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Beetle Bailey, 11/7/20

I guess the joke here is that Sarge is an ape-like brute who took Beetle’s first-panel retort as an invitation to pound him into a pulp in traditional Beetle Bailey fashion. But I’d like to imagine that in fact Sarge took Beetle to a zoo or gorilla sanctuary and threw him into an enclosure to be attacked, or perhaps released a gorilla he keeps captive for just such occasions, because he is a very literal ape-like brute.

Hi and Lois, 11/7/20

Faithful readers of this blog know that I’m extremely on board with Hi and Lois reclaiming Thirsty’s original characterization as a sad, desperate alcoholic. I’m sad that the colorists of today’s strip, apparently unaware of the comics’ rich history of using alcohol-inflamed rhinopehyma as a visual gag, spent all their red-yellow gradient efforts on the fall leaves and not on Thirsty’s cross-hatched nose. Because Hi is trash-talking his neighbor and best (only?) friend well within hearing distance, I assume that Thirsty is fully passed out in that chair.

Pluggers, 11/7/20

I am dying to know the relationship between this strip and the infamous “Rhino-Man Hocks His TV” panel, not least because that appears to be the identical model of television, which was decades out of date even when Rhino-Man hocked it back in 2006. I don’t know if we’re supposed to understand that Dog-Man is superior to Rhino-Man in fixiness, the quality most valued in a plugger after down-home smugness and sexism, or if this is in fact the exact same TV, which the guy at the pawn shop gave Dog-Man at no charge just to free up some space on his shelves.

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Dennis the Menace and Hi and Lois, 10/29/20

Truly, there’s nothing more menacing than a child who becomes extremely aware of their own ability to perform a sort of exaggerated pantomime of childhood antics. Look at Dennis’s sickeningly smug facial expression in panel two — it’s like he didn’t ruin the wall for the joy of it, but rather just so he could unleash this sub-Family Circusism on his poor mother. Dot, too, is really overdoing it; a child rejoicing in the suffering of a sibling is demonstrating a distasteful but natural human emotion, but she’s making such a big deal of her cruel mirth that it’s clearly meant for an audience, one that for the moment is withholding the attention she so obviously and pathetically craves.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 10/29/20

Snuffy’s facial expression similarly seems wildly overdone, but I think we’re supposed to read it as genuine. See, he’s really depressed because he’s so poor and so deep in debt that he can’t afford to buy anything to eat, which is … the punchline to this strip, I guess?

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Crankshaft, 10/4/20

Hey, remember the last mayoral election in this town, when Ralph, who’s sitting there claiming he could never do what you need to do to run for mayor, ran for mayor? He lost, because Crankshaft, his campaign manager, forgot to vote for him, and it’s really a good thing, too, because here we are not even at the end of what would’ve been his first term and his brain is so addled he doesn’t even remember he ever ran. Sad!

Gasoline Alley, 10/4/20

I refuse to think about whether the Sunday and weekly Gasoline Alley strips are in the same “continuity” any longer than it will take me to type this sentence, but I will point out that today’s strip that has the vibe of “We’ve been closed for months due to coronavirus but now we’re open!” even though we’ve never seen anyone in the strip acknowledge the coronavirus. Anyway, it seems the pandemic was actually much worse in the Gasoline Alley universe, and the shattered remnants of society have been reduced to eating horsemeat.

Hi and Lois, 10/4/20

Chip’s emotional journey here is interesting but besides the point: these two suburban families have figured out a way to link their landholdings and create a stronger and more easily defensible bloc of territory via strategic matrimony, and so everybody involved just needs to get used to the idea.

Panel from The Lockhorns, 10/4/20

I absolutely love Leroy’s miserable facial expression here. He knows everyone hates him and hates what he’s doing, but he’s found himself committed to this bit against his own best instincts, with no way to back out.