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Sure, it’s the wee hours, but by my estimation, I’m still on time with this week’s COMMENT OF THE WEEK!

“I know I shouldn’t be so picky, but really! Nothing about this ‘flashback’ looks all that flashy … or backy.” –trooper6

And there were many funny runners up!

“Once again, Mel Lazarus reveals his hell-bent determination to prove Freud right on just about everything.” –Zaq

“It occurs to me that [Momma’s] title character’s last name, Hobbs, is quite appropriate, as she is nasty, brutish, and, most of all, short.” –Ken D

“I think one of the 35-year old Lady Mudlarks got loose in New York City and she’s interviewing Lu Ann for Girl Talk. Look her, pivoting all about. Watch out for her hook shot, Lu Ann!” –Maggi

“It’s fortunate that Mary learned at a young age to ‘delight in the insignificant,’ given that the next 150 or so years of her life would comprise nothing but.” –Violet

“As this drags on, I am now on a road trip to insanity and Mary Worth is driving.” –Kilroy

“Dear Eduardo Barreto, Re: 3/19/08 Judge Parker, panel two: Please bear in mind that Sophie does not need to look quite so much like Sam Driver as you have done so here, because (a) Sophie is adopted, (b) Sam is not her natural father, and (c) Sophie is a girl.” –True Fable

“I always thought the bizarre, awkward, flat-yet-gravity-defying ponytail on Vera was Vera-specific. Now I know this artist just has no idea what a ponytail looks like. Does he think they actually look like the TAILS of PONIES?” –kostia

“By the way, what the hell is low-fat ‘girl cereal?’ Product 19? Total? PMS flakes?” –Shermy Glamrocker

“‘A ring — the token that says I’m no longer a person, I’m a possession!’ Next step: mom jeans.” –Tats

“Alan is the best groomed junkie in history. Now he’s going to be the politest, most trusting smack dealer ever. ‘Um, sure, as long as you promise to pay me tomorrow. Pinky swear?'” –Cranky

“It strikes me as weird and wrong to want to smell like one’s rutting parent.” –Spotted HØrse, Jungle Steed

“You can see the panic starting to flare in Margo’s cold, robot eyes: ‘Lu Ann … halt. Please cease hug function. I am not equipped to process human emotions. Halt hugging. Warning! Overloading personality matrix!’ (At this point, just use your imagination to picture the mechanical whirring and smoke that is surely about to start pouring from Margo’s ears.)” –Jilliterate

“Revenge is a dish best served in fluorescent lime green taffeta with cartwheel hats.” –jayjaybear

“Gil Thorp is definitely not the same without the old artist. But this guy has at least retained the totally baffling quality that distinguishes GT from everything else. That third panel: is that a flashback? Is A-Train still on the phone? Who needs to make the call? What’s going on? What strip am I reading? Who am I?” –Mollie

“Did FC forget that it’s a heavily Christian comic, and today is Easter? Why aren’t they in church? I mean, there wasn’t even a filthy-faced child shoving candy into its toothless mouth-hole.” –Loopina

“You know, I’d be as scared as Rex Morgan too, if I were getting telephoned by a vampire. Were we to peek on the other side of that glass door, I’m sure we’d see Andy The Hospital Contact wiping blood from his mouth with a handful of Puffs™ ultra wipes. Good thing Rex can’t tell a staph infection from twin puncture wounds, or else he’d be right out as the patsy for his demonic hospital administration; unemployed, he’d be forced to spend time with his wife and child. I’m sure if you asked the wife and child, they’d prefer it if half the town got drained like bathwater.” –RaJ

And did somebody say “fun pictures”? Faithful reader The Spectacular Spider Brick sent in this pic of him on Jungle Patrol, wearing the spiffy Jungle Patrol shirt he designed. “As you can see, the Jungle Patrol doesn’t just patrol tropical jungles,” he notes.

