Archive: Luann

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Mark Trail, 11/21/09

Bob sure seems to know that the best way to get into Mark’s good graces is to do violence to the faces of the enemies of wildlife. But is he trying a little too hard? I mean, the kicking-two-bad-guys-in-the-face-while-dangling-from-a-tree-limb move … it makes Mark’s right cross seem a little pedestrian, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why he’s engaging in casual conversation as he gets his fisticuffs on. Of course, orangeshirt and yellowshirt are still standing in panel two, so perhaps Mark is grateful for the opportunity to show that vigilante justice is best dished out by hands, not feet, and specifically by the knuckle part of the hands.

Mary Worth, 11/22/09

Mary’s tiny, pinpoint pupils in panel two, as she slathers platitude upon platitude onto a poor woman who she’s already bent to her will, really demonstrate why Mary does what she does. Meddling for her directly activates the pleasure centers of her brain more powerfully than any narcotic you can name.

Luann, 11/21/09

Ha ha, you can try to de-exoticize yourself all you want, Quill, but Luann will attempt to “share her bounty” with you whether you want her to or not — possibly during Thanksgiving dinner, when her mom is distracted by making sure Brad and Toni are at least six inches apart at all times.

Pluggers, 11/21/09

Pluggers don’t believe in “legal rights” or “due process” or a bunch of namby-pamby crap like that. When pluggers take over, there will be an 11 o’clock curfew, for everyone, with summary execution for those who disobey.

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Mary Worth, 11/16/09

So, it looks like Scott is going to be A-OK, now that Dr. Jeff has given him and his sexy legs the once-over! Adrian is of course a doctor as well, but her medico-vision was disabled by grief and estrogen, so it was important for Jeff to make sure. (A competent doctor who was not a relative or potential relative of the patient was unavailable, as Dr. Jeff has made sure that everyone who works with him at Santa Royale General is one of his cronies or offspring.)

Anyway, with a mighty MEANWHILE, our narration box thrusts us pell-mell into the next storyline, and panel two shows us why we keep tuning into this feature. Who is making a phone call, and to whom? Is it someone calling to tell Mary that she’s wearing a hideous canary-yellow skirt-suit just like the one Mary’s been wearing all week, presaging a “Single White Meddling Biddy” storyline? Let’s hope!

Dick Tracy, 11/16/09

Here is the ethical dilemma for me as a Dick Tracy reader: each and every storyline inevitably ends in a scene of gruesome violence — with people being electrocuted or torn to bits by vicious dogs or run over by bulldozers — that I am genuinely shocked and discomfited to find on the comics page. And yet the rest of the strip is so baffling and dull that these flesh-mangling episodes are all I feel that I have to look forward to in this feature. Thus, I’m feeling pretty cheated right now, because despite several months’ worth of foreshadowing, not a single person in this interminable circus storyline has been mauled by a tiger, despite many chances for such a thing to happen. One can only hope that the plot’s various ne’er-do-wells have been spared that fate so that Dick can line them up and shoot them in the face one by one.

Luann, 11/16/09

For the record, this is a bad idea because Brad will try too hard and screw everything up, plus TJ will attempt to seduce Brad’s mom. His whipped sweet potatoes will still be exquisite.

Curtis, 11/16/09

I have never claimed to some kind of consistency in my comics likes and dislikes. Thus, while Marvin’s endless poop-smeared antics repulse me, I will always laugh at jokes about Curtis’s little brother picking his nose with malice aforethought, especially when this is indicated by comical sound effects.

Hi and Lois, 11/16/09

I realize that “nostalgia music” was more or less necessary to set up the punchline here, but for full sneering-at-old-people effect, I prefer “dinosaur rock” myself.

Oh, and Vintage Guitar magazine? It exists, my friends. Order it now for the dinosaur rocker on your Christmas list!

Spider-Man, 11/16/09

Newspaper comic strip Spider-Man trufans have been enjoying this plot so far, but have been waiting with mounting anxiety for the moment when the plot will hinge on the non-functioning of an ordinary household electronic device. Never fear, faithful readers! You know this feature always comes through for you!

More Josh-on-the-radio news! If your local public radio station carries Dick Gordon’s “The Story,” I am on it, today, talking nostalgically about being laid off during the last recession! In the Baltimore area it’s on WYPR at 8 pm. I will post a link to the podcast when available!

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Your comments of the week shortly, but first I must point out a very important update on Luann: The Musical! When last we checked in, it was still at the staged reading point in its evolution, but sometime in the last 21 months it has been unleashed upon hapless high school drama departments everywhere! If you want to hear the songs and see photos from actual productions of this thing, by all means check out the site. Thanks to faithful reader Jake Morgendorffer for the tip!

