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Crock, 1/9/18

I got into a Twitter discussion last week about what the deal is with Crock exactly, what with its creator having died in 2011 and then his son, after briefly running the strip, deciding he didn’t want to keep it going. I guess the consensus is that what we’re getting are reruns, but there are some updates to the dialogue to keep the strip “fresh.” Like, the “4” in today’s final panel seems pretty obviously to be in a different handwriting from the rest of the dialogue, presumably because this strip originally appeared in 2001 when PlayStation 2s were all the rage. It’s honestly amazing that someone would go through the trouble of making sure the most current PlayStation model is reflected in the dialogue but not, say, question the premise of the strip, which is that home video game consoles and pay toilets are even in the remotely same category of thing, and decide to just pull another Crock from the presumably infinite quantity of Crocks in the archive instead.

Gil Thorp, 1/9/18

Hmm, who could the mysterious billboard-aggressor be? Let’s take a closer look at that “E” in “fire”:

And then compare it to the “E” in “December” on the wall of Gil’s office:

And, well, there you have it! Find your calendar-maker and you have tracked down your mysterious … wait, what’s that you say? Fonts are widely used and commercially available? Also, the billboard guy put his URL right on the billboard. Well, I still think my font thing is relevant, thank you.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/9/18

Oh hell yes, Rex is going to have to deal with some sullen little twerp named “Brayden” for the duration of his flight to Phoenix! I know I complain about the slow pace of this strip, but I sincerely hope that this storyline lasts for months.

Pajama Diaries, 1/9/18

Say, wouldn’t it be interesting if you were forced to look at your grandchildren’s dick pics for all eternity, in hell? Just something to ponder!

Slylock Fox, 1/9/18

WAIT ARE THOSE GIANT MICE OR IS THAT A VERY TINY ELEPHANT

I’M NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO THINK ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE FOR WEEKS

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Mark Trail, 1/6/19

Mark is kind of oblique in panel one about the change in public sentiment on big game trophy hunting, but what he’s really hinting at is that Mark himself was at the forefront of opposition to canned hunts long before it was fashionable! True Trailheads remember the delightful story from 2010 (summarized here) where Mark’s neighbor set up a fenced private hunting preserve as part of a plan to get elected governor (really), and the man’s own stepdaughter’s pet deer (YES REALLY), named Lucky (I KNOW), almost became a victim! But were there #SaveLucky campaigns? Was there an online petition site at https://www.thepetitionsite.com/383/290/338/save-lucky-the-normal-colored-deer/? There was not. There wasn’t even an internet back then, as far as Mark knew, because he still writes his stories on a manual typerwriter and only had a flip phone until 2016, so Mark just had to punch the dude in the face instead.

Judge Parker, 1/6/19

Remember when Sophie was obsessed with collecting data and learning about the nuances of modern third-world conflicts. Well, now she’s getting her news from Yahoo! Yahoo! This is just sad.

Dick Tracy, 1/6/19

There’s a guest writer filling in for a two-week “Minit Mystery” in Dick Tracy, and given the overall current vibe of the strip, it’s pretty bold to hinge the whole plot on nostalgia being literally toxic.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/6/19

PANEL AFTER PANEL OF RED-HOT GOING-TO-THE-AIRPORT-BUT-NOT-ACTUALLY-GETTING-ON-A-PLANE ACTION!!!!!

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Sam and Silo, 1/5/19

I admit to being kind of charmed by my own inability to get a firm handle on what the deal is with Sam and Silo, exactly. Like, today starts off seeming like another in a continuing series of “Sam should see a mental health professional” strips, but then takes a turn in the final panel to horror! Or maybe just a turn from “Sam should see a mental health professional about his depression” to “Sam should see a mental health professional about his psychotic break.”

Funky Winkerbean, 1/5/19

You can forgive a long-running strip like Funky Winkerbean for reveling in its own lore a bit, I suppose, but things get tricky when you contrast its wacky, light-hearted past with its curren omnipresent cloud of grimness. For instance, I’m sure at some point it was hilarious that school budgetary cuts required the Scapegoats to tote injured players off the field using equipment that no medical professional would endorse. But the fact that one of the people reminiscing fondly about this episode has suffered permanent cognitive damage due to his high school football career casts a little bit of a pall over the whole thing.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/5/19

You guys, Sarah Morgan is just now hearing about this business where the climate can vary across differing geographies and she is not OK with it.