Hi still looks super depressed, at least
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Andy Capp, 10/21/25
I, a guy who has run a blog about comic strips for the better part of two decades now, am, as you might imagine, a huge nerd. Nevertheless, I have significant reservations about the way that nerd culture has more or less taken over the world, dominating the entertainment industry while fans still endlessly complain that their superhero pals don’t get the respect they deserve. That’s why I’m glad to see that there’s still one outpost in the comics willing to make fun of the nerds, and it makes sense that it’s the home of America’s favorite working-class British alcoholic. (Intelligent Life also makes nerds look ridiculous, but I’m pretty sure that’s not on purpose.)
Dustin, 10/21/25
You know, I focus a lot on this blog about how Dustin is constantly persecuted by the other members of his family, but let’s not forget that, in his absence, they’ll also turn on each other, with virtually every intrafamilial interaction landing on a spectrum somewhere between “passive aggressive” and “cruel.” They’re not nice people!
Hi and Lois, 10/21/25
Oh, I guess the Flagston family is OK with the library now, because they need a third place to go when Lois and her book club friends start getting drunk and belligerent and their home is no longer safe.
Heathcliff, 10/21/25
Oh yeah? Well, I like it better when you’re standing either inside the house or outside the house, rather than the MC Escherian simultaneously-inside-and-outside thing you’ve landed on here, but you don’t see me complaining about it.
127 replies to “Hi still looks super depressed, at least”
MW: Does anybody else notice how Jeff’s boat looks like Dagwood Bumstead?
I respect the use of an ancient trope, and I feel that I am somehow deprived in that I have never actually been told to “Shhhh” by a librarian. That tears it! To the library! The liquor store is on the way!
MW: Jeff you idiot. Why in the world would you want to start Mary droning on about dear Olive? How do you plan to stop her? Do you expect to stick your tongue down her throat?
Chip is not in the library, since he’s busy sniffing glue or smoking pot. Your parents can’t see your eyes are red if they cannot see your eyes!
Andy Capp : acts tough, but he still hasn’t gotten over the incident when he went into Stan’s while they were holding a Warhammer 40k tournament and everyone was doing Orks impressions.
(Andy Capp had a “MY CULTURE IS NOT A COSTUME” meltdown over everyone doing really bad soccer hooligan accents, is where I’m getting at)*********
Dustin : “Yeah, I get it. I’m hopping over to Dustin’s bedroom to give him the exact same routine so HE’ll do it.”
*********
Frazz : that 12 year old girl does not give any notice at how frustrated and disappointed Frazz seems when she mentions that her growth spurts never leave her buttcrack exposed. She should, in fact, be incredibly concerned, and possibly report him.
…. Too far?…*********
Hi & Lois : …that’s supposed to be a library? It looks more like they’re in a random old couple’s house! (Who are sitting apart, in different rooms, with looks of profound anger on their faces for obvious reasons).
*********
Mary Worth : Dr Jeff asks to hear all about her most recent adventure, mostly because he knows that if he doesn’t goad her into talking about herself, the date will end abruptly and he’ll have to wait for her next victory lap.
Riots are the voice of the oppressed so I guess grawlix is the voice of the oppressed birds
Are…are the birds actually cussing? Like, in English? Do birds use the same curses as we? Or do these people speak Bird? Can I learn Bird? To the library! Today, I multi-task!
Heathcliff: that’s not a window or a balcony, it’s a poster that Heathcliff tacked on to the wall. That way he can always strut around and imagine they’re talking about him.
One of the bad consequences of globalisation is cultural homogeneity. So you have this British nerd passionate about superhero comics and Star Wars instead of, like, Dennis the Menace (UK), the Avengers (UK) and pigeon racing (UK and only UK)
“Your pointless talk show barely covers our car payments, honey. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
H&L: Can’t believe Thirsty isn’t in the book club.
MW: Jeff responds as programmed.
DtM: I actually laughed at this one.
“New in this Week: Star Wars”. I did not expect the first Star Wars movie since the Rise of Skywalker to first debut in a dingy shop in a Northern English town, but Disney’s management of Star Wars has been quite erratic
AC Look, I’m not saying that there is anything nefarious going on, I am saying that if someone were designing a Wile E Coyote-style ‘nerd trap’ it would look something like this.
Andy Capp:
Every time I see British humor of this ilk, it makes me doubly glad that we as colonies broke away from them in 1776.
