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Apartment 3G, 3/4/08

Today, sullen wastrel Alan interrupts his power-dive at Jones’s Crank ‘n’ Skank to reconnect with his Muse. The bottle in panel one is a nice touch. Oh, yeah, and there’s another Margo clone. Wait, could this actually be three different women, or one woman with three different heads? Who counts? Who cares?

A3G is the collaboration of two cartooning talents: Margaret Shulock writes the strip; Frank Bolle illustrates it. Both have other gigs, Shulock as one of the Six Chix, Bolle as the new illustrator for Gil Thorp, inheritor of the Mantle of McLaughlin. So: can we deconstruct Apartment 3G into elements found in Six Chix and Gil Thorp? Let’s see!

Six Chix, 3/4/08

Well, sometimes life just hands you a gimme, don’t it?

Gil Thorp, 3/4/08

Wow; characters you can tell apart, limbs connected to bodies at reasonable angles, Newtonian sports action: not what we expect from Gil Thorp! Still needs work on drawing people between 9 and 35, but we’re on our way! Frankly, though, it doesn’t look much like A3G: it’s already better. Nice work, but maybe it’s time to pay some more attention to the core franchise?

– Uncle Lumpy

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Hey everyone, I know what you’re thinking: “Early comments of the week? Does that mean that Josh is going to be going on another vacation?” Sure does! But for a lucky few, that means you’ll get to meet me in person in Tucson next Friday. I’m going to try to make this a regular part of my travels, so perhaps this will ease the pain of my vacations somewhat. In the mean time, you’ll be in the hands of the inestimable Uncle Lumpy ’till Monday 3/10.

Oh, and before the CsOTW, I do have something for your delectation from faithful reader Andrew Leal: a compilation of the greatest panels from retired Gil Thorp artist Frank McLaughlin:

Ahhhh, takes you back, doesn’t it?

Anyway, here’s this week’s COMMENT OF THE WEEK!

“Hey, look, Lu Ann! Wolves! Here, let me throw you to them.” –Darkefang

And the runners-up … also hilarious

“Tuesday’s FBoFW is dreadful, in the sense that it genuinely inspires dread.” –Trilobite

“Pray all you want, Frosty, summer’s still coming. AND WITH IT YOUR DOOM.” –Inspector Dim

“When Dee married into the Patterson clan, she became The Human Uterus. She exists solely to incubate, birth, and raise Michael’s spawn, so all her deprecated body functions (abstract thought, aesthetic pleasance) have been steadily degrading ever since.” –commodorejohn

“Shouldn’t [the snowman] be given some clothes to wear before he starts praying? At least Frosty had the decency to put on a hat!” –BigTed

“Yikes. You could stick a cello in Funky’s crotch, and I don’t mean that in a good way.” –gkl

“Maybe Snowman Larry would be happier if he had some GIANT FUCKING GLASSES. You know, like the most striking and easily drawable visual feature of the real Larry King. I understand you can’t draw the smell of Vick’s Vap-o-Rub and cheap hookers, but I think the Keanes could have tried a little bit harder on this caricature.” –The Other Commenter

“‘Belly Laffs’ is truly baffling. Where is this published? in Terrible Joke A Day Weekly? She’s typing, so it appears not to be a comic strip; one has to imagine the joke without the accompanying picture, which, to be fair, would make it easier to ignore.” –Evan

“Snowman Larry King looks kind of beat down. He probably just noticed that Josh has paired him with ‘Belly Laffs’ and realizes there’s something worse than melting.” –kingklash

“It’s the smug smile of satisfaction on Jenny’s face as she ‘writes’ this tripe that gets me. As if she’s sitting there convinced that she’s churning out Pulitzer winning material and is at that moment planning which hideous turtleneck she’ll wear when she accepts the award.” –ConcreteQueen

“A-Train doesn’t seem to mind the intrusions though. He’s too busy trying to impress her with his suave, ‘I know how to purchase a money order’ smile.” –# ar_d

See ya next Monday, everyone! Be nice to your favorite Uncle.

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Apartment 3-G, 2/28/08

Good lord, is there anything more divine than imagining a timid and baffled Lu Ann on some sort of weird A3G approximation of The View? I can just see her shrinking with embarassment further and further down into her seat as Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselback scream at each other about the merits of modern art or something. Then Margo would burst onto the set, slap Whoopi and Elisabeth, and, eyes flashing with fire, bellow “This interview is over!” at Barbara Walters. Next, taking off one shoe, she’d…

…OK, I’m officially a little too excited by this scenario.

Gil Thorp, 2/28/08

The sad Tale of Andrew The Abandoned Boy continues, with the A-Train forced to boil things for his little siblings while his father heroically protects U.S. State Department officials with Blackwater. Today, I’m mostly troubled by whatever the hell is going on under the narration box in panel two. It looks like Andrew is programming some sort of 1950s-era computer, complete with a slot for a punch card. Perhaps the artist thinks that once a check is “direct-deposited,” one can extract the money from ENIAC?

Site note: I’ve finally done something I should have done years ago: I created a privacy policy for the site. Take a look, won’t you? (Update: I just made a few quite minor tweaks thanks to suggestions, including adding details about PayPal.)