One-panel Friday
Post Content
Mother Goose and Grimm, 6/27/25
Look, we all associate Cinderella with trying on glass slippers, but canonically, the Prince’s retinue repeated the process over and over again with different girls, and once Cinderella put it on and proved her identity, that was the end of the glass-slipper-trying-on process. She only had to do it once! And she didn’t really wear glass slippers after that! Why would she want to wear them again as an old woman, as if she were in the habit of it? I know that fact-checking a cartoon is boring and lame, but I feel like we should hold a strip that’s literally called Mother Goose and Grimm to a higher standard.
Alice, 6/27/25
I know you all rely on me for keeping you up to date on the lore developments in the insane fever dream comic Alice, so here’s the latest: the weird Alice aliens live underneath Alice’s floorboards now, and one of them is in love (?) with her? More on this as it develops in new and insane ways!
Dennis the Menace, 6/27/25
Look at Mr. Wilson’s face. That’s the expression of a guy who’s either going to get rich at the blackjack table or die via suicide by casino security. Either way, he’s not gonna have to deal with this brat again.
Heathcliff, 6/27/25
They banned spiral hams and are putting our Heathcliff in prison, when are people gonna wake up to what’s going on in our country
133 replies to “One-panel Friday”
DtM:
Is that a 1972 Dodge Dart that the Wilsons are tooling around in?
Heathcliff:
“You’re under arrest for hamming it up, Heathcliff!”
Mother Goose and Grimm:
“Let’s see if we can’t get her the ‘Paul Bunion‘ brand in her size.”
Heathclifff…made a ham helmet? Otherwise, I don’t get it.
DtM — In other news, Martha is now a ghost. And convinced George to see what his life would have been like if he had never lived next to the Mitchells
Looking at some of these, Today’s title could also be, ” Screw it, it’s Friday and my tee time is in 30 minutes”.
Look at Mrs. Wilson’s face, George told her they’re heading to a “nice farm upstate,” where she can run around and play. All she likes!
I personally really like Heathcliff, even if this particular one makes less than zero sense, but sheesh, that eye-searing color scheme is giving me flashbacks to 1987 IBMs. Shudder!
Just Dennis the Pickle: Now that good, old Mrs. Wilson is a ghost, will she run off with Ghost Granddad from The Family Circus?
S4th: “‘Powerful enemy’? Listen, Granny, I have a possessed demon doll that will eat your soul for breakfast and poop legions from Hell. You don’t want to make it angry.”
DtM: Mrs. Mitchell thoughtfully considers whether or not it’s time to tell Dennis about legalized gambling, blissfully unaware that her son already has a cut of every fruit machine in town.
Alice: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” Wait, on second look, probably not.
“Alice” references one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Who says the comics aren’t educational?
Alice – I look forward to more strips quoting the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland-Shakespeare
MW: This story should really stop drawing attention to its own plot holes. We already know that what Dawn told Mary ISN’T true, or at least omits the most important parts of the story.
Frazz: “And what’s your summer plan, Ms. Plainwell?” Based on teachers I’ve known, I’m pretty sure the answer is “to not talk to any students for two months. Now piss off, kid.”
Pluggers: If your life is so full of medical appointments you don’t know what day it is, and you choose to ignore the severe health and cognitive problems this suggests, you’re a Plugger.
DtM: Martha’s ghost watches over the situation, trapped in eternal purgatory.
MW: Yes, Wilbur, you have a daughter. And you’re lucky she’s a spineless idiot that worships the ground you walk on.
DtM: “Geezer”?? Maybe Alice and Henry should spend a bit more time instilling some respect for elders in that kid, instead of merely tittering when Dennis uses a derogatory term–although I must say I didn’t think Mr. Wilson was the Las Vegas type.
Honestly, “Heathcliff performing Closer” does feel like something the cartoonist would do if they could get away with it.
@Banana Jr. 6000:
Frazz also provides an excellent illustration of why being an adult hanging out with 10-year-olds is weird and dumb. Now Adult Calvin, Janitor has nobody to call for a ride but Plainwell. You know, cuz the teachers and janitors ALL hung out at any school, ever.
Alice: If the aliens are reading Horny Shakespeare, we should be glad they’ve only discovered the vanilla bits. None of them are making the beast with two backs with her, nor speaking of her country matters. Not yet, anyway.
MW: Wilbur: “I feel like I have a whole new appreciation of the blessings of parenthood. This calls for a gift!”
Buys himself a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug.
DtM: The Wilsons have their spot on Tremont Street already reserved. Their performance would shock even Dennis.
ALICE: This has taken on a Chickweed Lane sort of vibe, which nothing ever, EVER needs to do.
