Post Content

Apartment 3-G, 10/10/11

OK, so Queen Bee turns out to be less a pop-culture icon than a vaguely Fluxus-y performance artist — more Yoko Ono than Lady Gaga — taking deadly aim at the artistic conventions of 16^th-century Florence, with her stinging parody of the single most-parodied painting in history. GASP! Watch out, Edvard Munch — you’re next!

Thanks to Margo for all the helpful exposition in panel two, there. Otherwise, who would’ve guessed?

Apartment 3-G, 10/10/11, The Mona Lisa (details, edited)

WHOA! But despite Jo’s enthusiastic assurances that this is all somehow going viral, I’m pretty sure YouTube can handle the traffic.

Zits, 10/10/11

Speaking of transgression, I would not have picked Zits as first comic to cross the line
into Mom-bondage. OK, Blondie might have been wishful thinking, but at least we were spared Momma.

Ziggy, 10/10/11

And for real subversion of artistic convention, look at the way Ziggy manages to look even more obscene with his pants on.

— Uncle Lumpy

Post Content

Marvin, 9/28/11

If there’s one thing Marvin likes, it’s poop jokes. But if there are two things Marvin likes, they’re poop jokes and strips based on a theme where you can do a whole series of them that re-use a lot of the same art. I’m assuming we’ll be treated to several more days of Marvin’s Baby Definitions (ha ha, it’s funny that baby is making up his own definition of words, because he’s sassy, and also because in real life babies’ brains are incapable of abstract verbal thought!), all of which will be accompanied by drawings as nonspecific as this. Yes, that Marvin sure is giving the evil eye to his babysitters, or his parents, or maybe one babysitter and one parent, who the hell knows. Is the person on the left supposed to be a teenager, because they’re wearing baggy pants, because of the rap music? Argh, I’m trying to figure out who a Marvin character is supposed to be, let me stop now before I lose my capacity for joy permanently.

UPDATE: Oh God a “baby sitter” is actually a potty-training device and Marvin’s parents are staring at him while he tries to poop on command in the middle of the living room YUCK YUCK YUCK. Thanks a lot, faithful reader Chareth Cutestory, for pointing out that all Marvin strips are about pooping, even the ones that don’t seem to be about pooping at first.

Ziggy, 9/28/11

Speaking of poop jokes, one of Ziggy’s poops is quoting Star Trek at him! Or maybe a character from Star Trek has beamed into his toilet? Or maybe he’s undergoing some kind of psychotic break. That seems more likely.

Post Content

Crock, 9/13/11

Usually it’s difficult to impossible to get more than basic plot information out of most of the squiggle-things that make up your average Crock, but I have to admit that the facial expression in panel two of today’s installment really sells the joke for me. Sigfried (side note: did you know that the librarian in Crock is named “Sigfried”? I didn’t! It’s always a joy to realize that the comics still has hidden gems like this to discover) looks genuinely stricken as he confesses his hatred of reading. His hypocrisy must really tear him up inside! It’s either that or, as near as I can tell from the relative heights of the characters in panel one, he’s in agony from standing on his knee-stumps.

Ziggy, 9/13/11

Hello, luddites across the world! Is there piece of modern-day technical wizardry that baffles and terrifies you? Don’t worry, the offending inscrutable character-sequence will be clumsily integrated into a Ziggy joke, for your amusement. Ha ha, take that, “http://,” whatever the hell you are!