MW: Jeff doesn’t interact with other people so much as he gets to “know” them through the lens of Mary’s experience. Thus, Wilbur is ‘quirky’ and not an ‘absolute asshole’, and Olive is ‘remarkable’ instead of ‘a creepy girl with dangerous delusions who is fixated on how special she is and you should absolutely stay away from air conditioners, dogs, bodies of water, and hot air balloons if she’s anywhere around’.
H&L: Taking two kids and a toddler out of the house and to the library is a pain but you don’t argue with the members of Lois’ post feminist book club.
Hi and Lois:
Unflappable Trixie sports an Alfred E. Neuman-esque “What, me worry?” look.
Heathcliff:
“I like it better when they sing.”
“[Bird}: “Okay. Heathcliff, you CHEEP b*****d!”
H&L: Meanwhile, Hi’s future self looks up from his newspaper and scowls. He remembers all too well the shameful day that his family was shushed in the library. But he can’t dwell too long on that feeling; he’s got a job to do.
@Ettorre: I would argue it goes both ways: globalization exposes people to nerdy things that aren’t local to them. Americans can now be passionate about non-American nerdy things, like Harry Potter and non-U.S. sports. I never thought I’d have a favorite English Premier League team, but I and a lot of my sports-watching friends do.
AC: If the nerds can handle Eric, a presumably drunken man wearing a purple pinstripe suit and a gravity-defying hat, I’m sure they can handle a little window-tapping.
Heathcliff: If we read Josh complaining about non-Euclidean geometry, do we see him complaining, or do we hear him complaining? Much to consider, and this is even before we get to two little birds cursing in unison while one goes his own grawlixed way.
Dustin: Helen continues reading from her marriage manual: ‘Communicative friction can raise the adrenal levels of a lazy lover.’
MW: “Tell me about her.” Jeff, Jeff, Jeff … dude, you just will never learn. You ask that, and then your dinner is ruined by a non-stop, blow-by-blow recap of shit you just don’t want to really know, only to banally agree to pretty much every conclusion that Mary comes up with just to maybe – MAYBE – get her to shut up, then you SWEAR to yourself that NEXT TIME you really WON’T EVER ask that question again. Then weeks later when you haven’t seen Mary for who-knows-why you ask her out for a sunset cruise and dinner, only to forget your solemn vow …
More questions for Andy Capp: Do…do they keep nerds as pets in Hartlepool? Can you adopt a nerd from Stan’s, and get your nerd chow needs met at the same place? Does Stan sell cute little nerd outfits and leashes? (The answer to the last question is almost certainly “yes.”)
Smallest. Balcony. Ever.
MW: Can we have Wilbur and Dawn back? Pretty please? I’d even take a Keith Hillend story at this point.
CS: Ed, you are 106 years old, in a world where people die in pointlessly and tragically. Listening to you bitch about your obscure risks, related medical conditions, and the cost of insurance is just insulting to everyone around you. You’re also begging for a bus filled with glitter from one end to the other.
Dustin: Hey Dustmom, aren’t you supposed to be a talk radio host? Shouldn’t you know how to communicate your ideas clearly and without hostile smugness… never mind, I answered my own question. Carry on.
@blammers66: Jeff has made his calculation, and decided that pretending to listen to Mary gives him a better chance of getting to first base. Someday.
Hi and Lois: Hi is miserable, of course, missing Tuesday Night (Canadian) Football or whatnot. But Trixie is ecstatic: they’ve brought her highchair with the attached tray. Tonight she will feast, on books! I mean in her mouth, not as a feast for her intellect. She’s going to put corners of the entire 36-volume Eric Carle’s Oxford English Dictionary in her mouth, is what she’s going to do.
RMMD/Luann: I see Beatty let the Evansii borrow his patented upnostril pose today. Evansii is really showing Beatty some new tricks but please, for the love of all that is holy, I hope he never makes his characters do that ever again.
JP: Tomorrow’s strips shows the completely destroyed kitched of Neddy’s cabin, black smoke billowing from the oven, fire alarm going off. Neddy turns to the raspberry-haired brat and says ‘You got any of that muffin left, kid?’
Heathcliff (in a sophisticated British narrator voice): At the beginning of the animalpocalypse, naturally, the very first thing the animals picked up from the humans were their vices.
For example, Raccoons skittering around looking for garbage, once they slowly gained sentience they started questioning what those white things were on the ground. Soon enough, raccoons are raiding smoke shops for their nicotine fix.
While birds as shown here, just tell everyone to F off. Over and over. They find it amusing.
This has been another edition of “Animals in the Wild” I am Richard Otterborough.
