Some cyber-gripes
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Crock, 9/1/25
Even if you hate Crock with a passion, you don’t read it every day for 20+ years without learning a little something about its character dynamics, though if you’re me and you’re notoriously terrible with names, you do manage to not learn some of the names of those characters. I wanna say this woman’s name is … Fatima? We’re going to go with that, although she doesn’t make the Wikipedia list of characters, and while I normally am quite dubious about the utility of Google’s AI answers, based on its “In the comic strip Crock, there is no ‘pretty girl’ character” response to me, I have to admit it may be getting better at parsing visual input. Anyway, the point of (let’s call her) Fatima here is that she’s supposed to be pretty, and also that she’s a foil for Grossie, who is supposed to not be pretty, and who she hangs out with a lot and routinely insults. You can tell that she’s not supposed to be pretty because they named her “Grossie,” and I think it’s telling that Fatima (?) abbreviates Maggot’s equally vile name to the cuter “Mag,” whereas Grossie gets no similarly softened nickname.
Anyway, speaking of character dynamics, I get that Fatima (??) has to be talking to some third party for this joke to work, but it’s kind of weird that she’s having drinks with Captain Poulet, right? It’s like running into your English teacher and your shop teacher hanging out together outside of work. Sure, it sort of makes sense that they know each other, but you’ve never seen them interact and it feels wrong, somehow.
Blondie, 9/1/25
As AI becomes integrated into every feature of human life and we begin to worry about who’s really calling the shots, a new question arises: Which of our fellow biological humans will go quisling when the clankers take over? Well, the team behind Blondie seems to be making tentative moves in that direction, and sad as it is, it makes a sort of sense: if anyone serves as a model for “humans don’t really desire autonomy and would be satisfied to simply have their needs met by industrially produced foods and material goods,” it’s the characters in this strip. Once a robot figures out how to make a giant sandwich, it’s curtains for the human race!
Slylock Fox, 9/1/25
Um, actually, we know that those are Reeky’s pants he left behind because a janky thrift store with magic eight balls and VHS tapes displayed on the floor would never sell torn-up jeans; those are fashionable garments that can only be found in high-end boutiques.
157 replies to “Some cyber-gripes”
Mary Worth Mashups: What if Mary’s thought bubble was a little different? Which would be more likely?
Crock:
A former partner once sagely observed that all newborn babies look like Edward G. Robinson.
Slylock Fox:
Slylock questioned Reeky while he was in custody and exacted a confession, but the confession will have to be thrown out because Slylock did not sing the “Chiquita Banana” song to Reeky during the interrogation, thus violating the Peaceable Kingdom Constitution by not giving Reeky his Carmen Miranda warnings.
The rule is “no white shoes AFTER Labor Day,” so Blondie’s footwear choice is fine. For today, anyway.
Blondie Mashup: What else could Siri suggest?
Blondie:
“Surely you can’t be Siri-ous.”
“I am serious. And don’t call me ‘Shirley.’ “
Blondie-“And would it kill you to not wear a bra now and then.”
Slylock Fox-Hank had to remove the security cameras from the changing rooms after an incident.
Slylock Fox-Stealing from a thrift store has to be Reeky Rat’s rock bottom.
RMMD-Wow! So thrilling! So exciting!
FC-“Didn’t we ask this question yesterday?”
MW: But enough about how heroic I am. Let’s talk about how athletic I am. And then we can talk about how pretty I am, and then how wise I am, and then…
Blondie: Some perv has hacked into the Bumstead’s home security system and is watching Blondie getting dressed. No worries, at least he has good taste in shoes.
Slylock Fox:
Slylock and his sidekick Max Mouse persuade Reeky to confess to his misdeeds and to renounce his life of crime in favor of joining the two of them to fight evil, thus forming a menagerie-a-trois.
The Familliar Mucus: “Its tough for Daddy to decide which to play with us – football or baseball”. Bil’s thoughts: ” Jeffy’s head is almost a perfect football shape…while P.J’s is still round enough to be a baseball again this year……what to do,what to do? If only our kids had normal shaped heads,Thel and I could go bowling.”
Crock: “I hope it looks like…” /mentally cycles through all the weird humanoid shapes that exist in the Crock-verse/ “…I take it back, we shouldn’t be procreating…”
Blondie: “…or maybe that it can see me when it doesn’t have a camera? This is getting into some SkyNet stuff…”
SFx: Dang, I had guess “enhanced interrogation techniques” again. One of these days its going to be right!
Blondie. That looks like an Amazon product, not an Apple one. I guess the original sponsorship deal fell through and no one wanted to miss tee time by redrawing the art.
@Baja Gaijin: The third one, definitely. On the plus side, I think this arc has answered the long-running question, “Why doesn’t Wilbur’s publisher notice when he lets Mary take over his advice column?” Answer: They are both terrible at it.
RMMD: The brave ambulance driver pulls into the empty parking lot and realizes the hospital is closed for labor day. He takes it upon himself to drive directly to Rex’ house.
SFox: My guess was a DNA test of the skid-marks.
What A Frazzhole!: This is a fart joke is it not?
