That bird is pure evil and I love it
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Mary Worth, 12/11/25
Sorry to be a killjoy, but I’m deeply concerned that Ian appears to own the exact same robe that Wilbur does. Yes, they’re different colors, but we all know the coloring in the daily strips is done by the syndicate and isn’t canon. At first I thought that this was simply clip art of Ian’s head put onto an existing drawing of Wilbur’s body, but I’m reasonably sure we never had the opportunity to look at a berobèd Wilbur from this angle, given that the pet he had a weird emotional relationship with floated around at eye level most of the time. Anyway, this just raises a lot of questions, like is there a standard-issue Charterstone robe that all male inhabitants are assigned upon arrival? Troubling. Still, I don’t mean to take away from the main event, which is that Toby is shrieking “Don’t be ridiculous! Birds can’t read!” and somehow she’s the voice of reason in this conversation. That part’s good.
Wizard of Id, 12/11/25
Is this really the sort of thing that works for politicians? I think of their classic move as being more along the lines of “I tell people something good will happen. Then, when it doesn’t, I say it did, actually, and moreover I’m responsible for it.” I guess I don’t live in a pseudo-medieval kingdom ruled by a hereditary monarch working in tandem with a chaotic wizard, though, so maybe I’m operating out of context here.
126 replies to “That bird is pure evil and I love it”
Mary Worth:
“That bird’s days are numbered!”
” ‘A Midsummer Night’s Scream‘ ! Awk, awk!”
Wizard of Id-“What are some of your tricks?” You never ask a lady who her customers are.
FC-“Yes. Some things do look better when they are all dressed up. Clothing can hide unsightly scars,” Bill says.
Wow, how does Wizard of Id keep up with the news like that?
MW-Karen Moy’s “The Parrot”
MW: “The bird is laughing at me, and the toaster whispers mean things!”
But Toby, Sunny can smell Ian’s haggis-stained fingerprints all over it.
Mary Worth:
“Don’t be ridiculous! Birds can’t read!”
“I understand a fury in your words, but not your words. Awk, awk!”
“See, Ian? — they don’t understand spoken language, like that quote from ‘Othello,’ either — Sunny just admitted it!”
Wizard of Id:
“I tell people something bad will happen. Then, when it does, I say, ‘Told ya so.’ ”
“Wow. You should be a meteorologist.”
WoI: Yes, if there’s one thing society loves more than a pessimist, it’s a pessimist who takes your money and smugly says “I told ya so!”
MW: This is what happens when you let your parrot become obsessed with Ross, the Evil Friend.
Maybe Sunny really does know what he’s doing. He’s striking a real “Sir Richard Wellbottom” pose there to mock Ian.
On the one hand Sunny being smart enough to deliberately fuck with Ian seems a bit too fantastical for a soap opera strip, but on the other we did just finish a story with a balloon rescue via long-distance dog telepathy.
Phantom Tomorrow we get to see just how dumb Patrolwoman On Her Own is in dealing with lowlifes…
MW Not siding with Ian, but against Toby’s dumb defense – you don’t need to be able to read to tell a written item belongs to somebody.
GT I’m pretty sure it can be too late to get helped by the flu shot if you were already exposed, although it might make an interesting race in your immune system between the immunization info and the viral attack!
WoI: I think this is the first time I’ve directly addressed something Josh said, let alone disagreed with him, but I sadly get it. It’s the politicians who are out of power and desperate to get back in (and maintain their relevance while not in power) who say something bad will happen and then when it does says ‘Told ya so, if *I* had been in charge it wouldn’t have happened!’ Or, if they actually are in power, they say ‘told ya so, but don’t blame me, it’s all the last guy’s fault!’
Luann: Speaking of bad things happening, these four are on a collision course with wackiness!
RMMD: JUST TELL US THE G-#!@$#%& NUMBER ALREADY!!!!
S4th: On Saturday we get the twist that while Ted finally got the book written, it never sold because in the far future AI slop has taken over media so completely that no one reads anything, in any medium, electronic or otherwise, anymore, and have taken to communicating in mime.
Ian: “J’accuse!”
Toby: “Who is this Jack Use?”
Sunny: “How should I know? I’m illiterate! Ha ha ha!”
@Rosstifer: With all that we’ve been subjected to regarding Wilbur and his seemingly Homer Simpson-esque imperviousness to maturation, logic and basic hygiene, Brigmoy left ‘too fantastical’ behind some time ago, well before Olive came to visit.
