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Gasoline Alley, 7/27/07

For the last several years — or, oh, let’s say decades — Gasoline Alley has been guilty of crimes against humor, the comics medium, and its own storied history; the “Slim keeps his neighborhood white with a meteorite he bought on eBay” is only the latest outrage, though it is by no means the worst. Much of these transgressions are unforgivable, but perhaps we can accept as a mitigating factor the fact that this hippie/’Nam vet/militia type just referred to a course of action that might lead to incarceration as “jaily”, which may be the most delightful new adjective I’ve encountered all week. I don’t really live a life of danger on the edge of the law, but I will try to use the word “jaily” in conversation as often as possible — or, if circumstances dictate, “finey” or “community servicey”.

Gil Thorp, 7/27/07

Never mind Coach Kaz’s false modesty, or Kelly’s brutally honest assessment of his earning potential. What the hell happened to our soda jerker’s chin in panel one? It looks like he’s all bandaged up there. Did Kaz get him with an uppercut just to keep in practice for when the next drunken lout comes along? Or did he hit his chin on the counter when he emerged from the time vortex that brought him and his little paper hat here from 1958?

Mary Worth, 7/27/07

Dawn’s sitting on the world’s smallest saddle, but that’s OK because she’s also sitting on the world’s smallest horse. I’m no equestrianologist, but I’m pretty sure that a horse’s head is usually larger than a human’s head. I do note that you can’t see the horses from the withers down, which may indicate that they’re made of fiberglass, perched atop a giant spring, and sitting in front of a Wal-Mart.

Meanwhile, in panel one, Mary waves at a total stranger in a desperate attempt to stop talking to Wilbur.

Mark Trail, 7/27/07

Ohmygosh, do you think he’s going to release more birds soon? THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME!

Hey, everybody, my mom’s coming to visit for the weekend, so posts might be a little sparse on the ground for the next few days. COTWs coming on schedule Sunday, though, don’t you worry about it!

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Ziggy, 7/23/07

I’m with you, Garfield Ziggy! Those Mondays’ll get ya down! If there’s one thing we can count on from Garfield Ziggy, it’s burning hatred of Mondays. But people really do hate Mondays, which I guess is why Garfield Ziggy sells so many darn mugs and posters!

Anyway, Garfield Ziggy is certainly right today: all of the comics just left me cold for the most part. Even this shameless out-of-context Mary Worth double-entendre couldn’t shake me out of my Monday funk:

She’s going riding whether you’re coming or not, Dr. Drew, so why not get on board?

No, the only thing that really made me smile today was Mark Trail.

Mark Trail, 7/23/07

Sam is nothing if not a method actress, a necessity for the sort of half-cocked, half-concealed-by-shrubbery skullduggery she’s engaged in here. Unfortunately, her normal face features the sort of freakishly wide eyes that you normally only see on drug addicts and Graves ophthalmopathy sufferers, so the only way she can show her “frightened while looking for her dog” face is to present the bug-eyed horror show we seen in panel three. Hopefully everyone’s mom is right and her face is going to freeze like that, because that will make for the most awesomely disturbing next three to eight weeks of Mark Trail ever.

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Man, give Comics Curmudgeon readers access to one wacky Gil Thorp cartoon and about 36 hours, and you get an entire elaborate — and utterly hilarious — backstory for the “Rock and Roll Carole King.” Go back and read the comments on this post. I dare you not to giggle. I dare you.

Meanwhile, faithful reader Trotzenbonnie sent me some pics of her taking her Margo!Boxcar!Saturn! shirt out for a walk in he Big Easy. Here she is sucking down a mojito at Pat O’Brien’s…

…and here she’s showering herself with powdered sugar at Cafe Du Monde.

“My M!B!S! t-shirt was admired by several passers-by who all thought my name must be Margo,” she said. “I liked that.”

Also! I’ve linked to plenty of blogs that focus relentlessly on a single comic strip; in all that time, there’s been a gaping hole in that genre that at last has been filled. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Nobody Loves Rusty, for your all-Mark-Trail-all-the-time needs.

And finally, apparently every Webcomics artist is a secret FBOFW reader.

UPDATE: Will GailMania ever end? Probably! But to cash in on it before that happens, coming Monday there’ll be GAIL MARTIN CONCERT T-SHIRTS available from my CafePress store! The design is by faithful reader Dingo:

He says he’ll update it with more cities over the weekend, so post your suggestions in the comments.