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Spider-Man, 8/9/08

I’ve been mostly ignoring the current Spider-Man plot, which has offered a change of pace from Peter Parker whining about what’s on TV by showing us Peter Parker whining about having the flu. Today’s entry is worth featuring, though, because it includes a rare bout of actual superheroics on Spidey’s part. Naturally, his attempt to save the day has only resulted in him and two others plummeting to their deaths.

Marmaduke, 8/9/08

The Internet-savvy Marmaduke has used a social-networking Web site to arrange an orgy.

Wizard of Id, 8/10/08

“The Wizard of Id isn’t too hip on current events!”

“Why do you say that?”

“The strip writers thought that a two-year-old film based on a five-year-old book constituted ‘current events!'”

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Wizard of Id, 7/3/08

This is one of an alarming number of Wizard of Ids that make me laugh due to sheer immature misanthropy, but since I’m the Comics Curmudgeon, after reading it I paused to see if I could figure out how to make it even more immaturely misanthropic. And the answer quickly became pretty obvious: the punchline in panel two should clearly be not “your sister” but “your mom”. Am I right? Is there no room for “your mom” jokes in the funny pages? Some sort of conspiracy of good taste? Would not every strip benefit from a healthy dose of “your mom” jokes?

Mary Worth, 7/3/08

“This reminds me of a similar situation! I have a suggestion … why don’t you convince Mr. Abner’s long-standing girlfriend to go out on a date with another man, and have her picture put in the paper, humiliating him, and then she shouldn’t return any of his phone calls when he tries to work things out? Because that’s what happened to me, and I feel totally 100 percent fine, so I’m sure he’ll feel fine when it happens to him, right? Yeah, I feel pretty great. Doing fine. Yup!”

(Alternate punchline: “I have a suggestion … I’m going to go do your mom. Later!” See, isn’t that a nice change of pace?)

Curtis, 7/3/08

Hmm, “Honeystump,” that sounds kind of suggestive, but what sort of specific thing could it be a reference to? Well, I suppose … no, wait that’s disgusting; or maybe — no no no ew no! But it could be yargh that’s not an image I need in my head so early in the morning. Thanks, Curtis, thanks a lot.

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Wizard of Id, 6/3/08

This comic is, obviously, yet another in a long line of depressing “my ex-wife is a loathsome harridan, yet I once loved her ha ha ha I hate myself” jokes that have been providing the legacy comics industry with punchlines since no-fault divorce became widely available. However, I think it’s worth pointing out that the Wizard of Id takes place in some at least notionally medieval setting, where presumably witchcraft remains a viable folk tradition, so it sort of makes sense that a bookstore would have a whole section dedicated to it.

I also think it’s worth pointing out that the only bookstores I’ve ever seen that look like the one depicted here (low-slung, featureless, no windows, cheap sign) tended to specialize in porn.

Mary Worth, 6/2/08

I think that Toby has long considered herself Mary’s acolyte and Charterstone’s chief-meddler-in-waiting; now that Mary has been emotionally weakened, she smells blood and is trying to vault to alpha meddler status while the old queen is still alive. Naturally, she’s pretty terrible at it, even with the bar set as low as it is. “Wow, you just sort of broke up and are really mad at each other! Why not spend a bunch of time together, alone, in a strange place where you don’t know anybody else and have to rely on each other to figure out what to do?”

Rex Morgan, M.D., 6/2/08

In case you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned Rex Morgan in nearly a month, it’s because the strip has focused on the good doctor as he painstakingly pieces together the movements of a bunch of filthy old wrestling mats. Makes you wish for the profoundly uncomfortable glory days of implied pederasty, doesn’t it?

Judge Parker, 6/2/08

Your go-to move if you’re an old white lady caught in a major narcotics bust: blame a Mexican.

Marmaduke, 6/2/08

You can only repress your emetophagia for so long before it starts to come out, subconsciously.

(PS — COTWs tomorrow morning — sorry for the delay!)