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Hello, everybody! I have returned from my Northwesterly sojourn and am as ever extremely grateful for Uncle Lumpy’s incomparable guest-hosting duties. And I am of course also extremely grateful to everyone who gave money in last week’s fundraiser! You will all be getting individual thank-yous this week, obviously, but for now I give a blanket thanks.

Uncle Lumpy was also kind enough to keep a list of the most amusing comments you made this week! Here is the top comment, chosen from his curated list using the top-secret COTW algorithm:

“This whole makeover story is what Sex and the City would have been if it was written by heterosexual men.” –Gabacho

And the runners up! Also funny!

Mary Worth: “If I could invent a way to stab comic characters through the Internet I’d be rich!” — Dan

Pibgorn: “This is a little like a ‘choose your own adventure’ book written by someone high on mescaline who spent too much time reading Ann Rice books and staring at 1970s van art.” — Hank

“Re-running a Pluggers without any notification is about as Pluggers as it gets.” –Dood

Dennis the Menace: “Margaret: ‘Maybe someday we’ll share the same last name, Dennis.’ Dennis: ‘Yeah, and then you’ll write Gone with the Wind!” –[Old Man] Muffaroo

Spider-Man: “HAHA! I am going to take control of Tony Stark to blow up a plane! No! Nevermind that! My real plan is to show the city my power! I mean, make the city terrified of Stark! Actually, my plan is to disgrace and then destroy Stark. Because… because… for… uh… for vengeance of course! That’s the ticket! Yeah, I’ll get revenge by making him kill Spider-Man! That’s my plan! Has been all along! Yes, my plan! My perfect plan to… to… to destroy Stark Industries! Yes that’s my plan! My perfect plan to destroy Stark industries… as a means of killing Spider-Man because… because… he’s the ultimate victim! For my revenge! Which is to make Spider-Man afraid of Iron Man! Yes, yes! My plan is coming together — my perfect, unchanging plan to disgrace Spider Man! Soon! Soon! Soon my plan, which has been and always will be to turn Tony Stark into a murderer, will be accomplished! MWAHAHAHAHA!” –Le Pompadour de Lynch

Funky Winkerbean: “Patrons be forewarned: No one will be seated during the spinechilling ‘walking through the door and looking at his watch’ scene!” –Pop Goes the Weasel

“The thought of a bus full of elementary-school children crying out in cornpone terror (‘Please, Gawd, naw! Don’t let me kick th’ buckit!’) is just too much for me to handle. But then — I’ve just remembered — that bus can’t have passengers, because there’s no way little children actually go to school in Gasoline Alley. Phew.” –Mollie

Luann: “Hi Tiffany, can we use you as bait?” –zerowolf

Brenda Starr: “Yes, it’s quite the chic thing for Bubba Haskins to stop by and get a mess of crickets or redworms to take to the river and fish, and while he’s gone his girlfriend Amber Faye Handful will stretch out under the tanning lamps until she’s the exact shade of her Lane hope chest she got at graduation back a while. Ain’t nothin’ like an all-purpose gas station/shit-n-git…” –True Fable

Pluggers: “The only explanation for a graveyard that crowded is that pluggers purchase vertical burial plots as a space/cost saving move. But no that can’t be right, most pluggers are just as wide as they are tall so that wouldn’t save any space at all.” –Thomas B.

Curtis: “If SuperCaptainCoolman can rip through 50 feet of solid rock like it is tissue paper, what in the world happens when he wipes his ass?” –Thomas B.

Apartment 3-G: “Love how Doris just blows her off. Luann’s problem is new hair covering the same old brain.” –Roman Fingers

“God is flooding the Earth to cleanse it of Fred Basset.” –commodorejohn

Mark Trail: “Judging by the length of the lens and the size of the front element, Mark seems to have recently purchased a 2600mm f/32 telephoto lens, probably from a sketchy Korean eBay account. If he sets up 50,000 watts of lighting he may be able to get a decent exposure, I hope it doesn’t blow his cover. Alternately, that may be a smaller lens with two feet of extension tubes to give it 10x macro magnification, for getting a real close look at the pores on whatever chin he’s going to have to punch.” –B

Again, HUGE thanks to everyone who put cash in my tip jar! And we must of course give thanks to our advertisers:

• “I am a genius of unspeakable evil, and I want to be your class president”: Family Guy meets Election in this novel from the Emmy-award winning producer of the Daily Show. “If War and Peace had a baby with The Breakfast Club and then left the baby to be raised by wolves, this book would be the result. I loved it.” –Jon Stewart

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Brewster Rockit, 9/27/10

Brewster Rockit stumbles onto The Comics Curmudgeon‘s core concept. Ooh! Look at the tiny pictures getting all smartass.