Mother Goose and Grimm — A ‘fun’ fact I read somewhere that’s stuck with me for a long time is that Ilene Woods, voice of Disney’s Cinderella, suffered from Alzheimer’s as she aged to the point where she could no longer remember playing Cinderella. But even then, she still loved hearing the song “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes,” and the staff at her nursing home would play it for her a lot because it brought her such comfort—even though she couldn’t recall exactly why it made her so happy. (Note that I can’t find an original, reputable source for the second part of that fact, so take it with a grain of salt)
Maybe that’s what’s happening in today’s MG&G, where Cinderella’s voice actress is being conflated for the real Cinderella? The fairytale princess is suffering from tragic memory loss as she ages and can only remember that certain symbols of her youth bring her happiness, without recalling the context or meaning behind them. She doesn’t remember that she wore glass slippers on the day she miraculously escaped her abusive family and found true love—she only knows that she looks at them and something in her feels blissful, free; inside, she’s still that young woman with her whole life ahead of her. This salesman, recognizing the fragile state of both Cinderella’s body and her mind, is doing his best to accommodate her, and to find her something that brings her back of a fleeting moment of joy in her youth, even if she may not strictly need it anymore.
…Jesus. Bring me back to Funky Winkerbean, please.
The alien quotes Shakespeare’s Sonnet 147, which ends “For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright/ Who art as black as hell, as dark as night” which I think is a little harsh for Alice? Luann, sure.
RMMD – “I was at the Glenwood Motel with a man, and I think I’ve come up with an idea for another song. I just need find a good rhyme for ‘daddy’.”
@Bob Tice: That’s a Dodge Veg-o-Matic, there in the parking lot. Or driveway, as it were.
I knew that aliens built the pyramids, but the revelation that they also wrote Shakespeare is a real game changer.
Dennis the Menace: Man, when they said Martha was a shadow of herself, they weren’t kidding!
MW: Boring! When I look at the comic and see the two knuckleheads talking, I just move on and don’t even bother reading it. It is summer and I guess Moy and Company are just phoning it in. Somebody wake me up when something happens.
Things that Mother Goose and Grimm knows about: elderly bird horniness, dogs pissing.
Things that Mother Goose and Grimm does not know about: fairy tales.
Heathcliff-This can only end in a mass suicide. Don’t eat the ham.
Mother Goose and Grimm-Special Guest Writer: Quentin Tarantino
RMMD-“This story is so good it’s fit to be published in the magazines I read. Dear, ‘Basement Apartment’.”
MW-Wilbur is hoping to be Dawn’s lover.
Dennis the Menace-Mr. Wilson is hoping to recreate ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’.
The real scandal is that the Brothers Grimm had Aschputtel trying on a golden shoe. Strip isn’t called Mother Goose and Perrault.
Also Dennis the Menace: Friday, June 27, 12:01 p.m. An office phone rings repeatedly. Finally the answering machine kicks in: “Hello, you have reached the office of the North American Syndicate, a division of Hearst Holdings, Inc., home to North America’s best comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles, and games, and also Six Chix. We’re at the golf course right now, so leave your name and number, and we’ll get back to you as soon as Gen. Halftrack retires.”
Heavy breathing. Muttered curses. And finally the message: “Listen, this is Las Vegas calling you, see? We’re not just for old people anymore, capisce? You better change that Dennis the Menace, if you know what’s good for you.”
Alice: If you really loved Alice, you’d be using those eyestalks to inspect for termites.
Sally Forth: Negotiate lady. He just wants a cut of the action.
CS: Lillian misses Ed, “I can’t enjoy my hamburger until I hear an explosion.”. Eazy peazy, old friend. Eat more beans and do it yourself.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV:
#34. ALICE: Great one.
MT: I’m betting on e coli levels, because “brain-eating amoeba death lake” seems a bit dark. But I’m sure the strip will surprise me with some reason utterly disconnected from conservation themes, or reality itself.
RMMD: “It can’t be more unbelievable than the fill pattern on my dress showing that I’ve become a flat 2D plane”
Family Circlejerk – Is Thel farting fireflies?
MW:
June shuffled onto the veranda in her bathrobe and slippers and squinted at the sun rising above the ocean. She ran her fingers through her tousled hair and stretched luxuriously, deeply inhaling the scent of the tropical flowers that surrounded the house as she gazed with unabated pleasure at the surf in the near distance.
