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The Family Cirus, 1/7/07

I had thought that the whole “childhood obesity epidemic” was something of an overblown moral panic. But that was before I saw the Family Circus clan celebrating their holiday weight gain. Kids! Competitive eating isn’t cool! Just because that freakishly thin Japanese guy can eat 78 hot dogs in an hour or whatever doesn’t mean you should try it at home.

Crock, 1/7/06

At first I thought the saddest thing about this Crock was that “WHUMP THUMP THUMP BUMP” was supposed to be music of some kind, probably rap music. Then I thought it was that the artist might actually believe that a boom box is a featureless grey box with a single button on the side. Then I thought it was that the whole “boom box” thing was a desperate stab at relevance at some kind for the “kids today.” Then I realized that trying to work out the saddest thing about this cartoon was in itself a deeply depressing exercize.

Judge Parker, 1/7/07

Oh man, Abbey’s misguided attempts to be a “cool parent” in Paris are going to be aweseome. She’s already getting Neddy drunk and they haven’t even landed yet. I can’t wait until Ned picks out the cutest boy, and Abbey has to go seal the deal. “My daughter, she is lovely, yes? You would like to make sweet Franco-American love to her, yes? I can make that happen.”

Mark Trail, 1/7/07

For those of you who can’t make out the type in the yellow box at the lower right that I’ve circled for you, it reads as follows:

Thanks to the Smithsonian Magazine, whose articles have been a useful resource for information used in Mark Trail.

Allow me to translate:

“Aw, CRAP! Deadline! CRAP! Uh … Sunday strip. Uh. What do we have lying around here? Hmm … Us Magazine … wow, Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson … NO! FOCUS! Wait, what’s this? Smithsonian? Hmm, polar bears … melting ice caps … oh yeah, they’ll eat that crap up. That’s gold, baby!”

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Mary Worth, 12/21/06

So a mustachioed malcontent has a beef with Charterstone’s power clique. After a confrontation in which he is humiliated by them, he stalks off, despite one of their number’s feeble attempt to end things on a good note. I think we all know where this is going: The liquor store. The road. The cliff. The end.

This is what Aldomania hath wrought, everybody: every Mary Worth plot from here on in is going to end with the meddling condo creeps driving some new character to a self-inflicted death. There’ll be an awkward funeral visit, some murmured platitudes, and then on to the next victim. They aren’t just murderers; they’re serial killers. I sure hope you’re happy.

Apartment 3-G, 12/21/06

You should not, however, harbor similar worries about our girl Magee as she prepares to rock Christmas the way only an angry, drunken, jilted young woman can. Margo is no danger of harming herself. Margo will only harm others. Many, many others.

Mark Trail, 12/21/06

As an antidote to the above, I offer you the continuing love story of Lucky the Beaver and his mate. I’m not a biologist, but I’m pretty sure that beavers do not actually put their paws tenderly on one another’s shoulder; still, I can’t deny how heartwarmingly adorable it all is. In the larger scheme of things, though, this whole thing is starting to freak me out. I’m a relative Mark Trail newbie, having only read it for the last four years or so; can any longtime Trailheads tell me if the strip has ever dropped its boring, stilted humans before to focus on the improbable anthropomorphized antics of adorable forest creatures? My guess about the current scenario: the word came down from King Features that a heart-warming Christmas episode was required, and Jack Elrod realized that, since nobody has any emotional involvement in any of the oddly shaped human characters, someone appealing was required, stat.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 12/21/06

Awwww, look at how sad June is in panel three. She just wanted her garage painted, Rex; is that so much to ask? Shouldn’t the lengths she’ll go to achieve that end trouble you at least a little?

Crock, 12/21/06

I’m pretty sure this comic strip is about masturbation. Me is the gift I can give myself all year long!

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Gil Thorp, 8/25/06

A few weeks ago, I pondered the ethics of enjoying Marty Moon’s spiral down to rock bottom. Now that he’s gotten there — passing out drunkenly in your car because you lost a four-figure sum to a Ben Franklin lookalike playing golf being pretty much the lowest point of spiritual debasement I can come up with — I stand by my conclusion that it’s not just ethical, but mandatory. I particularly like how he goes from unshaven, crooked-grinned drunken bravado in panel one to head-in-hands shame in panel two. In panel three, it appears that his coffee arrived just a few seconds too late, and he’s about to flop face-first onto the table in blessed unconsciousness.

Crock, 8/25/06

Haw, haw! Overeating men are from Mars, and overeating women are from Venus! Seriously, though, if you could get a big Box O’ Tacosâ„¢, I might seriously look into how much one cost.

Beetle Bailey, 8/25/06

I’m pretty sure that Beetle will be recounting this conversation on the witness stand at Rocky’s war crimes trial.