Dustin: I really like the confused look that Dustin’s dad is giving. He doesn’t get where she’s going! In truth, he doesn’t understand condescending sarcasm at all if it isn’t addressed toward someone of a younger generation!
H&L “You know, when you think of it, a joke is really nothing more than a thing that happened” -the writers of Hi and Lois, apparently.
Heathcliff: Really curious as to what Heathcliff’s role is in all of this. Are the birds swearing at him? Did he teach them to swear? Does his physical being contain some kind of random energy field that allows the impossible to happen around him? Actually that last one might explain this entire strip.
MW Ah yes, the classic “sunset cruise” starting in bright blue midday skies because Dr Jeff knows just how long Mary’s self-congratulatory speeches go on. They’ll be lucky to eat by midnight.
JP Does the artist really not know that little kids can’t be in passenger seats, or is Neddy already so frustrated that she’s subconsciously trying to get Charlotte killed in a fender-bender?? (Seriously, air bags will internally decapitate a child and it’s not just a height thing, it’s also about bone hardening which is why it’s usually illegal to ride in the front before the teen years .)
Josh, I do see you complaining about it. Your complaints were transmitted over the world wide web to my computer screen, which emits photons that literally enter my eyeballs.
H&L: In NYC, the City That Never Sleeps, the latest a library is open is 8 p.m. Where did Hi find this all-night library?
FG: So, given the choice between a cruel, monomaniacal dictator and benevolent monarchies, a high percentage choose the former. Good thing we don’t live in that kind of world. Oh, wait…
Hi & Lois: I like that Trixie is sitting in her high chair in the library. I don’t understand it, but it’s nice. She looks thoroughly entertained.
I also like that Hi looks miserable. Letting women learn to read was a mistake, and now they’re all paying the price!
@CanuckDownSouth: Well, as we established yesterday Neddy hasn’t looked at the ‘notes’ she was supposed to read before taking charge of the raspberry-haired brat. We should be grateful Neddy didn’t put her in a pet carrier strapped to the roof of that lovingly depicted Honda SUV.
RMMD-“You’ll be bigger than Les Moore.”
MW-Uh, Jeff, if you are planning on being a witness at Mary’s future trial or plan on turning her in you don’t want to know.
FC-“Mommy, why does Mr. Moore always cry and mutter about a last leaf?”
As someone who plays Magic the Gathering I can confirm seeing a stereotypical working class British man knocking on the window of the store I frequent would cause a mild heart attack.
***
Lady, there is a baby in the library. Shush all you want, there will be noise.
RMMD: Will Augie go back to the classroom to say goodbye to his students, or will he just walk on out the front door?,
@The Quiet Man: My kids would know and say they belong in X seat with Y booster / child seat as a throne, but it’s always possible Charlotte found Neddy’s mistake exciting because she’s always wanted to be in the Forbidden Front Seat.
MW:
“Don’t be a dope, Jeff. That’s only a picture she’s placed in your mind. I’m still stuck in a balloon while you’re in bed with a teenage prostitute.”
As a Brit, my eyes narrowed at the American ‘store’ creeping into Andy Capp in place of the more English ‘shop’.
It’s a sad sign of our continuing irrelevance that this last bastion of Little English parochialism has fallen.
@Victor Von: There are foldable portable, quick-strap-to-any-chair baby chairs with trays. That would actually be useful to keep Trixie occupied with crayons without worrying she’d mess up the library furniture, but given the general level of thought for the strip it’s likely the artist just doesn’t know how to draw Trixie in any other kind of seat.
FC:
“Mommy, when did this huge, misshapen tree appear by our doorstep?”
@CanuckDownSouth: I wouldn’t worry about Charlotte’s car-seat safety. We’re about at the point where her parents will suddenly appear and pull her from the car, shouting “get her to the safe house” and leaving a confused Neddy to try to explain to the cops what happened. Neddy’s arrest will be derailed when two CIA agents show up and take her to Washington for interrogation, and the strip starts an extended flashback showing what happened in Norway and (as it turns out) Laos during the time-skip. We won’t see most of this, it will all be cryptically conveyed by the CIA agents, or in late-night cell phone conversations by irritated-looking minor characters.
In other words, Judge Parker will return to normality.
@Tabby Lavalamp: Any noise Trixie makes will be drowned out by the pre-teens in the “education center” playing MMORPGs on the library computers.
JP: Forget about the booster seat. How does Neddy drive with her shoulder restraint around the steering wheel?
