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The Finger Quotin’ Margo lookalike contest has been in full swing for a week now, and we’ve already received a host of entries! I’d sure like to get more though, because I’m greedy like that. So, I’m going to share the entries I’ve received so far with you all now in the hopes that they will inspire more of you to go for the gold.

(Remember, kids, these entrants are your fellow readers, commentors, and community members, and they’ve shown more guts than you in entering, so BE NICE. By “nice” I mean both “not mean” and “not creepy.” You’ve been warned.)

Let’s start by taking a look at the finger quotin’ original:

And now the contestants, in no particular order. Some of their handles may be familiar to those of you who haunt the forums or the comments. First off is Air Forbes:

Next is RetroVirus:

Then comes Bria:

And finally comes a wife-husband team that wishes to be known as “Lucy Ven Pelt” and “Dr. Jeff Cory”, respectively:

So! Will one of these brave contestants grace the face of a future Comics Curmudgeon product, available for purchase from the good people at CafePress? Or will YOU bust that fuchsia turtleneck sweater out of the closet and claim the crown yourself? The only way to find out is to reach for the brass ring and e-mail me those pictures! The deadline is Monday, June 19 (that’s a week from today), and I’ll figure out the winner by the end of that week.

Oh, and our contest inspired David Willis, the totally awesome cartoonist behind the totally awesome Shortpacked! and Joyce and Walky, to produce this totally awesome Warholified Margo:

Because David is totally awesome, he’s given me permission to use it on a product of some sort, which will be ready by the time the contest winners are announced. So go read his strips, already!

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Beetle Bailey, 6/11/06

Here’s a strip that manages to completely undermine its own punchline, as near as I can tell. Because we were here to see what went on when Sarge was gone, and trust us, it wasn’t really that interesting.

Still, I am totally charmed by the rather bizarre sentence “We’re playing football with no boundaries!” I’m trying to come up with similar assertions. “We’re playing hockey without caring about what other people think!” “We’re playing baseball with no sense of proportion!” “We’re playing bridge full of contempt for civilization and its works!”

Apartment 3-G, 6/11/06

Here’s a good example of a strip where the throwaway panels in the top row actually have a great deal of impact on the meaning. When I read this strip in my paper today, without those top panels, I assumed that Lu Ann really didn’t care whether Margo came or not, but that sad face in panel two indicates that she knows all to well that Margo loves a party all too much. We readers, of course, can thank our lucky stars that this dark-haired dynamo is going to be crashing this artsy fartsy bash, because it’s gonna be wacky as hell.

I was going to complain that we just spent a week watching Tommie and Lu Ann getting ready for this shindig, and now we have to wait for Margo to primp herself as well. Then I realized that there’s a chance that we might see some Margo-in-sexy-underwear action, so I’m withholding my judgement for now. I don’t know what the hell is going on with her hand in panel four, though. That’s just weird.

Judge Parker, 6/11/06

So we’ve learned that “Raju Mishra” is Bengali for “Brick House”:

I’ve been impressed with the new Judge Parker artist’s work so far, but today he met his ultimate test: Abbey’s hair. Of course, he’s constrained by the fact that his characters have to be recognizable as the people we’ve come to know and love over the years. He’s almost managed to make Abbey look like she’s chosen a hairstyle that a non-insane person would choose to go out in public in … almost. It think that this may be as close as anyone could expect.

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Crock, 6/9/06

You know, there’s a certain tension that comes from having sentient talking animals exist in a cartoon world where animals are killed and eaten. Usually that tension is sort of glossed over. But if you want to be a pointlessly cruel bastard about it, hey, knock yourself out. You wouldn’t be the first.

Apartment 3-G, 6/9/06

I’m not sure where Margo suddenly arrived from, but based on how manic she is and how wide her pupils are, I’m guessing she was doing rail after rail of coke while she there. I think all of us know that she’s going to invite herself along to this party and make some kind of horrifying spectacle of herself, which is actually lucky for Lu Ann and Tommie, since she’ll distract from the fact that they’ve chosen to go to a party full of artists and hipsters decked out in pastel suit jackets like a couple of up-and-coming Junior Leaguers.

Margo is not free of fashion sins herself. This is not the first time she has rocked the popped collar, but that doesn’t make it OK.

The Middletons, 6/9/06

Revelations 13:16-19: “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Good job, the Middletons for depicting the mechanized beginning of the end times, and only three days late.

Mary Worth, 6/9/06

Oh my God, are Kelly and Lou going to start going at it right up against the wall? You haters hate all you want, but this is hot stuff! Hot … hawwwwt.