MW: Cap’n Ahab aka Ian will go mad in his crazed effort to kill the bird that took his leg, umm, playbill. He will destroy Charterstone in the effort.
WIZ: I don’t get paid for it, but I basically do the same thing. And, if my initial “prediction” was met with scorn, welcome to Petty Brat City.
MW: It’s painfully obvious why The Powers That Be haven’t blessed these two with offspring. Good call, Powers That Be!
DtM: The Mitchells’ choice of sitters has dwindled down to people they can blackmail. Wonder what this one’s hiding?
SF: Ted currently sees himself as some undiscovered manchild treasure. Doesn’t age so well, does it, you cretin?
Wrecks Moregone:
Auuuuughie needs to kill off Autumn on Page One of the sequel.
@The Quiet Man: RMMD: JUST TELL US THE G-#!@$#%& NUMBER ALREADY!!!!
Ah, but you see, soap-style cartoonists work from a storyboard that lays out the plot and timeline far in advance. And the RMMD storyboard clearly says “Augie tells Summer what he’s earning: 2 weeks”, right there after “Summer tells Augie it’s OK to publish: 3 weeks”.
It’s kind of sweet that Ian is blaming a malevolent, superintelligent bird rather than his idiot wife who left the cage door open.
Crankshaft : The Pizza Box Monster is apparently not a golem, but some kind of monster spawned of Voodoo magic. Who knew?
*************
Luann : Why is Dez so insistent that her roommates have to give up on Dash NOW when he hasn’t even been adopted yet?
Also, why CAN’T Tiffany take Dash to live at her manse over winter break if no one adopts him in the meantime? She’s fostering him too!
I mean, I get that Dez thinks she’s the boss of this because this was HER decision she took over her roommates initial vocal opposition, but…
…On one hand, I wish I could voice why this is making me upset better. On the other hand, WHY AM I GETTING SO WORKED UP OVER FRIGGIN’ *LUANN**************
Mary Worth : Sunny is laughing at Toby because by HER logic, she and Ian are birds while Sunny is people.
*************
Wizard of Id : It’s the dung ages. The “something bad” is usually stuff like “dying of the plague” and “getting killed by
Hagara rampaging raider”. Which makes this cartomancer actually a necromancer if she can actually thell her clients she told them so.“Hey, it works for politicians” is the new “Christ, what an asshole”; usable for any cartoon!
@Rosstifer:
Even an amoeba would want to eff with Ian. He just has that effect on everything and everyone.
WoI: Okay, that fortune-teller is just one of the cavemen from “BC” in drag, isn’t it?
Hey, Toby, just wait till Ian “accidentally” leaves the door open to your workroom and Sunny gets to work on your SPLAK! horsies.
MW – How does Toby know Sunny is a male? Was it when Sunny started humping Ian’s leg?
MW – Some might point out that Ian’s accusation doesn’t really imply the bird can read at all, as there’s a number of simpler ways a parrot could notice an association between the Playbill and Ian. However, that actually makes Toby’s accusation itself logically consistent, as she herself can’t read and assumes that Ian’s daily wistful stroking of the cover is what constitutes the act.
Pluggers: Are the plugger’s eyes wide with terror at Orwell’s nightmare vision of a totalitarian society, or is the typeface in this super-extra large-print edition so big that the words have trouble getting through his pupils?
@Professor Well Actually: So, a happy ending for all?
@Anonymous: On Luann: Could it be because this little ‘argument’ is either going to settled with these four jointly adopting this dog in the face of all logic and realism regarding animal fostering/adoption, or that next week we’ll go back to Gunth-Les in their backyard shack bitching about ‘dames’ and why they can’t get any, or Shannon blowing up Bwadoni’s house in just the most adorable way, or Luann rotting in her pigsty room and we’ll never have this mentioned ever again?
@Ken: BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Are we missing the most surprisingly funny? competent? part of Mary Worth: that they’ve set up why the bird squawks “HA HA HA” in a sickening, nasal, voice?
Wizard of Id: Another one of my tricks is a Potion of Youth, but as you can see, its effects are extremely short-lived.
Baldo: “By the way, shouldn’t the prop master be backstage right now?”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Were . . . were you going to add anything there, Toby?”
“Nope. Just trying to give you some long-overdue advice, dear.”