MW: Jeff be careful! Don’t…no!!!! There goes two weeks of our lives.
RMMD: Second panel: Augie’s agent puts him “on hold.” Third panel: Augie kinda gets into the Muzak.
Today’s Heathcliff, actually gives me fond memories, of a fantasy novel I enjoy.
Where a pothead college student ends up in a fantasy realm populated by humans/talking animals and various fantasy creatures.
He meets a talking bird (who had what sounded like a Brooklyn accent) and not certain what to do, offers him some gum in his pocket.
“Would you like a juicyfruit?”
“Thanks, but I’ve had all the berries I can stand for now. I’m up to my ass feathers in berries.”
AC: A geek emporium in the UK with no trace of Doctor Who, Harry Potter or Monty Python? What next, are they going to start calling petrol “gas” and dropping the u’s from their spelling?
Dustin: Dustdad may be a terrible lawyer, father, and human being, but he sure knows how to play dumb to his wife’s passive-aggressive nagging in the hopes that she’ll give up on him.
@Ken: You beat me to it, I figured that out just now as I was driving to work (I’m safely parked now, so no worries there).
My only quibble with your theory is you’re moving too fast. I’m betting we’re going to get a late night confrontation at Neddy’s cabin which is conveniently isolated enough for this to work.
Dustin – Well, at least Mrs. Kudlick is ready for Halloween with her candy-corn hair.
@Hibbleton: The car’s going straight, right? Neddy ties the strap around the wheel to keep it stationary, which leaves both her hands free for her bagel and latte. Try it on tomorrow morning’s commute!
@Guts Dozier: A purple suit?! Is Eric cosplaying as the pre-Crisis, Bronze Age Joker? Sheesh. Nerd culture was so much better before it was appropriated by the mainstream.
Heathcliff-“I see the birds are back from their trip to New York.”
Hi and Lois-And how much money will videos of Lois’ “book group” bring in?
Dustin-Are your hands broken, woman? Use a rake.
MANDRAKE: This was a pretty good Amelia Earhart arc until the resourceful women had to be given an un believable rescue by two men. And now they also totally mess up how an exoneration works! A confession alone is only a start.
@Ukulele Ike:
Neddy ties the strap around the wheel to keep it stationary, which leaves both her hands free for her bagel and latte.
Brilliant! –A word I never thought I’d associate with Neddy.
Andy Capp – Chalkie stoutly maintains that he refuses to cross the threshold of Stan’s Superhero Emporium on principle: Star Wars and Star Trek are not superhero franchises! But the truth is that he’s been banned from the premises for refusing to shut up about it.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Ooh! That shot must have gone 300 yards!”
“How come you don’t drive like that all the time?”
“There’s a penalty…”
“I always end up hitting myself in the ass with the club!”
C’shaft: Yeah, really hard to get insurance companies to sign off on something that doesn’t exist.
FG: I dunno, if someone showed me an image of a long-dead despot claiming to be alive and urging his former vassals to spill each other’s blood to avoid incurring his vengeance, my first instinct would be to question the veracity of the message. These guys have interplanetary travel but they’ve never heard of deepfakes?
GT: “I hope you know the majority of us are rooting for you”? What are you, running for public office? A simple “we got your back, bro” would have sufficed.
JP: Can I call CPS on a comic strip?
Lio: Oh, SHUT UP about 3I/Atlas already! It’s not even coming close enough to be observable to the naked eye, and the “it’s an alien spacecraft” idea was floated by exactly one (1) nutjob who says that about any unusual astronomical phenomenon and who was promptly laughed at by anyone with an ounce of scientific cred. The well is dry, Tatulli! Move on!
Luann: Guest writer: Ed Crankshaft
MT: No, you are NOT making enough cash at the farmer’s market to pay for your cabin, unless your “cabin” is a dilapidated shack that’s been abandoned since the mid-20th century or you’re using your jewelry/LuLaRoe stand as a front for selling heroin.
MW: Referring to Olive as Mary’s “little friend” just emphasizes how creepy their entire relationship is.
Pluggers have severe insomnia, probably brought about by a combination of deep medical debt, a lack of social support and the existential dread of their increasingly imminent deaths.
RMMD: And just in time, because Augie’s about to get fired after his students falls and breaks an arm while trying to figure out how to turn on the classroom projector so the class can watch Mr. Beast.
AC – Andy’s only interaction with the non-alcohol commercial class is puking on their stoops as he stumbles home….
Dustin – Home neglect is no longer a character flaw…it’s a beloved family holiday tradition?