“Karen, are you up? You should come see this beautiful view!” June called out on her way to answer a light knocking at the door. She opened the door to reveal a young woman bearing a heavy tray laden with pastries, coffee, and two mimosas. “Thank you, Daisy,” June said, smiling. “Just put the tray on the table on the veranda. I’ll want more mimosas right away–mmmm! these pastries look delicious! But please take those things away: we don’t eat muffins.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Daisy replied, nodding as she collected a plate arranged with an assortment of cheddar bacon, blueberry, and salmon muffins. “I’ll bring something else.” June took in Daisy’s white scalloped cap, pinned firmly to her head, and her crisp uniform and apron. The private maid’s outfit seemed at odds with June’s own comfortable chenille robe that was worn open over her loud summer pajamas, but after all, June thought, she and Karen were on vacation and had paid handsomely to dress, eat, and act as they liked. She picked up the first mimosa of the day and drank enthusiastically from the glass as she smiled at the retreating Daisy. She liked this maid.
“Karen, are you coming?” June called out again, picking up a plate and selecting judiciously from the array of breakfast pastries.
“Here I am,” Karen replied, coming through the door to join her partner. “This was such a great idea, June! I slept wonderfully well!” she exclaimed, accepting a mimosa from June’s outstretched hand. “You know, I feel so refreshed I feel like I could actually start writing again!”
June shook her head vigorously as she swallowed. “Nothing doing!” she retorted. “We agreed to take the whole month off, and we set it all up so we could do just that, without feeling guilty about not working! I didn’t even bring my art supplies, so even if you–wait, what’s that book you’re holding?”
“It’s just a compendium of platitudes,” Karen replied easily. “I thought if we wanted to extend our vacation, we could just pair up some old artwork with a few adages. Who’s to know, right?”
June chuckled. Then she frowned. “You know, the only thing is, we have to set up a reason for using the old artwork….”
Karen smiled as Daisy returned with a tray of mimosas. “Thank you, Daisy,” she said approvingly. “Keep them coming.” Then, to June: “I’ve already thought of that. We’ll just use one of the greatest literary devices ever known: The Flashback!”
Karen sat down at the table and spread out the day’s newspaper that had been put there by Daisy. “Look here,” she pointed out. I’ve already laid the foundation for looking back at Wilbur’s entire existence at Charterstone, and Dawn’s coming of age, and Belle’s appearance after Wilbur’s many heartaches, and there’s even room for Mary to reflect on her own romantic past as kind of a steady counterpoint to the chaotic relationships that Wilbur and Dawn have had.”
June leaned in, ducking her head under the fringed umbrella to get a closer look. She read that day’s published strip and frowned in alarm. “What do you mean, ‘…if what Dawn told me about Belle is true!’ Isn’t it a little soon to rehash that story? I don’t have much of a collection of Belle-themed art, Karen. You’re not telling me I have to produce some NOW, while we’re on vacation!”
“No, no, no!” Karen hastened to soothe June, handing her another mimosa. “Except Dawn didn’t ever really know any of the really pertinent facts about Belle. What ever happened to that defaced photo? Nobody seems to have noticed it.”
“Well, you know, we didn’t write that part in,” June agreed, after a moment’s consideration. “And we never did explain Belle’s brother being Wilbur’s slimmer doppelganger. I have to admit, that was kind of a deus ex machina cop-out. I mean, I know we were trying to get away, so we kind of rushed the ending. But now, to suggest that Dawn wasn’t telling Mary the truth raises even more questions about the resolution of the plot. Dang. Did we just fuck up?”
Karen held her third mimosa, a thoughtful expression on her face. “Well, we’ve done the deus ex machina thing before. Wilbur surviving the fall from the cruise ship and ending up on the island, Zak being pulled to safety after falling from Piccaddee Falls, Aldo going over Kelrast Kurve–that’s IT!”
“What’s it?” June countered.
“Well, we always have somebody fall, right? Wilbur, Zak, Aldo–and let me just compliment you here and now on the fantastic artwork you produced for those events! My goodness, June, your grasp of perspective and the sense of motion and your depiction of alarm! We should have somebody fall!”
“But who? How will that explain any of the loose ends we left in the Belle story?”
“What do we have for Sunday, do you remember?” Karen was feeling hazy.
“Nobody falling, that’s for sure.” June picked up Karen’s book of platitudes and flipped through it, as growing sense of urgency seizing her. She stopped and closely inspected one page. “Here we go! ‘Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.’ Confucius. We haven’t used that one before, have we? Can we work that in?”
Karen shook her head. “Aldo didn’t rise again.”
June slumped. “I guess it’s too late for that. Well,” she said, downing her fourth mimosa in a full gulps, “I guess that tears it. I’m going to call Daisy in to pack up our stuff.”
Karen nodded. “I know. Shit.”
@MKay: #21: Damn it, I meant Fremont Street.
I know these aren’t real people, but the writers and readers are. Nor do i want to be the kind of person who puts others down. And yet…
BETTY: What judgmental mean old hags these two ugly broads have become
BF: how come Susan’s hips have been losing about 13″ in the final panel for of each day’s strip?
