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It’s Sunday night, and I’m probably not going to get to Sunday’s strips until Monday morning, but I did want to get the comments of the week up before I went to bed. The other day I was giggling aloud while reading some of your comments and my wife said, “Do you think commentors know how much you like to read them?” I said that I hope that they did, but it never hurts to say it again, so: I really love reading your comments! And here are the ones I liked the best this week. First, our top comment!

“With regard to your snark about Dennis the Menace’s outfits, I am surprised you didn’t mention Mark Trail, who never, ever changes out of that disgusting 100% polyester UPS delivery uniform. I can smell him from here.” –Scuppers

And our runners-up:

“More ludicrous and unbelievable than the idea that the ghost of Albert Pinkham Ryder exists and would waste his time on Lu Ann is the idea that any man in this comic could be recognized by someone on the street. They all look exactly alike, for god’s sake! Police sketch artists must have it pretty easy there: ‘Did he have a mustache, or glasses? Was he wearing a scarf, or a tie? Okay, here’s the picture.'” –Trilobite

“Also, if we are still voting for crossover possibilities, I’d like Vera to head to Mark Trail’s neck of the woods and show Cherry how to form a worried facial expression. And Cherry can show Vera how to unfurrow her brow and stare straight ahead. And they can paint each other’s toenails. And maybe make out.” –AndreaD

“I’m calling them nerds, but not like, cool comic snarking nerds, but the TDIET definition of nerds. I know a future installment of TDIET will have the phrase ‘those nerds’ completely out of context, and just the thought of it makes my skin crawl.” –Lizardmess

“Crime and deception never pay in the Lost Forest. The trees have eyes, the ducks have ears, the FISH KNOW SECRETS!” –blase

“Or perhaps he’s just trying to gently say, ‘Damn it, Mary, just leave one person in this place alone for 15 minutes…’ Sorry, Professor. This is hell, Mary is the devil, and no one is spared her brimstone-encrusted casserole of meddling.” –Trent

“A3G: The more I see Blaze, the more he looks like a befuddled German tourist taking a guided tour of the Alamo.” –Artist formerly known as Ben

“Does anybody know what Blaze does, other than hang around the city in that cowboy hat? And how does anybody except a stripper end up with the name ‘Blaze’ anyhow? Hmmm…maybe I just answered my own question.” –AirForbes

“Let this be a lesson to you, kids — when going to your dead friend’s home to confront his widow over the fact you think he faked his death for the insurance money, wear a tie.” –reader-who-posts

“Today’s art lesson: how to draw a woman in Gil Thorp. 1) Draw a man. 2) Add earrings.” –Dingo

“The phrase ‘Gil thins the herd’ should only appear above a panel overlaid with crosshairs indicating a high-powered rifle scope.” –Steve S

“I love how Michael thinks this real estate double switch is a fabulous idea, while Mom, Dad, and Deanna all look as if he just suggested they all watch a porn video.” –Weasel Boy

“It looks like the secret message of Pluggers is that the Ted Kennedy bird from Shoe is in fact a cross-dresser. From hell’s heart MacNelly stabs at thee, Kennedy!” –jake!

“When the punching starts in MT, and there will be punching, will we be able to tell if Mark’s wearing his stalker diaper by the outline of his pants or the look of discomfort on his face?” –Barking Spider Brewery

“Dick Tracy: Nice job, Queenie, you just pulled a gun on the cop with the highest perp casualty rate in human history. Here’s your rights: ‘You have the right to remain silent; anything you say will never matter because you will be dead. You have the right to a funeral; upon the slight possibility you do survive, you have the right to a bed in the wing of the County hospital reserved for the ironically maimed.'” –Sunny Mel Blatherscythe

“Also, no matter what the context, no matter if he’s speaking to himself or to a librarian, no matter if he’s in Lost Forest or Miami, in a car or on a fishing boat, Mark Trail’s sentences will end with exclamation points because he is ever so excited and everything he says is exciting! ‘I hope my tie is on straight!’ ‘This bread truck pulls to the right!’ ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten the pate!’ ‘I don’t remember seeing that growth before!’ ‘You took the proceeds of a policy of a friend of mine!’ ‘That’s what I believe!’ ‘I’m not the father!'”–PeteMoss

“Note how the focal point of Katy’s birthday party appears to be a long table crowded with cakes and birthday hats and bowls and cups and other sorts of hats, perhaps straw hats (or is that a cake, too?). The long table is PUSHED UP AGAINST A WALL WITH CHAIRS LINING ONLY ONE SIDE. That sounds like birthday FUN! ‘Let’s all line up on one side of this table and stare at the wall and eat cake and wear hats.’ It’s like a damn Beckett play.” –Gaberiel M

“[April]’s got a good point, I think, but of course she’s 16 and spoiled and can only make good points in a shrill, unreasonable manner.” –The Avocado Avenger

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OK, kids, you know what time it is! Here’s this week’s top commment:

