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Dick Tracy, 1/15/19

I’m not sure who asked for a Dick Tracy storyline about the little foibles that arise when you’re an old man who knocks up a much younger woman who’s filming a documentary about you, but whatever, they are going for it. Today’s installment, “So You Were Briefly Jealous Of Someone You Thought Was A Sexual Rival But She’s Actually His Goddaughter,” is unsettling par for the course.

Six Chix, 1/15/19

I’ve tried pronouncing “robo-twheat” every way I can think of — does it rhyme with “sweat”? does it rhyme with “sweet”? OK, I guess I can really only think of those two ways — and neither makes sense. Is it robot wheat? That’s the grey stuff outside the window? Robot wheat? Why would you not pay attention to robot wheat? I think if robot wheat suddenly grew (or began functioning, or whatever the hell it is robot wheat does) right outside my window, I’d feel like I should maybe pay attention to it.

Mary Worth, 1/15/19

Oh hell yes, Jannie’s swift heel turn is really doing it for me! Is she vaping? Just leaning sexily against the wall and vaping, driving all the boys wild? I cannot wait for her to meet Mary and get an earful about the addictive qualities of e-juice.

Gil Thorp, 1/15/19

AHHH YES MARTY MOON-B/ROBBY HOWRY SUPERSTAR ANTI-GIL TEAMUP, I AM EXTREMELY EXCITED

Beetle Bailey, 1/15/19

We all knew that, of course, one day the long-running comic strip Beetle Bailey would come to an end, and we probably all knew that there would be a fairly spectacular final strip, but I don’t think any of us guessed that it would involve the main character being killed and eaten by an enormous bird.

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Mark Trail, 1/6/19

Mark is kind of oblique in panel one about the change in public sentiment on big game trophy hunting, but what he’s really hinting at is that Mark himself was at the forefront of opposition to canned hunts long before it was fashionable! True Trailheads remember the delightful story from 2010 (summarized here) where Mark’s neighbor set up a fenced private hunting preserve as part of a plan to get elected governor (really), and the man’s own stepdaughter’s pet deer (YES REALLY), named Lucky (I KNOW), almost became a victim! But were there #SaveLucky campaigns? Was there an online petition site at https://www.thepetitionsite.com/383/290/338/save-lucky-the-normal-colored-deer/? There was not. There wasn’t even an internet back then, as far as Mark knew, because he still writes his stories on a manual typerwriter and only had a flip phone until 2016, so Mark just had to punch the dude in the face instead.

Judge Parker, 1/6/19

Remember when Sophie was obsessed with collecting data and learning about the nuances of modern third-world conflicts. Well, now she’s getting her news from Yahoo! Yahoo! This is just sad.

Dick Tracy, 1/6/19

There’s a guest writer filling in for a two-week “Minit Mystery” in Dick Tracy, and given the overall current vibe of the strip, it’s pretty bold to hinge the whole plot on nostalgia being literally toxic.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/6/19

PANEL AFTER PANEL OF RED-HOT GOING-TO-THE-AIRPORT-BUT-NOT-ACTUALLY-GETTING-ON-A-PLANE ACTION!!!!!

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I hope everyone had a fantastic conclusion to 2018! I had a blast, and even though Curtis seems to have permanently eschewed its traditional Kwanzaa madness, I managed to select some choice continuity strips for the past week and change for you so you can start your year off right.

Mark Trail, 12/22/18

Oh, hey, Rusty and Mara’s plan to track … this …….. bad? …….. guy with their phones finally seems to have paid off! He’s mad about being caught, of course, but he’s probably even angrier that Rusty has a close relationship with a loving family who actually pick up the phone and call him every once in a while. Look, buddy, Rusty, a hideously boy-thing who was “adopted” under the extremely loose rules of Forest Law when Mark and Cherry started feeding him inside the house, wasn’t allowed to start calling them “dad” and “mom” until a tree fell on Mark, so you should really ask yourself how committed you are to family intimacy if you want to go further down this road.

Mary Worth, 12/22/18

Toby’s current suspicion level that anyone, anywhere might be sexually attracted to her husband: currently hovering around -1.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 12/23/18

Rex Morgan dips into the strip’s history to remember when June almost despaired that, despite our annual celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace, mankind is still torn asunder by violence and conflict, while Rex suggets that maybe our bold exploration of space will finally pull all of humanity together in one common mission. Then we jump to the present day, in which not only are we still fighting a bunch of wars, but we’re also lying to each other about our supposedly heroic wartime deeds! Oh, also, we went to the moon like five times in three years and then just kind of stopped.

