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Get Fuzzy, 2/4/05

See, this is why I was excited about the Sun getting Get Fuzzy. It’s also more proof that a strip can be good without depending on a specific punchline in the last panel that’s been elaborately set up in the lead-in panels (yeah, I’m looking at you, B.C.). Everything Bucky says in this strip made me laugh aloud. Keep up the good work, Pinky! (I also like it when Bucky calls Rob “Pinky.”)

Meanwhile, a quick recap of the serials, since there’s a lot of action going on: in Apartment 3-G, Lu Ann’s niece reveals that she has gotten herself knocked up (apparently, she’s fled to NYC because she’s heard it’s all full of “roadside” “gigs” who won’t judge her moral flaws); in Rex Morgan, M.D., Rex is being suspiciously nonchalant about the discovery of human remains in his backyard; in Mark Trail, Mark seems destined to swim to the safety of an oyster bar, where he sadly won’t be eviscerated by razor-sharp shark teeth; and in Mary Worth, Elaine, the third point in our suddenly interesting love triangle, shows up and offers to give the good Dr. Good a family (if you know what I mean) right then and there. This last incident gives the Mary Worth artists the opportunity to do what they love most, which is to draw arm hair. I offer this retrospective for your edification.

And finally, to start your weekend off, here’s a case of life imitating Gil Thorp:

Melee Erupts at Alabama Girls Basketball Game

“People were screaming and running,” Prattville cheerleader Cherish Cartee said. “Girls lost their cell phones. Keys got lost. It’s something I will never forget.”

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Mary Worth, 1/14/05

Can I lick your tonsils? Just askin’.

When I was trying to describe to my fiancée Gil Thorp’s fast-paced, breakneck pace (which is ten times more fast-paced and breakneck than the pace of an actual high-school basketball game), she remarked, “It’s like the anti-Mary Worth.” This is, I think, a pretty accurate assessment. In Gil Thorp, gender-equality-supporting pair Steve and Hadley went from awkward introductions to revolutionary power couple in three panels. Anna and Dr. Brian’s lip-locking reunion, meanwhile, has been in the works for nearly ten weeks.

This is as good a time as any to relay an exchange from the Golden Girls sent to me by faithful reader Luna:

Blanche: I love my comics. Every day, Marmaduke and Apartment 3-G.
Dorothy: I haven’t read Apartment 3-G since…1962.
Blanche: Oh, well, let me catch you up! It is later that same day…

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Mary Worth, 1/11/05

Holy crap, look at the tweaked-up expression on Anna’s face in the second panel. The tight, nervous smile, the eyes the size of dinner plates — she’s found a drug more powerful than meth, everybody, and it’s called love! Her expression is all the more striking when you compare it to her look in the first panel. She goes from dignified, Katherine Harris-esque adult to grinning, moon-eyed teenager in a mere moment. So versatile! So emotionally unstable! Just the person you want to jump into a relationship with after a draw-out, ugly divorce!

That profile shot of Dr. Brian in panel two gives us a good look at how … shiny … his hair is. Better not run your fingers through it when you get back to his room back at the Holiday Inn Express, Anna: they might get stuck.