ve seen enough know the answer to that.
FC: Billy goes to school early so he can practice his vaudeville act in front of the empty class.
“Speaking of mortified, my apostrophe friend is too possessive.”
@Dennis Jimenez:
the SS Medicare Fraud
That made me laugh out loud!
High and Lower – I’m confused. That looks like Hi with a fake pornstache glued on. Is that what it’s supposed to be with Lois about to say, “I don’t have the money to pay you . . . ”
Is that it, or is this really supposed to be some actual plumber whom they inadvertently drew to look like Hi?
MW – I think we all know that Mary doesn’t believe in premarital sex, so we can assume that she and Jeff have a chaste relationship. And she wants to keep it that way. She wants his penis to remain squarely in his pants, though he can whip out his credit card anytime.
MW: Anybody else notice how the portholes on Dr. Jeff’s boat keep changing their positions on the hull? I’m sure there’s an analogy to the relationship he has with Mary, somewhere in there….
Every time Mary rejects him, Jeff gets a bigger boat. I look forward to his adventures of trying to fit USS Gerald Ford into Santa Royale marina in 2035.
MW: Not to be obsessed with those portholes, but today that one porthole has not only moved closer towards the bow, but it’s huge, compared to what it was yesterday. It’s almost like a great big mouth, hungrily opening up directly beneath Jeff and Mary…!
MW I assume that, as usual, they will be using this garishly expensive boat to go to a dinner that could be the early bird special at Perkin’s?
Come on, Dr Jeff, don’t be gloomy! Sure, Mary will not give you her left hand in marriage, but panel 1 shows that her right hand is doing something for you!
Lil’ Sparky, do not succumb to slave mentality! You do not need a human master to ride you, run by yourself, as free as you’d like!
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: If the strip were in the Archieverse, all the men would look like Hi in the Betty and Veronica sense. (And if the Riverdale showrunners had a sense of humor, they would have hired twins for those two roles.
Snuffy Smith-They would have used Spunky but the writers don’t like Spunky.
@cheech wizard:
Mary also doesn’t believe in postmarital sex either.
“Ba.”
“Carl Smith.”
“Ba?”
“My manager at work. He’s the one I’d like to kill the most.”
“Ba.”
“But won’t I get caught?”
“Ba!”
“You’re right! The security camera in the southwest corner is glitchy!”
“Ba.”
“Good idea. I lure him into the break room with the promise of donuts and snick down comes the paper slicer on his neck!”
“Ba!”
“I’ll do it tomorrow.”
“BA!”
“OK, I’ll do it today!”
I like when Snuffy has a comic that makes it difficult for those to make the far too easy, low hanging fruit meth comment.
Mary Worth: Don’t jinx our nice, platonic, chaste, relationship.
MW: As a perennial Meddler Woman, Mary has forsaken a private life. Not even intimacy with Dr Jeff is allowed as he is just a beard for her aloof lifestyle of manipulating the residents of Charterstone. Her king(queen)dom can never be shared! Besides, someone living with her would discover the submissive, mind-altering drugs she puts in her muffins.
The Phantom: Soaphie’s working for Mollosk now.
Six Chix: She’s carrying her chamber pot around.
Pluggers: Too soon.
Hi & Lois: Mario’s cousin Pete came to fix the faucet.
Snuffy Smith: Bunky leaps onto Li’l Sparky’s back like the chupacabra attacking a goat, draining the poor horse of its blood in minutes.
Mary Worth: Good God, if you look up “simp” on Urban Dictionary, I bet the article is just a picture of Dr. Jeff. This man is legit hopeless, dedicating his entire life to trying to get Mary to show him some genuine affection. Sorry, Dr. Jeff, best she can do is go on sappy monologues about what all the weirdos in her apartment complex are doing while making you pay for all the shit she wants.
MW: Dr. Jeff keeps hinting he’d like some sex after all this time, and Mary keeps changing the subject.
@Rube: Do you think my colleague Dr. Jeff is some kind of cheapskate?
It’s The Bum Boat or nothing.
(By “nothing”, I mean “hot sex”. Yeah. I guess I mean “nothing”)
FG: If Flash is looking for some Sharkwoman nookie he should realize that a sex act for her people would be him jacking off over her eggs.
FYI: I am back here from a loooong hiatus. I wonder if anyone here is still around from the ancient playground Josh used to have?
@Dennis Jimenez: BG&SS – in the land of the homunculi, I’d think anyone could be a jockey…. Yeah, but is he Panamanian?
