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Crock, 8/18/20

Crock is in perpetual reruns now, and it’s hard to tell when exactly any given strip was composed, which is fine when they’re making light-hearted jokes about the grueling century-long French colonial occupation of Algeria, but can get wonky when the strip tries to grapple with “current events.” Like, I guess this dates from the period (the ’90s, I think?) where Wal-Mart’s rapid expansion to retail dominance was noteworthy instead of just a historical footnote to the transition to Amazon’s stranglehold on all commerce. Anyway, I’m not quite sure what the joke here is supposed to be. Is Grossie waiting by the sign with her cart a “women be shopping” gag, which misses the fact that the gag is specifically about shopping as a high-end indulgence and doesn’t really work if it’s “women be shopping for low-priced daily necessities”? Or is her knowing grin just supposed to convey something like “Eh? Eh? Capitalism? Eh?”

Funky Winkerbean, 8/18/20

This massive wildfire may have displaced hundreds of thousands of people, but at least it’s giving Marianne a chance to really understand what it was like to be married to Les, an opportunity that she surely regrets so, so much.

Daddy Daze, 8/18/20

Is he … is he afraid his son will eventually want to have sex with a brain? Is that the joke here?

The Phantom, 8/18/20

Did … did the Phantom murder or terrorize a couple of waitresses so his daughter and her friend could have a job that earned them a little pocket money? Is that the joke here?

Marvin, 8/18/20

Ha ha, it’s funny because Marvin’s poops are more deadly than a unprecedented worldwide pandemic!

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Hi and Lois, 8/16/20

I know it’s a typical problem with throwaway panels, but I’m really being thrown for a loop by the narrative bump between “Oh, you know, husband duty” and “Are we gonna play golf today?” Like, what does Thirsty think “husband duty” is, exactly. Is it just leaving the house and getting out your wife’s sight? Does his own wife hate him so much that the only nice thing he can think of a husband doing is making himself absent?

Funky Winkerbean, 8/16/20

Ah, I see the giant firestorm has reached Griffith Park, and, uh, guys, I’m not even going to bother making a map for this one. But I will point out that this is all part of a larger Funkyverse crossover event that I don’t think I’ve really discussed here: ‘Shaft-son-in-law Jeff mused that he’s love to see the filming location of the The Phantom Empire ten years ago, in Crankshaft, and now finally gets to do so, in Funky Winkerbean, except it’s going to kill him. Of course, in that Crankshaft strip, Jeff said he wanted to “visit Murania one day” and Pam said “You do understand that this is made up, don’t you?”, which probably means that Jeff will flee into the canyon with his … grandson, I think? I assume this is Max’s son, the one who was taken in to see the movie, as an infant? … anyway, Jeff and the kid are going to go into the canyon and discover a whimsical silent movie world of robots and high-tech underground dwellers! Then we’ll learn that actually this was just the last feeble flickerings in their brains, as they died of smoke inhalation.

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Mary Worth, 8/14/20

Wait, are they really not going to tell us what the secret ingredient is that Madi whispered to Toby? I’m outraged that there’s a single thing that Toby knows that I don’t! Whatever it is, it must have some intense regenerative powers, as the remains of the loaf of banana bread is almost twice as big in panel two as it is in panel one, though that might be due to the divine intercession of Gram, to whom Madi is ostentatiously praying.

Funky Winkerbean, 8/14/20

Damn it, Funky Winkerbean, are you gonna make me do this? Because I can do this!

You keep not making sense and I will absolutely keep making maps, I swear to God

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/14/20

Ha ha, it’s funny because … the hovels in which the desperately poor characters in this comic live are infested with vermin?