Post Content

Hi and Lois, 6/23/16

Because the Flagstons are a a stereotypical upper-middle class family living in the suburbs in what appears to be the ’50s or first half of the ’60s, I’ve always assumed they’re Episcopalians. The Episcopal Church has a page on their website that says they believe in justification through faith, though they don’t use the “faith alone” formula, and anyway, even the most hardcore Calvinist sees good works as flowing naturally from true faith. Nice try pushing antinomianist heresy, Ditto!

Pluggers, 6/23/16

You’re a plugger if technological advances have made the services you need to live inaccessible to you.

Post Content

Mary Worth, 6/22/16

I don’t want to engage in any stereotyping, but my understanding is that Japan is a more reserved and stoic culture than the United States. Thus, I would have to assume that those in Japan who survived the terrible tragedies of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident would like few things less than to have some American lunge at them in sympathy, Wilbur style, and try to get them to emote for “I Shouldn’t Be Alive!”, his terrible and widely syndicated newspaper column. Anyway, pretty much all you need to know about Mary Worth is that our upcoming storyline is much less likely to be “Wilbur rambles around Japan re-traumatizing earthquake victims” and more likely to be “Mary replies to someone who wrote into a newspaper advice column.”

Family Circus, 6/22/16

The “Billy subs for his dad on Fathers Day” bit has a long and storied history in the Family Circus, but does it usually last an entire week? Anyway, the layers of metafiction in these exercises are always exhausting — like, grown-up Jeff Keane is pretending to be the 7-year-old version of his real-life brother subbing for their father, who died in 2011 — and this strip just adds some messed up family dynamics to the mix. “No, it was Billy who made a crude fat joke about your child-self, Dolly! Billy, age 7!”

Phantom, 6/22/16

Looks like Kit Jr. (or Kit XXIII, I guess) will be spending the next four years in Tibet, cut off from his home and family. So at his goodbye party, he’s enjoying the sort of Bangallan treat he’ll be missing: a raw unpeeled potato, fresh from the bowl!

Post Content

Blondie, 6/21/16

Wow, it looks like Mr. Dithers can read not just the content of Dagwood’s thoughts, but their texture, the little undercurrent of gloom denoted by the shading at the bottom of his thought balloons. This is a truly terrifying advancement, considering that Dithers Industries was already a terrifying panopticon. Our only saving grace is that Mr. Dithers lacks the imagination to use his amazing psionic powers to do anything more than hassle the employees at his generic white-collar company slightly more than he already does, instead, of, say, imposing a brutal thought-dictatorship on all humanity in which none of us are safe, not even in our own minds.

Hi and Lois, 6/21/16

Ha ha! It’s funny because Thirsty doesn’t have anyone who loves him!