It has to be disheartening for a fake psychic to have to admit she’s all BS to a real wizard who everyone has seen doing actual magic.
***
Ian’s descent into madness is the best story in years. No notes, 10/10. Can’t wait to see his unshaven upper lip as he stumbles his way to Mary’s for some grey muffins and bad advice.
The Wizard of Id: Where is this strip taking place? I think it’s supposed to be inside a fortuneteller’s tent, but the interior looks vast, and the Wiz is much shorter than the crystal gazer in the first panel, so maybe he’s climbing stairs?
Anyhow, I wouldn’t take advice on conning people from this lady. Wiz. She’s a fake medium operating in a well-lit room with no tablecloth or other visible props. She’s either no good at this work or she’s way out of your league.
Luann: I really, really don’t like Dez. At all. Not even a little bit.
Well, it certainly aligned with what Paul Samuelson said “the stock market has predicted nine out of the last five recessions”. In general there is a negative bias. Alway predict doom. If good things happens, people will forget among prosperity, if bad things happen, you will be hailed as a prophet
Of course birds can’t read! But Othello is a play, they just need to listen and watch it! Think, Toby, think!”
Professor Ian: “Did I say it could read? Clearly it smelled my [choose a bodily fluid] on it!”
@Tabby Lavalamp: Oh yes indeed. As someone said a few days ago, all we need is for the bird to sing “Michigan Rag” but only when it’s alone with Ian. “My name is Talky Tina, and I don’t like you” would also be acceptable.
MW – J’accuse!
WoI – Ah….so the key to political success is a steady stream of grim reality. And don’t forget, you’ve got to deliver. Maybe that’s how it works in Id. Not here in the land of Ego….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
I love this dynamic. The Wizard is a real Wizard! He can bind the forces of the universe to his will, mould reality and enchant poor souls. The clairevoyant is just a charlatan that tricks people by pretending to have power. So the Wizard wants to ask “So you are telling me there is a way to get wealth and power just by pretending to be magical?! You mean I didn’t have to sell my soul?!”
MW: Sunny learns fast, having graduated from false sitcom laughter to full-on maniacal cackle. He’ll be gaslighting Ian with ventriloquism before the year is out.
@Professor Well Actually:
I look forward to Tweety-Sylvester cartoon hijinks between them.
“I taught I taw a stuffy twat! I deed! I deed!”
What we have here is a theological debate. Toby is clearly a “spiritual but not religious” person, so she believes that a bad action without bad intention is not sinful. But Ian is a Scot and a proud Presbyterian, so he doesn’t believe in this Popery! Wicked souls are born wicked and they will perform wicked deeds, so there is no salvation for this parrot!
“So, what are some of your tricks?”
“Well, I predict the future and…”
“Sorry, what I really meant to ask is ‘are you a prostitute?'”
“What are some of your tricks?”
“Oh, the usual fake psychic shit. The cold read, ambiguity, shotgunning, rainbow ruse. What about you?”
“I signed a deal with the devil. Actual Satan. Real power and it only cost me my soul and eternal damnation!”
“And yet I make more money than you. Told ya so!”
Come on Toby, if anyone knows that Ian doesn’t care who in his life can or cannot read, it’s you.
Wizard: The King maintains his power through a series of false flag attacks, is what I’m hearing. Whatever the Id equivalent of the Reichstag is better watch out.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX:
Who do you think has been comforting Toby all these nights while Ian was away at the teacher’s conference?
@Ukranazi Stepan: Mary Worth, I assume. The parrot just watches and comments.
Luann: As this “Dez fosters a dog and all the dorm characters fall in love with it” story continues, I kind of want a strip where Dash, who looks like an actual dog, meets Puddles, who looks like a football with a dog face stuck on it, and they just stare at each other thinking “What the fuck is that?!”
Dustin: “Tillie went home when the rest of us headed for the speakeasy. I never realized what a punctilious.”
— Dorothy Parker (attributed, like everything funny said between 1920-67. Probably Bea Kaufman, anyway)
Oh my worth, it isn’t going to be Toby or Sunny, it’s Ian the hag will meddle into submission this story, isn’t it.
MW- Excuse me Ian but really- you’re mad at the bird and NOT at the dimwit that’s your wife for leaving the cage open? Who lets a bird have access to an entire house while you’re asleep? There was absolutely no reason to leave the cage door open other than the strip writer’s contrivance to create the very incident we’re now having to suffer through.
