Post Content

Hey there! If it’s the first Friday of the month, it must be time for me to plug today’s installment of the live comedy show I host in Lost Angeles, The Internet Read Aloud!

This month, we’ve got: Mary Sues! Unsolicited emails! TV’s Alf! MUSICAL GUESTS! And much more! Here’s the Facebook event, if you like those! We’re at the Clubhouse, which is at 1607 North Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz — it’s in the shopping center just the north of the Vons (just to the left, as you’re looking at the storefronts), under a sign that says “That’s Shoe Biz!” (There’s a smaller sign that actually says “The Clubhouse,” but it’s hard to see unless you’re up close.) Lots of free parking and an easy walk from the Red Line! Don’t miss it!

Also! I’m gonna be packaging up everybody’s tote bags this weekend, so if you want one and haven’t filled in the form with your address, please do so! And if you haven’t received the email with the link to the form, please email me at jfruh@jfruh.com!

And now, your comment of the week!

“So, the police spent zero time investigating the missing child that Crankshaft forgot was on his bus, but rushed out immediately to handle this soaping business. Looks like Cranky is enjoying rich rewards for helping his pal lose the last mayoral election.” –Aphthakid

Plus your runners up! Very funny!

“And that was how Cindy and Mason forged their suicide pact.” –TheDiva

“Amazing throwaway-panel-near-emotional-reversal on Hi & Lois. It makes it seem as though the kids think they’re going to get some joyous family togetherness time before Mom crushes their hopes. But look closer at the red tension patches on their cheeks, unchanging in the subsequent panels, their timorous smiles, the slight hunch in their backs — they’re just putting a brave face on it. Deep down they know what the next four panels will be like.” –matt w

“Of course, a sure way of retaining youth and health is exposing as much skin as possible to those life-giving UV rays!” –bbofun

“That diagrammatic arrow in the third-to-last panel kills me. They really didn’t trust readers to understand the basic physics of this stunt. Trust me, anyone reading Dick Tracy on a Sunday has probably seen The Blues Brothers once or twice.” –Joe Blevins

“Rope? Check. Sacrificial animal? Check. Blade? Check. Innocent child? Check. Faux piety? Check. I don’t think Snuffy’s trick-or-treating at all; I think he’s trying to recreate the Binding of Isaac.” –Schroduck

“Today we learn that all you have to do to convince Mary Worth of any half-baked idea is spout two unrelated platitudes at her in close succession, causing her circuitry to overload so she goes into a feedback loop of her own advice.” –Steve S

“‘Travel the world for twelve months’ is how the Maryverse writes out a character for about 17 realtime years.” –Johnny Knuckles

“What’s sad about today’s Phantom is that Lavender Sweater Guy knocking on the door and politely asking if he can come in is, like, the most tension the strip has seen in MONTHS.” –Kevin Forest Moreau, on Facebook

“The jar is no doubt empty as Stropp’s mortal remains sitting atop a musty old locker has long been used by an unwitting janitor to clean up a spill or absorb some freshman’s vomit in the gym. Once this has been realized, Les will quip: ‘Well, Coach Stropp was always absorbed by the action on the floor.'” –Joe Momma

“In order for this strip to achieve peak Funky, it would require some weak attempt at wordplay: ‘Good thing that didn’t remain up there — if I had forgotten I would be ashen faced. He urn-ed the right to be treated better than that. Whew, got those out just in time; here comes the stroke that will rob me of the ability to speak.'” –Nekrotzar

“A nice capper for Wilbur’s ‘I should probably tell my daughter I’m leaving for a year, oh, yeah, where is she, anyway?’ afterthought would be if he imagined a totally different woman while thinking it. I vote for Tyler Perry’s Madea.” –handsome Harry Backstayge, idol of a million other women

“I legit read Mary Worth’s caption as ‘Wilbur decides who Hell will inform next.’ Which, although not exactly grammatical, would be a super plot twist. And I, for one, would read the Mary Worth spin-off Wilbur, The Voice of Hell.” –Victor Von

No, she isn’t playing on them. She never interacts with us in any sort of play or fun. She says that’s why I have siblings so she can have her grape juice.” –Chareth Cutestory

“I love that the hardworking zookeeper with the disdain for elitist politicians looks like he stepped right out of a 1930s Soviet propaganda poster. ‘Your attempts to join the petty bourgeoisie will be for naught. When the revolution comes, you will not be spared.'” –pugfuggly

“Welcome to another exciting episode of Jordan’s Wide World of Meat.” –Pozzo

“Who knows what adventures Selfy will have between now and the time an elephant sits on him?” –Chyron HR

