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Hagar the Horrible, 1/16/11

At least one of you out there has, liked me, wondered about the relationship between Hagar and Helga and Lucky Eddie. Is he just Hagar’s shipmate and bosom companion? If so, why does he spend so much time with Hagar and Helga, even attending dinner with them? The answer might be implied in the degrading task he’s been assigned by Helga today: no doubt he’s their slave, presumably captured by Hagar during one of his raids on some peaceful, unsuspecting village somewhere along the shore of the Baltic or North Sea. Since only Hagar’s whim will ever be able to free him, and even then he won’t be a full-status member of the community, his “Lucky” nickname seems particularly cruel.

Panels from Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/16/11

Ha ha, it’s funny because these poor hillbillies have poor insulation, no central heating, and few garments to keep them warm!

Pluggers, 1/16/11

You’re a plugger if you’re old enough to use archaic dialectical terms for everyday concepts, and also if you had to get married because you knocked your girlfriend up on the chesterfield in the den.

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Shoe, 1/12/10

Now here’s a lovely example of how a single word balloon can transform a comic from boring and pedestrian and vaguely insulting to completely bonkers. I’m referring, of course, to the balloon emerging from Roz’s sundae. What could have been a sub-Cathyism — hee hee, the ladies, they like eating fatty food and are awash in body image self-hate! — instead becomes a rapid descent into madness. This descent takes one of two paths. Roz may have gone insane, and is now hearing voices emitting from ordinary inanimate objects; it’s also possible that this is in fact a sentient, talking dessert. The latter possibility is pretty strange, but is it really any stranger than talking birds who use their wing-hands to eat ice cream? In this scenario, Roz’s admonishment to keep her gluttony a secret from her thighs isn’t a mere whimsical joke, since there’s no reason to think that those thighs can’t think and speak as well.

Either way, I like the fact that the ice cream sundae is neither cheerfully declaring its desire to be consumed (as one might expect in the “Roz is nuts” scenario) nor screaming in terror as the instrument of its murder approaches (as you’d guess a self-aware ice cream sundae would react in this situation); instead, it just gives Roz a standoffish “Uh … okay,” as if waiting to see where this is all going.

Mary Worth, 1/12/10

Today’s Mary Worth demonstrates the limits of Mary’s memory self-modification techniques. Jill urges everyone to purge from their minds the image of her making a drunken scene and being forcibly removed from the rehearsal dinner; and yet panel one demonstrates with its complete awesome hilariousness that we can never, ever let such good times vanish from our recollections. Is Jill sticking her tongue out? Is Dr. Jeff raising his upper lip in a tough-guy sneer? Never forget, I say. Never forget.

Gil Thorp, 1/12/10

Oh, hey, remember Gil Thorp’s new extremely thinly veiled gay character? Turns out he’s Gil Thorp’s new extremely thinly veiled gay basketball prodigy! Also, he really, really likes vests, for some reason.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/12/10

Ha ha, looks like somebody stopped just talking about it and actually had Snuffy brutally assaulted!

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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/6/11

Having relentlessly overanalyzed Hootin’ Holler’s economy, let us spare a moment to contemplate its theological politics. Clearly the community is run by strict Calvinists who deem dancing to be an offense meriting execution. One has to admire the look of ecstacy on the Smifs’ faces as they face their martyrdom for hedonism.

Ziggy, 1/6/11

Ha ha! It’s funny because Ziggy is poor! And hungry. So very, very hungry.