No, no enough. These are women I DON’T want to emulate.
Mother Goose and Grimm – This particular strip isn’t really about Cinderella, or wearing orthopedic glass slippers. It’s about appealing to a fringe, but dedicated and outspoken, set of foot fetishists, who will defend the strip from being cut in their the local newspaper.
Alice – Imagine some rabid Alice fan showing up to ComicCon dressed as one of these aliens.
Dennis the Menace – The Wilsons are hoping to win enough money at the craps table to buy themselves a new home in The Family Circus neighborhood. Having Billy occasionally run through his yard in a dotted line strip, or have some saccharine malapropisms from the other melonheads is preferable to Dennis.
Heathcliff – Heathcliff has spent the week wearing ham helmets, or “Going HAM” if you will. This anti-authority streak “must be suppressed, less society itself spirals out of control!”, or so says the mayor.
I appreciate that the Mitchells let Dennis skateboard without any protective gear in the hopes that a catastrophic brain injury will let them live in peace once more. Look at Mr. Wilson. He knows what’s going on. Hell, he probably bought the skateboard.
“Yep, it’s aliens. See these here scorch marks on the joists? Ray guns. Not gonna lie, it’s gonna be expensive. Have to break out the good stuff, seein’ as they ain’t part of the, whatdaya call it, terrestrial ecosystem. Our usual gas ain’t gonna cut it. Now, it’s your lucky day, I got a friend who works for the Air Force at Wright-Pat field, where they keep the aliens, he’s slipped me a brand new nano-toxin just fer these here aliens. Gonna have to tent the house, gas for a coupla days, and no more aliens. Just sign here and here, and promise you won’t tell the EPA or those SETI guys.”
Dennis the Menace-“We can’t stop here, Martha. This is Dennis country.”
@Charterstoned: Well, there was that scene in The Simpsons where old man Jasper went to the Quick-E-Mart, removed all of the ice cream so he could freeze himself to see the future.
Then the bully kid Nelson comes along seeing him behind the glass. “It’s a freezer geezer!”
Derogatory or not, that got a chuckle out of me.
RE: Yesterday’s Dustin: On further reflection, I don’t know if I want to live in a world where Donut Fraud isn’t a crime.
MG&G: What is this? Why is her face all stretched out? Because she’s old? She looks more like some weird caricature from a political comic (when you want someone to look uglier than they actually are) or Peters is trying to emulate Gary Larson’s deranged art style (especially the earlier looking designs) Either way it doesn’t work.
@Liam: So I was going to remonstrate Josh by saying that Cinderella didn’t only wear the glass slipper to prove her identity–the glass slippers were part of her original cute outfit (the only part that didn’t turn back at midnight!) and there’s no reason she shouldn’t keep wearing them–and then I thought about the strategy of attracting the prince by wearing shoes through which he could see your entire feet, and how the prince sent men around to check the feet of every pretty girl in the kingdom, and I’m out.
@Philip: Or they take a wrong turn and end up in Marvin.
Martha: You said you wanted crap
George: CRAPS…
@Banana Jr. 6000:
The one logical explanation is that there is a missing day (or two) of strips. In those missing strips we would have seen Dawnie and Wilbur discover the defaced photo, and release the tea and vegetarian dish were tainted. They would have done a basic google search and round that Bats not only does not work at MegaCorp and an image search brings up a report of “local woman detained for disorderly conduct”. Meanwhile we see a mysterious figure trying to locate Bats – she is not at her home and has been missing now for weeks. We later discover the figure is Avery (Tall Wilbur) the purported brother of Bats. He then begins systematically trying to figure out where she wander of to. What happened is that the creators were on vacation and the syndicate ran the strips in the wrong order – skipping accidentally ahead by about 14 strips – when the creators found out they just sort of ran with it, figuring that in the end it got to the same place: MW back in charge, and Wilbur clueless as ever.
PLEASE RESTORE THE MISSING STRIPS!
That is the logical rational explanation but this is MW, so here we are.
@matt w: And the Wizard of Oz had Silver/Ruby shoes, and that story with the magic shoes that cause you to dance until you die if you put them on.
Fairy Tales really like magic shoes.
@matt w: I would have thought Luann was more of a Sonnet 129 gal “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame. . . “
The silly thing about the entire Cinderella story, is that did the Prince not get a good look at her face the entire time that they were dancing?
If the shoe DID fit one of the ugly step-sisters would that automatically mean he has to marry them? (Despite they clearly look nothing like Cinderella) And how did he even know of the “fits only one person” rule?
The Duplex: Things you don’t want to see even if it is laundry day.
Yesterday’s 6CX: “And when I’m did everybody ferment?”. When they were under a heat dome for five days and cooled themselves off by skinnydipping.