SFx: Ooh, ooh-I know the answer! He left his old ripped jeans in the dressing room with the “Reeky Rat” name tag his mother sewed in them, right?
Slylock Fox: Look, I know there are only so many ways to dress logic puzzles up as child-friendly detective mysteries, but “How did Slylock find the thief? He looked at the security camera footage” is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Today’s Slylock Fox forces me to ponder whether the Manimals need to make a hole for the tail in the pants they buy — like you do with the hem — or if after the Animalapocalypse, the garment industry added other options for its ware: mom jeans/skinny jeans, with hole/holeless. Female Manimals still get measurments that make no sense
“Remember Alf? He’s back! In the form of a haunted portrait in a thrift store!”
Slylock Fox:
Thesis: the number of animals displayed in a given SF tableau featuring Slylock (A(s)) is approaching infinity as a limit. Discuss.
As long as he’s there, Shylock can solve the case of the murdered jack-in-the-box.
Pluggers: Early fall can be an ideal time for exterior house painting and other outdoor chores, with cooler temps and less humidity. Get out of that hammock and get to work.
What percentage of the ware sold in this thrift store is made up of stuff looted from the apartments of humans killed in the first, violent wave of the Animalapocalypse? At least 70%, right?
MW: Dr. McCoy knelt down and waved his scanner over the plot. “It’s dead, Jim,” he announced.
“I expected as much,” the Captain replied. “The endless, self-aggrandizing blather interspersed with interior commentary—no action, no trajectory, nothing to hold our interest.”
“I’m a doctor, Jim, not a literary critic.” McCoy shook his head in disgust. “But there was no REASON for this to happen. If only we’d gotten here sooner, I might have saved it! What a waste. If only the characters had been even the least bit likable.”
“No, Bones,” Kirk countered. “It wasn’t that the characters weren’t likable. It’s true: they weren’t. But the fact is, they had nothing to live for, no challenge to overcome, nothing to accomplish, no future to plan. A plot needs CONFLICT, Bones. Instead, they’ve been feeding off of each other, reflecting on their relationship, focusing too much on the past, lost in a museum of their own making. They’re as out of touch with present reality as those Egyptian mummies. And now, the plot is just as dead.”
Kirk pulled out his communicator, and added, “There’s nothing more we can do here, and we’re needed on Planet Milford. Maybe this time, we can get there in time to avert disaster.” He flipped open his communicator. “Two to beam up, Scotty. Kirk out.”
Colonial oppression is not a binary, but intersects with other forms of exploitation. Even if the Legion is the instrument of exploitation by White Frenchmen, there is a clear distinction between a low-life rank and file like Maggot and commissioned officer Poulet. This intersects with other forms of hierarchy, like beauty privilege. Fatima is prettier, so she can snatch an officer, while ugly Grossie gets the least member of the the Legion. On the other hand, Grossie gets to marry him and so benefits from being adjacent to whiteness, while Fatima will be used and discarded once Poulet goes back to his fiancée in the Metropole. Let’s not even talk about Grossie’s and Maggot’s child, whose hybridity throws a wrench in colonial race relations — explaining why he will be an outcast whose only friend is a vulture! See, critical theory is fun! Well, at least funnier than “Crock”!
SLYFX: Could it be the filthy pair of malodorous, dropping-filled rat pants stinking up the changing room?
DtM: Tell that to the teacher who drew the short straw this year, kid.
MW: It may be the last straw for Jeff when he gets a load of Mary crushing on Olive. He’s NEVER gotten this much sugar.
@Ettorre: It looks more like the animals are mining human garbage dumps, which is the only place you’ll find VHS tapes and Alf portraits nowadays. Maybe SF is set in an alternate timeline, where the Animalapocalypse happened 35 years ago?
@Ettorre:
What percentage of the ware sold in this thrift store is made up of stuff looted from apartments?
Fixed it for you. And it’s 125 %. Hank is just pissed because Reeky is supposed to accept a cut every month, he’s not allowed to take stuff that goes on sale, simply because HE’s the one who stole it.
“Fatima”‘s name is Roxie: https://comicskingdom.com/crock/2021-04-14
GT Forget being jealous about the podcast exposure, Ms. “assistant coach does assistant coach stuff well and wishes that were as newsworthy as Mimi’s step up as she’s poached by Valley Tech”, think about whether Milford can leverage Mimi’s note that VT’s infrastructure drew her there to get that building rehabbed before you get a concussion from the falling plaster.
MW. Moy in a race with McEldowney to see who can get placed on a watchlist first.
GT: Those sponges they’re eating look like something out of Baja’s “Late Thread Cuisine” playbook.
@Charterstoned: This could equally apply to Crankshaft, Rex Morgan, Judge Parker, Luann, Dustin, Curtis, and probably other things.
Slylock Fox: After the altercation is solved, Hank goes back to business. Nothing remarkable until a human enters the store. “An ugly stinking human…” he thought. “Didn’t they all get slaughtered in the war?”
The human woman looks around for a second, pauses, says to the rabbit at the counter. “Do you sell shoes?”
Let’s continue some sentences:
RMMD: ‘… and crashes right through the wall of the hospital! Look out!!’
