Post Content

Mother Goose And Grimm, 5/12/10

So here’s what life’s like, if you’re me: you might find yourself spending a good part of an afternoon trying to figure out exactly what’s most objectionable about this cartoon, which manages to conflate one’s awkward and yet terribly exciting teenage sexual fumblings with both lactation and human-animal contact, to absolutely horrifying effect. I’ve finally decided that the worst part is fairly subtle: it’s the cow’s eyelashes. Exaggerated eyelashes like these are often used to signify that an otherwise gender-indeterminate beast or thing in a cartoon is meant to be a lady, and an attractive one at that. One might have thought that the femaleness of the cow was beyond question, what with it being milked and all, but there they are, driving the point home that this is a bovine with frank sexual needs that this farmer is fulfilling.

On the other hand, the farmer’s look of shock and horror is kind of funny. It’s as if this cow had never actually spoken to him before, and he’s just now realizing that their relationship is very, very different from what he had hitherto imagined.

Mark Trail, 5/12/10

You know, it’s all fun and games when Rusty gets trapped under a car, but even though Sassy is irritating, I would really prefer not to see her get run down in the middle of the road just two panels after Mark cheerfully states that letting the little dog run around unleashed and unfenced is totally cool. I’d say that we’re about to learn a valuable lesson about pet ownership, except that Mark is never ever proven to be wrong in this strip, and our last runaway dog storyline has as its moral not “keep your dog inside or behind a fence” but rather “petnappers love surprises,” so I don’t have high hopes here.

Apartment 3-G, 5/12/10

Tomorrow’s narration box: “Tommie immediately regrets demanding an explanation.” Notice that she’s attempting to casually sidle away from her roommates, keeping her facial expression as neutral as possible.

Post Content

Hey, it’s the Comics Curmudgeon Fall Fundraiser — your contributions help keep this site strong and independent!

Click the banner above to contribute any amount — and receive your “What Would Margo Do?” bracelet with our thanks! Full details here.

Fundraiser update: Bracelets are in the mail to Wednesday contributors – thank you! If you receive yours before Saturday, please forward a photo of it on your wrist for me to post here! The address is uncle.lumpy@comcast.net — cellphone pix are fine. Thanks!

Apartment 3-G, 9/24/09

“Oh, my goodness, Ms. Merrill, you almost stepped in front of that bus!! Oh, and by the way, how’re you doing on that ‘prescription’ I wrote for you?”

Mother Goose and Grimm, 9/24/09

“Costumes or no costumes, fellas, “Talk Like a Pirate” Day was last Saturday — why don’t we try a nice technology joke instead?”

Mark Trail, 9/24/09

I got nuthin’ — except Mark and the turtle in the same relaxed pose, with the same adorable expression. Hope it starts a trend!

Margo Moments — a Fall Fundraiser special, part 5

Apartment 3-G (panels) — 2/4, 2/5, 2/10, 2/27, 3/16, 4/15, 5/29, 6/23, 7/23/2008

Booze, power, money, and the promise of love — live “Margo large” when you contribute to The Comics Curmudgeon. Every contributor receives an exclusive glow-in-the-dark “What Would Margo Do?” bracelet, to help you “seize the day” — and anything else you’ve got your eye on!

— Uncle Lumpy

Post Content

Mark Trail, 12/22/08

The list of Incomprehensible Things That Happen In Mark Trail For No Earthly Reason That Anyone Could Fathom is, I admit, very, very long. And yet while I accept many of those things (the Jack Elrod sphere spouting dialog today, for instance) without question, I am having a hard time figuring out why the fact that his buggy’s carburetor has rusted has resulted in Pop resting with his head in Sue’s lap, unless this is all a ploy on his part to get her to do something about the fact that his “buggy’s” “carburetor” has “rusted.” Now that sexy Mark has appeared on the horizon, she will no doubt literally throw him aside, and he’ll flop face-first into the rapidly drying swamp.

(Something that just occurred to me: who is watching little Pamela while all this red-hot swamp action is going on? Is it … Sneaky the filthy raccoon? OH MY GOD SNEAKY OH MY GOD)

Mother Goose and Grimm, 12/22/08

Seeing that I griped a few days ago about the comics’ awkward attempts to grapple with the economic crisis, I suppose I’m now duty-bound to praise Mother Goose and Grimm’s depiction of the seasonal labor market, which ignores current economic conditions completely.

Apartment 3-G, 12/22/08

Reason To Love Margo #283: In mere hours of strip time, she’s gone from “Eric is an innocent man!” to “I am morally and professionally obligated to break into Eric’s apartment and remove incriminating evidence, then possibly use it later for blackmail purposes if he refuses to marry me!” Like the lady herself, Margo’s logic is so very seductive.

Herb and Jamaal, 12/22/08

Ha ha, Herb “molds himself” to Jamaal’s “deformities”!

Uh, I don’t really know what that’s supposed to mean. Ha ha, Herb and Jamaal are going to have sex, on the down low!

Programming note! Tomorrow will be my last day of posting before my annual week-or-so-long Hanuchrismwaanza break, so I’m just going to postpone the comments of the week by a day.