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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 10/25/18

I make fun of Parson Tuttle as an opportunistic grifter, but let’s be honest: if he’s like most clergyman, his salary is ultimately paid by his congregation, and he has the bad fortune to be assigned to a church in one of the poorest and most isolated parts of the country. He’s forced to go door to door wheedling meals to supplement his meager take, and even at homes where he’s welcomed to the table, the “bounty” on offer is no more than a pile of vaguely chewable tan blobs — whether biscuits or potatoes or deep-fried chunks of the less palatable parts of a chicken, who can say?

Mark Trail, 10/25/18

Nothing in the comics made me laugh more today than these two idiot children pausing in the middle of a dramatic escape from perceived danger to have this inane conversation. “Great, Rusty, we’re in an alley! Now what!” “Maybe we can get out at the other end! Maybe we should ‘turn’ our ‘heads’ and use our ‘eyes’ to ‘see’ if this is a dead end or not! Do you want to do it first or should I?”

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Mary Worth, 10/17/18

Oh my god, it’s even better than I could’ve hoped: Mary is going to force emotional progress on Mr. Wynter by driving him to the pet shelter and browbeating him into adopting a pet while he begs her to stop! This is of course a terrible way to deal with a man’s sadness over a lost dog, simultaneously rushing the grieving process and belittling the specific bond he felt with his unique beloved pup. Honestly, though, my take is: why stop here? Why not just take things to their logical conclusion? Remember Saul’s devastation over the the loss of the love of his life? Why doesn’t Mary just drag him down to some adult education class that skews female — quilting? — and say “Maybe we can also cheer up a lonely widow or divorceé and make their day!” Saul will cling desperately to the side of the car, but with her persistence and surprising upper body strength, Mary will ensure that Saul loves again, whether he wants to or not.

Mark Trail, 10/17/18

A lot of people have been begging in the comments for me to check in on the Mark Trail storyline, which they’ve claimed is “exciting,” which, are you kidding me, it’s consisted entirely of Rusty and Mara having a weird, awkward conversation with “Backpack Guy” about which parts of this small Mexican town aren’t safe for two American tourist kids, one of whom is an obvious moron. However, I do of course need to present today’s strip to you, since it features the triumphant return of Extremely Cool Motorcycle Dude, who definitely seems to be from a different faction from Backpack Guy. Which of these two artifact-stealing-adjacent groups has Rusty and Mara’s best interests at heart? Is it neither of them? Can it please be neither of them? That’d be great.

Dick Tracy, 10/17/18

This Dick Tracy storyline has been remarkably short and low on character motivation — just a couple weeks after we’ve been introduced to Pauly and suddenly he’s a guy who’s always wanted to kill Dick Tracy, blah blah blah, now he and Dick are firing pistols at each other at close range and making no attempt to dive for cover or anything, etc., etc. Mostly I want to point out that Pauly looks like you put Dick and Sam together in the transporter pod from The Fly and turned the Color Palette knob all the way to “brown.”

Family Circus, 10/17/18

Today’s Family Circus features the Keane Kids staring at their parents’ increasingly passionate embrace, commenting upon, but not quite comprehending, the difference between the erotic bonds between the two adults and the filial bonds between parents and children. It’s the best panel they’ve presented us with in years!

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Spider-Man, 10/5/18

Though I’m usually defiantly proud of my general ignorance of superhero funnybooks, one thing I do know, having watched season one of Daredevil, is that Kingpin is a real estate-themed criminal, so I appreciate his “evicted” wordplay here. I want more real estate catchphrases out of him! You know, “This plan is trickier than assembling financing for a major construction project in Midtown Manhattan while trying to get your permits in order in time to begin construction,” that sort of thing. As a punchline for this bit, I was going to say “the actual plan he’s talking about is assembling financing for a major construction project in Midtown Manhattan while trying to get your permits in order in time to begin construction, but for evil,” but that honestly seemed redundant.

Mark Trail, 10/5/18

“Wait, isn’t that those two meddling kids who’ve been following me around? Oh, never mind, they’re reading. It can’t possibly be them. The kids I’m thinking of are definitely too dumb to know how to read.”