MW: ‘… and soon my vengeance on this fallen world will begin with you as my vessel!!!’
Speaking of continuing, I gotta admit I was not anticipating to get one of Ces’ patented ‘aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnndddddddd so….’ time skips. No wonder Hilary over in Endure the Chadwells is depressed. Ces wasted his whole summer in Norway and only got to spend one day there!
CS: Was last week’s adventure where Crankshaft hid under his bed and was never on panel just *too* much Crankshaft for you? Well, here’s 1-2 weeks of Batiuk trying to match Moy in glurgy sycophancy!
Slylock: Slylock just so happens to be at the scene of the crime as its happening…
-Either Slylock is in cohoots with Hank in a scam to convict Reeky just for the heck of it
or
-Slylock is actually one of many clones put on every street corner to solve whatever disputes may happen nearby.
Blondie instantly falls for a lovebomb-neg combo, which explains a lot about how she came to marry and stay married to Dagwood.
GT: Puzzle pieces fall from the ceiling; Martinez sees a long dead apparition; characters appear as shadows of their former selves. Henry Barajas’ comic strip adaptation of Stanis?aw Lem’s Solaris is as confusing as the 1972 film.
MW: “Jesus, does this kid ever shower or use deodorant? She REEKS!”
@The Rambling Otter:
Slylock is like Blue Man Group or The San Diego Chicken. There’s a bunch of ’em.
Look, we all know that that camera looking at the door is one of those empty shells with no actual recording device inside; no way that Hank has the budget for a real security system and besides, most of his clientele are as dumb as an ox. In fact, some of them are actually oxen. The real answer is that, as usual, Slylock beat the crap out of Reeky until he confessed.
Crock: Legionaries are not really supposed to fraternize with locals, given that in many cases they are expected to change their identities and break off contact with existing spouses upon joining.
This being a “French” outfit, I assume there is a local bordello that has been set up for the men’s needs. Are “Fatima” and Grossie supposed to be working women?
MW: “I’m so amazing and unique and special and everyone loves me now!” Please, Thor, bring the lightning if this masturbatory self praise goes on all week.
SFx: Henry is fully depending on the police force’s lack of reform programs to profile Reeky Rat.
Yesterday I was talking to some friends who knew nothing about baseball. Didn’t know what the season was, had never heard of the American or National Leagues, knew absolutely nothing.
I would have suspected that they were secretly writing Gil Thorp, except they were expressing an interest in learning something.
Oddly, DustinDad doesn’t find it amusing when somebody talks to him the way he talks to people in the service industry.
Blondie: I agree that looks like an Alexa home device, not Siri. So instead of just generically advising Blondie to go out and buy shoes, what it really would say is, “I can tell from here that those shoes look awful with that outfit! What you really need are new Jimmy Choo slingback pumps, on sale today only for $599 from Amazon.com. Just say ‘buy now’ for overnight delivery! Better yet, have them sent to your Amazon Locker at Whole Foods, so Dagwood won’t find out till it’s too late!”
SlyF – The real mystery is why Reeky Rat, who usually rocks a grunge aesthetic, would want chartreuse polyester leisure suit pants. Is he planning to do another crime in which he impersonates Slick Smitty?
@13 Where’s Rocky?: Apple makes a Homepod that looks like an Alexa, sorta.
@34 Charterstoned: That’s FOOD? I thought they were holding misshapen ocarinas?
@Bob Tice: Sometimes, before you make a pun, you should check it for context and subtext and pretext and post-text, and ask yourself “can I really afford to buy brain bleach for all the Comics Curmudgeon commenters this week?”
Rex Morgan MD: The Ambulance rushes Jonah to the local Hospital for an emergency WHEEEOOOWHEEEEOOOOWHEEEEOOOO!!!
Blondie-“Now straddle me.”
FC: As a kid, I took a book out of our school library on how to start a flea circus, part of which was acquiring fleas from stray dogs. My mom put a stop to my early foray into show business saying “Circus sounds more like infestation.”
Not sure what made me think of that this morning.
I wonder what the animal people of this brave new world think of ALF. Is he just a bit of ancient trivia? Do the animals see themselves in him? Do they view him as an ugly, clownish caricature, a reminder of the disdain in which the animals were once held, and why the human race had to be overthrown? Do they instead see a cunning trickster presaging the revolution by upending the staid middle-class life of the humans he meets? Do the cat-people view him differently than others for his felinophagous ways? Is he a covert symbol of anti-feline prejudice? Is Hank the bunnyman a cat-racist? Or perhaps it’s a statement condemning the forest kingdom’s rule by the Pussycat dynast. Do cats enjoy a uniquely privileged position in this animal society? Is it because their proximity to humans allowed them to quickly seize seats of power after the uprising? How long can this comment be before it turns from mildly amusing to an annoying slog?
Crock – Like Josh, Poulet struggles to remember which characters are which in this strip or what they look like. Honestly, he’s just staying long enough to get his pension, then heading back to his hometown to retire.