H&L – I guess they’re banned from the Christian Science reading room….
Heathcliff – Any cryptanalysts out there who can tell us which one is shit and which one is fuck?
Adios Amigos, DJ.
@Activist:
Judging by the blonde woman, they also messed up how human faces work. Baby steps.
@Liam: I would agree, if Dustdad were ever shown doing anything around the house besides watching TV while complaining about his son’s laziness. If he’s going to have outdated gender-based notions about who is responsible for domestic labor, the least he can do is hold up the “husband does the yardwork” end of the bargain.
Dustin: Y’know, Dustin’s Mom, you could just clean up all that crap yourself instead of engaging in pitiful passive aggressive jabs with your failure of a husband to try and make him do it.
Hi And Lois: I’m no artist, but I would think that if you’re aiming for a cutesy wholesome comic, it’s probably best not to draw the dad’s face with an expression that makes him look suicidally depressed.
Heathcliff: Historical fun fact; Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the USA, had a beloved pet parrot. And also swore so often and so vigorously that when he died, the parrot had to be removed from his funeral because it kept repeating the countless curses it heard from Jackson. In two different languages, in fact, as Jackson was fluent in both English and Spanish.
“Where are we going?” Based on that first panel, inside the lawnmower
@TheDiva: Mr. Beast? Please, the cool kids are watching KPop Demon Hunters, over and over, and singing all the songs, over and over. At least, so my teacher friends tell me, as they explain why they’re taking early retirement.
Dustin: The worst thing is, I’m pretty sure this counts as foreplay for the Kudlicks.
@Ken: That would require figuring out how to access Netflix on the teacher’s laptop, which….you know what, I’ve known more than a few kids who will avoid homework like the plague but will figure out how to break into Pentagon systems just for shiggles, so point taken.
JP: Charlotte is well accustomed to making a muffin last throughout the day, as Alan and Katherine are dead drunk every night when the dinner hour rolls around. The fridge is mostly filled with club soda, tonic water, and ginger ale, on the off chance the Judge decides to dilute his liquor.
GT: Kid needs to say “majority” because of teammates Sid and “Hambone,” who are less interested in challenging Tobias on the gridiron than in dating them.
MW: Mary has never learned the proper way to respond when asked about a young lady.
“Tell me about her.”
“No. No. I don’t think I will.”
(Thank you, Captain America.)
Lockhorns: Wondering how much time was spent choosing between Random (Let’s Say) Friend and World’s Most Sisyphean Marriage Counselor as the lucky person who gets to witness this.
Crankshaft: This is an allegory, right? Ed’s just made enemies of every coal mine owner in Appalachia.
Pluggers: Another sleepless night for Henrietta…
Okay, now to get to sleep! I should rest better sleeping in another room from Earl. Told him I didn’t want to disturb him if I got restless. Going through the change, I said…
But it’s Earl who’s changing! When I started to feel teeth in those love nibbles. That different sort of desire I see in his eyes. Then I caught him watching a cooking show on TV – they had cut up a chicken and frying its parts! OhmyGod! Will I ever be able to sleep in this house again?
l guess Mama was right – a Chicken shall not lie down with a Hound Dog. I’d better check the door lock again…
I’m making some progress in solving the vulgar cryptograms of Heathcliff. If the top word is “fuck,” the middle one can feasibly be “cock.” If, however, star-swirl-octothorpe-saturn means “shit,” then the middle word is…”ipst”? Which is maybe horribly offensive in bird culture? Let’s ask Shoe.
Next week in Pluggers: “A Plugger gets eight hours of sleep a night. Then another four for good measure.”
As a librarian, I have to say that the depiction of librarians shushing even the smallest noise is woefully out of date; libraries haven’t operated that way in decades! The depiction of a patron reading the newspaper with a look that hovers between fury and disgust, however? That’s spot on
Andy Capp: Andy Capp’s village is known to be based on a real seaside town called Hartlepool in northeast England, and there really was once a comic-book store there (although it seems to have closed about 10 years ago). I’m guessing the fictional proprietor “Stan” saw the writing on the wall when everyone started buying their superhero collectibles from Amazon, and converted his own shop into yet another local pub. He still calls it “Stan’s Superhero Emporium” in a vain effort to convince all the local nagging spouses that their partners are doing something slightly less improper than getting falling-down drunk every night (although browsing through the latest Funko Pop figurines wouldn’t be that much better). Perhaps unsurprisingly, his monthly “Star Wars Cantina” theme nights still draw large crowds among a certain type of customer. (Andy showed up once by mistake, and was so weirded out that he quit drinking for an entire day.)
