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Crankshaft, 10/1/18

So I guess this lady is in fact one of Crankshaft’s classmates — one of, as this tiny set of plates indicates, a fast dwindling number. I have literally no handle on any of the interpersonal dynamics going on here. Why is Crankshaft so resistent to acknowledging that he and Mary are a romantic item? Why is Mary so eager for people to know that she’s linked herself, sexually and presumably emotionally, to Ed Crankshaft, one of the most hateful men alive? Why is Darla Gillespie smiling at this interaction? Surely you don’t expect me to believe that she feels anything positive about Crankshaft or his romantic situation.

Six Chix, 10/1/18

Shout out, I guess, to Six Chix not having the alien actually saying this to someone wearing lederhosen, which is what I’d expect for a joke like this but it wouldn’t make any sense, because, why would he need to be taken to it? It’s right there! Much less of a shoutout to Six Chix for not knowing what other kinds of southern German garb to use, though. Dirndls! Dirndls are what you’re looking for. Maybe you think you’ve drawn a dirndl here, but trust me, you very much have not.

Dick Tracy, 10/1/18

There’s a whole “Ugly Crystal is meeting her biological dad” plot in Dick Tracy storyline going on right now that I extremely don’t care about, but I find it very, very funny that (a) for some reason personal medical information is being delivered to the police station instead of these people’s homes and (b) Dick seems to have casually opened one of the envelopes. Don’t like it, kid? Whaddya gonna do, call the cops?

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Mark Trail, 9/26/18

OK, wait, what? Are these guys not in league with artifact-napping Becky? Are they actually a rival gang, working at cross-purposes with her? Or are they part of Mexican law enforcement, investigating in plain clothes to try to break up an artifact smuggling ring? When Rusty and Mara confront Jo(s)e and his associates, they’ll say “Kids, you’ve got it all wrong! We’re federales! You know, the Policía Federal, the institutional successor to the former mounted police!” And then Rusty and Mara will say, “If you’re the police, where are your badges?” And they’ll say, “Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We’re working deep undercover and can’t afford exposure. Showing you any stinkin’ badges would risk all of our lives!”

Mary Worth, 9/26/18

Oh, man, Mr. Wynter is an old grouch because he was forced to marry a woman he didn’t love! I certainly hope that we get smash cut from Bella’s lovingly tended grave in the pet cemetery to the overgrown potter’s field into which his hatèd wife was tossed without ceremony when Mr. Wynter was finally, blessedly, free of her.

Dick Tracy, 9/26/18

I’m reasonably sure that’s been well established that Honeymoon and Crystal are social outcasts at school, what with them both being mutant freaks and all. Still, I have to give props to this drug gang for trying to map out the social networks of the schools where they’re trying to sell their wares in order to maximize brand awareness rather than just having someone stand outside and say “Hey, kid, wanna get high?” to everyone indiscriminately like some half-assed dealers we could mention. It’s like the time the illicit tattoo parlor in Gil Thorp tried to woo twentysomethings by getting high school-aged customers: wildly misguided, but at least you’re putting in some effort to come up with something clever.

Hi and Lois 9/26/18

Hey, kids, it’s 2018! Why not try to get your fairly specific fetish into an extremely square syndicated newspaper comic strip? Nothing matters anymore!

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Dick Tracy, 9/4/18

Dick Tracy’s approach to depicting crime has always been cartoonish, but usually that means “criminals have hideously deformed crania that could only exist in drawings” and not “drug gangs have laughable names and stake out territory by gently shoving rivals across the street.”

Funky Winkerbean, 9/4/18

Seems pretty mean to joke about your brain-injured pal‘s mental deficits, but I guess if you’re recovering from a massive stroke, as this guy clearly is, you’re “allowed” to say it.

Shoe, 9/4/18

I really appreciate that, in today’s installment of “the bird-men of Shoe hate their lives and themselves,” the Perfesser sighs audibly but only thinks about his deep-rooted desire for a total annihilation of self, because if you speak a wish out loud it won’t come true.

Mary Worth, 9/4/18

HELL YES MARY IS GOING TO FIND MEAN OLD MR. WYNTER SOME FRIENDS AND MAYBE A PACK OF FERALS FOR HIS DOG TO JOIN, NOBODY HAS ANY CHOICE IN THE MATTER, MARY HAS SPOKEN