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Six Chix, 8/24/14

Pluggers II — Ascension

The Change came faster than anyone could have imagined. Proto-pluggers, still in animal form, quickly learned to operate the machines left for them as the humans devolved. Seduced by simple sense-pleasures, their former masters abandoned the responsibilities of economic life, cleaning up after themselves, and caring for their — what did they call them in the Before Times? Oh, yes — pets.

Mark Trail, 8/24/14

It’s good to see that despite the change at the helm, Sunday Mark Trail is sticking to its time-honored themes. Take it from NOAA: whether by tidal wave, lightning, flash flood, or this tornado here, Nature is an implacable monster and will stone cold kill you — probably by blowing up your barn or throwing a tractor at you or some shit. We oughta global-warm the hell outa that bitch.

Sally Forth, 8/24/14

Faithful readers, summer is on the wane. Think of the pops. You know Ted has. The pops! Soon they will be but a memory.

Crankshaft, 8/24/14

If you’re looking for humor, try “the food is terrible — and the portions are so small!” But if you’re in the mood for mean, pinch-lipped, incoherent spite, you can’t go wrong with Crankshaft.

Ohmigod, Josh — just two days until you hit the road! HURRY HURRY HURRY!

–Uncle Lumpy

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Six Chix, 8/23/14

Pluggers Arise

Slowly, weighed down by the unfamiliar clothing, Betsy rose to stand on her hind legs … on her … legs. Powerful thoughts rose unbidden in her awakening mind. No more would she beg or heel for an “owner” or any other mistress: she would destroy them, and assume their place. She would have foibles … and, and, squalor, and resentments. And sweet prescription medications. Betsy’s time — her age — had come. She was next, and the world would tremble.

Her owner’s last shriek echoed in the gathering darkness: “Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty plugger!”

Crankshaft, 8/23/14

The authors of Crankshaft wish their readers to know that they are perfectly capable of crafting a serviceable pun in English. It is their hateful main character, Ed Crankshaft himself, who alone butchers our language, out of spite.

Dennis the Menace, 8/23/14

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires Alice Mitchell to carry a Ionizing Radiation Hazard symbol with her at all times, because she is just that hot!

Edge City, 8/23/14

Obsessive neurotic Abby Ardin’s neurotic obsessions are approaching some sort of vanishing point.

Family Circus, 8/23/14

“All except the Oxy, Jeffy – I get those from Duwayne.”

Phantom, 8/23/14

Illegally imprisoned in a Deep Woods cage by a masked enforcer on trumped-up “terrorism” charges, Wambesi freedom-fighter Chatu is kept alive as bait to trick his followers into revealing their loyalties. When President Lamada Luaga can no longer tolerate the human-rights abuses carried out in his name, the Phantom subjects Chatu to a savage beat-down to show Luaga that his precious “Rule of Law” is no match for the Phantom’s own Law of the Jungle, so watch your step, pal. The terrified Luaga surrenders his principles and his rival’s fate to the sinister forces that underpin his regime, abandoning his citizen to a forgotten, hopeless future. Democracy’s heroes, ladies and gentlemen!

Spider-Man, 8/23/14

This would be nothing more than Spider-Man getting shamed by a real superhero yet again, except for the delightful rhyming onomatopoeia in the final panel: “Thok, Doc Ock! Btok! Sock, Pok! That’s a lock; off the clock — you rock!

Hey! I’m minding the store while Josh pulls up stakes and starts a new life in the City of Angels. Look for travel updates, old-timey postcards, and more ahead.

— Uncle Lumpy

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FAITHFUL COMICS CURMUDGEON READERS! You see before you the last set of Comments of the Week that I will write as a resident of Baltimore! I’m spending the next two days in a frenzy of packing, and then over the next week and a half or so my wife and I will be driving across this great land we call “America.” Uncle Lumpy will be in the (metaphorical) driver’s seat on the blog until about … September 3rd? Sure, let’s say that. Subject to change! But probably September 3rd. Anyway! See you on the other side of the continent, guys! But first, the promised comment of the week:

“In Rex Morgan today, Judith Martin aka Miss Manners agitates for industrial action. The bourgeois Morgans turn their heads from the plight of working academic nurses now, but come the revolution they’ll answer to the sisters whom they forsook in their hour of need. Solidarity! I can’t wait to see Rex up against the wall, his blindfold pressed in a perfect French pleat.” –Jessie

And the usual array of hilarious runners up:

“Mary Worth is such a hipster. ‘I was an Indigo Child before it was cool.'” –CanuckDownSouth

“No, but just look at panel 5! June really is sorry about what happened to Suzanne and the others. She is sorry about what happened to Suzanne and the others. She is sorry … sorry … sorry … I do not want my wallet. I should give it to June. June will know what to do with it. June is very helpful.” –Spunde

