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Slylock Fox, 9/7/22 (panel)

Well, you could find all the S-words. Alternatively, you could assign names beginning with the letter S to all the elements: Siamese, sycamore, stratus, sun, starling, shack: try it!

Slylock‘s original premise seems rooted in the ancient gnostic belief that knowing the “true names” of things and beings confers power over them. You could give that a try, too, and maybe acquire godlike power over the stuff in today’s episode of Slylock Fox and Comics for Kids. For which, congratulations, I guess.

Gil Thorp, 9/7/22

Wow, the plot developments in the new Gil Thorp are coming thick and fast. Here we learn that the Thorps’ impending divorce has less to do with Gil’s roving eye or frequent absences and more with Mimi’s long-suppressed LPGA dreams. Which I could really get into, except Mimi’s Mom is wearing Gil’s face and it’s creeping me out.

Luann, 9/7/22

It’s an iron law in comics that nothing must ever change. Calvin and Dennis must stay five forever; Marvin never leave his diaper; Charlie Brown never grow up. When a cartoonist slips up in the name of “progress” or “development,” all hell breaks loose. Characters in real-time strips like For Better or for Worse or Gasoline Alley age out of their cute zones into boring adults or, eventually, horrifying rattletraps like century-and-change Walt Wallet. The famous time-skip in Funky Winkerbean tried to shift focus to sons and daughters, failed, and went back to its increasingly creaky main cast.

So it is with Luann‘s post-graduation stories. A few characters got cashiered outright: Knute, Crystal, Mr. Fogarty. But with some obvious substitutions—ethnic ciphers Dez and Bets for ethnic ciphers Delta and Rosa—the cast and plots are the same, except for Tiffany here. She literally grew out of her “shallow, pretty cheerleader” role when she gained weight “dealing with depression” in 2017. So, in classic Darwinian fashion, here comes Stef to occupy her niche. The strip is now working hard to throw her a lifeline with a “poor little rich girl” role. Hold onto it, Tiff—hold on for dear life. The shadow of Walt Wallet looms large.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/7/22

Buck! Buck! All is forgiven! Come back Buck, please! Buuuuuuuuuuuuck!

–Uncle Lumpy

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Judge Parker, 9/6/22

Spencer Farms gets relabeled Spencer Ranch, and now the local news runs a picture of former Mayor Sanderson over the name of current Mayor Stewart? What is going on, Amy?

Phantom, 9/6/22

Gotta say, Kit dismissing a hypothetical narrative within a hypothetical narrative is pretty badass! He is clearly ready to be the 22^nd Phantom of nested metafiction!

Crankshaft, 9/6/22

Hey waitaminute! Cindy and Mason are from the Funky Winkerbean timeline, where everything is ten years older and Ed Crankshaft is a wheelchair-bound invalid. So a trip to the Shaftiverse should knock ten years off everybody’s age, right? Maybe Cindy, who is famously sensitive about her age, planned the trip for that very reason. Anyway, why isn’t Cindy an attractive middle-aged woman and Mason a toddler?

And is that Realtor® Lois Flagston from Walker-Browne Amalgamated Humor Industries LLC in that “For Sale” poster? This metaverse stuff is so confusing!

–Uncle Lumpy

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It’s Labor Day in the U S of A and Canada—let’s see how our pals in the comics are kicking back on the unofficial Last Day of Summer!

Mary Worth, 9/5/22

Mary Worth settles in with a good book during Charterstone’s most restrained and patriotic pool party ever.

Marvin, 9/5/22

Marvin congratulates itself for staying on its ghastly message for four decades.

Mutts, 9/5/22

Mutts gives us some vaguely topical wordplay from that damn lisping cat.

Pluggers, 9/5/22

Pluggers miss all the action.

Take It from the Tinkersons, 9/5/22

Ted Tinkerson tries to instill in son Tillman some sense of his own crushing despair.

Happy Labor Day, everybody! Pop open a bratwurst for The Comics Curmudgeon!

–Uncle Lumpy