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Apartment 3-G, 3/25/09

Apparently Dr. Joe’s kids will be take on the darndest-things-saying role that children are often called upon to fulfill in adult-oriented comics, and they’re doing a pretty good job so far, daring to question Tommie on her androgynous name, and revealing a hitherto unknown (to me, anyway) fun fact in the process. Kenley’s “Oh.” in panel two seems less like “Thanks for answering my question!” and more like “Yeah, but … but … that doesn’t really answer … I mean, you could go by ‘Abby’ or ‘Gail’ or … seriously, ‘Tommie’, what the hell?”

Of course, if I were Tommie I would probably have responded with “Kenley’s a funny name for anyone who isn’t an insufferable little yuppie brat. OH WAIT.”

The real meat here, obviously, is ultra-embarrassing panel three. Look for Tommie to sputter awkwardly for a few seconds, after which Kenley will say “Oh, my mistake! You’re obviously not anybody’s girlfriend.”

Spider-Man, 3/25/09

Oh, newspaper Spider-Man, you just can’t win, can you? Even when you’re expressing delight in your elderly aunt’s speedy recovery, you come off like a tremendous douche. In panel three, Peter looks like he’s primarily excited about not having to cook for himself in the immediate future.

Funky Winkerbean, 3/25/09

Funky Winkerbean characters are beginning to rage against their sadistic God, which should come as no surprise to anyone. Seriously, wouldn’t you feel kind of weird as a comic artist drawing your characters begging their creator for mercy, only to encounter further arbitrary misery? I guess where Funky Winkerbean is concerned, you should replace “feel kind of weird” with “cackle with maniacal glee.”

Dennis the Menace, 3/25/09

In other words, Mrs. Wilson stays young and healthy by regularly replacing her organs with fresh new ones harvested from children. Dennis only manages to avoid this fate himself by bringing her a steady supply of “raw material” — so, sorry, Joey.

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For Better Or For Worse, 3/23/09

Generally speaking, I have chosen to ignore the “new-run” incarnation of For Better Or For Worse, partly to protest the strip’s shameless failure to fade away gracefully, and partly because it turns out that 99 percent of the fun was mocking the twists and turns of the end-game melodrama. I had intended to similarly pass over the current mostly-new storyline, in which Elly has gone off to Vancouver, leaving John alone to go whoring with his caddish co-worker at “The Swig And Swine” (BECAUSE MEN ARE DRUNK PIGS GET IT). But I was driven to briefly return from my self-imposed exile from Foobonia by panel two, in which the strip betrays its most important value: its Canadianosity. Seriously, what self-respecting Canuck would offer a toast with words that rebellious scoundrels used to separate part of His Majesty’s North American possessions from the mother country? This horny dentist’s ancestors were probably driven out of the southerly colonies by anti-royalist mobs with that very phrase on their lips! A real Canadian patriot would have instead raised a mug of Molson Golden to peace, order, and good government, and if that would have made it harder to transition to a terrible pun about trying to fuck the waitress, well, so much the better.

Apartment 3-G, 3/23/09

So the current Tommie storyline will apparently center on Dr. Kelly showing up at Apartment 3-G unannounced and putting her increasingly awkward situations. Since previous Tommie storylines included such gems as “Tommie is repeatedly insulted by her ditzy neighbor” and “Tommie tries and fails to seduce her married friend,” I say bring it on!

Children are kind of a wild card in the Apartment 3-G universe, as I can’t remember them ever appearing before, or any of the characters expressing the slightest interest in their existence. Margo’s reaction upon returning home and finding two short, unruly humans in her apartment ought to be priceless, at any rate. “Tommie, I was just trying to get them to settle down! It’s not my fault they can’t hold their liquor!”

Dick Tracy, 3/23/09

It looks like Dick Tracy, having eliminated all crime through his patented brand of Bill-of-Rights-violating mayhem, is now going to take on distasteful but wholly legal business practices. Next up: AIG executives are forced to pay back their bonuses … with their flesh.

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Marmaduke, 3/17/09

Hello, Comics Curmudgeon readers! We interrupt your usual “Marmaduke eats people” joke to bring you the following “Marmaduke participates in bestiality” joke:

Marmaduke has somehow managed to displace his male owner from his bed, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

Thanks for tuning in to this special “Marmaduke participates in bestiality” joke! We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Marmaduke has somehow managed to displace his male owner from his bed, probably by eating him.

Beetle Bailey, 3/17/09

I suppose there are some legitimate, military-related reasons as to why a U.S. Army general might stand in front of a line graph and talk about declining numbers of some sort to a bunch of people sitting around a long table, and I could try to think of some, but … look, you and I both know that’s not how it went down over at the Beetle Bailey division of Walker-Browne Amalgamated Humor Enterprises LLC. I think it went more like this:

1. Hey, I thought of a joke that would work well in a boardroom, because of the recession!
2. Hmm, our strip takes place in a military environment. Can we make it work somehow?
3. No. But everyone else gets to make recession jokes. It’s not fair!
4. Hey, I have an idea! Let’s use the joke anyway!
5. [Sound of golf bags being hoisted onto shoulders]

Apartment 3-G, 3/17/09

“At last, [name of A3G girl]’s going to live out her ultimate fantasy — a three-way with two dudes who look exactly alike! Oh, wait, I just described every M-F-M three-way in the Apartment 3-G universe.” –Josh Fruhlinger, December 4, 2008.