Panels from Barney Google and Snuffy Smith and Crock, 11/20/16
Just a quick one today as we roll into Thanksgiving week. Are you getting ready to enjoy a hearty meal with your family? Well, these long-running, middle-of-the-road comic strips would like to remind you what turkeys are doing: spiraling into paroxysms of anxiety about their impending brutal dismemberment. Happy holidays!
Six Chix, 11/12/16
FUN FACT: did you know that the Andrew Lloyd Weber Phantom of the Opera has made more money over the years than any other work of entertainment in the history of the human race? I learned this on the musical’s Wikipedia page, where I also learned that the 30th anniversary of its premiere performance in London wasn’t today but actually about five weeks ago, which is suspiciously close to the lead time for getting a newspaper comic published. The lesson is that you’ll never go broke overestimating humanity’s appetite for schmaltz (as someone who had to play multiple Andrew Lloyd Weber medleys in high school band, I feel I earned the right to make this artistic assessment), and that if you really care about memorializing something, maybe plan it in advance?
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 11/12/16
Look, I get it, BG&SS creative team, making a joke about Miss Prunelly and Uriah fucking is just too tempting. And it’s also obviously tempting to run it more than once, since what’s the point of having years of archives and an audience that reads three days a week on average and retains very little if not to cut corners once in a while? But it does seem weird to use the same joke twice in two years but redraw the art. Like, the art is the hard part? At least now Uriah has given up his sex-shame and wears his lover’s Goth Kiss with a smile.
Mary Worth, 11/12/16
Oh, also, Wilbur’s basically spent this entire week getting dumped? I always thought I’d feel something in this situation. A little more joy, I dunno. What’s wrong with me that I can’t take delight in Wilbur’s pain?
Mark Trail, 11/12/16
NNNggghgh, maybe it’s because my system’s too oversaturated with all the literal fiery death in Mark Trail! The chopper explosions might be over, but at least we have chunks of volcanic debris falling from the sky. Just hook it up to my veins!!!!!
Shoe, 11/11/16
Happy November 11th, everyone! Do you remember that this is the anniversary of the day the guns of the Great War went silent, and there was a brief, idealistic window of hope that the slaughter had been so terrible that humanity would never fight a war again? And November 11th was supposed to be remembered forever as Armistice Day, the day the killing stopped? Ringing a bell? For anyone? The dashed optimism? No?
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 11/11/16
After it became clear that we were going to keep fighting wars and making more veterans, November 11th got rebranded as Veterans Day, and so it’s often an opportunity for comic strips to make you uncomfortable by reminding you that their protagonists fought in World War II, which ended more than 70 years ago. Please enjoy this depiction of Snuffy Smith bursting out of his threadbare uniform, and when you’re done with that, please enjoy Snuffy Smith in Hillbilly Blitzkrieg, now available in its entirety on YouTube. The movie is so unwatchably bad I was wasn’t able to get through more than a few minutes of it, but I checked the Wikipedia summary and I need to steel you for disappointment: despite the promise of the title, Snuffy does not actually fight for Nazi Germany in the film.
Crankshaft, 11/11/16
Ed Crankshaft is also a World War II vet, but on this day he’s chosen not to dwell on the past. Instead, he’s thinking about the future, the future where cold, soulless machines will displace human warmth, and it fills him with despair.
Mark Trail, 11/11/16
Well, we all knew the chopperslosions couldn’t go on forever, so I’m glad Mark Trail is allowing us to taper off by at least showing us some hot (literally) smoldering wreckage action. It’s extremely funny to me how quickly Cal’s mind turns from “rescuing Mark and Abbey” to “fleeing in this boat, Mark and Abbey will be fine, probably.”