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Heathcliff, 10/3/13

Of the 24 blackbirds that had been captured, stunned, and laid atop a disc of pizza dough just before it was shoved into an unbearable hot oven, 23 somehow survived the hellish inferno and emerged with enough strength to fly off when Heathcliff opened the box. They were horribly burned and forever traumatized, to be sure, but at least they had avoided the grisly fate awaiting blackbird number 24. Perhaps it had mercifully succumbed during the baking process; but perhaps it was still conscious, covered in cheese and sauce, too weak to move, but still terribly aware of Heathcliff looking down at it, not even with hunger, just with cool, heavy-lidded detachment. He would be eating that last blackbird, oh yes. In his own time. In his own time.

Spider-Man, 10/3/13

You can’t even imagine how happy I am to see Spider-Man smugly announce he’s going to use one of his bona fide superpowers, and then fail really ostentatiously, while producing a hilarious “NHHHNN” noise. It’s like they wrote this strip just for me! “I loosened it for you” is what you say as a joke when you try and fail to open a pickle jar and then someone else opens it easily, by the way. Anyway, I hope that our poor sad-eyed webbed-up guard was able to derive at least a little bit of satisfaction from this whole scene.

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Mark Trail, 10/1/13

Happy U.S. government shutdown day, everybody! In keeping with his tendency to say vaguely nice things to everybody and let his underlings take all the controversial stands, Senator Mason has decided that Washington, D.C., is an extremely unpleasant place right now and that he’d much rather head off on a little vacation. As a federal employee, Dusty Rhodes is now officially furloughed, but that’s OK; instead of being forced to tell the senator about all the stuff he’s not supposed to do on federal land, he can join Mark and the gang in shooting as many animals as they want, digging for oil at random, and burning down huge swaths of forest, for kicks. Who’s gonna stop them? The government? Hahahaha!

Heathcliff, 10/1/13

I don’t want to alarm you but it appears that the Garbage Ape has started to attract notice even beyond the readership of this blog. I’m all for Heathcliff’s brand of off-putting surrealism finding a wider audience, but I think creating a Robin to the Garbage Ape’s Batman in an attempt to cash in on the character’s growing renown is too precious by half.

Momma, 10/1/13

You can tell I’ve been reading Momma for far too long because what mainly irritated me about today’s strip on first read was the weird, awkward way Francis just looks at Momma in silence for two panels and not, say, the unspeakable Oedipal horror.

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Family Circus, 9/16/13

Check out the conversation happening in the background of this panel. Big Daddy Keane is gesticulating and going on and on in deadly earnest; his female guest has carefully composed her face and placed her hands in her lap, trying to look attentive; his male guest is settling into an ever-deepening slouch, hoping the talking will stop, soon. Is Daddy extolling the virtues of his favored candidate for the local state senate district? Pitching them on joining his Amway downline? Just not shutting up about how things were better in his day, and if we just whipped society into shape we wouldn’t have all these problems? Whatever the case, both those poor souls look like they would be seriously cheered up by a little kid walking in there and cramming more potato chips into his mouth than anyone would’ve though humanly possible.

Heathcliff, 9/16/13

These cowardly birds are giving up their greatest chance to overthrow their cat oppressor! Look at him, lying there, immobile, defenseless, the tender flesh of his face and limbs and tail exposed to attacks from revenging beaks.

Slylock Fox, 9/16/13

Enjoy your minor victory of ratiocination now, Slylock! When the newly arrived UFO aliens begin processing all of Earth’s organic matter — sapient animals, remnant humans, and plants and fungi alike — into a high-grade food slurry that will be shipped to the Proletarian Caloric Dispensaries on the capital planet of their intergalactic empire, it will all very much not matter.

Momma, 9/16/13

Relaxing and snoozing? Do the Hobbs kids know how to party or what?