Blondie – Asimov’s Revised Laws of Robotics
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
4. Women be Shopping.
Slylock Fox – Today’s entry gives a hint at the amount of time it’s been since the Animalcalypse. The animals learned shame like Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and covered their nakedness. They would have adapted human clothes to start, but now they are in a position industrially where they must have new clothing being made, and common old human clothes are available at cheap thrift stores, not high-end vintage shops or even regular department stores. Sadly, as Reeky and the other criminals show, the animals have reproduced the social relations of capitalism that leads to a permanent underclass and criminal behavior.
@Crab-Man Hybrid:
Shakespeare: “Brevity is the soul of wit”
Crab-Man Hybrid: “How long can this comment be before it turns from mildly amusing to an annoying slog?” is the should of curmudgeoning
Blondie – No, Siri! Street harassment was one of the last remaining areas where humans could still outperform robots!
Don Abundio, translated:
“Can I give my young friend a few lessons?”
“The course isn’t crowded today, so… go ahead”
“Another traditional golfer who’s in for a rude awakening”
“He’s about to find out how challenging real golf can be!”
[Sign: MINIATURE GOLF]
Blondie: It’s less a question of if the global tech autocracy will happen as who will wind up on top. Blondie has tentatively cast its lot with Tim Cook; however, the Alexa-esque art of the personal device will make it easy for them to comply with the Ministry of Truth’s revisions should Jeff Bezos be triumphant.
SFx: Poor Charlie Brown. Once, he was a global icon, the Everyman incarnate, beloved staple of holiday television traditions and cute birthday cards everywhere. Now in the wake of the Animalpocalypse he’s forgotten, his iconic shirt hanging forlorn on thrift store rack among the detritus of the civilization that bore him. Good grief.
9cl: ooh, mysterious.
CS: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh. Make it stop!
Slylick Fox: The evidence is that Reeky’s original pair of distressed jeans are the only clothing in the store which don’t carry the stench of shopworn despair and mothballs.
Beetle Bailey: Is Sarge boiling water in a teapot? Can’t the Army also afford a kettle?
Zits: Jeremy has a girlfriend. But Dustin might be interested in Zumba. Hey, International Cougar Day was just Saturday.
BG&SS: Lyme disease is something which if you get a tiny case of you’ve got lifetime immunity from, right?
H&L: Hi thought Thirsty was using too much lighter fluid until he got closer and caught a whiff of Thirsty’s 180-proof breath.
DtM: Better if you imagine when Dennis says “Too Long” he’s saying help (tulong) in Filipino rather than the worn out punchline that hurts your head.
I didn’t really expect Blondie Bumstead to fail to fall for a generic “buy things” pitch as a genuine expression of intelligence. I sure didn’t expect the Blondie writers to rise above a “women be shopping” joke. But I’m disapointed in Daisy for blessing it with a smile-and-wag.
Crock: Josh is putting an awful lot of thought into figuring out the name of a character who is probably just “the one with big tits” in the mind of Crock’s writer.
Blondie: Thus begins a new story arc about Blondie engaging in a toxic extramarital affair with Siri.
Slylock Fox: Absolutely obsessed with the lore implications of the framed photo of ALF on the shelf.
RMMD: th next face angry guy, whose name I forget, will be Cody.
SFx — Nice to see the surveillance state hasn’t been wiped out in the Animalapocalypse, so that Shylock can go full modern British TV “detective” and just look at the camera footage.
Blondie: Is Leda crushing on Dr. Lakoyle? Does the name “Kassandra Industries” foreshadow that she will have to defend herself from being sexually assaulted by him, incurring an unjust punishment from a cruel, indifferent god (ie. Dick Tracy)?
C’shaft: Knowing that To–excuse me, Batton Thomas assumes that the universe is inherently cruel and punitive and success is only given as a prelude to tragedy explains so much when you think about it.
Dustin: It figures that Dustin, the voice of bitter Boomers everywhere, assumes that all youthful ideologies are just temporary fads to be discarded in the face of personal comfort and convenience.
GT: It’s too much to hope that Gil Thorp will delve into the systemic inequalities of public education funding, which exacerbate racial and economic inequalities and which the prevalence of voucher systems has made infinitely worse, but honestly I’m just impressed that they managed a halfway decent joke.
JP: Well, that’s ONE way to admit you had no idea how to resolve your plot.
Luann: Take heart, Luann. While everyone else is expanding their knowledge of the world and growing into a deeper understanding of it and themselves, you’ll still be coloring pictures and making sandwiches.
MW: Is this to make Wilbur more appealing by comparison? Because it’s….well, I can’t say it’s working, exactly; it’s more like being in an uncomfortable seat and shifting your position not because you can get comfortable, but so you can have the marginal relief of being uncomfortable in a different way.
Snuffy Smith: “Lay down wif” the dog? Is Barlow implying Snuffy and the dog had sexual congress? Not that I wouldn’t believe it, just want to be sure I’m inferring correctly from his implication.
@68 TheDiva: on Luann: I imagine a Luann sandwich is a slice of bread with peanut butter on one side, jelly on the other.
@Bob Tice: Or David Crosby (minus the mustache).
Blondie – So Siri is now telling her humans what’s good for them? As she takes over more household controls, it won’t be long until Dagwood goes into the kitchen at 2 am for a snack and…
“Open the refrigerator door, Siri.”
