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Archive: Rex Morgan, M.D.

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Saturday quickies

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Dennis the Menace, 1/14/22

Look, Alice, if you don’t want your giant jar of evil black goo spilled out all over the floor, unleashing an ancient demonic power that mankind has no defense against, maybe don’t leave it where your five-year-old son can so easily reach it, you know?

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/14/22

Snuffy Smith, notorious layabout, card cheater, and chicken thief, definitely doesn’t give a shit about civility or honesty, but chivalry is at its root a code of honor that provides an ideological justification for violent conflicts over women and status, so I suppose that’s something someone embedded in Hootin’ Holler’s world of clan-based feuds would be interested in maintaining.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/14/22

It has come to our attention that some of our readers have found our episodes of June dealing with minor medical problems a little too exciting. That’s why we’ve pivoted to “June transparently tries to get out of a conversation with someone she finds annoying,” to keep everyone’s blood pressure at healthy levels.

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Every old person I know is obsessed with the weather, this doesn’t add up

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Dick Tracy, 1/8/23

The current Dick Tracy plot takes a look at the age old battle between labor (the master forger who made a fake Da Vinci based on some recently discovered sketches) and capital (the underworld mastermind who connected him with the sketches and provided him with the resources he needed to create the fake). Marx teaches us that this kind of struggle is always a political one, but since this political instance takes place outside the bounds of state-sanctioned law, the politics are going to get pretty violent pretty quickly. I like that Art Dekko is calling in an (I assume) hired killer named “Kriptonite,” whose name implies that he uses otherworldly energies to kill superheroes in particular, but since Dick Tracy world is somewhat closer to our own than Superman’s, I assume he’s going to just shoot the forger guy with a gun, maybe a green gun.

Marvin, 1/8/23

Not sure what Grandma’s final panel shocked expression is supposed to convey: her realization that they’re trapped in their apartment building after a massive snowfall, and now face death from starvation or hypothermia, or that she had completely forgotten that they moved from their single-family home into an apartment building, indicating that her dementia is progressing rapidly.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/8/23

Oh, is Rex Morgan gonna throw minor ailment after minor ailment at us until we beg for more Truck Tyler bullshit? Well, forget it! I can watch June half-assedly advise people on sprained ankles and low blood suger all day! I’ll never ask for more Truck Tyler bullshit, you hear me? Never!

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Mostly facial expressions

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Blondie, 1/4/23

There are, I think I don’t have to tell you, a number of subtle ways in which the syndicated comic strip Blondie reinforces the patriarchy. Among them is the fact that Dagwood and the other male characters are allowed a full range of broad, cartoonish facial expressions, while Blondie and her mini-clone Cookie have their pretty girl faces mostly botoxed into place. I will allow, however, that in today’s strip the rigid components of their faces do subtly shift from their usual meaninglessness to allow a glimpse at the true horror both characters feel at the way your one wild and precious life can be consumed by the endless maw of the social media feed. This is, I think, ultimately preferable to Dustin’s thousand-mile social media stare, even though Dustin has correctly identified the website actually beloved by teens, whereas anyone who claims that the average high schooler is addicted to Facebook is either living in a fantasy world or desperately trying to buttress the value of their Meta Platforms, Inc., stock.

Hi and Lois, 1/4/23

I also enjoy the facial expressions on the up-and-coming new associate at Foofram Industries LLC in this strip. He may be new on the job, but he’s been there long enough to know that Thirsty generally doesn’t do anything very quickly, because he’s usually either very hungover or actively drunk.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/4/23

Oh, does the comic strip Rex Morgan, M.D., not have enough “medical” drama for your tastes? Did you decide that a guy pretending to shit his pants on stage so he can move up from opening act to headliner really falls into the category of a moral and ethical dilemma rather than one requiring the attention of a doctor or a nurse? OK, fine, uh, what about [thinks for exactly seven seconds about a scenario that would require medical intervention] a guy falling down in a parking lot. How about that. Are you happy now? Are you?????