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Ziggy, 10/28/12

So I was reading today’s Ziggy and enjoying the little movie I made in my head about what led up to this. (Making up cruel, elaborate backstories about Ziggy’s suffering is the main reason people read Ziggy, yes?) So, yes, Ziggy won a trip to “Paris” (presumably from his local travel agency where people are mean to him all the time), and didn’t read the fine print, and then put on a beret to get on the plane to University of Illinois Willard Airport (the closest with regular commercial service to Paris, Illinois, as everybody knows), then got into a cab at this airport, with the cabbie presumably being in on the joke somehow (maybe the cruel travel agent arranged for him to pick up Ziggy in advance?), and then the cabbie just dumped Ziggy and his luggage in the middle of the road at the Paris, Illinois city limits. That last part is my favorite. Like, I’m assuming that as part of this elaborate dumb prank Ziggy actually was given a hotel room, maybe at the Super 8, but no, instead of driving him there, the cabbie decided that the sign with “Illinois” on it was the perfect place to for Ziggy to finally have his horrible realization that once again something he thought might be good in his life is only another opportunity for humiliation. Enjoy your time in Paris, Illinois, Ziggy! Enjoy walking to the Super 8 from wherever it is you are! It’s at the intersection of Highway 150 and Highway 1, FYI.

Momma, 10/28/12

I find this strip fairly unbelievable. If we know one thing about Francis, it’s that his friends are drunken good-time ne’er-do-wells. Why would he be going to a Halloween party where everyone has the same unimaginative costume and people get upset at the mere mention of alcohol? I think he may have accidentally fallen in with a cult.

Family Circus, 10/28/12

Note to anyone studying how post-modern capitalism affects the imagination of children: Kids become unable to conceptualize play-worlds that do not featured branded, licensed characters sometime between whatever age PJ is supposed to be and whatever age Jeffy is supposed to be.

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Ziggy, 10/10/12

Ziggy’s doctor is, in his own painfully awkward way, trying to tell Ziggy that he’s contracted a venereal disease due his extravagant promiscuity.

Mark Trail, 10/10/12

Oh, Mark, always so thoughtful, giving your full attention to all the members of your family during your brief visits home! Yesterday you made sure to shove it in Rusty’s face that you’ll be going fishing with someone else; today you let Cherry know that, while you feel vaguely bad about neglecting her, it’s just what you do, one of your little hobbies, and frankly it’s going to keep on happening forever, so she’d better get used to it.

Marmaduke, 10/10/12

“By the way, did you know the skull is a kind of bone? A juicy, delicious bone? Did you know that the thin layer of muscle and skin on the outside of a skull can be stripped off with frightening speed?”

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Herb and Jamaal, 10/3/12

Oh, Herb, you were doing so well with this analogy for a panel or so — yes, “endorse” could mean “lend credence to” when talking about a rumor! — but then I’m afraid you’ve just spun out of semantic range, since it’s not clear at all what it would mean to “cash” a rumor. Presumably if there were more panels we’d see him musing about how you should always be suspicious of rumors without built-in watermarking features, and that you can now log in to your bank and see scans of cancelled rumors rather than having them mailed back to you with your statements, etc. I was going to say that, since this misguided metaphor is playing out in thought balloon form, Herb at least won’t embarrass himself in front of his customer, but then I remembered that he ran away from the guy with his fingers in his ears shouting “NO, NO, NO! DON’T TELL ME!”

Ziggy, 10/3/12

Ziggy’s dentist is about hit him in the face with an enormous hammer.