DTM – The most menacing part is that they’re staying at Caesar’s Palace so that Martha can feast on the eye candy that is their replica statue of David.
@matt w: Maybe she had a sentimental attachment.
There was a novel I once read, about two kids who are transported to a world where fairy tales are real. The two come across Rapunzel’s tower, the sister is geeking out over it and HAS to get inside. So she’s trying to climb the tower with her bare hands to get to the top window. The brother is just casually watching her fumble then walks away shaking his head.
She manages to get to the top window and climbs in, and the brother is already inside. The sister questions this, and he says that if she didn’t go into geek mode she would have seen the sign in front of the tower that says, that Rapunzel, despite a prisoner still had an attachment to the tower she spent most of her life in, so after her adventure was over she had a staircase built in the back.
Heath: Heathcliff has the serene calm from someone who has made peace with being a martyr to their cause (the cause here being wearing meat-product-promoting helmets).
MG&G: If they don’t have glass slippers in her size, will they cut off her toe to make it fit?
“Good looking sandwich there, Bud. What’s on it?”
“Meat, Lou.”
“Meat, eh? Where’d you get it?”
“Meat.”
“Yeah, I get it’s a meat sandwich, I want to know where you got it.”
“Meat!”
“Right, listen, if I wanted a meat sandwich, where would you take me?”
“Meet at Meat!”
“Are you OK, man?”
@The Rambling Otter: I’ve seen a few versions where the ball is a masquerade (which, given that the ball is generally assumed to be for courtship purposes, is a very good or very stupid idea in itself) which conveniently side-steps the whole “why doesn’t the prince recognize her” issue but also the “why doesn’t her own family recognize her” question. Others simply handwave it with an explanation that the fairy godmother’s magic prevents people from recognizing her.
I dunno, maybe the whole kingdom has face blindness.
Dennis the Menace-“I think Mr. Wilson is having a stroke. He just keeps saying, ‘Vegas, baby, Vegas’.”
@Treetown: The biggest problem isn’t what the story might have removed – it’s what the story definitely kept. Really, Karen Moy thought the story needed a whole week to deal with Wilbur and his delicate little fee-fees? And praise his personal growth when he’s flat-out regressed? The story omitted major plot points, but had time for this?
It’s like Wilbur is a brand new character that Moy is still trying to “sell.” There’s so much character shilling, but it’s so over-the-top and contrary to what we can see, that it seems designed to make us hate the character. Which is completely unnecessary by now. Wilbur is definitely “over” as a heel.
GT: Second round of questions:
“Do you like gladiator movies?”
“Have you ever seen a grown man naked?”
“What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow? Prove it.”
GT: Why is our prom-goer looking at his date’s relatives directly in the sternum?
Beetle Bailey: Sarge can’t even come up with “Polish all of Camp Swampy’s Medals of Honor”?
Blondie: With all the contracts he’s failed on and clients he’s pissed off isn’t Dagwood at his professional peak right now?
Luann: I’ve worked off-shift / fill-in jobs before. Luann is on point here.
I love the repressed smirk that Dennis’s mom has. “Haha, they are old as fuck, aren’t they? Good one, son.”
Heath: So *that’s* where the spiral gouges in ham come from – the butchers toss the hams into a room full of berserk felines and they scratch the things to ribbons. We’re on to you, Harry & David!!!
@Astroboy:
#4. Based on DIY primer, “Creative Shoplifting “.
C’shaft: “I mean, look at these things! All properly seared and juicy and not resembling lumps of charcoal in the slightest! How am I supposed to stomach that?”
DT: The goblin’s his uncle? This is the side of things paranormal romances never seem to cover…
Dustin: Why are you telling your husband this? He already expects you to do all the household work; Dustin’s just following his example.
GT: “Do you make eye contact at all, or are you just going to keep staring at our sternums?”
“Sorry, it’s the artwork…”
JP: Usually when a pet is this aggressive towards someone in a story, it’s a sign that they’re evil. Who wants to place bets on which of the girls is demonically possessed? Sophie is the obvious choice, of course, but there has to be some reason why Reena finds her company so appealing…
Luann: So, her shift starts at three. I don’t see WeenieWorld Frachise Owner being too enthusiastic about shelling out for overtime, so she’s getting off at 11:30 maximum, probably in bed an hour after that. That gives her four and a half hours of sleep before getting up at five to meet Aggressively Normal Phil, not a full night certainly but a few good hours of shut-eye. So now she’s going back home, where…she’ll sleep another 7-8 hours until her shift? I don’t think Luann’s schedule is too taxing, I think she has a serious chronic fatigue problem.
