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Crankshaft, 7/8/22

Look, obviously this blog is about 15% by volume me slamming on Funkyverse strips, so I’m just going to get ahead of things here and say that today’s strip is very, very funny, and the time-reverse gimmick is a good one that makes it funnier. Was it worthwhile spending 35 years writing the comic strip Crankshaft in such a way that we all hate him enough to get a genuine belly laugh watching him flee in terror from angry bees? Probably not, but in this moment, I appreciate it.

Blondie, 7/8/22

It’s extremely not new to remark on how much modern filmmaking is dominated by superhero franchises, but that doesn’t mean the syndicated newspaper comic strip Blondie can’t bring anything new to the table. In this case, it’s “late-middle-aged-and-older dudes find superheroes sexually threatening,” which I have to admit is new to me at least.

Dick Tracy, 7/8/22

Oh, right, I had forgotten that the Moon People in Dick Tracy had to leave the Moon for some reason and relocate to an undisclosed location (that turns out to be Antarctica) and Dick pretended to care about his family so he could sniff out the answer to this puzzle, because he’s the world’s greatest detective and also an asshole. I was going to do a joke about him conquering Moon Valley, but he’s a cop, annexing territory isn’t really his bag. I guess he could arrest everyone for violating the Antarctic Treaty System, but enforcing international law isn’t really his bag either.

Family Circus, 7/8/22

Gotta respect the thought process here, which was apparently, “Sure, we establish in dialogue that he’s still drinking his soda, but comics are a visual medium, we need to show that with a big disgusting blob of spit coming out of his mouth. Those grandmas who cut the panel out to hang on their fridge might not like it, but this one’s just for me.”

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Slylock Fox, 7/2/22

I was going to joke about Slylock being extremely high here but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, he is an honorable fox lawman (lawfox?) and simply would never abuse illegal substances for some fleeting artificial pleasure. No, he’s sitting there completely alone staring wide-eyed into the fire, experiencing the most potent natural buzz a sapient being can: knowing that he has helped bring the full, crushing power of the state down on any and all who dare to transgress against it in even the smallest ways.

Blondie, 7/2/22

You know, I speculate a lot on here about the weird relationship between Dagwood and Elmo. But what’s the relationship between Elmo and Blondie like? Well, it looks pretty wholesome, it turns out!

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Gil Thorp, 7/1/22

I guess we’re finally finding out why Gregg’s dad was so keen to hide his literary crimes: not because he feared the wrath and contempt of normies, who as Gil noted definitely do not care, but because he knew eventually his family’s fleeting fame would attract the attention of his erstwhile compatriots in the literary fraternity, who would deal with him in the way of their tribe, which is to say live, on-camera evisceration. “Do what you have to do!” he snarls. “I swore an oath, and the soil has hungered for my blood long enough!”

Blondie, 7/1/22

Man, this guys looks exactly like a dude that a legacy comic artist in 2004 would have had working behind the counter at their thinly veiled Best Buy analogue. You know, like a nerd, but the aggressive, vaguely cool kind. It’s real sad that retail trends have shifted and he’s been forced to find work at the novelty mug store, but he seems to have a good attitude about it.