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Mark Trail, 10/15/10

There are lots of things about this rapidly developing scenario that seem very, very off to me, though since I’ve never gone hunting I can’t be 100 percent sure. Like, do hunters really shoot deer that are this small/young? Do they shoot at deer when there are crazed children running around downrange? Do they shout at each other at high volume when deer are 10-15 feet away? Maybe they do! These are all mysteries to me.

However, I do feel like I’m on firmer ground in questioning the current senator/gubernatorial candidate interpersonal dynamics. Frank, right now you need Senator Whatshisface to convince his fat-cat donors to give to your campaign, and maybe even to contribute a bit from his own WhatshisfacePAC. And even after you’re elected, you’ll still need to make nice with him so you can get the sweet, sweet federal earmarks that lead to campaign photos of you cutting a ribbon on an eight-lane highway through Lost Forest. So maybe you shouldn’t brusquely bellow orders at him? Trying to create a relaxing environment where he can have fun and maybe kill a few things was a good idea, but you can’t force someone to enjoy himself by browbeating him.

Apartment 3-G, 10/15/10

Boy, Lu Ann sure is flailing her hands around a lot at about head level. Presumably her “awesome” hair extensions are making her scalp feel really weird, and she has to constantly hold herself back from just ripping them out in a frenzy.

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Apartment 3-G, 10/14/10

Kudos to Lu Ann and Margo for not even pretending that this makeover thing is going to have any long-term impact on them. They’re back to their boring clothes, and back to their iconic hairstyles, with Lu Ann getting there through the magic of extensions, which I’m pretty sure don’t actually work that way. Was poor Lu Ann just given a cheap wig and told that it was “extensions”? Is she hallucinating in an insane asylum right now, having been driven mad by the absence of her lovely blonde tresses?

Ziggy, 10/14/10

“…underneath the headline ‘If this individual is spotted in your neighborhood, keep your children indoors.'”

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You almost certainly have noticed that King Features has washed its comics in pink today in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month! How has our favorite art form managed to acknowledge this important issue in the context of its usual light-hearted fare? Let’s take a look!

Rhymes With Orange and My Cage, 10/10/10

Rhymes With Orange is, as near as I can tell, the only strip with the guts to do an actual joke about breast cancer. My Cage at least attempts a Breast Cancer Awareness meta-joke.

Marvin and Curtis, 10/10/10

Some strips did a half-hearted job of trying to explain why they were all pinkish without acknowledging the “you or your loved ones might get terrible cancer” subtext. For instance, Marvin’s parents are apparently giving him psychoactive drugs, and Curtis is attempting to up his enjoyment of ladies’ church hats by literally viewing them through rose-colored glasses.

Apartment 3-G, 10/10/10

Mostly, though, the creators just churned the strips through a Breast Cancer Awareness Photoshop filter, shoehorned a pink ribbon in wherever it would fit, and went about their business. This sometimes had awkward results. Here, the ribbon of female solidarity silently shames Lu Ann and Margo, who are engaged in petty intragender squabbling.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/10/10

Breast Cancer Awareness Month had the bad form this year to fall smack in the middle of Rex Morgan’s attempt to raise awareness of prostate cancer. At least the pink ribbon had the good sense to not float right next to June’s word balloon in panel one, stealing its awareness-raising thunder. Still, the noble ribbon is oddly juxtaposed with the mayor’s final-panel threat to decapitate whoever is raising awareness about his own personal tumor-ridden prostate gland.

Blondie, 10/10/10

Blondie deserves kudos for not simply slathering Pepto-Bismol all over everything but rather integrating pink relatively tastefully into the color scheme of the Sunday strip.

Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft, 10/10/10

Shockingly, the Winkerverse strips are mostly pink-free, though Funky Winkerbean did pair up the boilerplate “Cartoonists Care” ribbon with a hand-drawn “Lisa’s Legacy” ribbon, as if to say “We don’t need to do this crap because we own this issue. We are aware of cancer and suffering and pain 365 days a year, to the exclusion of all else.”

Spider-Man, 10/10/10

And, of course, Spider-Man ignored the campaign completely, the better to reflect Peter Parker’s longstanding tradition of just stone cold not giving a shit.