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Archive: Six Chix

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“Hachi machi,” he thought, grimly. “Biscuits for dinner tonight”

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Dick Tracy, 2/18/21

I just kind of assumed that, as a high-ranking detective in the Major Crimes Unit, Dick Tracy was, if not living on easy street, then at least financially comfortable. But today we learn that he’s so short of cash that he’s been reduced to using leftover Chinese food for gambling purposes, and thinks a single dollar bill represents “pay dirt.” Truly sad that those snitches in Internal Affairs say you’re not allowed to put stuff from the evidence locker up for auction on the dark web anymore!

Six Chix, 2/18/21

I … guess this is a riff on the “I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast” bit in the beloved 1996 Adam Sandler film Happy Gilmore? Except that cats really do eat fish, and it isn’t gross at all or embarrassing for the cat say that? I suppose if Six Chix were going to do a strip where the entire joke was substituting the word “fish” for the word “shit” because they sound vaguely alike, they could’ve made it a lot more disgusting than this, so let’s count our blessings.

Dennis the Menace, 2/18/21

Dennis has a plan for rising sea levels in the wake of melting ice caps, everyone: he’s gonna climb this tree! It’s not a plan with a lot of thought towards next steps or long term consequences, but it is a plan nevertheless.

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Metaphors: Not for amateurs

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Six Chix, 2/4/21

Everyone of us, of course, it absolutely goes without saying, is familiar with the phrase “your house is so warm and fuzzy,” the completely normal and indeed beloved English-language idiom that we all know and love. But what if — and stay with me here for this one — what if we took this phrase, whose metaphorical meaning we all understand, and treated it literally? And what literal scenario springs to mind more quickly when you think of a warm, fuzzy house than a nightmarish tangle of enormous caterpillars, writhing in great piles on top of your furniture and yourself! That would indeed be delightfully droll, as their chitinous legs scramble for purchase on your flesh!

Mother Goose and Grimm, 2/4/21

Speaking of taking metaphorical phrases literally, here’s today’s Mother Goose and Grimm, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit. The key, for me, is that Grimm doesn’t live on a farm at all in the everyday world of the strip. It’s as if he was wandering through the countryside, spotted an open barn door, and thought to himself, “Oh ho, the perfect opportunity to really blow some poor farmer’s mind.” Then he leaned up against the barn and waited, sipping from the cup of coffee he brought with him for just such an occasion.

Funky Winkerbean, 2/4/21

Like every character in the strip that bears his name, Funky long ago learned to deal with the utter misery that permeates his world by suppressing all feelings other than smugness and whatever prompts the endless smirks (also smugness, I guess, though occasionally it’s also pun-recognition). But now that he’s about to go under the knife, he needs to experience a real emotion, for what might be the last time. He’s begging everyone to help him, but neither he nor anyone else knows how to even begin.

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Also, congrats to Alice for using a computer to communicate rather than a Bakelite phone

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Six Chix, 2/1/21

OK, fine, I admit it, you don’t do a whole manifesto on your comics blog to the effect of “I’m doing commentary, it’s not like I don’t understand what the joke is supposed to be” unless you’re a little concerned that there are times where you don’t understand what the joke is supposed to be, and, I’ll admit: today’s Six Chix is one of those times. The main joke here is about the “it’s the journey, not the destination” cliche, where the lady is painting a journey, realized in concrete form by her painting a plane full of people on a journey, but … is the joke also that the plane is hanging there in midair indefinitely to have its portrait painted? Or did that aspect of how planes and paintings work not intrude into the creative process of this strip? I’m really getting myself into a lather about how irritated and/or amused I should be here.

Dennis the Menace, 2/1/21

This seems like Alice is passing on a compliment to her son, but in fact, in an indirect way, she’s complimenting herself and her husband, because for once they both managed to refrain from saying anything really cruel and cutting about her old college friend that Dennis could misunderstand and repeat in front of her. Good job, Mitchell parents! Dennis still has a menacingly high level of self-regard, though.

Gasoline Alley, 2/1/21

Oh, I’m sorry, did you read about how Slim and Clovia needed a new dryer back on December 29th and think to yourself, “Surely they’ll have this transaction wrapped up by February”? You fool. You absolute moron. How could you be so naive? You make me sick.