Mark Trail, 9/27/10

Cherry daydreams, watching Mark overcompensate. Explains a lot, really. Dude, just buy a bigass gun and crash Frank’s party.

Mary Worth, 9/27/10

Why hello, Dr. Cory, Mrs. Worth; how very nice to see you again, and I’m pleased to see you both looking so well. Please accept my apologies for those terrible things I said during your last visit — I’ve learned a valuable lesson, and assure you it won’t happen again. I’ve been thinking about you quite often over the past few — my goodness, has it only been weeks? Let me just say I hope you’re planning a nice long stay. What, Jenna and Mike? Oh, let’s put all that behind us, shall we? Please? I’ll beg if you want!

Mandrake the Magician, 9/27/10

If you like The Phantom, Lee Falk’s other, daily-only adventure strip is worth a look. The loose line and saturated color take some getting used to, but Phantom fans will feel right at home with the quick pace and deep back-story.

Here, Mandrake responds to a call from policewoman Millie there, about strange doings in rustic Timber Lake: a terrified populace, unexplained blackouts, the sudden appearance of a giant bat, an uncooperative police captain, and a mysterious prisoner who claims to know Mandrake. It’s not on the mighty Chron, but you can find it at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, also worth bookmarking as a source for large-format comics from King Features.

Apartment 3-G, 9/27/10

Shear and soften one starchy, buttoned-up cauldron of sexual fury and another claims her throne. Behold Apartment 3-G: The Dawn of Doris!

Hey, I’m outta here — thanks, everybody, for a fun week! Look for Josh’s triumphant return with Comments of the Week on Monday. Enjoy!

— Uncle Lumpy

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Curtis, 9/26/10

Curtis shackles its artist’s powerful, primitive vision and impeccable draftsmanship to the well-thumbed sheaf of stock narratives the world expects from a genre strip. Hey, it’s a living. But art will out! The strip slips its narrative fetters once a year for Kwanzaa, and once in a while for its title character’s superhero fantasies.

There’s so much to love here: the spandex mask rising to wrap SuperCaptainCoolMan’s improbable coiffure, the villain’s breakfast, mustache, and pince-nez, the allusion to confusing and unspeakable prison sex, “…you evil but stupid genius”, and that implacable wall o’ mammoth. But best of all, the electric elephant stinkeye at the climax, and “ZORGG.” A worthy successor to QLUNQ! HA HA HA WHINNY!

Then back to earth for a tired “principal’s office” joke — and maybe Derrick and “Onion” waiting in the hall? The nicest trips end far too soon.

Mark Trail, 9/26/10

Mark’s part-time gig with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has slowly but completely corrupted his principles as an Outdoor Journalist. No longer does he implore readers to “Enjoy Nature” — no, now it’s all, “Stay away from the terrifying outdoors, where you will die from the flash floods and the lightning and the tornadoes and the tsunamis and the flying squid.” And shilling weather radios so people can stay inside and entertain themselves by scaring the dog.

“EEEEEEE!”

Brenda Starr, 9/26/10

No sound effects here but the pitapat of my fanboy heart. Brenda Starr is looking into the Pokeville hometown background of Tap Fitzpatrick, the flamboyant DA falsely (she thinks) accused of the murder of TV host Felicity Fox (no, not her). Pokeville has its secrets, at least one of whom is driving that Hummer that nearly ran over Brenda’s Mustang. But most of the town’s action is at Joe’s One Stop, Pokeville’s Jack Ass Acres, where you can get anything you want from the resident gap-toothed androgyne and owner of Bullseye the Dog — except information.

O Brenda Starr, how do I love thee?

1. Crisp, hard-edged modern drawing by artist June Brigman — retaining the trademark eye-sparkles of Dale Messick’s loopy-girly style.
2. People smoke, yet the strip is not about their smoking (see, Curtis?).
3. Intelligent background jokes — “Live Bait! Tanning!”
4. Timely material — Hummers, Mustangs, bloggers, prescription drug abuse, the decline of print journalism.
5. Author Mary Schmich, renaissance woman and (dare I hope?) future hyphenated spouse of former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke.
6. Brenda Starr kicks ass!

Pluggers, 9/26/10

The essence of Pluggers. Except for the color, which seems way too upscale, and anyway should have leached out decades ago.

— Uncle Lumpy