Post Content

Baldo, 3/29/07

As part of my program of occasionally saying something unmitigatedly nice, I’ll say that I really like this technique that Baldo does occasionally, where normally cartoonish characters suddenly become lifelike, if romantically idealized. For reference for those of you who don’t read the strip, this is what Tia Carmen usually looks like:

Since Baldo is about a Latino family, it’s tempting to call these installments comic-page telenovellas, but their real antecedents are soap strips like Mary Worth or Rex Morgan, I think. I like them because I think they represent the idealized way the characters see themselves, rather than the cartoonish way in which we usually look at them.

Ziggy, 3/29/07

Hmm! Say there, Ziggy seems to be saying something to the mice about something that we, the audience, can’t see! Doesn’t this seem a bit familiar? Let’s turn the wayback machine to November 15, 2006:

Ziggy, 11/15/06

At the time, I said this:

You know what would have made this cartoon marginally funnier? If we could actually see the mice making off with Ziggy’s cell phone. Or see the antenna sticking out of the mousehole. Or see Ziggy holding an empty cell-phone holder. Or really see anything that would indicate that this wasn’t one of hundreds of photocopies of a single pre-drawn “Ziggy talks to the mice” panel, all awaiting only the addition of “hilarious” dialogue and published at reasonable intervals so as not to be glaringly obvious.

(Note for libel purposes: I’m not saying that Ziggy actually uses photocopied panels instead of coming up with a new one every day. I’m just saying that it would save a lot of work if it did.)

Well, it sadly looks like I was right. Despite the fact that today’s Ziggy could have just used the November panel with different dialogue, it seems that the artist has gone through all the trouble of making an entirely new drawing for what’s essentially the same mice-using-wireless-communications-technology joke. To his credit, he managed to make it even less interesting visually this time around.

Spider-Man, 3/29/07

A couple of weeks ago, I proposed that Spider-Man getting hit in the head with a brick would cause amnesia and mistaken-wife-identity hijinks. It was a moronic idea for a storyline, I thought, but hey, this is Spider-Man. Of course, I failed to account for the fact that the Spider-Man strip will do whatever it takes to prevent you from deriving enjoyment of any kind from it. Today, it becomes obvious that Spidey getting bonked in the head and stumbling about woozily for the better part of a week wasn’t meant to set up any ludicrous narrative shenanigans; in fact, it actually served absolutely no narrative purpose at all. As I should have known since this enraging sequence a couple years back, this strip exists entirely as some elaborate bit of storytelling gamesmanship, in which all reader expectations of excitement or at least a vague sense of involvement are continually and gleefully thwarted.

Pluggers, 3/29/07

What I love best about today’s Pluggers is how damn smug Grandpa McCheapskate looks. “Yeah, I’m trying to teach you the value of a dollar … specifically, that it’s four times greater than the value of a quarter. Now go get a job, you little ingrate.”

Post Content

Baldo, 9/20/06

Baldo is one of those strips that I like enough to read every day, but it’s almost never so exciting that it gets mentioned here. This week there’s some serious oddness going on, though, as the title teen attempts to romance a bottle of conditioner. It was weird enough when it happened yesterday; its recurrence today is starting to freak me out. The fact that Baldo’s hair retains its perfect shape even in the shower may go to show just how intimate he is with hair-styling products.

Beetle Bailey, 9/20/06

One of the odder recurring bits in Beetle Bailey is Beetle’s extremely intermittent relationship with Miss Buxley. Although they are occasionally seen going out together or even holding hands, they seem to be perpetually on a second or third date. This is to my knowledge the first time that Private Bailey has even tried to get to first base with the buxom secretary, and the dialogue around the attempt is particularly bizarre. I myself have never been in the army, but I did go to public school, and so I know a thing or two about old water fountains, and if Miss Buxley thinks that the techniques needed to get water out of one makes a man a “good kisser,” then she’s much, much kinkier than I ever gave her credit for.

Actually, the more I think about it, Miss Buxley is probably not complimenting Beetle for trying to suck her liver out through her windpipe by asking him if he’s a man-whore, but rather saw him coming at her face with his lips ludicrously extended and is trying to come up with something — anything — to say to distract him from his advances. This fits in better with their body language, in which he’s grabbing her by the elbows and she’s bracing herself against his chest, and with the fact that she’s way, way out of his league.

The Lockhorns, 9/20/06

don’t visualize it don’t visualize it don’t visuAAAARRRGGGH MY BRAIN MY BRAIN MY BRAIN

Post Content

Baldo, 6/21/06

Hey, Baldo, not everybody who objects to improper use of quotation marks is a humorless pedant, OK? We know how to have a good time! We know how to cut loose! We do that by dressing up as characters from a soap opera comic strip!

I wouldn’t expect you to understand.

Folks, I need to say that I am totally awestruck by your response to this project. As if I wasn’t already feeling all warm and fuzzy that several thousand people a day come visit to share my obsession with all things comical, I’ve apparently convinced 15 otherwise sane individuals to dress up like a character from soap opera comic strip and send me their pictures. I’m about to cry a single majestic tear myself.

In the most important sense, you are all winners. But since this is America and we’re not commie pinkos, only one of you will actually be the winner and appear on a mug. Which one of you that will be, I cannot say at this time. I will probably dedicate a lot of thought on the subject this weekend and come to my Solomonic decision on Monday, though I guarantee nothing about that schedule. Meanwhile, though, let’s all look at and appreciate the truly amazing folks who sent me their wacky pictures.

Let’s start with the pics I posted last week. First there’s AirForbes:

RetroVirus:

Bria:

Lucy Van Pelt (including a pic she sent that I didn’t run before, altered with the magic of Photoshop filters):

And Dr. Jeff Cory, the only male type with the cojones to enter:

Now, the new batch! First off is a contestant who didn’t respond to my question about what name she’d like to be known as … I’ll just call her “Contestant #1”:

Here’s JennyFromDaBuck:

Margaret, who served as the model portion of a team that also included Justin and Dji:

Miss Molly:

A couple from mon-ma-tron, the first naturalistic, the second Photoshoppified:

Rem Koolhaas:

Talia:

tanya2s (note subtle Photoshoppery):

And, last but certainly not least, here’s an entry from a dynamic duo of sisters, tracibub and jenners (it’s not clear to me which one was behind the camera and which one was in front of it):

Then there are the drawings. Dave Willis’ Margo à la Warhol is bound for glory:

Then we have this offering from the Baldwin Gallery:

Pantsman offers this exercize in mashups/copyright violation (“This will likely make a lot more sense if you’ve actually seen the Family Guy episode in which crazy Margot Kidder has dinner with the Griffins,” he says):

Finally, there’s this compelling yet terrifying drawing from CulturePulp artist Mike Russell:

Enjoy! While I figure out how the hell I’m going to pick just one. What have I gotten myself into?

Meanwhile, don’t forget the golden rule of commenting on these pictures, which is that they are your fellow community members so BE NICE. This rule can be broken down into two categories: DON’T BE MEAN and DON’T BE CREEPY! Don’t mess up my warm and fuzzy love for you all by breaking the rules, people!

UPDATE: It’s been pointed out to me, quite rightly, that we ought to have the original for comparison. Here she is, in all her glory: