The earring is a nice touch — maybe he’s supposed to be a gypsy
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The Middletons, 1/4/05
Panel 1: This is what an old person thinks a young person looks like.
Archive: Middletons
Maybe they both thought, “This joke is too impossibly lame for anyone else to do”
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Hi and Lois, 10/11/04
The Middletons, 10/11/04
Maybe there ought to be some kind of online database where comic artists can post a schedule of the gags they plan to use. It might prevent embarrassing moments like these. At least the dialogue in Hi and Lois sounds like something a normal human would actually say; “the oldies rock ‘n’ roll” is a phrase that seems to have come from someone who is almost, but not quite, fluent in idiomatic English.
Fun fact about Hi and Lois: Lois is actually Beetle Bailey’s sister. That’s right, Hi and Lois is actually a spin-off, like Frasier or Maude. Lois and her brother haven’t spoken in years, though, perhaps because of her anti-military radicalism.
Fun fact about The Middletons: There are no fun facts about The Middletons.
Today’s linkback goes to a blogger known as leathermessiah, who was nice enough to say that “those of you who have not yet experienced the wonder that is Josh Reads The Comics So You Don’t Have To, I command that you do so immediately if not sooner.” Yeah! Also, today’s most alarming search result, on AOLSearch: “free Miss Buxley Blondie porn comics sex”. America Online: Connecting perverts with smut since 1995.
Tell, don’t show
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The Middletons, 9/16/04
I think one of the cardinal laws of visual comedy is that often what the human mind can visualize is funnier than anything you could draw. This law is well illustrated in today’s Middletons. We’re free to imagine the steroid-enhanced middle-school behemoths who play for our heroes’ opponents at whatever gargantuan scale we find most amusing.
Of course, it would be funnier if our overmatched tykes had recognizable facial expressions that emphasized their plight. Admittedly, it’s hard to depict them as being wide-eyed with terror when the average Middletons character has eyes that already cover three-quarters of his or her face. At first, I thought there was sweat blob coming off the player on the left in the third panel a là Cathy, but it just turned out to be the date.