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Gasoline Alley, 11/18/22

Big Good Some news, everybody: Rufus has managed to use his sexual wiles to help Walt make his big dream of hanging off the back of a garbage truck come true. The Sanitation Department will definitely get some good publicity out of this, unless Walt falls off and terribly injures himself, which is actually a pretty likely scenario. I mean, that’s why they banned sanitation workers from doing this in the first place, and none of those guys are supercentenarian World War I vets. In that case, the publicity will end up being pretty bad: lawsuits from the family, Denzel Washington giving a press conference disavowing knowledge of or participation in this stunt, etc.

Marvin and Dennis the Menace, 11/18/22

I find comics where the punchline is “Ha ha, lady can’t cook even though cooking is lady’s job” fairly distasteful, and have come to conclusion that I like the ones where it’s the lady’s son slagging on her cooking even worse than the ones where it’s her husband doing it. That seems a bit unfair, since a grown man could easily cook for himself and a little kid couldn’t, but you have remember that these jokes are written by and for grown men, which make the mommy issues tied up in them all the more distressingly apparent.

Gil Thorp, 11/18/22

There’s something funny to me about how “wet” is emphasized unnaturally here. “I heard you still wet the bed. Whereas me? I dry the bed. That’s what I call it when I make a real cakey poop when I’m sleeping.”

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The Lockhorns, 10/29/22

“Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he’s depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, ‘Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up.’ Man bursts into tears. Says, ‘But doctor … I am Pagliacci.’ So he went on a killing spree. Upon reflection, doctor should’ve referred him to a qualified therapist who could have assessed him for clinical depression. Anyway. Made an opera out of it. Good opera.”

Marvin, 10/29/22

You know what would make pretty much all comics better? If, when the artist was stuck for an idea, they just came up with a flimsy excuse to do a sweet drawing of a train.

Dick Tracy, 10/29/22

Look, we’re all thinking it, so I’m gonna say it: The Dick Tracy creative team didn’t have to make Steelface’s eyes so darn dreamy. But they did, and I think most of us sincerely appreciate it.

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Hi and Lois, 10/15/22

My first thought reading this was “Wow, who funded this strip?” because I refuse to believe that any ordinary person would just place pro-in-person-banking propaganda in dozens of newspapers just on a whim. It’s certainly not the banks themselves, who have been trying to shed the labor and facilities costs associated with bank branches since the ATM was invented. My guess is that the money trail either leads back either to the Communications Workers of America, the union that has organized tellers at bank branches in a number of cities, or some lobbying group of old people who absolutely refuse to figure out how to set up direct deposit for their Social Security checks.

Marvin, 10/15/22

So some guy who’s never been in the strip before? Just came out of the bathroom at Marvin’s house? And I guess he had never even heard of the concept of a bidet? So he just disassembled a fairly substantial plumbing appliance?? In somebody else’s house??? This is definitely one of the more puzzling ways for the great Marvin bidet caper to wrap up, and I must reluctantly respect it.