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Mark Trail, 9/11/10

Have you ever had a moment when something you’ve looked at every day, for years, suddenly reconfigures, and your entire worldview shatters and reforms with searing clarity? Well, that’s what happened when I read this Mark Trail, which reveals that “Mark,” “Cherry,” and “Rusty” are actually three adorably frolicking horses — horses that like to imagine what it would be like to be human. Everything is explained: the unnatural dialogue (based on the deliberately child-like and stilted speech that humans use when they talk to animals), the freakish morphing forms (can we really expect interspecies facial recognition to go off without a hitch?), the fact that human society as depicted has less and less basis in reality the further we get from Lost Forest. It’s sort of heartbreaking that the weirdly malformed humans we’ve spent so much time with are actually these beautiful galloping animals. Too bad Frank is going to lure them into his hunting pen and let his political buddies shoot them for sport.

Apartment 3-G, 9/11/10

Do you think that comics colorists simply have too much pride to admit when they make a mistake? I mean, technically there was no indication when Lu Ann appeared on Thursday what color her hair was supposed to be, so red was as good a guess as any. But now that we learn that Lu Ann’s hair is supposed to be a “rich brown,” and our colorists are refusing to take the hint. “No, damn you! The Lu Ann of my masturbatory fantasies is a redhead, and a redhead she will remain!”

Gil Thorp, 9/11/10

Ha ha, look at how happy Gil and Kaz look! It’s because they’ve once again found someone who, as a result of some gaping emotional wound, is willing to do their jobs for them. And before the first game is even played, too!

Luann, 9/11/10

After Dirk strangles the DeGroots, the strip’s narrative will (literally) violently change directions, as it gets renamed The Talented Mr. Dirk and follows its new title character’s unseemly adventures.

Ballard Street, 9/11/10

I only discuss Ballard Street here when its “insane lunatics doing baffling things” schtick crosses over from “bonkers” to “unsettling,” and I think today’s panel, which features a sour-faced old woman engaging in harrowing self-harm, more than qualifies.

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Jumble, 9/9/10

Faithful Jumble readers know that the seemingly innocent scrambled word game is slowly transforming into some kind of social-realist tract on the seedy underbelly of modern society, with routine depictions of sleaze and vice. Today’s panel continues this trend, depicting a baffled and hungover young man (wearing a wizard hat?) being taunted by the hard-faced barfly he gave it up to the previous night in a drunken haze. The can in her hand is a nice touch (presumably she’s already getting started on the day’s drinking), as is the wastebasket right next to the bed (for used condoms, or mid-intercourse booze-induced vomiting, or both). Is our protagonist wearing a t-shirt that just says “Pot,” of the sort popularized by the beloved Weedmaster P character in the delightful Overcompensating Web comic? Maybe, and maybe if he had stuck with that substance, he wouldn’t be in his current predicament.

Apartment 3-G, 9/9/10

Oh … oh dear. It appears the makeover has hit its first major disaster, as the syndicate colorists have completely lost track of who this Lu Ann person is and just arbitrarily given her red hair. Apparently they work by hairstyle only, which is bad news for a strip that’s trying to change the hairstyles of its characters. You can see why they might make this mistake, though; with the curls and the off-one-shoulder toga-like thing, Lu Ann looks like she might be playing Venus in a high-school play.

Beetle Bailey, 9/9/10

I’ve been mostly ignoring the Beetle Bailey 60th anniversary wank-a-thon, but I did enjoy this 1965 strip, in which “wacky rebel” Rocky attempts to assassinate a general officer. He’d rather go to Leavenworth than go to ’Nam, man!

Funky Winkerbean, 9/9/10

Aww, isn’t this cute! Holly saved the message she got telling her that Funky was in a car wreck. Presumably it’s so she can relive over and over again that brief, magical moment when she thought the nasty old hatesack might be dead.

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Apartment 3-G, 9/8/10

Makeover victim #1, revealed! Margo’s here and she’s, eh, not actively laughable. Still, this seems like it might be kind of overcompensation: Kat has reacted to Margo’s penchant for turtlenecks by forcing her to wear the exact opposite of a turtleneck, a dress with a top that’s as low as possible while maintaining a G rating. Margo might enjoy all the admiration her shoulders are getting now, but wait until she finds out that every single item in her remade wardrobe will be strapless, including her new collection of business casual tube tops and her winter coats.

Gil Thorp, 9/8/10

This week Gil Thorp has been very busy telegraphing the fall plot: it will be about Troubled Foster Kid Cody Exner! Gil had a life-changing conversation with Cody’s current foster mom yesterday, in which he learned that adults cannot remain in the foster care system indefinitely. This puts a crimp in his plan to find a foster family who will care for him so he can quit his job and drink full time.

In panel three, we see that the takeaway from the plot will be that foster kids are angry and violent — at least before they get some good, solid half-assed coaching from Gil Thorp. Cody will come around and be ready for adulthood by his 18th birthday, even though a few Mudlark teammates may be maimed in the process.

Dennis the Menace, 9/8/10

I was going to make some kind of distasteful “Dennis is a pimp” joke here before I was brought up short with horror at the faces of the little girls on either side of him. They’re a degree or two less cartoonish that the other children — could they be an attempt to represent two actual specific kids? — which only makes them that much more unsettling, in no small part because the more lifelike faces draw attention to their freakishly knobbly legs.

To distract yourself from this horror, consider the fact that Mr. Wilson is such a classic cartoon character that his face isn’t needed to establish presence in the scene, just his iconic gut.

Luann, 9/8/10

Hey, everyone, Dirk’s back, and the power of Christ compels you to like him! I’ve been ignoring him thus far this week, but I feel he earned a spot in this blog by treating Mrs. DeGroot like some sort of stalking-fun-killing vampire.