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Your comments of the week momentarily, but first: EXCITING NEWS! As you may know if you follow along with these sorts of things in the comments and/or forums, Mid-Atlanticon, a meetup of readers in the greater Potomac/Chesapeake region, has been in the works for a while now, and the details are at least ready to unleash upon a waiting world! On Saturday, May 22, 6 p.m., dinner and drinks will be happening at the Capitol City Brewing Co., right next door to Union Station in D.C.! And who will be drinking and dining among attendees? Me, that’s who. Also, there is a zoo excursion in the works in the afternoon (which I will unfortunately not be able to attend). Details are here in the forums. If you’re coming to the dinner part, please e-mail faithful reader and tireless meetup organizer bourbon babe, unbuckled ASAP at bourbonbabeunbuckled@yahoo.com so she can get an accurate headcount to the restaurant. So excited to see you all!

Also! Faithful reader rocketbride points out that you can bid on an original work of For Better Or For Worse Art! Three days left and it’s a steal at $71! If you want to see have an original panel where John slavers over the prospect of adding more trains to his model railroading empire and, like, frame it, or burn it, or something, go nuts. Proceeds go to the Doug Wright Awards, which recognize Canadian cartoonists. There’s actually a whole bunch of Canadian art being auctioned, including this super-rad Wonder Woman comic from the super-rad Kate Beaton!

And now, your super-rad comment of the week!

“I love Sabretooth’s exaggerated dash away from the scene in the last panel just when things are finally going his way. You can almost hear him giggling as he takes off. ‘Yeah! Take that, SOCIETY! I’m totally blogging about this!'” –Bryan Bryan

And runners-up! Very funny!

“If you rolled unmodified 3s in intelligence, dexterity, and charisma, you’re a plugger. You are required to make a daily saving throw vs. spontaneous organ failure.” –One-eyed Wolfdog

“Timmy, Timmy, Timmy — sure Olivia put up with your ‘it’s okay to touch it, we’re “married”’ for a little while, but the girl’s got prospects. She can’t wait around for you to get taller and wear less stupid hats forever.” –Megan (Best of Fates)

“Perhaps Sabretooth’s greatest ability is matching his sound effects with his own description of what he’s doing. Playing golf with him is probably a lot of fun for maybe two or three holes.” –Oavis

“Cherry’s expression in that ‘Get my hair done’ panel makes her look like she banged her head on the countertop after her usual breakfast of corn flakes swimming in vodka and lightly sprinkled with crushed Valium.” –Paul1963

“‘Getting my hair done’ is just Cherry’s code phrase for ‘getting the physical attention I desperately need, and that my husband will not provide, from Gus the gas station cashier.’ Mark’s unexpected pronouncement that he will be home for a while left her with no time to call Gus and cancel their standing Tuesday afternoon rendezvous. Fortunately, Mark will not notice that she did not actually get her hair done.” –Brian

“I hate to be catty, but what the hell is Cherry going to do to that hair that hasn’t already been done?” –mustang

“I haven’t really been following this Mark Trail storyline, so can someone fill me in on the plot points that led to an ad hoc contest for the best sexual euphemism for masturbation?” –Jester

“Are we talking about the same person? ’Cause the Lu Ann I know can barely master the intricacies of converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. If you get my drift. Which she wouldn’t.” –boojum

“I sure hope that the ‘Sassy runs off without her collar’ storyline will be settled with violence, or at least a board meeting.” –chrishocker

“The fact that Jules can make shoes that drive a man mad is an interesting plot twist. Perhaps — I hope — Judge Parker is about to move down into Lovecraftian terror, as Jules finally cobbles together that one pair of shoes that not only drives you mad, but summons the Great Old Ones from beyond? Those rugose, squamous shoes that you can hear walking across the floor in the small spaces of the night, echoing footfalls of gods of madness. It will end with murder, unspeakable depravity, and finally purifying fire. And Sam Driver will watch it all with his arms crossed and a smug expression.” –Vosh

“Honestly, this will just recycle the Rusty is nearly killed by a station wagon story we saw 30 years 6 months ago. The set up is exactly the same. Just replace ‘station wagon’ with ‘horse’: (1) Mark works on something that isn’t safe for young kids to be near; (2) Sassy runs towards the danger; (3) Rusty follows; (4) Mark yells; ‘No’ or ‘Look out’; (5) Rusty gets stuck; (6) Mark saves Rusty; (7) Rusty forgives Sassy; (8) Sassy wonders how she was foiled yet again.” –Thomas B.

“I don’t want to criticize you. I just want you to understand that you’re wrong! Horribly, horribly wrong!” –LaurenM

“Mary’s look of absolute panic in panel 1, combined with her submissive ‘I surrender’ pose, makes this entire storyline worthwhile. For a split second, Mary remembers: ‘Oh, yeah, I’m alone in the apartment of a crazy lady — one of those hot-blooded gingers, no less — and no one knows that I’m here. Maybe I’ll just give her $40 and run for the door.’ Between the first and second panels, Mary regains her smug superiority because she remembers that she’s invincible.” –Joe Blevins

“I was puzzled as to why Jack was so shamelessly kissing Margo’s ass until I got to the last panel, where it was revealed that Margo had a viselike grip on Jack’s hand the whole time, ready to snap off a finger at the first hint of anything that’s not complete compliance. ‘Don’t we always agree, Jack,’ indeed.” –Lawyerbob

“Mark Trail remains a seamless blend of new delights and old standbys; reading it is like pulling the middle lever on the soft-serve ice cream machine (when the left is ‘poo’ and the right is ‘horror’).” –Dragon of Life

“Tommie doesn’t understand why Margo and Lu Ann are fighting, but she instinctively understands it may be interesting and she has no place being part of that.” –Chip Whittle

“Pluggers may not have deep pockets, but their vacant, heavy-lidded staring at the ground indicates they sure are high.” –Keratacon

Big thanks to everyone who put cash in my tip jar! And we must of course give thanks to our advertisers:

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Just a quick note before your comments of the week: do you use the Facebook? You may have noticed little “Like” buttons at the bottom of each post. If you’re logged into Facebook, and click that button, a note indicating how much you enjoyed that post will appear on your Facebook wall for all your friends to see! Isn’t that, uh, awesome? Sure it is! Obviously you will want to click the clicky to indicate your approval, where such approval is merited. DO IT. CLICK IT.