Sex Organ V.D.: “Now help me write “Wanda’s Song” , which of course is all about how good a husband I am for standing by her as she recovers from her tragic microwave accidental overdose of radiation that I’m about to inflict on her.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“Your plan to lure fish to the boat with a bag of cash isn’t working!”
“I’ll give it some thought, Captain”
“I don’t get it, they could buy a lotta worms with all that dough”
“I just realized, we’re in Italian waters so I should’ve put a Euro sign on the bag!”
@Maude R. Fawker: MW: Dr. Jeff keeps hinting he’d like some sex after all this time, and Mary keeps changing the subject.
_____________
Dr. Jeff knows what side his salmon is squared on.
MW *Sigh* no matter how long a boat he has, poor Doc Jeff will never get to dock it in Mary’s marina.
@Peanut Gallery: ….And do something about these flying questionmarks! They’re swarming like crazy!”
@Guy Nerdlinger:Nudge nudge wink wink!
Blondie-Sorry, Dagwood, but it will be a month or two before another health inspector stops by to provide the meat for the stew.
Bunky and Angus both look like some smaller, less-defined homunculoid version of their host beings, and I’m imagining even smaller, less-defined creatures attaching themselves to their backs and so on ad infinitum and oh god I’ve got to lie down…
Nancy: Ernie Bushmiller never had Aunt Fritzi coughing up hairballs.
Barney Google and Sniffy Smith Spanish to English.
Garfield: There is no context or explanation for why this dog is wet and I don’t want to assume it’s a sexual thing but the fact that the comic isn’t showing us the dog is forcing me to consider that maybe it is a sexual thing. Sorry, but that’s just the world we live in now.
@Guillermo el chiclero: I can see Flash chasing some lion tail — who wouldn’t want to sleep with a cat woman? But a FISH? Even Dale’s got to be a better lay than a fish.
And do NOT accept fellatio from a Shark Lady. “GAHHHHH. WATCH THE TEETH!!!”
Brewster Rockit – Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars! did a great job with this one. That is one impressive Insect.
Frazz – Frazz needs to tell everyone how much superior he is, and why. The smugness level today is kind of low.
Pluggers – Probably not.
Ripley’s – I don’t buy this. How did anyone determine that the wild dogs are voting? Did the dogs tell them?
A&J: Uh oh. Arlo has a boner and Janis just noticed.
Some of the things Sid has to put up with.
Snuffy Smith:
A horse-racing baby named Bunky
Seemed quite brilliant and mentally spunky,
But his nose, in a race
Looked as big as his face
And was aerodynamically clunky.
Words of wisdom from Aunty Acid.
@Beasley: I’m here. Not sure how ancient I am. (I think I joined this happy group around 2016.)
@62 Beasley:
I’ve been here since May of 2008.
Josh researches Gasoline Alley lore so you don’t have to. He knows what the Doodle bug says.
9CL: This has just been crap lately. There’s nothing to even make fun of anymore.
@Sequitur: I’ve been here since May of 2008.
_____________________
Whose turn is it to dust the Sequitaur?
@84 popomatic:
Lately? I stopped reading 9CL several years ago for that reason.
GoComics used to have new 9CL and also Vintage 9CL. The vintage version was actually pretty good then suddenly it disappeared. I’m thinking Brooke told GoComics to take down the vintage strips because they were getting more readership than the new ones.
@85 GarrisonSkunk:
I’ll dust your nose with my fist!
Crank: My prediction: tomorrow we’ll see Skylar be brought home by experimental drone. I don’t know where we’ll go from there, since I suspect that exhausts everything Batty knows about Amazon delivery. Annoying “recommendations” saying that if they like Skylar so much, maybe they’d like a dozen kids just like him, maybe?
DT: Well, at least this time Costello remembered the police already had this information. That’s certainly progress over the blackmail story, where the suicide’s son said “My father was being blackmailed”, and two weeks later Sam said “If you put the son’s testimony alongside this other evidence, I think it looks like the guy was being blackmailed!”
GT: So, Gil retires from coaching, the end? Honestly, if two months of Rachel Merrill has been enough for the syndicate to say “We don’t know what this is, but it’s clearly not working,” the only thing that would surprise me would be that someone at the syndicate actually reads the strips, and this hasn’t been their reaction to anything else.
(I’ve got nothing against more cartoony, non-“trad soap strip” art. I like what Schade is doing on Flash Gordon. My problems with Jules Rivera are almost entirely to do with the writing. But this just … isn’t good. And it’s not like I was even much of a fan of Wrigham’s art!)