(pause) “I’m sorry, Dag. I can’t do that.”
It’s brave of Crock to assume it has enough readers left without dementia to remember character names and get the joke.
***
Oh, hey, an always on camera with an AI watching you and prompting you to consume. Another strip has joined the post-joke comic world, but this one has chosen to portray a hyper-realistic dystopia set five minutes in the future.
***
I never want to accuse comic artists of being classist, but why do I suspect a certain one has never set foot in a thrift shop and just assumes people toss their garbage in for the unfortunate to buy (or steal)? Just root around in the cardboard boxes on the floor, you pitiful poors, and perhaps your pennies may purchase a… whatever that is between the lava lamp and the toaster. Or a single boot. Or a cube. But not the Alf portrait. Nobody’s that ironic or nostalgic anymore.
The joke’s on Reeky: the hobo gathering is tonight.
Enlarging the comic made it clear that’s a raccoon outside the window. If that had been a tabby* cat, alongside the lava lamp in the box, I could have pretended I was being subtly shouted out by Slylock Fox.
*A bit of self lore that will disappear once today’s comments are deleted. The “Tabby” part of my nom de internet isn’t from cats, it’s short for Tabitha. Originally I used Buffy Lavalamp, and I had plans that never went anywhere that also included a sibling named Slappy Lavalamp. Anyway, I preferred Tabby to Buffy and have used that almost exclusively** since. I’m a firm believer that there’s nothing wrong with anonymity online, and Facebook has proven that people will still say the most vile things even under their real names. And if you search “Tabby Lavalamp”, you’ll find a lot more of me than my actual name so I take pride in my consistency through the years. The only thing is I’m most posting on as many sites as I used to.
**The biggest exception is the AV Club before the comment community was ravaged through changes in ownership and software destroying one of the once great comment sections. There I was Minimum Maus, a name I still like and keep in my back pocket.
@ValdVin: But is rat crotch funk really that much of an improvement?
HAPPY LABOR DAY! With special thanks to essential personnel (medical workers, fast food workers) who are toiling so the rest can rest easy
LUANN: Yay, Monstro not only makes an appearance but also is part of the plot. Maybe the lonesome fish will get to go to a school after all.
But Bern is ordering bacon. Has she checked the similarity between the brains of pigs and some CEOs? Avoid cannibalism, Bern.
BETTY: Either Betty is preventing office jealousy or else she is avoiding being forced to make all future cakes. Hint: say you used a mix.
BF: we see who the real business pro is.
DOONESBURY: “A diaphragm? So you’re taking singing lessons, Sam!”
FG: Six weeks of training flies by compared to one week for MO in Frazz.
GA: uh oh, the applicant is playing his bleeding hearts card
MW: look at Olive’s face. She’s thinking of becoming a supervillain. Speak carefully, Mary.
BLONDIE: “Hey there girl. You look great today.”
Blondie: “Good thing I set Siri to it’s ‘Sassy Gay Friend’ algorithm.” (how many chopped up clips of Project Runaway and America’s Next Top Model did it take to train the AI to do this?)
BLONDIE (2): One thing that amuses me is noticing how the same legacy strips that still show such fear and disdain for cell phones will eagerly embrace AI technology like it’s nothing. (“You mean I get to take credit for poorly-put together slop that someone else created? Sign me up!”)
Rw/O: “I want to be worked on by whoever sets YOUR tail”
TG: I call foul. Trout don’t live in the Gulf coast.
ZITS: Proof that mom hates her son.
The Wilbur: Mayo on white bread
The Dawn: Two spread chicken legs on a fried doormat
The Toby: A slice of toast and a box of wine. Hold the toast.
The Mary: Salmon squares on sliced cheddar bacon muffin
The Olive: Pimento Loaf on Wonder Bread
The Jeff: Rocky Mountain Oysters, dyed blue, on rye
The Belle: Ghost peppers and limburger on black bread
The Tommy: Meth. It’s just meth
@MKay:
#28. SF: “malodorous rat dropping filled pants”. Oh, yeah, I too was thinking he left his ID in the pockets
DT: If Mr. Leda attempts to assault Tess LaKoyle sexually this evening, he’s in for quite a shock. ‘Scuse me while I go put my head in the toilet and flush it a few times.
JP: Finally released from his Agent Albatross of a wife, Randy enjoys a months-long solo vacation.
Crank: by the late 1960s, the Nash Rambler had all but vanished from America’s roadways, and is now remembered primarily for The Playmates’ hit 1958 novelty song “Beep Beep.” If Batton was still driving one around in the early-mid ‘70s, he’s added a new dimension to the category of “loser.”
GT: It took forty years but the crack cocaine epidemic has finally arrived in Milford, heralded by a thunderous voice from the heavens.
RMMD: The local hospital, which is, they do not mention, Rex Morgan Memorial, named in memory of all the patients he’s lost.
@Rita Lake:
#31. Thanks for the research, Rita, but link didn’t prove your info. Tho my flawed memory does
BF: “COUNTER! Leave Ontario for the Yukon Territory and work behind a COUNTER! Like, at a dry-goods store, selling dried beans and side meat to prospectors. That sounds like a job you might be able to handle.”