“Since this is Funky Winkerbean, I assumed that ‘snap’ was the sound of Bull’s tibia breaking.” –Lawyerbob

“I would find it extremely satisfying if Bull’s trip-and-spill sent him into an apoplectic rage whereupon he proceeded to punt the urn and its remaining ashes between the goal posts. If he then dropped dead of a heart attack/ghost curse, that’s fine, too. Say, do you think Lisa and Stropp are bangin’ in the afterlife? If so, can I be the one to tell Les? How do ghosts do it, anyway? I feel like there should be an orgasm/ectoplasm joke in there somewhere, but I’m too lazy. I may have spent too much time thinking about this.” –The Might Untrained FOOZLE

Thanks to everyone who put some scratch in my tip jar! And let’s give thanks to our advertisers:

  • Two Party Opera: A daily comic that features the Presidents of the United States as they live on the stage of history with the day-to-day news of political mudslinging.
  • Bluebeards Original is proud to join The Comics Curmudgeon as an advertiser! Company owner Paul Kaniewski is a longtime follower of this site, to the point that it inspired him to created the famed Aldo Kelrast MySpace profile. Bluebeards has been making top-rated beard care products for ten years now, so any bearded folks or those that love them, please check out the site and try their stuff.
  • And if you haven’t bought my novel yet, you should! You can get it in hardback, paperback, or ebook forms. It’s called The Enthusiast, and it’s about trains, comics, stealth marketing, capitalism, and joy.

If you would like to buy advertising on the Comics Curmudgeon, you can do so on a CPM basis through BuySellAds. To find out more, you can go to the site’s BuySellAds page or just click here.

About this Post

Comments are closed.

Post Content

Spider-Man, 11/4/16

Hey, remember J. Jonah Jameson, who was forced out of his job beloved job at the Bugle, by Egghead? To the best of my knowledge he’s been completely out of the loop on Spidey and Ant-Man’s quest, and has presumably come over to Egghead’s house on his own initiative to cut the Gordian Knot of this extremely silly storyline and just bludgeon Egghead senseless with a lamp.

Funky Winkerbean, 11/4/16

So it turns out that all Coach Stropp ever wanted was to have his ashes carried over the goal line one last time before Bull left, since his team was stopped on the goal line in their attempt to win a championship. And it didn’t work! Bull tripped and spilled his powered remains all over the field, a few yards out! I absolutely love this, because the only time I respect Funky Winkerbean is when it really, really owns its total oppressive gloom. I honestly hope we get a solid week of an increasingly agitated Bull trying to get the cremains back in the jar, weeping as he watches flakes of Coach Stropp’s bones fall between his fingers over and over again.

Dick Tracy, 11/4/16

So Selfy Narcisse’s characterization has veered wildly over the course of this plot, from “slick, unctuous fixer for an nativist politician” to “comically preening narcissist” to “sinister poisoner” to “dude who likes to do sweet jumps over drawbridges.” But it’s his latest incarnation — “guy who practically grew up at the zoo, and who now is presumably going to lay low at the zoo, disguised as an orangutang or monitor lizard or something even more hilarious” — that has really won me over. Let’s follow Selfy’s increasingly insane adventures for months!

Post Content

Dick Tracy, 11/3/16

For my money, the line “this is no place for you” is the funniest thing in the comics today. At first I thought it meant that Selfy was a big shot who shouldn’t be risking getting monkey poop on his shiny shoes or something. But then I realized that I had it backwards, which was even funnier: the zoo is too good for a scumbag like Selfy! This is a decent place, where we cage wild animals for bored schoolchildren to gawk at! It’s no place for political hacks who wear tuxedos in their daily life and other monsters. Ol’ Vic tried to keep Selfy on the straight and narrow, tried to teach him the way of the feces shovel and the tranq gun, but it was too late: he was well on his way along the all-too-common young-hood-to-congressional-staffer pipeline, and not all monkey chow in the world could save him.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 11/3/16

Hey, it looks like Chekhov’s packages of frozen cash finally went off, a year after they were placed on the mantlepiece in an extremely non-casual manner! Anyway, my top two choices for what happened to the money are (a) Heather used it to hire a hit man to kill Milton and make it look like Jordan did it, so he has no choice but to obey her whims, sexually, or (b) Milton used it to wire the house with explosives so that he can go out on his terms, which is to say with some of his faculties still intact and taking his wife and household staff with him. Either way, Jordan is right to “oh, boy!” dramatically!

Family Circus, 11/3/16

That’s actually not right either, Dolly. Mommy is letting the breeze ruffle her hair and is imagining what it might be like to be driving a convertible, by herself, in whatever direction she pleases. Mommy stopped looking for Jeffy a solid twenty minutes ago.