JP: It’s possible I’d understand how this strip’s meant to be read better if I knew how old Glen is. Older than Lucas, anyway, who’s … probably the same age as Sophie?
OTF: I’m not sure how much I agree with the implication that there’s no purpose to distinguishing between analytical skills and interpersonal skills. I’m absolutely sure that a strip that has a character whose entire schtick is “she’s got lousy people skills because she’s a numbers person” shouldn’t be the first to throw stones there.
@Sequitur:
Nyuk nyuk nyuk
FRAZZ:. Heads up to Haters
-. RHYMES W/ ORANGE- Everyone is Frazz
– PLUGGERS- Cross comic
BETWEEN FRIENDS:. Hallucinations can be fun, unless you discover you’re in real life in a nightgown.
FG:. Being green in a chlolphyll-less environment has made Velle bitter and evil. She never got a muppet frog to console her.
@Hibbleton: Bwahaha!
MW: Is there another comic strip with dialogue that better resembles aliens trying unsuccessfully to imitate humans, or is MW the definitive winner in this category? Discuss.
@Cleveland Mocks: @Sequitur:
Yes it has been crap for several years. But there were things to at least snark on. In just the past six months or so it had gotten worse, if that is possible. No absurd plots, no … nothing. At all.
@92 Poteet:
The words they choose to emphasize (bold face) kind of proves your point.
I mean really? will, and, chance, you, me, say no more, jinx.
@Beasley: Welcome back! Not sure if I am ancient enough, but very possibly. *waves cane*
@95 Poteet:
Will you watch it with that cane! You nearly knocked off my fedora.
MW: I have a request for KM. Please, please give Jeff a new girlfriend, perhaps a hot and horny recently divorced head nurse. Who would dessicated Mary turn to? Jeff deserves better. I honestly don’t see what Mary does for him.
Anyhow, that’s my request, please and thank you.
@popomatic: Lately…?
(Edit: Sorry, I really should read down further before replying, as you already explained)
@Sequitur: I like to think, that the characters just randomly shout the words mid-sentence.
I’m pretty sure I started nosing around here in 2008, also.
@Horace Broon: re: GT: Gil and Coach Hernandez will leave the Milford coaching life and start driving around Ohio in a van, solving mysteries!
BG&SS: I don’t know from baby Bunky, but that kid looks suspiciously like R. Crumb’s “Big Baby” from c. 1969. BB hoboed through the land in the company of Mister Natural, and the less said about it the better (1969 was when Crumb was really testing the limit of the sort of filthy shit he could get away with).
I for one appreciate these Mary Worth boat summations, because the plots are so intricate and fast moving I can’t keep up. A twist every 8 months?? Come on! Crazy.
@Professor Well Actually: Wilbur? Mary and Wilbur kind of deserve each other.
I can just hear those brass instruments blasting out the “ohhh no! hahaha” musical cue and then an audience member belting out a “no way!” when the mustache falls off to reveal….it’s really Hi!
Why is one of Aunt Fritzi’s hairs stuck in Dustin’s coffee cup?
DD, interpreted:
No – “Will Karen Moy even kill off Wilbur?”
47 – “What number appears frequently as an Easter Egg in post-Kirk Star Trek Series?”
North Dakota – “What state is directly north of South Dakota?”
In the Spring – “When are the Pittsburgh Pirates usually eliminated from postseason consideration?”
Depends on wind resistance – “What Is the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen European Swallow?”
Phantom: “Your country’s Attorney General…”
Stop. Stop right there.
I’m ordering a more realistic storyline right now.
Someone call the Evansii to have Tiffany and Stef in a love triangle with L’il Kit.
“…You know the “ba”s don’t mean anything, right? You only imbue them with semantic content because you spend all your time with a preverbal infant and are desperately lonely and understimulated.”
Yes, we know this, because Josh makes the same point every time Daddy Daze comes up, really he has a repertoire of 1-3 jokes for each strip that get repeated obsessively.
Been here since 2008 or so.
Been here as a reader since around 2010 and started contributing comments around 2015.
DD/SSmith: So hard to imagine the world of 2116, when Daddy Daze will be as old as Bunky is now. Will there still be broken down racehorses for Angus to ride? Horses that look like a couple of midgets in a horse costume?
MW: Not sure if Dr. Jeff is a Bon Jovi fan, but when he just got shot down, it was not in a blaze of glory.
C-Shaft: The “Amazon drops schoolkids off” gag is so nice Batiuk used it twice. Of course whether they do it in a van or a bus depends on whether the child belongs to one of the main characters or some anonymous schmo in the street.