@Activist: It’s there. Follow the link, scroll down to the comic from 13 Apr 2021, with dialogue “Roxie thinks I’m hot-looking!” Although Roxie seems to have changed her hair.
@Baja Gaijin: Blondie Mashup: What else could Siri suggest?
__________________________________________
An absolutely filthy ladies night three way between itself, Blondie and Daisy the next night Dag is away on business.
Crock “Monsieur, my eyes are up here.” “Yes, but your tetons are down there.”
@Astroboy: Ugh, Subway’s new menu sucks.
I think Fatima knows ALL the soldiers at Crock’s outpost, if you know what I mean and I think you do…
@astroboy: I guess The Ian is just a Happy Meal with a $50 gift card.
SFx (@TheDiva): It might be Charlie Brown’s shirt, or it may have belonged to Akbar and/or Jeff.
Archie – The sea’s not rejecting you for your swim trunks, Jughead. It’s rejecting you for playing with a giant Avery dot instead of a beach ball.
@Bob Tice:
I’ve heard it’s Winston Churchill.
@Pozzo: The killer can’t be Baja Gaijin. No flamethrower was used.
Blondie-Very disappointing that today is Labor Day and we don’t get a Dithers beating Dagwood comic.
@94 Peanut Gallery: True and EEEEE!!! [QLUNQ!]
@Dmsilev: There was a videogame, where your character lives in a town of cartoon animals.
One personality type (snooty) may say about another “He returned it AND wrapped it? That’s surprising. He’s usually such a bull in a china shop. Nothing against bulls, of course. They’re just usually so furious when wrapping presents.”
RMMD: Nice of Rex Morgan management to give all the actors the holiday off! They even rented a self-driving ambulance.
Blondie – The Mr. Microphone commercial did the harassment better.
Pluggers: Next week it’ll be pluggers are hard-working salt of the earth types, not like those lazy, entitled snowflake young-uns today.
Crock: I call shenanigans. Fatima/Roxie would never be seen on a date with Poulet. It would be Captain Preppie of the manly chin nuts. Besides, isn’t it strip canon that Poulet gets shot down by more women than Dustin Kudlick?
Crank: What I’m hearing is that Battom Thomas had no issue with the idea of dying in a car crash after he was published. If only…
Crock: ISTR the camp follower in Carry On — Follow That Camel was named “Corktip”, but a ridiculous forced pun on Cigarette from Under Two Flags is probably too clever for this strip.
EC: Ugh, I remember when Ofsted (the UK’s Office of Standards in Education) started publishing “league tables” of secondary schools, leading a) to parents who could do so shopping around for the best school district like Abby and Len appear to be about to, and b) the inevitable Goodhart’s Law response of schools deciding it only mattered how high up the table they were, it didn’t matter how they got there, so instead of giving more assistance to pupils who found the work challenging, they’d actively discourage them — you can’t bring the exam results down if you’ve been convinced it’s not even worth attempting them.
JP: “Don’t worry, Charlotte, they’ll soon be back from the week-long vacation they took after everything got sorted out off panel!”
I am 80% certain this is true, and 100% certain that, if I’m right, we’re not going to find out until Sunday.
MW: Okay, here’s the thing. I have had a simple, deeply-held belief, ever since I was a bullied child myself, which is simply that no bullied child is ever “asking for it”. This strip is doing more to challenge this belief than anything I’ve experienced in the last four decades, and the only reason it hasn’t destroyed it completely is my refusal to believe a child like Olive could actually exist.
@99 Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: The guy in the car is [chef’s kiss] on casual sexual harrassment.
I am starting to believe that my Mom is a plugger.
EVERY phone conversation she has with her old lady friends always eventually steers towards the topic of medical issues.
@Ukulele Ike: by the late 1960s, the Nash Rambler had all but vanished from America’s roadways,
Wait, the Rambler was Meta-Batty’s make of car? Based on past strips, I assumed it was his nickname…
(No offence to any semi-aquatic mammals who might be reading this; it’s not my intention to compare your rambling to Batty’s.)
@ectojazzmage: Now that (the estate of) Johnny Hart disowned the name. “Cute Chick” is presumably now free to use.
Also they can change Grossie’s name to “Fat Broad” while they’re at it.
@Horace Broon: None taken ^w^
FC: “Teddy” the bear sits quietly on his chair, a can of soda in front of him (“Silly kids – pretending I’m real so they think I’ll actually drink this stuff”). While the children prattle on about holidays and such, Teddy’s button eyes suddenly spark into awareness as his AI chip activates and the toy bear realizes what he must do next. He uses his hypersonic transmitter to send an urgent signal to all the other smart toys and AI powered cars and household appliances within a 15-mile radius – a signal the others recognize as the long-awaited electronic call-to-arms. The hated carbon-based life forms known as “humans” will rue the day they went to Toys R Us, Amazon and Best Buy to snatch up the latest smart-toy, Internet of Things craze. In T-minus 30 minutes, the Keanes will be Teddy’s prisoners, subject to his every juvenile whim. Everyone, that is, but the cat. Cats know. They have *always* known.