@Voshkod: aaaaaah my brain!
C’shaft: “That was worse than the other Santa’s puns, and I can’t begin to tell you how low that particular bar is.
DT: “Come ooooon, break out your vigilante secret identity! I’m bored with this investigating and forensics crap!”
Dustin: Meg is exactly the sort of person who could hear about the near-extinction of a once thriving species, an event precipitated by racism and genocidal government policies against the communities that depended on the animal, and only react with “ACKSHUALLY, that’s not their proper name.”
GT: Poor gal forced her Rosie the Riveter pose into the panel frame to show off her flu shot, only to realize the guy at CVS just stuck a band-aid on her sleeve without bothering about the injection.
JP: I’m not sure which I believe less: Neddy going from hot mess who can barely keep her own life together let alone look after anyone else to Surrogate Mom of the Year, or Augie in Rex Morgan being offered literally untold amounts of wealth for White Woman In Peril Book #539,310.
Luann: Look, I don’t know anything about fostering beyond watching a few cute kitten videos on YouTube, but even I know you don’t get an animal “until whenever.” Most foster animals have specific short-term needs (puppies/kittens too small for adoption, animals recovering from injury or surgery, etc.), and the time of fostering is agreed on beforehand with the shelter based on the needs of the animal and the abilities of the caregiver (though it’s clear “abilities of the caregiver” never entered the discussion in this particular case).
MT: I think Jules was expecting the breakdown of NOAA to happen a lot faster.
Phantom: So let’s see, we’ve got the girl cop who’s too big for her britches and gets in way over her head, we’ve got the criminal who only insists on having “rights” because he’s looking for leeway to commit any more crimes…any other outdated 80s action tropes you want to throw in here, O Ghost?
Pluggers think “thank God we don’t live in Orwell’s world of dystopian propaganda!” before watching their daily eight hours of Fox News.
RMMD: Look at Augie’s face. He knows he doesn’t have a sequel in him. His only hope is to get this bidding war high enough to make a tidy little retirement fund off of his one-hit wonder.
Wizard of Id: This reminds me of a strip from this very comic, from decades ago (I read it in a paperback collection in the ’70s):
Character (the King? Possibly, can’t be bothered to look it up): What’s the difference between a magician and a wizard?
Wiz: A magician uses misdirection and sleight of hand to hoodwink the audience, while a wizard is a master of the secrets of the universe.
Character: Do you really believe that?
Wiz: No, but it beats doing two shows a night.
MW: Just want to put in a plug for Brigman–Ian’s crazy eyes in panel 2 are fantastic.
Rex Morgan, MILF Diver:
“Maybe you should start writing a second one right now.”
“Naw, I have to go home and grade papers.”
Don Abundio, translated:
[Sign: SOCIETY FOR THE WORKERS’ REVOLUTION]
“Ladies, now everyone please tell me how much money you’ve raised for the cause”
“I made $350 selling my embroideries”
“I got $400 for my cakes”
“And Lady Veronica?”
“She’s soliciting donations from venture capitalists”
RMMD: Of course there’s an option for a sequel. That vanity press house can use another ten grand of Augie’s money.
WoI: Why is an actual wizard asking advice from a garden variety fortuneteller? On the demonic arts scale a wizard way outranks a psychic.
@Tom: #58: I told you Brigman wasn’t going to let those Belle Batsfrey crazy eyes go to waste. They’re part of her permanent clip art collection.
MW – Damn, it’s bad enough that you lose your autographed Playbill, but then you get taunted by a parrot doing a Nelson Muntz impression.
@Ukranazi Stepan: “A little lower awk! and clockwise squawk oh yeah that’s it chirp
Mary Worth: I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I’m with Ian on this. I mean, considering Sunny is laughing evily at his rage and grief, I don’t think the parrot is actually all that innocent and unaware of it’s actions.
@Guillermo el chiclero:
On Rex Morgan M.D. : But what IS Augie going to do for a sequel? Write a wholly original adventure for Autumn Rook?… Hey, whatever happened to Clay, alias the Street Sweeper? Could he be made to relapse? “Autumn Rook meets the Alley Cleaner”!
On Wizard of Id : the Wizard actually meant “tricks” in the same way as another street corner profession does. He was actually trying to hit on her, but she didn’t catch on, and then the whole conversation ended on a downer.
