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Spider-Man, 5/24/10

The final deadly confrontation between Spider-Man and Sabretooth that we’ve all been waiting for has at last arrived — only to be derailed by the appearance of Wolverine. Since Sabretooth was only harassing the web-slinger to find his brother, I assume that Spidey and Mary Jane can now quietly leave the theater and let this family spat work itself out. Whew, another opportunity for superheroics thankfully avoided!

Note that Wolverine learned a little about living the good life from his earlier encounter with Spider-Man: his villainous brother was apparently unable to track him down because he’s been spending his time in his apartment, watching television. I am impressed that he’s no longer sneaking into the back of trucks and instead is flying commercial when he needs to travel long distances.

Slylock Fox, 5/24/10

I’m not sure if we’ve ever seen Dumpy Dog before, and thus the strip doesn’t trust us to automatically assume he’s guilty, even though he displays the poor posture and grooming endemic to the Slylock Fox rogues gallery. “Look, we’ve already done the legwork on this one, OK?” the strip is essentially telling us. “Just count the damn spiders.” I guess this is how Max feels, all the time?

Archie, 5/24/10

Archie’s dad remembers a day when youth were afire with literary passions! They stayed up late at fashionable salons, smoking and drinking wine and arguing the merits of the latest Booker Prize winner until the wee hours. They really believed that prose could change the world, and thus it’s terribly depressing to him that the next generation sees in printed matter only utility. There is a cold majesty to the practical advice in the books Archie reads, but the magic that once animated his father’s days is long gone.

Family Circus, 5/24/10

Speaking of the death of enchantment, the Keane Kids are so crushed by omnipresent corporate culture that their very souls are stunted. The transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly, once a source of such wonder to so many generations of children, has in their minds been reduced to an act no more interesting than the elevation of a group coordinator to an assistant regional manager. One imagines the chrysalis bursting open and the butterfly shaking its wings free, only to settle into a cubicle just slightly larger than the one it left, under the glow of the same harsh fluorescent lighting, wondering if this was really worth all the striving.

Jumble, 5/24/10

Now here’s a kid who hasn’t lost his belief in magic. “Remember, if you see your presents before your birthday, they’ll vanish into the ether! And mommy will know you’ve been naughty, and will kill you with her mind.”

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It’s another fun Sunday of individual panels from individual strips! Let’s see what’s up. Say, has Mary ingested some kind of powerful mood-altering drug that has caused her to pupils to dilate to pinpricks as she blathers on about sunny nothingness?

Panel from Mary Worth, 5/23/10

Sure looks like it!

Panel from Crock, 5/23/10

Crock trufans of course know that the strip’s title character’s full name is “Vermin P. Crock.” This is hard information to come by for the casual reader, because his terrified underlings never refer to him by first name; apparently only the local man of God has that privilege. So, for the 99 percent of humanity who is not aware of this Crockiana factoid, it would appear that Crock is being verbally abused by a priest, which would actually fit in nicely with the general attitude of cruelty that defines the world of the strip.

Panel from Apartment 3-G, 5/23/10

This is the same A3G fight that’s been happening all week, but it’s nice to see a comically rendered narration box breaking up the ennui. Perhaps it’s a phenomenon related to this classic Margo word balloon.

Panel from Curtis, 5/23/10

Yes, many elementary-age children have the name of a special effects artist whose work last appeared in a major full-length motion picture 29 years ago right on the tips of their tongues. Barry is a true cineaste and student of film history, which is why he complains so much about the terrible movies Curtis drags him to, I guess.

And hey, is Mary still tweaking along at full blast?

Panel from Mary Worth, 5/23/10

Looks like it!

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Apartment 3-G, 5/22/10

Oh, I do appreciate Margo’s expression of chin-rubbing craftiness in today’s final panel; it makes me think that perhaps there’s more to her terrible Lu Ann-needling than mere cruelty/paranoia. Could it be that she’s hoping to turn her blonde roommate into a foul-mouthed rage-ball — into someone more like Margo, in other words? The motivation could simply be that Margo thinks that being Margo-like is the best; however, she could also be attempting to drive Lu Ann into a dark mood that will translate into dark, moody, and highly profitable paintings. These roiling, abstract works will be the talk of a New York art scene bored with fern prints, and will make for a specialized series of greeting cards marketed to goths as well.

Shoe, 5/22/10

It’s too bad that this poor avian family cannot afford x-rays, because my first thought at seeing the Perfesser’s bizarre anatomy in panel one — the engorged torso, the limp, tiny, dangling legs — is to wonder what his skeletal structure might look like.