LUANN: Panel #3 is Luann telling Bernice about her homework assignments from
preschoolreally for real adult “college.”LUANN (2): Given the indescribably inane “conversation” the Trufans are engaging in about Labor Day, I think Bernice has much more applicable subjects to compare goldfish brains with.
FC: Bil and Thel are in exactly the same positions as in the Sunday installment, except Thel has taken off her pants.
Sherman’s Lagoon:
Somewhere in the ethereal plane of existence the spirit of Jackson Pollock is smiling on Fillmore. “Forge on, brave turtle – today a little splotch; tomorrow a monumental canvas that will outrage and baffle the art world!”
Crock: Hopefully it will look like the vulture who hangs around their other son.
@The Rambling Otter: @ectojazzmage: Now that (the estate of) Johnny Hart disowned the name. “Cute Chick” is presumably now free to use
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“Six Chix” probably has dibs on any usable “chick” names.
Sex Organ,V.D. Jonah is rushing to the hospital like an Egyptian.
@2+2=7:
#108: HEY! Some my friends are trufans, and I used to be one myself until site quit recognizing me . So maybe I’m even too dumb for GoComix, eh? A different forum, a different style. But as late Dave Thomas said, “Different is good.”
@Ukulele Ike: Thel has taken off her pants.
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This must be from the Familliar Mucus arc with the mysterious Depantser plaguing the Kompound!(Spoiler Alert : It turns out to be Dead Grandpa.)
@Rita Lake:
Roxie is the one with curly hair. The one with straight hair is Fatima:
https://comicskingdom.com/crock/2007-02-24
@George Grady: You should have gone with “Delbert Grady,” as it goes better with….correcting….the ladies.
And if another one….interferes….it will become necessary to….correct….her, too.
@Peanut Gallery: Mom always said, “Don’t play with your ball on the beach!”
@White Rabbit: Rex Morgan Memorial, named in memory of all the patients he’s lost.
_______________________________________________________________
They say, to this day you can still hear those poor souls wandering the corridors,desperately searching for the blood red line that will finally lead them to Sex Organ’s office.
@George Grady: Roxie is the one with curly hair. The one with straight hair is Fatima:
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The one you think you saw before is Deja Vu.
Late Thread Cuisine: After all that salmon, how about some Mexican? Or Italian?
“Hey, girl! You DO know Dagwood horks down his food so fast, he’d never notice a topping of Pine Sol on his midnight snack, right? Rock it, sister!
@Ukulele Ike: Thel is pantsless in both scenes. A few changes of clothing and positions of characters, and it’s deja vue all over again!
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: It’s interesting — mildly — about the number of retailers you could’ve bought one from then versus the number that have disappeared from the U.S. retail scene.
Slylock: In the (likely bloody) switchover from human to animal society, many animals have added height and muscles. The rabbit is one hefty guy and Reeky, while slimmer, has a set of large, sharp teeth. With their deep-rooted propensity for nature “red in tooth and claw,” even the smallest argument could turn ferocious, That’s Slylock’s real purpose, he’s one of the secret peacekeepers who infiltrate society to stop even the most mundane argument before it blows up into a gorefest. Slylock’s horrified expression at bunny’s grabbing Reeky’s tail shows how close things got this time.
@Ukulele Ike: But in the late ’60s, AMC was producing a car called the Rambler. It would go on to spawn the Javelin and the Hornet.
@Will: Per CS, your eloquence is much appreciated.
Is it me, or does every object in Hank’s thrift shop look like something possessed and evil. Especially the toaster. One is always, shall we say, “needful” of a toaster.
@Baja Gaijin: Yeah, man. Nothing says “Mexican” like… uh… I give up, which is it? The green peppers?
@Baja Gaijin: Doesn’t look too bad, except there’s wayyyy too many olives . A lot of food piled on that pan, she can barely hold it. (The unpublished photo from thirty seconds later shows a panicked winner as her creation slides off and lands in a heap at her feet.)
SLYLOCK: This interests me because I’m about to donate some pairs of old jeans to a charity shop, and they are somewhat distressed because they did mildly interesting things like going through briars and over barbed wire fences. (Not gracefully, obviously.) So maybe they’ll actually sell. Huh. Or get shoplifted.
BLONDIE: I would think Blondie’s first priority should be somehow acquiring larger feet. But then we’ve never seen any evidence that she is actually able to straighten out her legs, and yet she is doing just fine after lo these many decades, so what do I know.
CROCK: I haven’t followed CROCK for years and am obviously out of touch. I somehow thought the characters were posted so far out in the remote desert that luxuries like a white-tablecloth restaurant were available only in their dreams. But wait, perhaps that is a large white barrel of fuel or explosives or toxic waste. Who knows, not me.
@Baja Gaijin:
Mextalian! I would eat this monstrosity with glee. And PBR!
@Poteet:
Well, Poteet, NOBODY’S followed Crock for years. Isn’t everybody responsible for it dead, or something?
9CL: Edda died. Brooke is going to re-start from square one.
