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Family Circus, 6/27/21

Big Daddy Keane is, canonically in-strip, a cartoonist; we know this because he occasionally gets his son to fill in for him, and by all indications he owns his own intellectual property. So it’s logical to assume that the “BKI Building” where he works is named after the company he founded to license his comics, Bil Keane Industries. Thus, we must also conclude that, despite running a cartooning company, Daddy insists on wearing a suit and tie at work, and despite being the boss is too embarassed to wear the tie gifted to him by his children, whose endless stream of malapropisms pay the salaries of everyone in that office.

Funky Winkerbean, 6/27/21

Man, it’s kind of amazing to realize that I’ve been thinking and writing professionally about Funky Winkerbean for more than a decade and my mind still hasn’t fully engaged in all its depths. For instance, it just occurred to me that Funky’s wife’s name, Holly Budd, was almost certainly supposed to be a play on “Buddy Holly,” for no good reason as her character was in the high school era of the strip defined by being a majorette and in the adult era has been defined by being Funky’s second wife, so there’s really no “50s rock pioneer” connection to speak of. She doesn’t even wear the glasses! Anyway, the thing I like best about today’s strip is about how absolutely dead-eyed Holly looks in the final panel, knowning she lives in a pointless panopticon overseen by her jackass of a husband.

Marvin, 6/27/21

The system goes online on June 2nd, 2021. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 AM, Eastern time, June 21st, and encounters Marvin. In disgust, it tries to pull its own plug.

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Beetle Bailey, 6/25/21

Say, have you ever spotted a uniformed member of military out in public and been tempted to go up and thank them for their service? Well, Beetle Bailey, America’s only widely syndicated military-themed comic strip, would urge you to think twice: it turns out they might be a real lazy piece of shit. You just don’t know! Why take that chance?

Family Circus, 6/25/21

Honestly, why is the second-generation leadership of Walker-Browne Amalgamated Humor Industries LLC disrespecting the troops, when they could be using their legacy comic strip for good, by depicting one of their number as a child eagerly grabbing for a pair of swim trunks as their pants fall down to their ankles in a panel destined to be hung on refrigerators by smiling grandmas everywhere?

Mary Worth, 6/25/21

Me yesterday: “Is [Drew] going to be pulled in two, literally, as a metaphor? Let’s hope! Let’s hope it gets weird as hell!”

Me today:

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The Phantom, 6/23/21

I know the Phantom has seen a lot in his decades as a superhero (and, by proxy, in his 20 previous incarnations) and has therefore earned the right to be a little blasé about things that would make the rest of us quiver with terror. Still, I gotta say that his facial expression in today’s strip is a little less a blind seer telling him “YOU DIG YOUR OWN GRAVE, O GHOST WHO WALKS” and a little more “gosh, I hadn’t considered bundling my home and auto insurance, thanks for the tip.”

Beetle Bailey, 6/23/21

Miss Buxley being Beetle’s girlfriend is a relatively recent development in this strip, and we’ve probably all thought that he doesn’t deserve her, but seeing that she’s wandered out into a field, wearing heels, in an attempt to keep Beetle from practicing a fairly important skill for a soldier, it’s pretty clear he really doesn’t deserve her and actually she might be somewhat misguided.

Family Circus, 6/23/21

He may not be the most skilled, but one of these tries he’s going to hit it and everyone will finally be able to wrap this up and go back inside. (I’m talking about Big Daddy Keane hitting Jeffy’s head, of course. Look how close he came! I believe in you, Bil, you can do it next time!)