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Archive: Hi and Lois

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Eros and thanatos

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Hi and Lois, 8/21/20

Not sure how long the time gap is between these two panels, but I’m guessing it’s not very long, and I’m pretty amused by how quickly Ditto went from “Chip’s walks around the neighborhood are a fun big-kid thing that I want to be a part of!” and “Jesus Christ, these walks are intolerably boring, why does he do this, what’s the point.” Anyway, your brother’s horny, kid, you’ll understand someday.

Funky Winkerbean, 8/21/20

Oh, god, I take it back, I’d welcome sex stuff rather than this, rather than “I think my dead wife would’ve wanted the lady I hired to make a movie about how she died to watch the videos she recorded for her widower and daughter.” “Thank you,” says Marianne, who is way, way too rapturously grateful for this. By the way, have we established whether they’re done filming this movie? I had assumed not, but there have been hints that they are, which would make this all the funnier! She needs to see these videos now, after the role is over, in case they do a … sequel? Oh no, they’re going to do a sequel, aren’t they.

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Suffer the little children

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Family Circus, 8/17/20

As a professional comics curmudgeon, my ethics dictate that I must acknowledge when one of the comics I usually dump on is good, and folks: this Family Circus is a good one. The irony of Jeffy’s t-shirt proclaiming that he’s a happy camper as he experiences a comically overwrought meltdown is great, of course, but my favorite thing is just how chill Dolly is. She’s usually the family snitch and would love nothing more than to narc on Jeffy for throwing a tantrum, but look at her: She’s wearing her shades and her casual camping clothes. She’s on vacation, just like she’s trying to explain to her brother. It’s not the time for this, Jeffy! You’re free! You don’t have to be like your usual dumb self here!

Hi and Lois and Daddy Daze, 8/17/20

Meanwhile, I’ve quite rightly never been left in charge of an infant for any length of time, but these strips both seem to depict … pretty good ways to suffocate your infant? Are these scenes bad for infants, health wise? Sound off in the comments on infant safety around huge piles of clothes or stuffed animals or whatever.

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I certainly HOPE he doesn’t think it means sex stuff

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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.