Mary Worth, 12/23/18

Ian’s current suspicion level that anyone, anywhere might be sexually attracted to him: he reacts to a student gushingly complimenting his speaking voice not by thinking “Professor Cameron, you’ve still got it” but by considering supplementing his job as a low-level academic by dabbling in community theater.

Dick Tracy, 12/24/18

Hey, remember back in 2014 when those two bad guys stole one of Diet Smith’s Space Coupes but didn’t know how to control it and so they suffocated to death as they headed out into deep space? Well, their corpses, presumably perfectly preserved in the airless interior of the runaway spacecraft, wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Mary Worth, 12/24/18

Toby’s current suspicion level that anyone, anywhere might be sexually attracted to her husband: just actively cruel now.

Gil Thorp, 12/25/18

This is your annual reminder that Gil and Mimi used to have kids who appeared on their Christmas card with them, but they vanished from the strip without a trace years ago, and now they do a joint Christmas card with Kelly and Coach Kaz, which means we’re only like one or two years away from all of them just being open about being in a group polyamorous relationship.

Crankshaft, 12/25/18

One of Crankshaft’s favorite Christmas jokes is when Crankshaft “has too many rum balls” and “falls asleep,” which of course is totally family friendly and different from “drinks too much rum” and “passes out.” Anyway, you know what would be a good joke, would be if Jeff said “He certainly brings new meaning to ‘dead drunk’!” because it turned out Crankshaft died, from too much booze.

Gil Thorp, 12/26/18

Just a reminder that this Gil Thorp‘s basketball season B-plot is that one of the characters loves to quote the beloved Ashton Kutcher sitcom That ’70s Show. Don’t worry if you forget, though, because the other characters will remind you that that’s what’s going on!

Mark Trail, 12/27/18

Folks, let this be a lesson to you: if you let vital public services like public libraries fall into disrepair and disuse, then your community will inevitably be afflicted by blight like artifact-napping crime! Be warned and vote yes on library bonds in your town!

Dick Tracy, 12/27/18

Just a reminder that the current Dick Tracy plot involves a villain named Splitface, but he used to be named Haf and Haf, and there was another villain in this strip who was also named Splitface, but rest assured that they’re different people. Will the narrative payoff be worth the confusion for the approximately 15 people who care about this stuff? Based on everything we know about Dick Tracy, obviously yes!

Mark Trail, 12/28/18

Oh, thank God, Jose is in fact definitively a good guy! I certainly hope every other character in this plotline gets a strip to explain their alignment and motivations by the time the whole thing wraps up sometime in 2023.

Dick Tracy, 12/29/18

Just a reminder that the current Dick Tracy plot involves a villain named Splitface, but there used to be another Splitface, and they’re not the same, see? Do we need to explain this every other day? Because we will, don’t think we won’t. Anyway, the current Splitface is called that because half his face is normal and half is terribly deformed, and Batman got to the name “Two-Face” first. The first Splitface was called that because, uh, he used to split people’s face with a knife, apparently.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 12/30/18

Were you thinking of sleeping in like some kind of damn hippie artist, Sarah? We didn’t arrange for you to have the extremely specific kind of amnesia where you forget your painting skills for you to relax on a national holiday like some kind of bum, young lady!

Mary Worth, 12/31/18

Ha ha, Toby uses “old man” as a jokey synonym for “husband,” just like people in the ’60s and ’70s did! This definitely establishes her as the younger one in this relationship.

Gasoline Alley, 1/1/19

It’s 2019, everybody! Get ready to spend the year contemplating this image of Walt, with one frame of his glasses a disc of pure white and the other filled with a disturbing expanse of flesh.

Judge Parker, 1/1/19

Time for a new adventure in Judge Parker! Marie’s new husband is missing — and he’s naked!

Gil Thorp, 1/2/19

Ha ha, things are really heating in Gil Thorp! Looks like a certain young man is about to learn that infringing on the rights of the Carsey-Werner Company, which controls all intellectual property associated with That ’70s Show, is no laughing matter!

Anyway, daily comics recaps begin anew tomorrow, so I’m signing off by sharing my New Year’s resolution with you: to continue to create a hilarious internet blog about daily comic strips. That’s my resolution every year, and guess what: every year I deliver! So buckle up!