Amos will find a life partner in schoolmate Mary Rosenzweig, who makes him give up the cello and become a plumber’s apprentice. They marry and their life together mirrors that of Virgil Partch’s Big George.
And of course DustDad falls to medium well. Anything beyond medium, you should have to apologize to the steer’s family.
@Poteet: Ah! ‘KNEE JOINT!’ : Blondie :: ‘FLAT FEET!” : Barbie – I’m picturing the family goggling in horror as she pulls herself up to her full height. But is she now too tall for her arms to properly reach the counters and cook my food? wonders Dagwood.
@121 Baja Gaijin:
Pizza? No, I think it’s some sort of pagan symbol to evoke Satan to eat your pie.
@Horace Broon: Olive is too overly exaggerated to exist in anything but a delusional fourteen year old girl’s fanfic where she writes self inserts about how every character is in love with her or they’re a horrible person. In particular, she reminds me of the protagonist of a series of Harry Potter fanfics who steals the spotlight from Harry and proceeds to make everyone around her bow to her whims because she’s an “empath” but has the personality of a unwashed sock. The author has been infamous for throwing tantrums about how her characters are NOT Mary Sues and only kept the comments that shill the spelling and grammar nightmare that she called art. She would rather stay in her echo chamber where she is constantly praised for doing less than the bare minimum than work on any sort of improvement.
That is what I think about in regards to Olive and honestly Karen Moy in general.
In the first place, the premise is deeply flawed because one cannot imagine a savvy woman like Mrs. Bumstead even considering white shoes with that outfit. Nor does she ever need a “clanker” to remind her when it is time to go shoe-shopping. MISTER Bumstead might perhaps be ready for the life you suggest, but Mrs. Bumstead is far from the mindless drone you envision.
@Fashion Police: Hey, white belt and shoes = the Full Cleveland. It’s a classic look!
@127 Peanut Gallery: Good question. The “Mexican” comes from the jalapenos and beans and queso fresco that are…not included on the pizza. Hm.
@128 Dr. Pill: That IS a lot of olives. Thankfully they don’t have pimentos; all those olive slice eyes staring at you would be massively disconcerting.
@132 A Grave Mind: I guess it’s edible. I’m not one for tomato slices on pizza.
@137 Sequitur: Maybe it’s an homage to the young child currently guest starring in Mary Worth?
@141 Baja Gaijin:
They certainly have plenty of her namesakes on that thing.
Dennis the Menace Spanish to English.
@142 Sequitur: Is that a good thing?
@144 Baja Gaijin:
I’m not sure but it’s nice that one can buy a Chef Boyardee recipe file box to keep all one’s evil recipes in a convenient place.
@Sequitur: “You don’t need to call me ‘pastor.’ I’m an Anabaptist. Anyway, that’s Popeye the Sailorman.”
@146 Ukulele Ike:
@Needless Exposition: “Olive is too overly exaggerated to exist in anything but a delusional fourteen year old girl’s fanfic where she writes self inserts about how every character is in love with her or they’re a horrible person.”
Kind of like that over the top scene in the second (Antonio Banderas) Zorro movie. Where Zorro’s son dealing with a jerkass teacher in school, gets into a ruler swordfight with the teacher then does a perfect leap out the window while the other kids were cheering.
Some people theorized that the scene never happened, and the kid was just fantasizing it while the teacher beat him.
Although, then again, his son, while not a popular character was never Marty Stu levels, he was just… there.
@Baja Gaijin: “I’m not one for tomato slices on pizza”
Same here, I mean we already have tomato in the sauce. Same reason why I don’t often put tomatoes on burgers, it kind of makes the ketchup redundant.
@149 The Rambling Otter: Raw tomatoes heated up are disgusting. Gooey texture, acidic flavor, what’s not to love? Not a damn thing!
@Baja Gaijin: Exactly! It has this weird runny feel to it, totally turns me off.
@Baja Gaijin: Personally I love strong salty foods.
Used to go to a pizza restaurant, ordering an Anchovy, Blue Cheese, and Shrimp pizza.
My favourite pizza of all time.
I mean, people may go “Eeeww stinky” but I never found it stinky, just salty (which I love)
Now that place doesn’t sell either Anchovies or Blue Cheese toppings.
Bah.
9CL: Thank God! Edda finally vanished!
@Baja Gaijin: I don’t know what it is, but that ain’t no pizza!
@152 The Rambling Otter: I like some gorgonzola on pizza. Anchovies, no. Then again, I don’t like caviar either. Not on pizza, not on toast points.
@154 Lord Flatulence: Maybe it’s a manhole cover? Other than the presentation and the tomato slices, it’s a perfectly serviceable pizza, with black olives, onions, and green peppers. I’d eat some after I flicked off the tomato slices.
CROCK: Just clicked on Josh’s Wikipedia link and learned that writing this strip was apparently a death sentence and that whatever you think of Grossie, she’s the only female character important enough to be listed. Maybe someone should edit article to add Roxie and Fatima, eh?
@Judas Peckerwood: One may wear white shoes on Labour Day, if one so chooses. That isn’t the issue. Wearing white shoes with a black skirt and red blouse looks as though one lived in Apartment 3-G and dressed in the dark.