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You almost certainly have noticed that King Features has washed its comics in pink today in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month! How has our favorite art form managed to acknowledge this important issue in the context of its usual light-hearted fare? Let’s take a look!

Rhymes With Orange and My Cage, 10/10/10

Rhymes With Orange is, as near as I can tell, the only strip with the guts to do an actual joke about breast cancer. My Cage at least attempts a Breast Cancer Awareness meta-joke.

Marvin and Curtis, 10/10/10

Some strips did a half-hearted job of trying to explain why they were all pinkish without acknowledging the “you or your loved ones might get terrible cancer” subtext. For instance, Marvin’s parents are apparently giving him psychoactive drugs, and Curtis is attempting to up his enjoyment of ladies’ church hats by literally viewing them through rose-colored glasses.

Apartment 3-G, 10/10/10

Mostly, though, the creators just churned the strips through a Breast Cancer Awareness Photoshop filter, shoehorned a pink ribbon in wherever it would fit, and went about their business. This sometimes had awkward results. Here, the ribbon of female solidarity silently shames Lu Ann and Margo, who are engaged in petty intragender squabbling.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/10/10

Breast Cancer Awareness Month had the bad form this year to fall smack in the middle of Rex Morgan’s attempt to raise awareness of prostate cancer. At least the pink ribbon had the good sense to not float right next to June’s word balloon in panel one, stealing its awareness-raising thunder. Still, the noble ribbon is oddly juxtaposed with the mayor’s final-panel threat to decapitate whoever is raising awareness about his own personal tumor-ridden prostate gland.

Blondie, 10/10/10

Blondie deserves kudos for not simply slathering Pepto-Bismol all over everything but rather integrating pink relatively tastefully into the color scheme of the Sunday strip.

Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft, 10/10/10

Shockingly, the Winkerverse strips are mostly pink-free, though Funky Winkerbean did pair up the boilerplate “Cartoonists Care” ribbon with a hand-drawn “Lisa’s Legacy” ribbon, as if to say “We don’t need to do this crap because we own this issue. We are aware of cancer and suffering and pain 365 days a year, to the exclusion of all else.”

Spider-Man, 10/10/10

And, of course, Spider-Man ignored the campaign completely, the better to reflect Peter Parker’s longstanding tradition of just stone cold not giving a shit.

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Apartment 3-G, 10/5/10

Oh, Lu Ann, never try to open up and have some personal sharing time with the master of emotional jujitsu. “I had feelings for Jack.” “Yes, he flirted with me too.” Ha ha, see how that went? Margo never got all handsy with Jack, oh no. Sorry your little feelings got hurt, though, Lu Ann! Margo sympathizes in an abstract way, but does not understand these “feelings” of which you speak.

Gil Thorp, 10/5/10

“Ease up!” Everyone knows that in Gil Thorp these two words are the prelude to hilarious violence. And indeed the person being admonished to so ease himself is last football season’s protagonist, simmering rage case/teen alcoholic Duncan Daley, so things seem to be going exactly as planned.

Spider-Man, 10/5/10

Peter’s sullen expression in panel three is priceless. “Aww, here we go, a big guilt trip about how we never schlep out to Queens to hang out with this old bag. I knew we should have scalped the extra ticket!”

Pluggers, 10/5/10

Does Pluggers have a long list of “pluggers go to the bathroom a lot” jokes to get maximum milage out of the template for this drawing? Apparently!

Marvin, 10/5/10

Ha ha, it’s funny because even the dog is repulsed by the smell of Marvin’s feces!

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/5/10

Whoah, it looks like our drama involving the sinister brew of prostate cancer and bare-knuckle city politics isn’t over after all! The fact that this story leaked out shouldn’t come as surprise, since Rex already shot his mouth off about it to June and who knows who else. But if the terrifying scene in the next-to-last panel is any indication, the toxic combination of rage and elevated PSA levels has transformed the mayor into The Mayor, a superpowered vigilante determined to stop HIPAA violations wherever he may find them.

Marvin, 9/5/10

Ha ha, Marvin’s grandfather’s friend suffers from a serious medical condition! Also, this is related to the end of summer, somehow! Eh, at least it’s not another “Marvin pooped himself” joke.

Funky Winkerbean, 9/5/10

“I didn’t change how this story finishes, though. My wife’s still dead at the end! That’s just how I roll: very, very glumly.”