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Mary Worth, 12/10/11

Just think about what a rabbit hole of meta this strip is. Yes, it features a comic strip character complaining that “life already feels like too much of a comic strip”; but, when you think about it, when most people think about comic strips, they think about ones that have jokes and punchlines and such — not Mary Worth, in other words. Who would be the sort of person who would be more likely to use “comic strip” as a shorthand for soap opera strips, in which pointless people slowly live through plots that are simultaneously bland and ridiculous? Mary Worth, that’s who! Wheels within wheels, people.

Herb and Jamaal, 12/10/11

When I read this comic, I snorted dismissively and said “Please, ‘that singer with the high-octave voice,’ why don’t they just say–” but then I realized that I don’t really know who in the current pop cultural landscape “that singer with the high-octave voice” would be. Apparently this is what it feels like to enter the Herb and Jamaal audience demographic. It doesn’t feel good, for the record.

Marmaduke, 12/10/11

Marmaduke’s owner manages to hand his last-ever paycheck over to his wife as Marmaduke starts to tear through his flesh and gnaw on his tasty bones.

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Side note: here is a thing I meant to pass on from faithful reader ChattyGenes: some comics collections about the aftermath of the tsunami and nuclear accidents in Japan. You should read them if you are interested in these subjects!

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Marmaduke, 11/15/11

I don’t usually find little visual flourishes to enjoy in the loopy, face-melting world of Marmaduke, but here one is: Marmaduke’s owner’s license plate bears the single letter “M”. Actually, that ought to make one question whose car this really is. Usually the DMV doesn’t issue license plates with only a single letter on them, unless they’re compelled to do so by a terrifying power beyond their ken, which reinforces the emerging consensus that this vehicle belongs to Marmaduke, its purpose to carry its demon-hound owner wherever He wishes to go, via highway, carpool lane, sidewalk, canal, whatever, so that nosey cop had best do obeisance and walk away slowly, unless he wants to get eaten nice and painfully.

Herb and Jamaal, 11/15/11

“Here, let me set up a really convoluted analogy for you. You know how sometimes you just lose your grip on your wallet, and slips out of your hands and flies into a fish tank? And sometimes that fish tank is filled with pirañas, which are never kept in tanks? That’s what it’s like with the ladies, who take your money and bite you with razor-sharp teeth when you try to take it back!  Ha ha, women, who needs ’em, amiright? Say, want to come upstairs and look at my etchings?”

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Shoe, 10/18/11

“And considering that I am, as near as anyone can tell, some sort of chicken, I was afraid that it would malfunction and fry me. What sort of monster are you, selling something that could cause serious burns? What? No, I’m not going to tell you why I bought it in the first place. I’m certainly not interested in killing, dismembering, and frying my fellow chicken-men and then feasting on their succulent thighs. Why did you even bring that up? What? No, I’m not the one who brought it up. I have to go now.”

Herb and Jamaal, 10/18/11

Herb and Jamaal are frequently a bit confused as to the slang the kids use today, so it maybe shouldn’t come as a big shock that they’ve manage to completely misunderstand the phrase “sexual chocolate.”