Post Content

Dick Tracy, 7/15/11

I hate to criticize the new Dick Tracy team, who I think do a great job in terms of art and tone, and are clearly huge fans of the Dick Tracy mythos; however, much of their early work has consisted of endless callbacks to what I assume are beloved characters from the past, making the whole thing kind of baffling to the uninitiated. At least I feel confident in guessing that this so-called “Mr. Crime” is a criminal of some sort; I’m also reasonably certain that he’s a lizard-man.

Mary Worth, 7/15/11

Oh ho ho, it looks like Dr. Jeff hasn’t given up in his continued quest to make Mary the next Mrs. Dr. Jeff, and he knows there’s nobody more marriageable as a tuxedo’d gent who’s just raised a lot of money for charity. Be warned, sir: you know what happens when people put on bow ties to win Mary’s heart? They end up dead.

Gil Thorp, 7/15/11

Gil Thorp’s summer golf storyline has been as dull as you might expect, featuring teens flirting as they learn about our most boring summer sport. So you can imagine the relief I felt when I arrived at panel three and discovered that some cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers are about to make an appearance.

Post Content

Spider-Man, 7/14/11

Oh boy, this bespectacled lady wants to capture Spider-Man, in photographic form! This is delicious, because of course taking pictures of Spider-Man is, as far as I can make out, Peter Parker’s sole source of income. One of Newspaper Spider-Man’s least attractive qualities — and lord knows there are lots to choose from — is his continuing macho panic at the idea that his wife makes more money than he does, despite the fact that his wife is a successful actress and he’s a stringer working in the dying newspaper industry (and also a superhero, a role that you’d think would be enough to boost his fragile ego, until of course you see how he goes about filling it). Anyway, my bet is that this woman will humiliate Peter further by displacing him from his pathetic job; I assume that her pictures of Spider-Man will be better than his, both because it’s tricky to stage photos of yourself and because Peter is an incompetent who’s no good at anything.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 7/14/11

Haw haw, looks like Jughaid’s startin’ to hallucinate! He’s probably sufferin’ from heat stroke, no doubt because he insists on wearing a fur hat in the middle of summer.

Family Circus, 7/14/11

Dolly, nothing in your current life might match up with the sanitized fairy tales in that book, but surely the Brothers Grimm or Russian folklorists have recorded stories of a quartet of terrifying, stunted gnomish things locked away in a compound by their horrified parents.

Hi and Lois, 7/14/11

This is the first Hi and Lois I can remember laughing at. Ha ha, it’s funny because the innocent little baby is learning about disappointment! Oh, I’m a terrible person.

Post Content

Apartment 3-G, 7/13/11

This isn’t something I usually say, but: kudos to both the artist and the colorist for Apartment 3-G, for livening up this somewhat dull installment! The jagged dividing line in panel two does an excellent job of depicting Lu Ann’s sudden panic at having to try to interact with two people at once.

Momma, 7/13/11

I guess it really shouldn’t come as surprise that a strip that thinks of the Tennessee Valley Authority as a universally recognized cultural touchstone would also think of efforts to dredge navigation channels and build enormous dams as a “conservation project.”

Judge Parker, 7/13/11

Boy, I’ve been kind of slacking when it comes to keeping you up to date on the plot of Judge Parker, haven’t I? I don’t have the energy to discuss all the twists and turns, but the fact that things have ended with one of the smug, rich, attractive people who rule this strip receiving the chanting adulation of dozens of adoring proles should come as a surprise to nobody.