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Spider-Man, 4/30/19

I know I said I wasn’t going to get into Rerun Newspaper Spider-Man until it dipped a little further into the vaults than five years ago, but I guess I should grudgingly acknowledge that the particular rerun storyline they chose to launch the reruns involves Mysterio as a villain, who will also be the villain in this summer’s upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home, which means that this zombified strip is doing a significantly better job of adding the infinitesimal amount of buzz of which it’s capable into the cultural ether to boost the next entry in the most lucrative series of films in cinematic history than it did when it was still a going concern.

Anyway, not that I expect to revisit this, but the outcome of this newspaper storyline was that this Mysterio wasn’t the real Mysterio, despite the fact that as far as I’m concerned anyone who puts on this ludicrously dumb costume with its fishbowl helmet and calls themselves Mysterio deserves to be thought of as a real Mysterio, at least. I would find it profoundly amusing and satisfying if this were also the shocking twist at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, a film where presumably 75% of those seeing it will have only the vaguest of familiarity with the character. The main result would be a collective “Huh?” from most of the audience, followed by some furious rewriting of the infinite “Who Is Mysterio, The Villain Of Spider-Man: Far From Home?” explainer articles churned out by every publication from Politico to Bon Appétit as they desperately seek out that sweet, sweet Marvel Cinematic Universe SEO traffic.

Mark Trail, 4/30/19

Mark has been scowling aggressively at JJ pretty much from the moment he met him, and he’s gotten so deep into it that he seems to have forgotten his real primary non-punching role, which is to interject nature facts at vaguely appropriate times. Looks like Doc has to do his work for him! And he’s not doing a great job! Javelinas aren’t pigs, but they’re part of the suborder Suina, which means they’re more closely related to pigs than any animal that isn’t a pig. You’re lucky you’re so far out in the desert that nobody can look this up on their phone, Doc!

Dennis the Menace, 4/30/19

I’m not up on modern methods of child discipline, but usually when a kid’s in “time out” or whatever they call it these days, do his parents let his friends just wander in and talk with him? I mean, maybe the other kids’ parents want them to see him, like as a cautionary example or something.

Hagar the Horrible, 4/30/19

Hmm … Lucky Eddie wants to open a fish store because he’s … “passionate” … about … fish?

Hagar the Horrible, 7/17/18 and 8/26/17

Noooooooooooooo

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Dick Tracy, 4/27/19

Usually a week-sized chunk is the smallest unity of plot for a continuity strip, but Dick Tracy wrapped up its gym teacher murderer plot around about Thursday, so why not use the remainder of the week to keep us up to date on the Vitamin Flintheart/Kandikane May-December romance, which is definitely a storyline that we all care about? A couple days is all we can spare on the miracle of life, though, because a Minit Mystery awaits! (I will not be covering the Minit Mystery, because zzzzzzzzz.)

Mark Trail, 4/27/19

Congrats to Mark: based on his pensive facial expression the final panel here, it looks like he’s finally learned how to have thoughts without verbalizing them. I’m curious as to whether those thoughts are along the lines of “This is an old man’s folly, I hope Doc isn’t too embarrassed when it doesn’t pan out” or if they’re more like “I don’t trust JJ at all! I bet I’m going to have to punch him soon!”

Pluggers, 4/27/19

Once pluggers hit a certain age, they stop even pretending that they have any interest in reading.

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Mark Trail, 1/13/19

It’s always been pretty obvious that loresman and aspirational mansplainer JJ Looper was destined to be the villain in this storyline, what with his bad attitude and overall squintyness. Today he has committed the ultimate sin within the Trailiverse by referring to adorable baby animals as “dumb,” when everyone knows it’s the people in Mark Trail who are dumb. Anyway, he’s about to get his comeuppance remarkably swiftly, and presumably after he’s mauled to death by that ocelot Mark and company will just go take what they need from his store and enjoy some low-key, risk-free gold mining fun.

Gil Thorp, 1/13/19

OK, not to go back on my praise earlier this week for Gil Thorp’ scattershot, tell-don’t-show visual/narrative style, but … you can’t have everyone praise Jocelynn’s hat without showing us the whole hat, guys, c’mon. We gotta see the whole hat! We’re only seeing the bottom of hat. How far up does that hat go?