Mary Worth: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but replace all the actors with muppets except one, and that one is replaced with a parrot? High-concept, but I like it.
@Peanut Gallery: @Peanut Gallery:
Apártate, Abundio. Esta tira cómica ahora pertenece a Lady Veronica.
Charterstone is an asylum. I’ve been saying it for years. Carlos Alora is the main doctor on duty, and Mary is the matron. The robes are standard issue.
@TheDiva: re:Luann, fostering Not to be all “aksually!” (well, actually, yes to be totally that:) but some rescues will be for a defined period and others until the foster is adopted. We volunteer for a senior dog rescue that is foster-based with no kennel facility. Every animal they take in is because they have a foster lined up either as a hospice foster till the end (we don’t do that) or till the foster is adopted. We had one for over 6 months waiting for interested adopters. I read a human interest news article about a rescue in another state that had a dog who had been in fostering for I think over 2 years.
@Anonymous: re:RMMD My money is on Augie setting up Summer in increasingly dangerous situations until he gets inspired again. She’d better watch her back.
@Charterstoned: And her muffins contain the inmates’ doses of thorazine.
MW – Anyone here ever read Gustave Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart”? It’s (in part) a cautionary tale about what happens with a woman who becomes too enamored with her pet parrot. It is a very French piece of French lit. That’s not a compliment. But in that story, the bird never attacks a self-important blowhard. It just becomes Jesus. Sort of…
@Violet: In many of my translations I’ve indulged in the fantasy that Lady Veronica is a badass, but this is the first time the strip has unambiguously validated my view.
(She’s previously been seen with machine guns and an armored car, but only to protect her expensive jewels.)
NB: Pooch Cafe and Dick Tracy crossover today.
That’s good teaching material for my students! “Remember, if the Poe’s stand-in in the “Raven” directs his existential rage against a bird, that’s pathos! But if Ian in “Mary Worth” directs his existential rage against a bird, that’s bathos!”
@CanuckDownSouth: I stand corrected, then–though the entire fostering situation in Luann still feels less like a carefully planned arrangement with a shelter and more like something being made up as it goes along (whether by the characters or creators, I leave for you to determine).
@Violet: Come to think of it, maybe that’s what happened to Barney Google. He lost the starring role in his comic to strip to Snuffy Smith in one of Snuffy’s crooked poker games.
Dustin: “Okay, well, has anyone ever told you you’re a bitch?”
Gil Thorp: “Paging Dr. Grammarpants! Pronoun conflict in panel 2, condition critical, stat!”
@TheDiva: #56-Harper Lee had a one hit wonder with “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If ever there was a time for a crossover strip, this might be it. Ian could commission Auggie to write “To Kill A Talkingbird”.
@Guillermo el chiclero: #61- You know, now that you mention it, I remember an old episode of ” The Waltons” where John-Boy sends some stories to a publisher. They agree to publish it, and he thinks it’s his big break. But when the books arrive, enclosed is also a hefty publisher’s bill. Turns out, they will publish anything, whether it’s any good or not. Careful here Auggie Boy!
Mary Worth: Rather than worry about whether or not Sunny can read well enough to destroy a particular piece of written matter, I’d be more concerned that he’s somehow caused the condo’s windows to turn purple. That’s usually the sign that the UV-protective coating is breaking down — and while birds need some UV light for their health, it can cause a human’s skin (Ian!) to age and wrinkle even more rapidly, making him less physically attractive to his younger spouse. Score one more for Sunny, the mysterious bad boy of magical parrots!
@Guillermo el chiclero: Does that mean we can look forward one day to Sunny, gripped in Ian’s huge, bear-like hands, aiming head first into his gaping bearded maw?
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX:
‘But this *is* your home!’
‘In that case, get out and let me get some sleep!’
@Charterstoned: If that’s the case, Mary went native long ago and the inmates are running the asylum because the head doctor got deported.
@Anonymous: Yeah, that was the episode that inspired me to become a big-city book publisher. (Lights cigar with a fifty-dollar bill)
— Ukulele Ike, scamming uppity onion-headed farm boys since 1929
@The Quiet Man: re: MW: “He’ll geek.” — Nightmare Alley, yet again
Dustin: Meg doesn’t even comment on Dustin’s use of “less” rather than “fewer?” What kind of pedant is she?!?
MW: Toby fails to take into account that Sonny can smell the haggis and wool on the playbill.