MT: Man, if only there were a wide-spreading and easily-accessible information network where you could get information on this sort of thing…
MW: “For years I only had to think of myself…and now I have someone else to think about me, too!”
RMMD: Geez, does Wanda EVER take down that beehive of hers? Thing must be riddled with spider eggs by now…
@ValdVin: Oversnarpologies!
@Charterstoned: Brilliant!
MG&G – I’m seeing you in a size 14 glass crock….
Alice – My love is as a fever. That’s why I shit the bed…
DtM – Ah – those penny slots await….
Heathcliff – And the Po-Lease where heart badges as they perp-walk you to the Black Mariah. Talk about Big Brother double speak….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
@Unca Bob: #28
” Somebody wake me up when something happens.”
I’m afraid you will be in for a lengthy sleep…like Rip Van Winkle…
Blondie-“Surrender, Dagwood!”
@Charterstoned: #40
OMG…Sir, I am in utter awe of you…*prostrating myself before my idol*
P.S. Dressing up in that silly maid’s uniform was no lark…June and Karen had better tip me handsomely before they take off…
Mother Goose And Grimm: This shoe guy has bigger problems than finding the right slippers considering Cinderella seems to be mutating into her true alien form ala John Carpenter’s The Thing.
Heathcliff: Heathcliff is totally getting shivved on his first night in the joint.
@Banana Jr. 6000: Moy wants to sell people on the “new” Wilbur who went from smug but functional to a narcissistic asshole with no respect or regard for anyone but himself. “See, we’re supposed to find him repulsive but he’s also got endearing quirks! And he cares about his goldfish! He’s also an inspiration for his daughter who is…well, she exists!”
@Bob Tice: More like a later Dodge Aspen or maybe a Pontiac 6000. Apparently the artist hasn’t been anywhere in a car since about 1985, or else the Wilsons would be driving an Escalade.
RMMD: I’m looking at the sideburns of the maybe new dad, maybe successful musician, and wondering if I see the word, “Nina,’ drawn in the crosshairs, ala Al Hirschfeld
@Treetown: 352
…we wish in vain for some semblance of coherence from “Mary Worth”…we keep scanning the horizon for some miniscule sign from the Creators that somehow the chaos will settle into order, the loose ends will be tied, the forgotten narrative elements will be recovered…but no…
Dennis the Menace, 6/27/25: WHY THE HELL CAN WE SEE THROUGH MARTHA’S HEAD???
@Rhapsody: Meanwhile, Kathryn Beaumont who played Disney’s Alice back in 1951, not only reprised the roles of Alice and Wendy in Kingdom Hearts, but ALSO did a voice (presumably the original Alice) in the Disney Cartoon “Alice’s Wonderland Bakery” in… 2023.
YOWZA!!!
HtH: Brownies. Since chocolate is a South American product and Norwegian Vikings wouldn’t have any yet, I guess Helga just stirs sugar and eggs into a bowl of mud and bakes it? I’m saying “mud” to be nice.
FG: I didn’t notice this yesterday when she made her first appearance out of the coverall work suit, but Edda the Mechanic is clearly based on the Hernandez Bros’ “Maggie the Mechanic” from the early “Love and Rockets” underground comics (1980-?).
@Banana Jr. 6000: Your last point may be the key. The creators realize that Wilbur is a font of great stories and interests from fans (like this board), like RMMD had Rene Belluso. Wilbur and Dawnie will probably go into the cupboard for a while and we might see some new characters.
@TheDiva:MW: “For years I only had to think of myself…and now I have someone else to think about me, too!”
Well, you have MY vote for COTW!!!
@Banana Jr. 6000: Even the fact that this is a SOAP strip, meaning it should have drama.
When Ian confronted Helen Moss many arcs ago, the comic skipped potential juicy dialogue between the two, making the scene criminally shorter than it should have been.
Dennis – ♪ Geezers’ Palace, morning glory, silly human race
On a K-Car trip to Vegas, leaving any place…
No, that’s not right. Dennis the Menace, yours IS some disgrace. Yours is very much some disgrace!
But I do appreciate the correct placement of the apostrophe in “Geezers'”.
MGG I had read somewhere that the idea of the glass slippers actually came from a mistranslation and in the original story they were made of squirrel pelts. I’m just saying, for an animal-themed strip, the kind of missed their shot
Don Abundio, translated:
“You are a very handsome actor, Juan S. Perfil!”
“I could look at you for hours!”
“Ugh! Knock it off!”
“It’s my turn to use the mirror now!”
@The Rambling Otter: While soap strips are known to draw out conversations for weeks, it means towards compelling, interesting conversations. Like… what was Ian’s past with Helen Moss? We’ll never know we only saw a few panels of that scene.
But apparently Wilbur doing… whatever he’s been doing for the past few weeks is MUCH more important.