DT: “And I’m not fidgeting either. Why should I be fidgety? I have nothing to hide. GOOD GOD MAN WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?”
GT: Gil’s letting the “#1 DAD” t-shirt do the thinking for him. Coaches Martinez and Ochoa need to put him in a shirt that says “High School Sports Is My Life.”
H&L: If I’m following this right Lois wanted to do some sexy Mario/Princess Peach roleplay. Hi went to the costume shop and everything, but he doesn’t really get it so he’s pretending to be a real plumber instead.
JP: Glen could have avoided this by stopping somewhere and shaving before he came to lunch. Of course he also could have avoided it by ghosting Sophie. We’ll see how appealing that option looks in a few weeks.
Luann: Bets is hoping they kiss. She’s thinking of taking her online presence in a new direction.
Phantom: So Merrick Garland wants to take one last taxpayer funded trip to Africa before he has to hand over the keys to whichever law jock Trump picks? Hell, Luaga, just make sure your hotels are well-stocked with daiquiris.
6C: “Okay, I guess six more weeks of pumpkin non-jokes it is.”
COMMENTS FROM COMICS KINGDOM ON Six Chix:
Not since the heydays of Florence Foster Jenkins, Ed Wood and “Marvelous” Marv Throneberry has someone so consistently presented their inadequacies within their chosen profession to the public at large, seemingly proud to show their audience on a regular basis that there is nothing behind their pretense of artisanship. Bravo, Tuesday Chick, bravo.
“Know thyself” is generally the first step towards wisdom. Knowing that you have no ideas for the comic is a good step towards finding a more suitable career.
Yet you have managed to milk this gig for what, 3 years now?
Ah, haven’t seen the “I Can’t Think of an Idea” concept for a while–Just one of the many categories on the Chix Chuckle Checklist including “Cats”, “Books”, “Guys Are Jerks”, “Lame Puns”, “Talking Critters” and “Clinical Depression”.
She’s carrying her chamber pot around. Not just any chamber pot but one that is filled to the brim and bereft of ideas!
Ha ha. Another strip about her not having any ideas for a strip. That never gets old! If only she had six days in between to think something up!
Not a ghost of a chance in her bag of tricks.
@GarrisonSkunk: Rapido, Enrique! el FLIT!
Dustin (1): Shut up, Meg.
Dustin (2): At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if, late one night, Dustin starts a fire in the house while everyone else is asleep, and just walks away.
@114 JamesBont:
Yes, “Shut up Meg” could go viral on this blog much as “Get help Brooke” did.
I’ve been here since 2008. I adopted this name around ten years ago.
@Poteet: Mary Worth is definitely the alien dialogue champion. There are comics that are more boring (Rex Morgan), more infuriating (Judge Parker), and more pretentious (Frazz and 9CL), but nothing comes close to Mary Worth for stilted, attempted human speech.
@Sequitur: Wow. That’s brutal.
Wow! It seems 2008 was a very good year!
I’ve been here since 2006, I think. I got here just after Aldomania 2006!
Dustin: Watch it, Dustsis. You’re on thin ice. Dustin just watched “The Big Heat” last night and is one insult away from doing with that scalding hot coffee what Lee Marvin did to Gloria Grahame.
@Pozzo: The hills are alive!
___________
…..with the familiar mucus……..
@118 Baja Gaijin:
Josh looks so young there.
@Baja Gaijin: Well, hell. I was already a fixture by the time of Aldomania!, and I even remember the original publication of More information on licorice may be found on the Internet, which must have been many months before because Josh had already made it into a tee shirt. So I got here in….2005? When everything was sparkly new and Josh was still crackin’ crabs in Baltimore?
@Ukulele Ike: — who wouldn’t want to sleep with a cat woman?
______________________________________
“Please watch your claws as you bat that back and forth,Cassie!”- Garrison Skunk, “The Slylock Fox Files: Too Hot For The Kinky Comix Page” (Straight to DVD).
@121 Sequitur: That was almost 20 years ago. Remember what you looked like in 2006?
@124 Baja Gaijin:
In 2006 I was a young looking 55 since I didn’t start turning gray until well into my 60s.
Rhymes With Outrage: Why is that bald guy’s ear winking?
@Ukranazi Stepan: Aw, come on, ‘Electric Shoogaloo’ was right there!
DADDY DAZE: I do believe I’ve come up with possible questions that the malformed infant is babbling. “Are Canada geese called Canada geese because they stay in Canada? No. When did Aldo Leopold write his famous essay about Canada geese? ’47. What’s a state that used to have many more nesting Canada geese than it does now? North Dakota. When do Canada geese return to their nesting grounds? In the spring. How hard is it for the geese to make that long flight north? Depends on wind resistance.