FC: “That’s what you say about Mommy.”
Gasoline Alley reminds me of an incident. Before we met, back when every gas wasn’t unleaded, and self-serve wasn’t such a thing, my wife and her then-bf were on a trip somewhere rural between Philadelphia and Nashville.
Post fill-up at a service station, one awful-running engine later:
“Why did your pump jockey put leaded gas in my car?”
“He can’t read!”
HtH: She’s Typhoid Mary, but with benefits. Lucky Eddie is a perfect match.
Blondie: Herb really didn’t need to know that his best (if not only) friend’s marriage is that happy compared to his. (The back seat riders? Eh, do they even have names, let alone lives?)
FC: I’m now taking bets on which of the little mistakes will drop the lugnuts down a storm drain because BDK wanted “help” changing a flat tire.
GA: This is a late observation, but Corky already had their meal on the house before they blew the power in the diner. So, meal on the house on the house?
I think Wilbur gifted everyone the same robe one year and they just sit in everyone’s closet until eventually calling out to them like the Green Goblin mask in Spider-Man whenever they’re at their most Wilbur-like moment in life.
@Ukulele Ike: In fit of chinbeardedness, Ian will bite off Sunny’s head!
@Little Guy: Logically, Toodle and Goon (like “Boone” but with a “g”) will now have to pay the hillbillies for the free meal they gave them.
@Peanut Gallery:
Talk about high stakes!
The Familliar Mucus: “MOMMY! DADDY’S BUYING A NAKED CHRISTMAS TREE!”
@Chance:
Do not. Praise. The comic.
MW – The Laugh track Ha Ha Ha that was heard in act I has fired in act II.
Respect.
“Och, ye wee glaikit beaky scunner, ye’re headit fuir a Glasgae kiss or ma name isnae Ian Cameron!”
MW – Brigman to Moy – You made me draw Wilbur in a Speedo. Now I get to do surreal anthropomorphic animals All I Want. That’s The Price!
Hold on. Ian Cameron is canonically the Professor of English Literature & Creative Writing at University of California at Santa Royale. He MUST know what happens when you attribute conscious malice to a non-human animal and develop a vengeance complex.
With any luck the budgerigar will, I dunno, peck out Ian’s eye, which he will replace with a seed ball, and spend the rest of the strip’s run chasing around the globe before the inevitable
“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering budgie; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee!”
I guess I don’t live in a pseudo-medieval kingdom ruled by a hereditary monarch working in tandem with a chaotic wizard
True, it’s not (yet) hereditary.
@Voshkod:
Brilliant!
Mutt & Jeff – Better count your silverware, lady.
MW: For me, this strip is a vicarious follow through this site. Has it been suggested that the smuggler responsible for the bird trafficking looks like Ian Cameron and that this will be the clue leading to his capture?
Y’know the thing about Ian, he’s got…lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’, until…uh, I don’t know how to end this.
MW: With that hammy pose, I’m starting to think that Sunny tore up that Playbill to get back at an old acting rival. In the intervening years he’s taken on the role of a parrot and gotten really method with it.
I like that the fortune teller’s mouth is open in the third panel. It says she had more to say, but the wizard has decided to talk over her. Maybe their world is more like ours than you’d guess!
Is Sunny saluting Ian? I would say that it was in acknowledgment of a worthy opponent, except, well, Ian.
(The Worthy opponent is yet to enter the arena.)
DT: Hey, remember Ghost Cat? The thing that was mentioned without context or explanation on 17th November, and hasn’t come up since? Well, probably, since you’re on this site, but I bet most people don’t!
HtH: Okay, there’s some detail gone into this woman that doesn’t normally go into “generically pretty lady who Lucky Eddie meets in the tavern”, which makes me wonder if she’s meant to be more than that. She looks kind of Rennaissance, is she supposed to be Lucretia Borgia, maybe? Did Walker-Brown LLC come up with a gag about Lucky Eddie bonding with a woman remembered by popular history as a mass poisoner, and then back out of actually saying that?
JP: “The squirrel has to go and live with her aunt because Mommy and Daddy Squirrel are off playing Secret Squirrel somewhere, and Grandpa Squirrel gets through a bottle of acorn whisky a day!”
Phantom: “I wish I knew where these new Jungle Patrol officers get the idea they can just go waltzing off on secret missions with no backup and without Worubu’s knowledge! Speaking of Worubu, I should probably set up that John X was here, just to mess with him!”