And I’ve been meaning for about ever to post this picture of faithful reader AMSTERDANG, who was seized by an inexplicable urge to imitate A3G’s Jones the Beatnik, Alan’s buddy/enabler.

And finally, we must give thanks to our advertisers, before I go crawl into bed.

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• The world-famous laugh factory: A fixture on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip for 28 years! All the legends of modern standup comedy have graced our stage, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Paul Rodriguez, Dave Chappelle, George Lopez, and more.

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Let’s wrap up our Monday-night catch-up blogging with the comment of the week!

“Wow, winning the game on a last-second 25-foot shot will be a nice memory next year as Summer lies on her deathbed.” –rhymes with puck

And the runners-up

“I think hating Deanna is overkill. Life already hates Deanna. She’s married to Michael and has two irredeemable brats/poop machines. That’s certainly punishment enough.” –Gagott68

“Yes, Toby, things are not always as they seem. For example, I appear to have my sensible salmon-colored blazer zipped up to my neck, which I have wrapped in a lovely coordinating ascot, but–voila!–presto-chango, as you can see, my blazer has lapels, and doesn’t even have a zipper! How does she do it, you ask? I’ll never tell, ha-ha! I am Mary Worth, woman of mystery!” –Pepperoni Détournées (formerly Herro!)

“By the time Mary Worth actually gets around to this flashback, it’ll be a flashback to the beginning of this flashback intro.” –monsieurjohn

“In my pharmacology class, we’re studying cardiac drugs. Every time I read the word ‘aldosterone’ I cry a little.” –Loopina

“What excellent, precise grammar Anthony is using today. Whomever, whom. It somehow makes me want to punch him more. The boy’s got no dangling participles at all.” –Isua

“Mary, you seem so changeless! Like you’ve always been 60 years old, humorless, and ready to meddle. I can’t picture you laughing, loving, or having fun in any way!” –Mountain Mama

“After cancer, it’s debilitating injury time! Definitely an upper, what with all the painkillers involved.” –Niall

Re: “I’m probably not going to hear the end of this”: “I should say not, considering you just slipped on your eighty-year-old ass in the middle of an icy walkway in the dead of night without anyone else in sight to rush to your aide and with you surely being too delicate and feeble to get yourself up. Indeed, it seems doubtful that you’ll even get to hear the beginning of it.” –BenG

“Seriously, I think her life today is more depressing than her childhood could have ever been: living alone in her apartment that smells of stale casserole and despair, loathing all of humanity, maintaining a phony and completely joyless ‘relationship’ with Dr. Jeff, having to hang out with Toby and Ian, unable to commit to even having a pet … I’m just saying, no one would blame Mary if she started taking nips off of the cooking sherry at 6:30 in the morning.” –Trilobite

“I think you are overestimating Toby’s boredom listening to Mary drone on. This is a woman who is married to Chinbeard, after all. Dealing with monumental boredom is a cherished aspect of her life.” –rhymes with puck

“If the proposal is any indication, the wedding video could be marketed as the best sleep aid ever.” –Farley’s Revenge

“Luann: In the March 13 installment, we find out the fire cap’n is gay. This is the most exciting thing to happen in Luann ever! It’s the ONLY thing to happen in Luann ever!” –Lisa (not the dead one)

“Spider-man: Drive on, Persuader! Follow the signs marked ‘Plot.'” –Inspector Dim

“In all her excitement, Liz is forgetting that she’s supposed to wait until AFTER she’s impregnated to devour her mate.” –cheech wizard

“They’re not kissing each other. They’re hugging chastely. On the other hand, if they did kiss each other, I’d have to tear the brooch off the corpse of my mother and blind myself with it. So all in all I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turning out.” –Kate

“Wait, I’m confused. Is Rex’s daughter supposed to be pre-kindergarten? If so, why does she appear to be about 27 years old in panel two? And in panel three it looks as though Rex is trying to figure out the same thing.” –Electro

“It’s never too early to start filling a tiny child with anxiety about his cholesterol level. Hope you don’t like ice cream, kid!” –BigTed

And we as ever do love our advertisers, yes we do:

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• Shop Indie. Pass it on!: Shana Logic loves Joshreads.com fans because they are independent, rockin’, super nice art lovers! Totally unique hip & hot jewelry, killer ties for men, home Decor & iPod gear, unusual plushes, and more — the best gifts for our favorite people!