And now, your comment of the week!

“Mark’s hands are in his pockets because he is desperately texting Bill Ellis: ‘Plz call me. Rgent.'” –Brian

And your runners up! Very funny!

“I think Mary Worth is stifling a yawn throughout today’s strip. That’s what I’d be doing.” –nescio

“I’m confident an unread Marvin anthology rests on the coffee table in the lobby of Hell.” –Who Is Dick Player?

“You can tell you’re getting older … when you feel Death’s icy fingers gripping your heart. Thank you! I’ll be here all week … unless I die.” –Pozzo

“Sure, we may mock now, but decades from now, our children will look back with wonder upon the first time a superhero used the then common phrase of ‘Call me Nobody!’ (P.S. In the future, all superheroes are going to suck.)” –Megan (Best of Fates)

“Has Sabretooth seriously been stomping into every fairground he sees for the past several months yelling ‘I know you’re here!’? That’s fairly menacing for a Spider-Man villain.” –chrishocker

“[Bonnie] actually has a knockout figure. The apparent bulk (and its rapid changes) is from just that: rapid changes. She routinely wears up to twenty outfits at one time and keeps switching among them. It’s her way around the ‘you can’t possibly wear that many clothes!’ argument. She can and she does.” –Aviatrix

“Stung by the truth of what Cherry says, Mark immediately enrolls in a self-help seminar to ‘work on himself more.’ The seminar is two states away, in a remote wilderness area. He takes Andy with him.” –boojum

“Look at the ground they’re covering mid-conversation in Mark Trail! Somewhere between ‘You’re always helping other people with their problems, Mark…’ and ‘Now you can spend a little time solving MY problem!’, Mark must have started up about fly fishing again, and only stopped once they finished their stroll from beach to distant highlands, leaving Andy behind to be eaten alive by ducks.” –Black Drazon

“Hopefully, [Mary] won’t point out to Bonnie that she is only able to cry flesh-colored tears, lest the revelation entice Bonnie to purchase something to help ease her envy of women with fully functioning tear ducts.” –Thomas B.

“Apparently, Mark is so alarmed at this sudden turn of events that he has released a cloud of ink in a desperate bid to escape.” –Kevin

“I’m beginning to suspect that Woods & Wildlife is actually an elaborate ruse created by Mark’s employer to get rollicking, red-blooded accounts of how he punched out this or that bearded evildoer in whichever forest/swamp/mountainous region. These are actually run in a different magazine, Vigilante’s Monthly.” –commodorejohn

“Good to see that Mary color-coordinated her outfit with the hoarder’s clutter. It’s modern-day camouflage: When you wear vivid fuchsia and stand in front of a stack of vivid fuchsia boxes, nobody knows where your meddling voice is coming from.” –Kibo

“Margo is just upset she can’t find a Mother’s Day card that says ‘Thanks for not shooting me.'” –NoahSnark

“At the sight of an upturned car, Slylock and his trusty assistant run to the scene. Once they are there Max begins blowing an air horn and Slylock begins spraying the car with industrial grade air-freshener. The horror and stupefaction of the onlookers is well justified.” –sak

“Oh my, you’ve covered every square inch of your apartment with merchandise. I guess I’ll just have to sit on the FLOOR. No, really don’t bother to move even one of the boxes that is evidence of your shame. It’ll be better this way. More degrading for you, dear. Trust me.” –mustang

“‘Does Slylock think the seat belt law is a bad idea?’ Not, ‘Does he think it saves lives?’ but ‘Does he think it’s a bad idea.’ Basically we’re asked to guess Slylock’s political leanings. Does Slylock pragmatically decide that any legislation that saves lives is a ‘good idea’? Does Slylock believe in a so-called ‘nanny state’ style Forest Government? If not, does he believe that citizens should have absolute freedom in all areas, or does he believe that automotive laws are a special case because of the public nature of the roads and the comparatively massive danger that automobiles pose to our daily lives? All of these considerations and more concerning Slylock’s politics must be weighed before answering the question, not to mention the very real practical problems of legislating seat-belts for such a diverse citizenry. This is probably the most difficult Slylock Fox puzzle ever.” –AndyL

Big thanks to everyone who put cash in my tip jar! And we must of course give thanks to our advertisers:

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Hey everybody, just a quick note that may not mean anything to most of you: I am moving my RSS feed away from Google’s FeedBurner service. If you subscribe to my site via RSS (and this includes subscribing via Google Reader), you will be automatically redirected to the new feed for the next 15 days, but you should change that address now, to:

https://joshreads.com/?feed=rss2

Thanks and sorry for any inconvenience. If anyone has any problems with that new URL, please let me know ASAP, either in the comments to this post or by emailing me at bio@jfruh.com. And if you just get to this site via my updates on Twitter, or by just reloading the page obsessively until I put up new posts, feel free to ignore this.

UPDATE: Did I say I was moving away from Feedburner? I should have said “I am moving from one Feedburner address to another, just to confuse everybody.” Ha ha! But, really, this is all behind-the-scenes stuff — if you use that URL above, you will always be automatically redirected to the appropriate address. And I recommend you resubscribe to that link now, just to be sure. Apologies for the confusion, all.