If you can do better, have at it. And I hereby declare that the first panel is a separate conversation, because I refuse to deal with “plaid.”
No lie, joke, or sarcasm. But the last panel with Bunky and Sparky is one of the cutest things I remember seeing. They’re cool with me. For now
@Sequitur: *doubled over laughing* Whoops, sorry!
@Sequitur: Thank you!
@I speak Jive: Re MW, I salute your eloquence.
@Baja Gaijin: @121 Sequitur: That was almost 20 years ago.
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It was 20 years ago today/Sequitur taught the blog to play/We’ve been going in and out of style/Josh said, “Won’t ya stay a while/So may I introduce to you, the One and only Joshy Fruh and I Read The Comics So You Don’t Have To Band. What would you do if I posted Daddy Daze? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me some bucks and I’ll send you some stuff. Oh, I get content with a little help from my readers,gonna get high with a little help from my readers, gonna fly (no, not sexually) with a little help from my readers
Do you need any money? I need some money to blog. Could it be any money? (and so forth…..)
@Baja Gaijin: @Ukulele Ike: I’m in the same general boat as you guys, although I’m not sure of the precise year I started. They’ll Do It Every Time was definitely still in rotation. (The urge!)
@Little Guy:
#106. PHANTOM:. Looks like Devil and Kit have returned after emasculating the Roboavatar. Did Kit get inside it’s hallucination and convince it to disconnect the power source? All hail Mr. “Mollusk”.
LUANN:. Dez is either a chicken or has given up her role as mediator. Since Steph said she cannot abide with Tiff, she leaves or lives in peace with all three.
I think I arrived here in 2005, maybe. Or 2006. I was definitely here for Aldomania, but I might have missed the “More zippers, mule!” story from Apartment 3G. I remember that phrase was used on CC for months before it finally died away.
@Ukulele Ike: BG&SS: I don’t know from baby Bunky, but that kid looks suspiciously like R. Crumb’s “Big Baby” from c. 1969. BB hoboed through the land in the company of Mister Natural,
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Thats fair since its pretty much agreed by all parties that Mister Natural evolved from Gene Ahern’s ‘Lil Hitchhiker character from ” The Squirrel Cage”
@Activist: Re LUANN, I have trouble understanding the seemingly-flippant attitude toward money being displayed in this story. Even Tiffany isn’t made of moolah. One source says that the average annual cost of dormitory room-and-board in California is about $15,000. That’s serious cash for most people, and leaving it behind by leaving the dorm room would not be like leaving a middle-school pool party because someone was having a snit.
@136 Poteet:
In 2008 Aldomania and “More zippers, mule!” were still talked about and being used. What was good back then is you could go back for years and read everybody’s comments. This was before spammers started spamming up everything causing Josh to have to close comments after ten days. Damn spam in a can.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: I miss that terribly. I still use “Thanx and a tip o’ the hat to….” occasionally when I’m citing someone (or something).
@Baja Gaijin: Me too!
@GarrisonSkunk: Like his contemporary Mr. Robert Dylan, Crumb is skilled at the art of pilfery.
As a genius once said, “Mediocrities plagarize. Geniuses steal.”
One Big Happy: Tomorrow, Ruthie pulls a Tiffany.
@Poteet: I remember you from the beginning of my time here (I also missed “More zippers, mule!”). Probably because you’re STILL one of the only ‘mudges who uses a classic comic strip character as a member name.
I thoughtlessly signed up with the same nick I’ve used elsewhere….if I had paused and considered I could well have been your friendly neighborhood Evil-Eye Fleegle.
@GarrisonSkunk: Keep on Suckin’….
@144 Ukulele Ike:
Or Guitar Bob.
@Dennis Jimenez: “But she was hungry, officer! What else could I do?”
@Sequitur: Or Miss Mam’selle Hepzibah.
Why not….Guitar George
Who knows all the chords
But he’s strictly rhythm
Doesn’t wanna make it cry or sing
@148 Ukulele Ike:
♫ We are the Sultans of Swing.
@Sequitur: No….no….I think that’s from “Industrial Disease.”
@150 Ukulele Ike:
Yeah, right. (Said sarcastically)
@Sequitur: Maybe….”Money for Nothing?” Help me out, here.
@152 Ukulele Ike:
How about this.
@Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women:
Boat appears to be 100+ feet long, based on proportions of humans in the bridge.
BGSS – Making us eagerly await the return of Pgo Possum and Porky Pine!