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Pluggers, 10/12/21

After years of discussing pluggers, I still don’t fully have a handle on every nuanced characteristic of pluggerdom, but honestly “there is very little overlap between pluggers and stage magicians” was one that I feel like I could’ve guessed at pretty easily.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/12/21

Ma’am! Ma’am! There’s only been widespread and earnest use of streaming for stuff like weddings since the coronavirus epidemic started a year and a half ago! It’s different than it was in our day too! There’s nobody around getting married whose day this is!

Dennis the Menace, 10/12/21

Mrs. Wilson is cruelly laughing not at her husband, but at Dennis. It’s funny because Dennis thinks of Mr. Wilson as one of his best friends, but Mr. Wilson doesn’t even like him!

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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 10/9/21

We all know that Snuffy Smith lives by the simple and brutal code of Hootin’ Holler, where clan feuds are passed down from generation to generation, their origins long forgotten. Still, today’s strip, in which he gleefully celebrates that he has won in the only way that matters — by outliving his enemies, by at least a say — is particularly grim.

Family Circus, 10/9/21

Meanwhile, this one’s aiming for grim, but I’m not buying it. Sorry, Billy, you will never achieve true goth energy, no matter how much you try!

Pluggers, 10/9/21

Everyone else in a plugger’s life — his wife, his children, his parents — has let him down at one point or another. They never have his back. They never see him for who he really is. This inanimate piece of wood, on the other hand? Well, it can’t really meet his emotional needs either. But at least he can bite it.

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Hi and Lois, 10/5/21

I’m not sure when, strictly speaking, we can say that untucked shirts came into fashion, but I’m going to say that it’s been … pretty much my entire adult life? And I’m 47? Anyway, I like how absolutely thrilled Hi looks in panel one. He never thought he’d live to see the day when a man might untuck his shirttails and still retain his dignity, but that day has arrived, and his life has been transformed.

Marvin, 10/5/21

There are two big narrative problems with this strip. One is that Bitsy’s character model includes full-time collar wearing — he’s got one on in this very strip — so it’s weird for the fish to imply that it’s a potty-specific accessory. Maybe this should’ve said “leash”? Two, fish “go potty” in their own bowl, turning their very environment into a stew of their own wastes, which is surely more shameful than however you want to think about what dogs have going on this department. The thing I hate about Marvin is that it makes you think about pissing and shitting on several narrative layers at any given moment.

Pluggers, 10/5/21

Look, when pluggers are all smug about how down-homey and real-American they are, I enjoy getting riled up about it. But when they’re wracked with shame about their strange, man-animal bodies? That’s a lot less fun, in my opinion. Please, pluggers, get your act together so you may remain a worthy antagonist for me!

Mother Goose and Grimm, 10/5/21

Jokes on you, Grimm! That guy’s not a man at all! He’s a bird!