@The Rambling Otter: Moy’s writing is like reading a recipe for how to bake a cake but rather than include the major ingredients like eggs, sugar, and butter, she talks about how much she likes chocolate chip cookies.
Sex Organ, V.D: “Please, Wanda, turn off the L.E.D.s on your dress!”
DT: (cockney accent) Well, Gob’s your Uncle!
Heath: “Meat?” That store should be called “ham.” Maybe the distributor didn’t bring anything but ham today, so they had to fill the window with them. “How’s the lamb shanks today, Ernie?” “No lamb shanks. Ham.”
@Rhapsody: I feel like eating a gin barrel. Thanks.
@Your words hurt: *gun. See? Totally flabbergasted
@Daisy: “P.S. Dressing up in that silly maid’s uniform was no lark…”
Pix or GTFO.
@But What Do I Know?: Chris Colfer’s Land of Stories, right? I think I remember that part, but even if it wasn’t in the part I read the character dynamic is unmistakable. (I didn’t finish it for various reasons–let alone the five sequels and four prequels.)
Though Cinderella doesn’t need a backstory like that to hold onto the slippers. They’re nice shoes! She looks good in them! That’s the point of the story!
The Familliar Mucus: Wacky firefly action, as Thel’s gentleman caller, Wilbur Weston, opens the kids’ jar expecting mayonaise inside!
“Mr and Mrs Wilson are going to visit some guy named Branson Missouri! I think he used to run NBC!”
@Mr. Tulkinghorn: I knew that aliens built the pyramids, but the revelation that they also wrote Shakespeare is a real game changer.
___________________________
“You haven’t really experienced Shakerspear until you’ve heard him in the original Klingon.”- Star Trek 6,The Undiscovered Alice
@The Rambling Otter: If you want a fix-it version of the story, the book Ella Enchanted addresses both of these questions. First, the ball is a masked ball, so nobody sees her face. Second, (Cinder)Ella has impossibly small feet because she’s descended from a fairy, so no one else can wear her shoes. (I forget whether the Prince notices that or not while they’re dancing).
Heathcliff Notes: They forgot the scene where Hawkeye presents Heathcliff with a “Spam Ham”
Late on this but what is going on with Mary Worth’s recap of the Westons’ history? Yesterday she said “when Dawn entered your life”… does that mean Dawn’s mother dumped Wilbur when she was pregnant, and then when the plot called for it, she showed up with a teenaged Dawn and said “I believe this is yours?” Or is this just Mary-speak for “You do realize that the whole time I’ve known you you also had a daughter. You haven’t been single and carefree since long before you entered the strip. What you are is divorced.”
@Ukulele Ike: I think you’re meant to use your imagination.
FC: The only way I can enjoy reading this strip is imagining that Thel has no underwear under her nightie.
CS: So Jeff has been wearing that filthy Winnipeg Bombers sweatshirt all week? Is he trying to outdo Dustin with his filthy rugby shirt?
@Needless Exposition: Yeah, it feels like Moy is trying to push Wilbur as the hero/victim when he’s obviously the villain/perpetrator. But she’s not doing the “villain thinks he’s the hero because he’s just that self-deluded” bit, either. If she was, Mary Worth would be calling Wilbur out instead of enabling him in ways we know to be false. When Andy Kaufman shows up and insults the crowd, he’ll get away with it for awhile, but Jerry Lawler is eventually going to beat his ass. This is like watching Lawler hold an in-ring therapy session for Kaufman. Without a drop of irony, sarcasm, or backhandedness.
I apologize for all the pro wrestling analogies, but they work well to explain this story.
Crank: It’s funny because Ed’s family and friends have all utterly normalised that he’s a danger to everyone around him! That’s why they all act as enablers!
S4th: Oh, for goodness sake, when I mentioned that these old ladies are in with the mob last week it was meant to be “Here’s a dumb bit from way back that Ces has probably forgotten about, but I sure haven’t”. He wasn’t supposed to actually bring it up again! Also, I spent a while trying to decide if the idea this mobster is attending an outdoors summer party in the double-breasted suit and fedora that is apparently still the Official Mobster Uniform in the comics was comically absurd or just plain stupid, and I’m pretty sure it’s the second one.
RMMD: “No, I was only sitting on a park bench for two and a half strips this time! I guess Beatty’s decided to experiment with more fast-paced storylines where a whole thing happens nearly every week!”
@matt w: I remember a few years ago Josh did some Deep Weston Lore and as I recall it, yeah, when Wilbur first showed up at Charterstone he was on his own, and described himself as a bachelor, then admitted that he had an ex-wife and daughter, but they’d both rejected him. I don’t know the circumstances of Dawn eventually showing up, though.
