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Spider-Man, 11/8/08

Spider-Man has posed one vaguely interesting super-hero-esque narrative dilemma this week: How will Spidey get out of those nutty handcuffs? Naturally, this is resolved just below the bottom of panel two, where we can’t see it, while the storyline is endlessly rehashed by characters nobody likes.

Gasoline Alley, 11/8/08

Will Slim and Clovia loot what little cash is left in their business’s accounts, then high-tail it across American on the run from their creditors and unpaid employees? I’d love to see it, if only because Slim is such a spectacular failure that he’d inevitably end up in debtors’ prison.

Pluggers, 11/8/08

Pluggers have nowhere in particular to go and nobody who wants to see them, so they might as well just sit at the barber’s for twenty minutes, or an hour, who the hell cares, at least they have old magazines to read, God, why is life so empty and meaningless.

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Spider-Man, 11/5/08

After a contentious election season, can we not come together as one people and agree that Spider-Man is hilarious? Our crack police duo, having solved this caper from the moment they arrived on the scene, raise their voice slightly for backup while the web-crawler lurches off at medium speed in a direction that does not appear to be towards the exits. As Spidey wrestles with those “nutty handcuffs,” one is also invited to contemplate how many lovely antique timepieces Big Time could have purchased legitimately, had he chosen to market this ultrahard yet malleable metal for the variety of industrial uses that might suggest themselves to anyone who thinks about it for more than thirty seconds.

Apartment 3-G, 11/5/08

So, after much comical drug use and a little light murder on the part of her boyfriend, Lu Ann has made good on her months-old promise to decamp to South Dakota (nickname: “The Baja Peace Garden State”), which leads Margo and Ruby to engage in awkward banter that seems to hint that Lu Ann is involved in some kind of contract dispute with the strip’s producers.

Anyway, Lu Ann’s absence ought by rights to provide the perfect opportunity for Apartment 3-G to provide us with a little Tommie time, but naturally that won’t happen because she’s boring even by soap opera comic standards. Hopefully, then, we’ll get to see fill-in roommate Ruby working in the wedding planning business that Margo so cavalierly abandoned when Eric conned her into running his art gallery. Extra bonus points if some discreet questioning of clients on Margo’s part reveals that Ruby’s simple, no-fuss steadiness is a marked contrast to Margo’s comical incompetence, which discovery would naturally lead to Ruby’s immediate dismissal.

(Side note: “a little Tommie time” is what Gary calls it when he gets to second base with Tommie.)

Crock, 11/5/08

Grossie and her friend have just seen Ing, a heart-breaking romance between two gerunds. At first, their love moved forward progressively, but they were eventually torn apart when they couldn’t agree whether their relationship should be governed by a possessive or objective pronoun.

Psst! Still ecstatic/outraged over the election? Chat about it here!

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Slylock Fox, 11/3/08

Oh, today’s Slylock is a cavalcade of delights. I love Shady’s early-20th-century finery, and the Fat Cats dressed in various period costumes — we’ve got Roaring ’20s Plutocrat Cat and Bespectacled Early ’60s Cat, along with a more contemporary counterpart. Plus there’s Shady’s framed “Inventor of the Year” certificate, which was obviously created in Print Shop. Mostly, though, I like Shady’s invention, which bears a suspicious resemblance to an always-cool pillow gadget I thought up in junior high, when I had even less engineering knowledge than I do now. If only I had had a pair of stripey pants, I could have gotten venture funding!

Mark Trail, 11/3/08

Sue, Charlie isn’t going to be able to leave you alone if you keep slamming the door into his chest. “Go home, Charlie! [SLAM] We’ll talk [SLAM] in the office [SLAM] tomorrow!” “Eargh, Sue, I think you just broke my sternum! Please stop! [SLAM] Aarrrrgggh….”

Meanwhile, Sneaky is heading out for his date with dog-drowning destiny. Realizing that he may need to be identified later, he pauses between panels two and three to put on his collar.

Spider-Man, 11/3/08

“We know who did it! It’s the guy who’s unconscious and immobilized at the scene of the crime, where the stolen goods are nowhere to be seen! God, I love being a cop! It’s so easy!”