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The Phantom, 4/9/12

For those who came in late, that’s Phantom creator Lee Falk just stone cold chilling in first class, ready to lay down a little exposition, while the Ghost Who Is Cheap squeezes with his wards into a three-abreast row in coach. Of course, if you were the sort who needed a little Falkian guidance right about now, you’d probably also be baffled by this fellow hoisting his martini glass and saying “For those who came in late” without any context, but whatever. Lee Falk does not feel any obligation to hurry up and fit a complete sentence into this strip just to make it easier for people who aren’t paying adequate attention to his creation’s adventures. He’s just going to sip that fancy drink and tell you what’s what in his own sweet time, demonstrating the sort of cool sang-froid that ensured that airport security didn’t dare ask about his skull cane/bludgeon.

Apartment 3-G, 4/9/12

For once, I’m kind of thankful for the ongoing writer-artist estrangement at Apartment 3-G, which today has taken the form of “I never would’ve thought to choose this furniture, and if nobody’s going to describe it it’s sure as hell not going to get drawn, so let’s just stand here in front of this stepladder with no steps.” This way instead of whatever bland nursery accoutrements Margo probably got, I can imagine that a better and more interesting set of furniture lurks just below the bottom of the frame. “I never would’ve thought to buy baby furniture covered with rusty iron spikes, but if you say that it’ll toughen our son or daughter up for life in the big city, I’ll take your word for it!”

Marvin, 4/9/12

Are you worried that the jokes about Marvin pooping that you tune into Marvin for are going to be replaced by jokes about Bitsy farting? Don’t worry, we’ll be back to the Marvin-pooping content you love soon; the strip is just going to spend a few days setting up the new spin-off strip, Bitsy, which will focus exclusively on Bitsy farting. It’ll be hilarious!

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Pluggers, 4/8/12

Happy Easter, everybody! Did you ever have warm feelings towards the Easter Bunny, that lovable fertility symbol turned Easter mascot? Well, prepare to have those completely washed away now that you see him for what he really is: just another plugger, with his eggs stacked haphazardly in the back of his beat up pick-up truck, just stone cold flying out all over the highway, so what if some of those baskets come in a little light, he’s not paid enough to care, those little squallers can kiss his furry ass, you know what I’m saying?

Judge Parker, 4/8/12

Haha, yet another Judge Parker storyline has ended in lucrative rewards for one of the strip’s main characters, who did nothing to deserve it! Last time around Judge Parker Emeritus gained the fawning love of millions for accidentally falling off a building; this time it’s April, who got a couple of Mercedeses from her Saudi prince friend as a way of apologizing for the ways in which his vast polygamous family’s internal politics inconvenienced her. Oh, also, he probably had one of his daughters-in-law executed, but the important thing here is that April and Randy will be tooling around in shiny new cars, huzzah!

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Hagar the Horrible, 4/7/12

Hagar has spent so many years engaged in brutal warfare that he no longer understands how to behave in conventional social situations, and crowds trigger attacks of PTSD.

Shoe, 4/7/12

The Perfesser is either too lazy to open gifts or too jaded to feel the brief anticipatory joy one usually experiences while doing so, and now just demands to be told what they are before he bothers to remove the wrapping paper.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 4/7/12

The chickens of Hootin’ Holler, like their human counterparts, suffer from significant genetic abnormalities.