“GT: I guess the lesson is that girls shouldn’t play sports because they don’t think it’s okay to beat your own skull in and pin it on some other guy. Hey ladies, it wasn’t that kind of can’t-do attitude that made this country great.” –Artist formerly known as Ben

And the runners-up, hilarious as always:

“Who knew you could get hassled by the man for walking while black in Africa?” –Mac

“Pentagon Briefing, 3/31/07. Gen Halftrack, CO of Camp Swampy, was observed painting furniture on his porch by civilians. Recommended action: Assassination.” –reader-who-posts

“I see Mark’s friend, Dan, somewhere on a beach. A well-built man next to him says something in French; Dan doesn’t understand. The man repeats, in English: ‘It’s hot, no?’ Dan glances at the man over the top of his Ray-Ban sunglasses, takes a sip of a tall drink, and utters, ‘Yes, it’s hot.’ As the sun sets on the horizon, past tropical trees and ocean waves. Back in Lost Forest, Andy digs up the bones of Sally.” –Dingo

“Speaking of Albert Pinkham Ryder, I was fascinated by that Death on a Pale Horse painting as a kid. I had no idea the guy who painted it was so damned annoying. And boring.” –John C Fremont

“I love how Dennis’ mom’s face just reeks of epiphany. ‘Say…maybe birthing and cleaning the clothes of this poor man’s Fritz Katzenjammer ISN’T the pinacle of my existence!'” –Mack

“Were Margo to die, the decomposition of her rotting corpse would be more entertaining than Lu Ann.” –TurtleBoy

“Poor April. Now that she’s 16 she’s obliged to dress like a cross between Nikki Sixx and Ivana Trump. It’s Canadian law.” –Motorposus

“It’s nice to see that the ‘raising a little hell’ April’s birthday song referred to means ‘remaining a complete prude.'” –Tats

“GT: Those two may put the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional, but we all know it’s Mary Worth that adds the ‘unction.'” –Foobar

“Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can — as long as someone else does it.” –Lizardmess

“Yeah, Liz seems to be in a Schrodinger’s Cat thing of simultaneously unresolved frump or babe. If we open the box, she … Heh. Open the box.” –Jack Parsons

“I say, bring back Gary Dent. He didn’t hide behind word balloons. He let his hands do the talking.” –True Fable

“The guy in panel 3 of Gil Thorp has some interesting glasses, insofar as you can’t see his son’s hand through the lenses. Maybe they live in Reversistan, where the whites of eyes are black and glasses are for not seeing.” –Steve S

“The holes the Mudlark baseball team have to fill include shortstop, middle reliever and gaping plot-.” –t.a.m.s.y.

“You know, other families stage interventions when somebody’s in a self-destructive spiral of booze, drugs, gambling, sex, or other debauchery. The Pattersons have staged an intervention to try and convince a grown man with a wife and family and over $25,000 in the bank that it’s time to buy a house and let his baby sister have her bedroom back.” –No Evil Monkeys

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B.C., 4/8/07

Johnny Hart, creator of B.C. and writer (or co-writer? I’ve never been able to nail this down exactly) of Wizard of Id died Saturday. Today’s Easter strip is perhaps appropriately typical of his later work: infused with his religious beliefs, and largely idiosyncratic and inscrutable (numerology?). He liked to take potshots at atheists, Darwinists, and Jews, and as an interested party I have a hard time not taking those personally, but I’m not going to write anything mean about him today. Instead, I’ll just note that the dude died at his drawing board. That’s hardcore.

Here’s the obit from the AP via CNN. One of the things that struck me was this bit:

Richard Newcombe, founder and president of Creators Syndicate in Los Angeles … said Hart was the first cartoonist to sign on when the syndicate was created 20 years ago. “Traditionally, comic strips were owned by syndicates,” Newcombe said. “We were different because we allowed cartoonists to own their own work. It was … Johnny’s commitment to this idea that made us a success.”

This is the end of the CNN version of the story, but faithful reader pesch (who works in a newsroom and has reason to know) adds this from a version of the story he’s seen:

Newcombe said B.C. and Wizard of Id would continue. Family members have been helping produce the strips for years, and they have an extensive computer archive of Hart’s drawings to work with, he said.

If I have any pull at all in the comics industry, I have to beg and plead for this not to happen. Say what you will for good or for ill about Hart’s work, but it has always struck me (despite that note about help from family members) as being indisputably his work. The best way to honor that would be for it to stand on its own, not to be continued by assistants cutting and pasting new dialogue into scans of old strips. Because of the way that comics publishing works, there will be a few weeks worth of Hart-authored strips still to run, but after that it should bow gracefully out. It may be hard to believe for younger folks, but Hart was one of a generation of young turks who shook up the comics page in the 1970s, and letting his strip continue in other hands denies that chance to others and diminishes what went before.

Some folks have already used other comment threads to argue vociferously about the best way to honor (or not) his memory. Feel free to work out your aggressions here; doing so elsewhere will get you sent to The Cockpit.