MW: June shuffled into the kitchen, still clad in her chenille robe and scuff slippers. She reached for the coffee carafe, then, realizing what was left of that morning’s brew was cold, put it back with a disappointed sigh.
“You’re up late today, June,” Karen observed from her desk, where she was drafting the next storyline. “Bad night’s sleep?”
“You could say that. I couldn’t remember if I drew Jeff’s boat with the right number of portholes. Those people are always noticing discrepancies.” She poured mixed a Bloody Mary. “You know, how come they don’t comment on the really fine perspective? Or the delicate colors of the clouds?”
“How many portholes did you put in?” Karen asked.
“Five, I think. Of course, I reused artwork from the last time they went on a sunset cruise, so if I’m wrong, at least I’m consistent.”
“I didn’t notice the portholes. But I did notice that they are cruising away from the shoreline in California, which suggests to me that they’re headed west, only your ‘sunset’ is behind them so they really are enjoying a sunRISE cruise.” Karen looked intently at her screen. “We said ‘sunset’ cruise. Someone is bound to notice.”
“Well, shit.” June took a hard swallow. “I’ll tell you what. We could have them go someplace besides the Bum Boat. Maybe a breakfast diner.”
“Wait–do you mean like, they spent the NIGHT together??”
“Well, after all, Karen,” June pointed out, “Mary and Jeff are ADULTS, right? How long have they been together now? I mean, our readers are pretty sophisticated. They won’t be surprised.”
“But I’m sure they WILL be offended!” Karen cried out. “Mary and Jeff aren’t MARRIED!”
June sighed. “Karen, I’d like to introduce you to the 21st century. Seriously, it could really give our work a new direction, don’t you think?”
Karen frowned. “Well, we’ve shown Ian and Toby in bed together….”
June shook her head. “No, not like THAT. I’m talking about elder passion.”
“WHAT?? You want me to portray an elderly, unmarried couple in a PHYSICAL relationship?”
“Well, it does happen, Karen.”
“I don’t know, June. I’m…I’m not ready for that kind of commitment.”
“Don’t get all stressed out. It was just an idea.” June finished her drink.
“So now what?” Karen heaved a shaky sigh.
“Oh, they’ll go to the Bum Boat, and Mary will have salmon and Jeff will have his favorite surf and turf and they’ll talk about Olive for a couple of weeks and then they’ll go out on the dock as the full moon is rising and Mary will be grateful for their relationship because Jeff is remarkable and Jeff will say that Mary is REALLY the remarkable one and then we can move on to the next story. Actually, all the artwork is ready from their last date, and all we have to do is ink in the new dialog. Easy peasy.”
“What about the sunrise? Do you think anyone will know?”
“Well, Mary and Jeff will know, but as long as they’re discrete, nobody else has to find out. The Bum Boat has a breakfast menu, too.”
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith Spanish to English.
Zits Spanish to English.
JP: Kramer vs Kramer redux! Will Neddy attempt French toast?
MW- She’s still wearing that purple frock? Either that’s all she owns, or Jeff really likes the stank..
JP: Pizza! Pizza! That and a blueberry muffin will satisfy most kids for a week.
PHANTOM: So that’s why some guards were jailed rather than released… they were hardcore true believers.
Did Scratchy spot the SCROTEY in today’s Slylick Fox And Kinky Komix For Kids?
MW: Mary Worth saying “Let me tell you all about [it] [her] [him] [them]” is my cue to (a) dive for the nearest exit; (b) fortify myself with a stiff drink or three; (c) down a bottle of No-Doz and prop my eyelids open with toothpicks.
@Caro: JP: Kramer vs Kramer redux! Will Neddy attempt French toast?
_______________________________
69 Weirdchick Lame redux! Will Amos and Chedder attempt to French the toast?
AC: A quick websearch suggests the comic shop in Hartlepool is actually called Atomic Comics. I assume that in the endless shared universe of newspaper comics, they had to change the name due to legal challenges from those dweebs in Westview.
DT: For a Dick Tracy writer, the second most annoying thing about how many villains plummet to their deaths must be when you want to do a “whole Rogues Gallery in prison” scene and you’re stuck with losers like Double-Up.
The most annoying thing must be when you want to do an actual story about a recurring villain and you’re stuck with losers like Silver Nitrate.
FG: I feel like this is the second time recently that the narration has described Flash as “just a man” (with a man’s courage…) And I’m fine with that.
