Post Content

Crock and Rhymes With Orange, 3/2/20

Today we must consider, as we occasionally do on this blog, the anonymous people who fulfill one of the most thankless tasks in the comics industry — indeed, one of the most thankless tasks in our whole late capitalist superstructure. I’m talking, of course, about the people who add color for the online versions of black-and-white daily newspaper comic strips, who seem to have only in-strip context clues as to how to proceed and not a ton of time to decide what colors to use.

Our story today involves two strips: one a longtime legacy strip, now shambling forward forever in zombie reruns, and another that was considered a fresh and different comics page perspective when it was launched a mere 25 years ago. Both have gags today that are, quite frankly, disgusting, though the visual cues signifying what’s happening are quite subtle, and it’s interesting to see how the colorist reacted in each case. In Crock, the joke is that little Otis, assuming that his mother would not allow him to have a pet camel because camels shit so much, has covered the beast’s anus with what appears to be medical tape, an extremely temporary solution that can only end in a lower GI crisis for the poor animal, a fecal explosion, or both. The colorist managed to spot the butthole-covering gauze and colored it white, in contrast with the brownish camel fur, ensuring that we all recognize Otis’s stratagem and anticipate the horror to come.

In Rhymes With Orange, meanwhile, the joke is that if you’re a snowman, a “urine test” isn’t a test of your own urine, but rather a test of urine that others have deposited on you, with the implication being that even sentient snowmen are used as a convenient object on which animals, and possibly people, urinate, much to the snowmen’s presumed disgust. You can see a little triangle at the bottom left of our patient that presumably represents a small section of his body that had been partially melted by a steaming stream of dog piss. This should by rights be a soft yellow color, and the fact that it’s as white as the rest of him means one of two things: either the colorist took stock of all this and said “No, not today, I will not cross this line and spend my workday examining the color choices in Adobe Photoshop and deciding which best represents pee, I have an MFA in graphic design,” or they blessedly just didn’t get the joke in the first place, which really puts them one up on all of us.

Mary Worth, 3/2/20

I’m absolutely in love with the idea that Jared is such an intense Star Wars fanboy that he’d feel compelled to see a parody Star Wars film but would experience great emotional distress while doing so, like he was watching a horror movie. Clearly the most unnerving scene was the “one with the lightsaber,” in which I feel safe in assuming that the iconic laser sword, normally used by noble space monks to fight each other even though they have access to perfectly good guns, became a very on-the-nose visual metaphor for a dick. Jared couldn’t even stand to look at that one! The pleasure of recognition and the pain of irreverence, intermingled in a single cinematic experience! It must’ve been deliciously uncomfortable for the poor lad.

Family Circus, 3/2/20

Ha ha, it’s funny because Dolly is heavily invested in the patriarchy!

Funky Winkerbean, 3/2/20

I DON’T KNOW, BECKY, HARRY ISN’T RETIRED AND HE SEEMS TO HAVE TIME FOR THAT KIND OF THING! I KNOW THE STRIP KEEPS SAYING HE’S RETIRED BUT IF THAT’S TRUE WHY THE FUCK DOES HE KEEP COMING INTO WORK

Post Content

Mary Worth, 2/22/20

Ha ha, yes! This is definitely how humans consume and enjoy media! They show each other trailers for parody movies that definitely exist but that they don’t identify by actual title by holding their phones in portrait mode a full foot away from each other! Then they declare their eagerness to pay to see these media products in a theater environment! This movie can’t miss with today’s tech-savvy young people!

Family Circus, 2/22/20

PJ is right to be afraid: this is an absolutely terrifying moment, when the Keane Kids begin to realize that their entire universe is a constructed reality, that they are nothing more than fictional characters created for the passing amusement of beings they couldn’t possibly comprehend on another plane of existence. Today we can see that, as they grapple with this realization, they’ve reached the “bargaining” phase, desperately — and naively — hoping that if they really do live in a comics dimension, it might at least be one of the cool ones.

Funky Winkerbean, 2/22/20

Have you ever yearned for a comic strip that consisted entirely of an unpleasant person muttering impenetrable comics collector jargon to himself? Well, today’s Funky Winkerbean is for you, my friend.

Post Content

Judge Parker, 2/14/20

Well, it looks like Judge Parker is about to descend into meta-narrative as our soap-opera-strip town becomes the backdrop to an in-universe soap opera TV show, at least until April gets mad about lack of creative control and emerges from hiding to murder everybody. Mostly I’m excited because I’ve just realized that the Netflix exec in charge of all this looks uncannily like Amy Klobuchar, which makes sense considering her main role in the story so far has been to be mean to everyone around her.

Family Circus, 2/14/20

I don’t know why, but it bothers me so much that these kids have only sort of vaguely touched Ma Keane’s Valentine’s Day chocolates with their teeth. Does anyone think these two melonheads have the self-control and discipline necessary to not gobble down the candy as soon as they put it in their mouths? I definitely don’t, and you expect me to believe that Jeffy does? Jeffy? Please.

Blondie, 2/14/20

I don’t know, man, stopping in mid conversation to put on a coat, walk outside, and then engage in a performative display of affection for a specific audience doesn’t say “spontaneity” or “pizazz” to me so much as “desperately trying to prove something to others, and maybe in so doing proving something … to yourself.”