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I hope it is a pleasant early spring day wherever you are! Let’s enjoy our COTW, shall we?

“The willowy Thelma Keane drapes an elegant hand over her wasp-waist and gazes listlessly upon the stumpy ginger fire-plug in human form that has somehow burrowed its way out of her uterus. In this moment she does not see Barfy slavering over the jug-shaped head of her last-born, nor does she hear the ceaseless stream of prattle emanating from Dolly’s ever-flapping mouth. Her features set in a mask of enigmatic neutrality, Thelma struggles to suppress a crashing wave of existential nausea.” –Higgs Boatswain

And the hilarious runners up!

“Oh, Gunther! You’re just like Gandhi, if Gandhi liked to physically assault people while their backs were turned.” –Chyron HR

“I looked up ‘Braxton Hicks contractions’ myself, and nowhere does it mention inexplicable shape-shifting. Tommie’s diagnosis for Nina is clearly incorrect.” –mstgator

“When you look back at this season you should do it with pride. Personally though, I can’t even be bothered to look back at my team as I finish this half-assed sorry-I-blew-it speech on the way out the door. See you in gym class, losers!” –Nate

“Why does Marvin’s mom have three breasts? Is the strip moving to a war footing against Judge Parker?” –Dood

“Given that I have no idea what happened (nor do I care to find out) between Parker Bowen’s suspension and Milford’s defeat, I’m going to assume that the last two days of have consisted of Gil furiously trying to find some rule that automatically disqualifies any team whose players have cornrows.” –Irrischano

Mary Worth: “The giant Belgian waffle is back! My new favorite character!” –Flummoxicated

“Man, you know what would be way more interesting than reading about the unventures of Shoe and Perfesser? Reading about the life of Good Samaritan Hipster Duck. All day he just drives around the (city? treetops? Where the hell does Shoe take place augh what the hell) in his shooter cap and scarf and does minor good deeds.” –bunivasal

“PJ sure seems to enjoy eating his … clod … of something?” –sporknpork

“I think we all know that if today’s strip was truly a distillation of Judge Parker, the shooter would show up at Chesty Shotgun Blonde’s hideout to give her a solid platinum medal for being the best assassination target ever, before promptly dying and leaving his till now unmentioned vast wealth to her. Because she earned it.” –Alex

“Who’s the target audience for Gil Thorp anyway? What demographic gets excited about harassing local tattoo shop owners?” –AndyL

“Who would have ever possibly thought that the most realistically drawn character in Gil Thorp would be the cat-person from Avatar?” –BradyJ

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Gil Thorp, 3/9/12

Oh, man, you guys. Oh man. As I’ve noted, the Great Mudlark Tattoo Epidemic has been my favorite Gil Thorp plot in a long time, and while I thought it’s flagged a bit of late, it is really paying off in joy this week! See, not only is Ransom Hale of New Zealand really Rupert Hall of Dayton, Ohio, but his sleazy bootleg DVD business is really a non-sleazy, wholly legal business that involves selling DVDs that were obtained without violating any laws. Let’s just pause a moment to contemplate how delightfully little sense this makes. I mean, surely Milford Ink couldn’t buy even used DVDs in enough bulk to undercut, say, Wal-Mart or Amazon, even if we ignore that labor costs involved in doctoring the boxes; and, of course, I’m pretty sure you can’t buy used DVDs of the latest Twilight movie.

But let’s just hand-wave all that away because if we take it at face value it means that Gil has absolutely no legitimate gripe against Milford Ink. That won’t keep him from using his Army training to bust up the joint and/or make a withering speech that will shame the ne’er-do-wells, of course, but it’s pretty hilarious to see his self-righteous indignation grow with each new non-damning revelation about this faux-seedy business.

Apartment 3-G, 3/9/12

This whole week of Apartment 3-G, in which Rick has been passive-aggressively needling Tommie about her lack of passion for the music business (and, by implication, for him) has failed to arouse any passion in me, for the obvious reasons of, come on, Tommie, zzz. But I do want to point out that Tommie is apparently wearing the world’s only existing set of turtleneck scrubs.

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Gil Thorp, 3/8/12

Having finished with his winter job duties (i.e., losing the boy’s basketball championship), Gil finally has time to follow up on some of his personal projects (i.e., shutting down a wholly legal tattoo parlor with a minor sideline in selling bootleg DVDs). Ransom Hale may actually be named Rupert and may not be from New Zealand, but the good look at his tonsure that we get in panel three shows us the real scandal here: he’s a monk who’s forsaken his vows poverty, obedience, and possibly chastity! Boy, wait until the abbot hears about this!

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 3/8/12

Snuffy, Uriah can’t hear your recounting of your corrupt relationship with the town’s only law enforcement authority; as his ghostly, colorless face in panel two indicates, he actually dropped dead from shock upon hearing about the Post Office’s troubled finances, and has now crossed over into the spirit realm. Since ghosts no longer think in ordinary language the way we do on this plane of existence, “?” is the closest we can get to transcribing the sense of wonder and amazement Uriah is experiencing as he begins to understand his newly transcendent state.

Judge Parker, 3/8/12

I’m not even going to try to explain what’s going on here; I’m just going to point out that today’s first panel, in which a chesty blonde cradles a shotgun while having a boring, confusing conversation with someone on the phone, is Judge Parker distilled down to its very essence.