To find out more about advertising on this site, click here.

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This past Friday, I had a very agreeable meetup at Tucson’s Kon Tiki with a slew of Comics Curmudgeon readers! A fun time was most definitely had by all, as the following photos should demonstrate beyond a doubt. Let’s start with the big group shot:

Up front, you have Trilobite, me, and my lovely wife Amber; in the row behind that you have Bob Weber, Jr., The Divine O’F, KT, Mr. Bats :[, Fran Ledue Page, Bats :[, and Mountain Momma; and behind them you have The Divine O’F’s husband Rocko (face sadly obscured by overhanging tiki ambience), Mooncattie, Jimmy, Garrett, and Wood.

KT here is looking happy in his Cassandra Cat shirt and holding his book of his own cartoons. He drove all the way from Houston to attend, and shockingly he wasn’t even the one who came the furthest!

That honor goes to Mooncattie, seen here with his video camera, who flew all the way down from Toronto, Foobonia, to spend a week in the Arizona sun. Will the video of me giving a little speech in a Family Circus vest (more on which momentarily) hit YouTube? Only time will tell!

Mooncattie also brought Canada’s greatest literary product, Michael Patterson’s Stone Season, as a gift. Actually, this was much, much better than the actual Stone Season, since it was mostly blank — except for individual Comments of the Week from last year pasted on each page!

So, about that vest … Bats :[ discovered some fabric emblazoned with classic religiously themed Family Circus cartoons. Naturally, she turned into a vest that she presented to me as a gift. The best of the cartoons features Dolly declaring that “Heaven is a great big hug that lasts forever.” It was determined that, as per this classic Dinosaur Comics, this sounds unspeakably creepy when you whisper it.

I tried my best to get around and chat with everybody. I thought this was a good pic of Fran and Trilobite; the latter looks kind of pensive, even though I’m pretty sure that at this point he’s telling me about his storied history of consuming alcohol at the Kon Tiki. (Unlike KT and Mooncattie (and everyone else, really) Trilobite was actually able to walk to the bar from his house.)

Here’s a nice pic of the Divine O’F chatting with Bob Weber, while the latter’s wife looks on affectionately. Bob was obviously much beloved by all in attendance, and naturally turned out to be a superstar of friendliness! He even brought super-cool original Slylock Fox art for everyone who came! Ms. O’F is holding hers in this picture, and here’s a photomontage of others of us and ours:

Bats :[ scored a Count Weirdly cartoon; I got one featuring Reeky Rat, whose virtues I had been extolling mere moments before Bob revealed the goodies he had brought for us; and KT ended up with a Cassandra Cat number — appropriate, since he was the crazed genius behind a certain bit of Slylock/Cassandra bootleg art you might remember.

I loved hanging out with all of you! A few folks had to leave early, but here’s a great picture of the rest of us worshipping the tiki god, or at least grinning in front of it. Thanks to everyone who came! I will definitely be planning more events like this in the future, I think.

Anyway, due to the travel and the guest-blogging and the hey hey, I’m going to let Darkefang’s reign of COTW terror continue for another week. But still, we must, as is our practice, give thanks to our advertisers:

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• Shop Indie. Pass it on!: Shana Logic loves Joshreads.com fans because they are independent, rockin’, super nice art lovers! Totally unique hip & hot jewelry, killer ties for men, home Decor & iPod gear, unusual plushes, and more — the best gifts for our favorite people!
• The world-famous laugh factory: A fixture on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip for 28 years! All the legends of modern standup comedy have graced our stage, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Paul Rodriguez, Dave Chappelle, George Lopez, and more.

To find out more about advertising on this site, click here.