Mary Worth: “I may have saved Olive’s life … But in all modesty, I have to point out that what I saved is incredibly valuable! Yay, me! Wait, is that modesty or the other thing?” –Peanut Gallery

“The writers of Pluggers have hit the sad realization that their target audience is dying off and they needed to reboot the concept. ‘Kids like extreme sports, right? This’ll get them off that interwebs and x boxers. Dear God, please don’t let them cancel us. I can’t go back to teaching cartooning at my local community college. I can’t'” –Bono Vix

“I see the bank robber has a gun. I imagine a doughy, bespectacled casually clad man suspended on ten foot metal stilts will make an easy target at twenty to thirty feet.” –Optimus Prime Rib

“If Spider-Man wasn’t already jealous of Doc Ock, he sure will be when he sees that pretty blonde in the last panel. No attractive lady ever gazed up so admiringly and longingly at his crotch, in spite of all those years he’s spent splaying his spandex-clad legs high above the city streets!” –Perky Bird

“If you Google ‘bear on roller skates,’ the first results you get are videos from North Korea and China. Which can only mean that pluggers’ worst fears have finally been realized: The last domino has fallen, and they’ve succumbed to the influence of global communism.” –BigTed

Crankshaft: “Note the date: today noted skeptic and science-hater Ed has confirmed his belief in anthropogenic climate change. Not only that, but he’s going to write a letter! So I guess the joke here is that while we’re all responsible for the state of the earth, our individual actions are so meaningless in the grand scheme of things that we might as well not bother.” –pugfuggly

“Maybe this isn’t a pickup line, but it is the end of a longer explanation. ‘Your siren song lured my crew to dash the ship upon the rocks, and they all drowned. Eddie and I somehow swam to these desolate holds of cold stone surrounded by miles of empty North Atlantic waters. If you have the tiniest shred of decency, how about a nice, warm hug?'” –hogenmogen

“I hope True Standish changes his mind about going to Valley Tech. He’s a quarterback who’s so lackadaisical about the sport that he hasn’t touched a football all summer, he’s so clumsy that he can’t step off a curb without hurting himself severely, and he is so uncoordinated that he can’t even shake hands. Ladies and gentlemen, I present the sports hero that Milford deserves!” –seismic-2

Funky Winkerbean: “How delightfully clever! By unrealistic authorial fiat, two lackluster storylines that were staggering to unsatisfying conclusions — each notionally developing an unpleasant member of the regular cast by having them do things they initially despised but sort of came to appreciate in the end — are revealed as merging into one amorphous mass of narrative waste product.” –Master Softheart

“Desperate to talk to literally anyone about literally anything, Roz asks the Perfesser an inane but open-ended question only to have the Perfesser immediately turn to his electronic device so as to avoid even that most basic of social graces — small talk with acquaintances. Is this simply a new level of passive-aggressiveness or has the Perfesser finally found an addiction that suits him, the female voice in his smart phone?” –Flippin Arkansas

“What TV program could possibly be provoking the wide-eyed, blissed-out wonder we see from every member of the notoriously jaded Miller clan? I can only imagine that the Discovery Channel finally went and green-lit A Guy Jangles His Keys in Front of the Camera.” –Joe Blevins

“I am looking forward to seeing Parker covered in effluvia and exiting through some storm drain 300 yards from the bank a half hour after realizing sewers do not provide easy access to buildings.” –Anonymous

“Say what you will about his oppressive, magic-supported reign of terror, the King of the Idiots has amazingly good spray-painting skills if he can do six lines of words in New Century Schoolbook without a stencil.” –Chip Whittle

“The procedure went well! I’ve always wanted to be a Morlock!” –Marcus Theory

Mark Trail: “I guess they call him ‘Dirty’ Dyer because ‘Beady Eye Flop Sweat’ Dyer doesn’t scan as well.” –Voyage of the Oversnark

“Mommy, you didn’t cook P.J. enough — he crawled out of the roasting pan! Can we order a pizza now?” –AhClem

“Why, if you rearrange the letters of ‘Starbucks,’ erase some, add a few more, you get ‘Hitler.’ Our records show that he’s dead … or is he!?!” –Dr. Mabuse

“PJ didn’t understand. There were five places set at the table, and six Keanes. This was the way the nightly game went, and at long last, he had beaten his father out. He was just inches from dinner. Who was Dolly to deny him his victory? The hunger he had learned to accept long ago, but even he was surprised by the rage and frustration that built within him. The worst part of it — he knew this even as an infant — was that when the cops grilled him about years later, it would no longer make sense. Even to him, the motivation for his horrific actions would remain obscure.” –pastordan

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