MW: “I mean, you’ve already told me enough about her that I avoided visiting you until I was quite sure she was gone because she sounds completely insufferable, but just confirm that was the right decision!”
RMMD: Yesterday, it was correctly pointed out that leaving class because a phone call from his agent is more important makes Augie a terrible teacher. However, in the interest of fairness, I have to point out that if his reaction to getting good news from his agent isn’t to poke his head back into the classroom just long enough to say “Peace out, losers, I’ve got a real job now!” he’s still a better teacher than Batton Thomas!
Dustin-And tell your daughter to clean up the cobwebs if she’s going to wear that Sexy Freddy Kreuger outfit again.
JP: I’m assuming license plates are required by law in California. I’m also assuming Neddy either doesn’t know that, or doesn’t care. Oh, and product placement is obviously a thing now in the newspaper funnies.
Andy Capp – Nerd culture has become its own form of religion (sometimes literally), with language such as “canon” borrowed from religious discourse.
Every religion need a Trickster character that calls out its bullshit, and Andy Capp is serving out his role for comics. He’s too drunk to care about the criticism of nerds, and the comic gods themselves know he’d be useless in church outside of occasionally making a poor vicar’s life horrible and embarrassing his wife in the process for a gag.
Dustin – This is the closest to sexy talk the DustinParents get. Their children were born of spite, and it’s generational trauma all the way down.
Hi and Lois – The short-tempered librarian and grouchy old man reading his newspaper suggests that the library is less a community gathering space, and more of a holding pen of people exiled from their homes temporarily.
While not as detested as the homeless who use the library during the day, they are considered burdens for not having the money for a larger home, or for not spending money at one of the local businesses.
Heathcliff – House cats that are allowed to roam kill billions of birds a year, so these foul-mouth fowl have legitimate grievances to air at the Nutmeg family for letting Heathcliff out on another reign of terror.
@ 91 Rover Berkeley:
Neddy is no longer living in California. There are twenty-one states that do not require a front license plate.
@Charterstoned: @Horace Broon: AC: A quick websearch suggests the comic shop in Hartlepool is actually called Atomic Comics.
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Chester Hugglebottom and Batton Thomas are British?!? This changes….
nothing!!!!
@Horace Broon: re: DT: Double-Up has been shoved in with BB Eyes (the WWII rubber tire bootlegger) and Mumbles (the early 50s throw-acid-in-girl’s-face extortionist) for years now, for no fathomable reason. I can’t stand the guy, either.
Both BB Eyes and Mumbles died horribly during their first appearances, so there’s no reason Costello couldn’t also bring back Dead Pruneface, Shakey, Shoulders, Pear Shape, Influence, Measles, Sketch Paree (HE was a good one), or any of ‘em. Put Double-Up and Silver Nitrate on the shelf. A shelf in Timbuktu.
@Caro: @Caro: JP: Kramer vs Kramer redux! Will Neddy attempt French toast?
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69 Weirdchick Lame redux! Will Amos and Chedder attempt to French the toast?
Repeated in a lame attempt to get the 96 spot.
@Ukulele Ike: @Horace Broon: re: DT: Double-Up has been shoved in with BB Eyes (the WWII rubber tire bootlegger) and Mumbles (the early 50s throw-acid-in-girl’s-face extortionist) for years now, for no fathomable reason. I can’t stand the guy, either.
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Diet Smith brought them back to life for the racist cartoon show with Go Go Gomez,Joe Jitsu, and Ebony African-American.
@Hergen: Andy Capp: Over here some establishments do use the term “shoppe” which generally means their products are expensive, e.g. Antique Shoppe.
MW: Save those open-ended questions for the restaurant, doc. Then while she’s blathering on you can get up and go get a sloppy blowjob from the waiter.
Sex Organ V.D.: “I like the sound of that, Agent Abie!” (Repeat for the viewers) “…EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX ORGAN, V.D.* *BUT WERE EMBARRASSED TO ASK” by Augie Doggie will be available online Monday, and at “The Booksmith” on Tuesday.
Dustin: “Do you see where I’m going wih this?” Judging by your bitchy attitude, I’d say you’re going through “the change.”
@Charterstoned: they’ll talk about Olive for a couple of weeks
AAAA!!!! It’s like watching Psycho for the first time, where you think the story is about Janet Leigh and the stolen money, and then suddenly it’s not.
DT: So it’s just a dream.
Luann: Speaking of dreams, I still say this is going to end up as one, like Bernice’s mermaid dream.