Snuffy – Oh, after a whole week of this “babysitting Spark Plug” plot, now all of a sudden Li’l Sparky just appears out of nowhere!? You are trifling with us, John Rose! Trifling, I say! And I will not have it, do you hear?
@Horace Broon: I don’t know the circumstances of Dawn eventually showing up, though.
Apparently it pre-dates this blog. The earliest reference to her I could find was in 2005, in the context of Mary imagining her many friends.
Dawn was a mousy, not-yet helmet-haired 16 year old high school student when she first arrived. As I recall, she came to live with Wilbur because she didn’t get along with her mother.
@Treetown: I still think MW would be better if they stole—er, adapted—some “Murder, She Wrote” plots, or even “Scooby Doo.” They could have different settings, new (but short-lived) characters, etc. I watched a great one last night—“Murder in F#,” with Ricardo Montalban guesting—and it would fit MW PERFECTLY.
BUT NOOOOOOOO. We get “Wilbur flashbacks.” Feh.
@110 Peanut Gallery:
The problem is that you can’t do a damn thing about it. Not a damn thing.
@Astroboy: #112: I was around when Dawn first appeared. What I remember she looked like Wilbur in drag. She also had a lot of emotional baggage, like being a pathological liar making up imaginary boyfriends.
@Ukulele Ike: #97
*GASP!!!* GOOD SIR!!!! Why, I never in all my life…wait – I’ll get the camera…
@The Rambling Otter: #91
“Mary Worth” is evolving, and not in a good way…
@117 Daisy:
In the next Wilbur story Wilbur and Dawn plot to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
It will be titled, Stinky and the Pain.
@Sequitur: “What are we going to do tonight, Dad?” “The same thing I do every night, Dawn. Try to get laid.”
@Sequitur: I could send a strongly worded letter to King Features Syndicate! Oh, but my ire will have cooled down and I’ll have lost interest long before I get the letter finished. You win again, John Rose!
Heathcliff: Spiral ham is not a thing in Australia so this is the first time I’ve ever had to do research to understand a Heathcliff comic
@ectojazzmage:
Haven’t you seen “The Substance” with Demi Moore?
@119 Banana Jr. 6000:
*snerk*
@Guillermo el Chiclero: And now that she’s legally an adult but emotionally a child, she’s got a body count that’s getting ready to look like a war memorial.
@120 Peanut Gallery:
You could start your own blog, JOHN ROSE SUCKS. It could feature the Spanish language version with translations in your own unique style.
@Guillermo el Chiclero: #115: She also wasn’t the fawning daddy’s girl she is today. She had zero respect for her father and addressed him as Wilbur rather than Dad.
After disappearing for several story arcs (or years) she came back in one of those ugly duckling becomes a beautiful swan stories. She lost weight, ditched the Coke bottle glasses for contacts, and got her signature helmet hair, ready to take on her new role as the campus bicycle.
9CL: I see that Brooke can’t be arsed to draw lines on a piano keyboard any more than he can be to draw backgrounds. But on the plus side: no dialogue.
Alice: “My love is a fever, longing still for that which longer nurseth the disease…” “Tell me more!” “You’ll have to call again!” (If you know, you know.)
@matt w: I was going to say that if Perrault was imagining shoes like the ones depicted in the Disney version, basically glass sculptures of shoes, that the entire idea is unhinged. I’m noticing now that one English edition of the story takes the space to say “they were woven of the most delicate spun-glass, fine as the web of a spider.” A couple of others note that glass is not a typical or suitable material for shoes and that Cinderella is uncertain about them, but since they magically fit her feet so exactly, it’s fine. Some others just say that the glass slippers were “the prettiest in the world” as if there were a bunch of other pairs around, just not as good.
@Sequitur: I don’t think I can improve on “PALACIO DE JUSTICIA.”
Pluggers: Pluggers are medically decrepit meatsacks # 9483.
Pluggers: Just wait, in a few months we’ll get a pluggers are tough old buzzards who don’t run to the doctor for every little ache and pain like those snowflake young’uns.
@129 Peanut Gallery:
DRUNK TANK?
@Guillermo el Chiclero: Sometimes I wonder how someone like Dawn can attract as many men as she does but those men that we know of usually wise up after hitting that. Though in Jared’s case, he’s a perpetual simp who decided to replace Dawn with a blow up doll. Imagine being such a terrible partner that you’re replaced by someone who has no personality.
While I acknowledge Josh’s apparent enthusiasm for the fever dream that is the comic strip Alice, I need to counter by noting that today’s strip is incoherent and haphazard even by Alice’s standards. There’s no context for this bizarre fragment, it’s not just nonsense but stupid nonsense, and everyone involved in its production should be ashamed of themselves.