Post Content

Spider-Man, 4/10/07

It’s official: Everyone in this strip is a screw-up. “When Kordak hits ’em, they’re done for”? Tell that to not-dead hideously ugly redheaded flattop dude! Even the corpse-dumping was marked by failure. Presumably now N-DHURFD will seek to help Spidey in order to have revenge upon his former criminal compatriots. Inevitably, he’ll botch it somehow.

Pluggers, 4/10/07

So … you’re a plugger if you’re fat? This not only represents some kind of creative nadir for the Pluggers franchise, but it insults millions of fat people everywhere. Maybe the fatness/drawstring shorts combination is the key here.

Mark Trail, 4/10/07

Wow, that angry, angry fish in panel two is the scariest thing I’ve seen in the comics — or, well, anywhere, really — in a long time. Maybe it represents Mark himself, infuriated at being used and determined to settle the score with his gaping, lipless mouth. “You want to pretend to be dead to make money, Dan? Oh, I’ll pretend for you to be dead, all right — ONLY IT WON’T BE PRETEND!”

UPDATE: Anyone who thinks panel two is mere fantastical whimsy needs to read this.

Ziggy, 4/10/07

I have to say that I find the fact that this vending machine/enigmatic monolith has a coin slot but no way to spit out whatever it is you don’t know what you’re missing profoundly unsettling. I know that the “cryptically labeled vending machine that Ziggy regards dubiously” is a common trope in Ziggy, and for obvious reasons I’m not going to subject myself to a hunt through the Ziggy archives to find out if they’re all like that, but the sight of that smooth, unbroken expanse of white whatever, unbroken by any dispensing door or slot of any kind, chills me to the bone.

Post Content

You know, faithful readers e-mail me stuff all the time, or post links to things in the comments, much of which I’d like to feature but often forget to. I’ve had a pile of stuff sitting in my in-box now for a while, so here’s a bunch of funny stuff all at once!

First off, there was some discussion in the comments a while back about a long-ago National Lampoon newspaper spoof that targeted several of our favorite strips. Faithful reader Moon Mullins dug out his copy, scanned the strips, and sent ’em to me, and I repost them here for your memory-lane-travelling-down needs:

Also, faithful reader commodorejohn mashed up two of our favorite targets in They’ll FOOB It Every Time:

And hey! Did someone say “wacky YouTube videos”? Here’s a couple that found their way to me. The first is a super-surreal film school project called Rex Morgan, M.D.: The Motion Picture:

The second, Protectors of the Earth, answers the long-standing question, “What if Mark Trail, Mary Worth, Rex Morgan, and Garfield were a crime-fighting team?”

On an actually sort of educational tip, if you’re fascinated by those uncanny spoof editorial cartoons in the Onion, you might be interested in this story, in which LA Times opinionista (and faithful reader) Tim Cavanaugh tracks down the artist.

And finally, a faithful reader known only as “J.” felt I should see this (he claims it’s been floating around the Internet forever), and so I share it with all of you. Happy Tuesday, everybody!

UPDATE: Faithful reader Sakurai also did this awesome TDIET spoof:

Post Content

Apartment 3-G, 4/2/07

In part one of Soap Opera Strips I Haven’t Been Discussing Because They Have Been Boring To Me, Apartment 3-G’s interminable Lu Ann vs. Ghost Albert Pinkham Ryder storyline has been boring to me. There’s been days and days and days of crap exactly like the above, and yet none of it has advanced the plot a single iota. I have grabbed onto a shred of hope that the final panel here represents the possibility of some kind of resolution, as the dialogue would surely point to a murder-suicide scenario if one of the interlocutors weren’t already dead.

How long in strip time has Lu Ann been holed up in her paint-huffing paradise? It seems like months, which means that Tommie and Margo should jointly win the Worst Roommates In New York, Self-Absorbed Division. Shouldn’t Margo at least be concerned that Lu Ann has secretly accompanied Eric on his business trip for sexin’ purposes or something?

The Phantom, 4/2/07

In part two of Soap Opera Strips I Haven’t Been Discussing Because They Have Been Boring To Me, The Phantom’s interminable Old Man Mozz Is A Hostage To Bank Robbers storyline has been boring to me. There’s been a lot of fleeing bank robber dude, a lot of Phantom mind games, and way, way too much of Mozz’s gnomic, infuriatingly vague pronouncement. It appears that the Ghost Who’s Good With Knots is as bored with the diminutive sage’s blather as we are, but I do think that lynching him is a bit harsh.

Pluggers, 4/2/07

You know, I am in touch with my inner plugger enough to admit that I get some lower back twinges now and again myself, and I will say that, even on my back’s worst days, if I had to choose between bending over, and, say, allowing a heavy can to fall from above my head and bounce off of not one but both of my nipples — well, let’s just say that I’ve become quite adept at bending at the knees when need be. Admittedly, I don’t have the luxuriant man-boobs this plugger is sporting, but that’s gonna bruise.

Dennis the Menace, 4/2/07

Hmm, destroying your parents’ marriage by well-timed and almost imperceptible acts of psychological guerilla warfare? There might be hope for you yet, young menace. Well played.

Mark Trail, 4/2/07

Please be Dan’s corpse. Please be Dan’s corpse. Please be Dan’s corpse.