FG: I’m seconding the Mudge who said that’s not the real Ming but some Kiran magic trick by Queen Hotsy-Totsy and her flunkie General Tahl. That’s probably why Prince Vultan swooped down and got his daughter out of the arena so quickly. He most likely had some advance knowledge that all hell was going to break loose.
@TheDiva: Well, according to the sign, the Star Wars and Star Trek stuff are “new” additions added just that week.
Of course Doctor Who stuff would already be there since the beginning.
ANDY CAPP: What does “nerd” even mean now? I used to hear it occasionally in regard to many things (chemistry nerd, birding nerd, Jane Austen nerd, etc.) Now it seems to apply mostly or entirely to current…sorry, don’t know the right term, “pop culture” would be wrong even if it didn’t put me at risk of having objects flung at me. But I don’t know and am curious.
@CanuckDownSouth: Neddy is such an idiot. I seem to remember maybe kind of liking her back in her poor-wandering-orphan days, but it’s very hard to remember.
MW: “Tell me about her”???!!! I could almost kill you, Doctor Jeff, even if you weren’t my pick in the Dead Pool. Too bad it’s not actually possible for angry readers to kill you, or this would certainly be my happy Dead Pool day.
@Sequitur: Canonically, Cavelton is in PA. I don’t know if Ces knows that, though.
MW: Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Mary….
@108 richardf8:
I’m not so sure that’s canon. I’ve never seen evidence of that. If you’ve got proof show it. I think it’s something people have said for so long everyone thinks it’s true.
@Sequitur: I stand corrected.
JP — Rich-girl Neddy drives a Honda? I’d think an Acura or a Lexus would be the bare minimum…
9cl — The Wednesday division of the anti-Tuesday league? Can’t we call upon the militant wing of the Salvation Army to take this guy out?
@Arabella: If he does walk out the front door, I imagine that his head-soundtrack will be “The StreetBeater” (aka the theme from Sanford and Son).
So…is seeing someone go into a store right in front of you and then banging on the window instead of using the door a normal thing to do when it’s not full of nerds? Does this mean grocery stores and hardware stores and pubs are all full of nerds now? Because I’ve never seen anyone do this. It seems kind of like something most proprietors wouldn’t like, honestly.
Hi and Lois: Mrs. Halftrack with the crossover nobody asked for.
@Ken: Or the moaning of the perverts using the library’s wi-fi to download that special porn they dont want showing up in their computer caches at home.
(Sadly, a lot of big city libraries are now plagued with unwanted visitors requiring security staffs)
AC: It’s Hartlepool. Shouldn’t Andy say “It startles the wallies”?
Dustin: The Kudlick house is haunted by evil as well, and they can both take credit for that one.
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: Sssshhhhh. We don’t talk about Thorax. No no no.
@Sequitur: I don’t think I have ever seen it in-strip. I remember Ces saying it on Facebook.
C-Shaft: Batiuk—prepare for a shock—is neither a teacher nor a school bus driver in real life, and in fact probably has little contact with teenagers, so it’s clinically interesting to see what gets through to him about high school life, and when.
DT: Silver Nitrate had a terrible nightmare where he was an imprisoned criminal in Dick Tracy instead of a yuppie agent in Doonesbury where he clearly belongs. What’s that you say?
GT: Gil is honored to have faced Coach Liam before he has to go back out on the road with Oasis.
JP: Do the words “Thank goodness for Chef Boyardee” mean anything to you?
Luann: Luann, on the other hand, wants to inhale the glitter, which is a suitably Darwin Award desire for her.
MT: I appreciate that if you see Olive in profile you’ll think you’re looking at either an 80s metal chick or Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta.
Marvin: Yes, I recognize the Li’l Abner reference. No, I can’t think of anything funny to say about it. Apparently that makes two of us.
MW: “Tell me about her. I’m a little drowsy but I could use another push to my afternoon nap. I taught you how to steer this thing, right?”
6C: Look, if you don’t want to get robbed blind while you scream into the void, don’t try to do so at a white cube art gallery.
@Hergen: Yeah, right up there with Cherokee, Inuit and countless other endangered languages and cultures.
@Hergen: A Brit complaining about cultural and language irrelevance. Karma.
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol:
Guess it’s worth a try.
Dustin is the result of the thought experiment: What if Flannery O’Connor wrote a comic strip?
Late Thread Cuisine: Were food stylist always so innocent?
@Baja Gaijin:
Innocent by reason of insanity.