And now, that promised comment of the week!

“I never would have guess that Gil Thorp having a prison scene in which a prisoner yells out, ‘Drill him Daley’ would be less obscene than Zits mocking Love Is and yet there it is.” –Rob

And the runners up! Very funny!

“Adrian, I’ve met someone else. Her name is Sister Morphine. She turns my nightmares into dreams, and I love her. Now can you call that Doctor What’s-His-Name, the one without a face? I’m having trouble peeing.” –Morten Jonsson

“So Jamaal is an ex basketball player. Who knew? Someone should tell Bentley that basketball players are usually tall because they have long legs and torsos, not long heads.” –Saluki

“Once again, we beg to disagree. Miss Thompson has plenty of dignity. More dignity in fact, than is good for her. What she doesn’t have is fun. Spontaneity. Imagination. Creativity. If Miss Thompson were any more dignified she would be eighty years old.” –Fashion Police

Dignity is akin to virginity: once you’ve lost it, you can’t get it back. Remember this, Tommie, and well. At least you’ve still got the one.” –Dingo

She is her father’s daughter after all. In the sense that she’s committed herself romantically to what essentially amounts to a corpse.” –Violet

“‘Without regret’? Excuse me, but isn’t this the same Adrian who can’t stop talking about/obsessing over her last boyfriend, the con artist, even as she sits vigil at the potential deathbed of her current boyfriend? And then, of course, there’s the whole ‘Can I think about this proposal a little longer, as you go off to risk your life? I’ll tell you afterward’ scheme, which didn’t work out so great. Regret is Adrian’s primary emotion. And with good reason.” –Mollie

“I want to have a dog that perpetually has this facial expression. I could call him ‘ennui.'” –DamienBixlan

“‘And it’s also lunchtime at a certain minimum-security prison!’ is something I’m now going to blurt whenever it’s lunchtime. Or any other time, for that matter, ’cause somewhere in the world, it’s lunchtime in prison, certainly.” –Kibo

“I wouldn’t want to be the janitor at ‘McGooey’s’.” –troy macgregor

“I assume that through their use of monochrome and extreme angles, the artists for Gil Thorp are trying to tap into the same feel as 1940s noir films. Unfortunately for them, Jimmy Stewart never had a hand protruding from somewhere near his waist, nor did Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre high-five douchily after misleading Humphrey Bogart.” –Deathbysalmon

“You can tell that the prison in Gil Thorp is minimum security because it has a well-polished black onyx floor. Fancy!” –Patrick

That looks far less like a high-five and more like highschool kid number 2 looking on as someone feverishly prays, perhaps for anatomy that makes sense.” –It’s time to pay the price

“So that high five in Gil Thorp isn’t douchy so much as it is just terribly pathetic. I mean, is there anything more sad than getting a high five for lying after not going to a volleyball game? When I was in high school you got high fives for lying after not getting laid.” –GG

“Whew, Adrian survived the first trial of their relationship: 10 hours of unconsciousness. Will her love now withstand the bedpan?” –Ichi

“God, Tommie is devastating hot in panel two there. There’s a cynical, androgynous beauty there that I Dressed in the Dark is sure to snuff out rather than embrace. All she needs to become my ideal woman is to start smoking, get into chicks (again?) and develop a personality.” –notapipe

“Does anyone else find it hilarious for someone to say ‘Hey! Watch out!’ during a prison riot? Is there really a guy in prison who worries about the safety protocols of these moments?” –the coatrack

“‘I was just showing her where the bathroom is.’ Apparently Toni got sick the first time she saw Brad naked. Can’t say I blame her.” –cheech wizard

“I’m confused. Is Crankshaft rattling off a list of location-specific weather phenomena, or the colloquial titles of perverse sex acts? He may well be ready for the Saskatchewan Snowjob, but you can’t ever truly prepare yourself for a Winnipeg Windjammer.” –Caroline

“Adrian goes down the path of any engaged woman. ‘This line seems LOOKATMYRING fine.'” –Dragon of Life

“‘Where there is great love, there are always miracles.’ Aldo Kelrast believed in that quote at one time, but fat lot of good it did him.” –Red Greenback

“Just frozen dinners and beer. Surely this strip is taking a hard look at the need for nutritional awareness among returning POWs who have been cuckolded by comic-book-hawkers.” –gleeb

Alcoholism! Of all the sadness in FW, I think I love it best.” –Sallie Melcher

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