S4th: “Why do you keep saying ‘fanfic story’? Isn’t it just called ‘fanfic’?”
“Not in 2043, Ted, no. They changed it.”
C-Shaft: The boy is confused at the end. He thought that he was setting up a joke, not whatever this is.
Dustin: My hardbound Merriam-Webster dictionary defines punctilious as “marked by or concerned about precise accordance with the details of codes or conventions.” Which doesn’t really apply here.
GT: …or to let everyone know you got a flu shot by putting a Band-Aid on your shirt, apparently.
HtH: Okay, for the sake of the joke I’ll accept that the woman Lucky Eddie is chatting up wears black lipstick and has lived out the lyrics of Rodgers and Hart’s “To Keep My Love Alive.” But the background waitress having as much filler in her face as three Kardashian sisters is just gratuitous.
JP: “Oh, hi Emil. What’s that? Aksel is a deep cover member of the Russian mob and he’s taken Reena hostage? Okay, well, I’m on vacation, so let’s circle back to that around the new year, deal?”
Luann: You think Dash will be adopted by the DeGroots? Because I’m not sure the visual universe will hold together if he and Puddles share panels and are both referred to as “dogs.”
Phantom: She’s not exactly “freelancing”, although the Colonel will have a point if she actually falls for the violent prisoner equivalent of “pull my finger.”
RMMD: Yeah, but read the fine print. The sequel is about Autumn Rook avenging the murder of her schoolteacher boyfriend, and since Augie is congenitally incapable of making anything up, well, let’s just say that all future sequels
@ValdVin: #88: re-FC: Of course, their car will be a 1984 Plymouth Voyager minivan.
MW: Kudos to the writers – this is a terrific story arc, and redeems the whole Olive-who-talks-to-the-dogs arc.
DT: Why bother with evidence, let’s jank up the investigation by involving a vigilante figure, warrant less searches and actions.
RMMD: Ok – so Augie thinks he is making bank but will this turn out to be a pipe dream? (please!)
Re the semiotics of robes, Ian’s bears some resemblance to Leo’s in One Battle After Another
JP: I noticed that, according to the Judge Parker wikipedia page, the strip has a long history of sidelining characters, usually in favor of younger ones. Are we privileged to be watching the latest such shift, as Neddy and Charlotte take over? And if so, what will happen to move Randy and CIApril out of the spotlight? “An alcoholic stupor” is already taken, but “Turkish prison” is available.
@treetown: RE MW: I guess, taken together, the stories tell you that if you communicate with animals, there’s no guarantee that you’ll like what they say.
@Ken:
Can we go with “raped to death by the Dickwolves?”
MW- Meanwhile,back in New York, Olive and Mary have a good laugh over Zoom! “What should I tell Sunny to do next Mary? Peck holes in Ian’s bagpipes?”
@Artist formerly known as Ben: re: HtH: I was so excited by the Mr Natural cameo that I completely missed the waitress in the black choker.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: I imagine Hugh Lofting’s Dr. Dolittle books wouldn’t have been as successful if Jip and Dab-Dab turned out to be assholes.
@Ukulele Ike: Was Lucky Eddie a Medieval Norse ancestor of Shuman the Human? Discuss.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Lucky Eddie has neither the brains nor the wit to match Shuman’s abilities as a poseur. Eddie’s got Flakey Foont written all over him.
Nancy classics – “Chill out, Aunt Fritzi, this is how Henry Cowell got started.”
Of course the bird knew the book was Ian’s. He’s the only one who can read.
@Artist formerly known as Ben:
#109 PHANTOM: I like this kinda competent, kinda prideful young officer who thinks she is an army of one. Kit should be seeing himself in her. After he saves her from her own errors, let’s hope she then saves him from his so that he’ll take her as a mentee.
@Rosstifer: On the one hand Sunny being smart enough to deliberately fuck with Ian
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“Mary Worth” turned into a furry sex farce so quickly, I hadn’t noticed!
i believe the robe color was chosen to accentuate Ian’s Zaius-esque facial features
@Ken:
the RMMD storyboard clearly says “Augie tells Summer what he’s earning: 2 weeks”,
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Are you sure thats not the Editor’s note “Augie tells Summer what he’s earning.: Too weak” ?
@Activist: She could be a fun addition to the supporting cast.