Comment of the Week

Is Dr. Jeff's 'again’ meant to indicate that he's already (willfully?) forgotten what Mary's told him, or does it display his belief that Wilbur's life is a karmic circle of disasters that are superficially varied but basically the same thing happening to him over and over?

Pozzo

Post Content

Judge Parker, 4/11/09

OK, I get that “Rocky Ledge” is a stage name, like Dixie Julep for Kathleen Patterson — but c’mon: “Godiva Danube”? If that’s a work alias, it’s gonna limit her professional options — just ask L’Oréal MacDowell or Lancome Rosellini.

On the other hand, if she was born with a name like that, I bet her Hauptschule nightmares make Sophie’s troubles look like ein gehen in den garten.

But hey, why speculate when you can generate your very own Judge Parker name right here! Choose a chiseled, craggy man-handle straight out of the American West, or an Old World nom d’une femme with just the slightest bouffée of elegant dissipation — we don’t judge! Then add your own title (“Sheriff”, “Vicomtesse”) and you’re good to go!



Your new Judge Parker name:

Funky Winkerbean, 4/11/09

“Susan Smith” (no, not that one) may be a commonplace name, but this gal is more than another mopey walk-on. Nope, she’s the ur-victim of Funky Winkerbean, its Dark Eve — wellspring of the miseries that rise like the cholera from every sewer in Westview. It was her incomprehensible crush on Les that launched the “Summer of Les ‘n’ Lisa” (1994) — until quite recently the most annoying European adventure in comics history. Since then, she’s endured a suicide attempt (1995), a dating abuse cycle o’ violence (1998), gross underemployment, and a divorce (2008), only to face her greatest challenge: feigning interest in Les’s 900-page opus, My Wife Was Nice But Then She Died. She comes out — well, not smiling, of course — but upright, breathing, and back for more. Tough dame!


What the hell is wrong with these people? — a new occasional feature!

Between Friends, 4/6/09 — 4/10/09

What the hell is wrong with this woman?


I’m sitting in for Josh through the 19th — if you have any problems with the site or non-public questions, you can reach me at uncle.lumpy@yahoo.com. If you need to reach Josh directly, it’s jfruh@jfruh.com and probably a bit of a wait. Enjoy!

— Uncle Lumpy

Post Content

“What!” you’re exclaiming. “You’re going on vacation again?” Yes, I am. I’ll be back on Monday, 4/20. Until then, Uncle Lumpy is in charge, so be nice!

If you’re mad at me, just imagine I’m Coach Thorp in this hypnotic animated GIF from faithful reader One-eyed Wolfdog:

Or this hypnotic YouTube video from faithful reader Scott. (Great minds think alike!)

And now, to spare Uncle Lumpy the pain of picking out the best of the best, your comment of the abbreviated week!

“Has anyone ever actually seen a person clean while wearing an apron and a head schmatta? I’m 49 years old, have four immigrant grandparents, grew up in a blue collar world where some people I knew earned a living by cleaning, and yet I’ve never seen anyone dress up like that. This must the artist’s way of letting us know that the character is cleaning and not watching TV or masturbating.” –SF_Reader

And the runners-up! Very funny!

“If all goes well, the saga of Ted and Adrian will end with everybody in the Corey family having to apologize for thinking Ted’s a conman, but only just before Ted is horsewhipped in Charterstone’s public square for allowing his identity to be stolen. FYI, if Ted is put in the Charterstone pool and yet floats, the punishment will be far, far worse.” –Frank Parsnip

“I was gonna send something to Josh about Garfield self-plagiarizing, but I didn’t have time to scan every Garfield strip ever published.” –Chupper

“Gil will, of course, regress to being a six year old and talk in an adorable lisp. The scenes where he calls Mimi ‘mom’ should be amusingly uncomfortable.” –Artist formerly known as Ben

“[The Pluggers chicken-lady] appears to be of the same zoological family as the birds in Shoe. They seem to have evolved fleshy lumps where their beaks should be. And hands, of course. It’s all a natural progression, leading ultimately to a Ziggy.” –un malpaso

“So, does Rusty go back to school soon, assuming a public school system exists near Lost Forest? Or is the realm like a reverse-Narnia, always summer but never fun?” –cj

“Sunday’s Mark Trail, in a rare instance of continuity, will feature the rare Orange-Bellied Punchy-Con. ‘Modern technology seems destined to doom this good-natured cash-flinger … but some woodsmen know to set out its favorite treat, Monstrouschild’s Cameras, to encourage this reclusive omnivore to dig a home in a sheltered habitat!’ Then the director of NOAA will inexplicably show up to give Mark an award in the last panel.” –Dragon of Life

“I’m not sure if Rusty’s death-mask grin in the last panel is supposed to indicate one of those ‘Sure, Dad!’ fake smiles (while he’s really calculating how quickly he can reach the border of the Lost Forest and be free) or if it means the muscle-contracting poison in Cherry’s cookies is starting to set in.” –Eldaglass

“Looking at the background of Mark Trail gives me a headache. ‘You shouldn’t be going too far from Lost Forst alone … but feel free to teleport between this room made of rough-hewn logs in panel 1, a featureless beige nothingness in panel 2, and outdoors in panel 3!’ Then again, Mark is himself a sort of featureless beige nothingness.” –Nomstrosity

“Uh-oh: Gil’s going to lose his ‘coachy sense’!” –Gal Friday

Today’s Pluggers is a goddamn lie; pluggers do not send letters because pluggers are illiterate. At least, that’s the only valid explanation for why they didn’t lynch Gary Brookins years ago.” –Captain Thunder

“That’s sort of the tagline for Momma, isn’t it? ‘Momma: Eventually your soul will scab over.'” –One-eyed Wolfdog

“Sometimes I think that Apartment 3-G is really an advertisement form Ikea. ‘To the left of the unimaginably boring woman, you can see our new Blue Curtains #3898 which complement any generic apartment of up-and-coming middle-classers.’ That’s our Tommie, making uninteresting objects interesting by mere comparison.” –Jeremiah

“That guy in today’s Momma apparently has a spare organ that allows him to poop a chair out of his butt when needed, and retract it when he doesn’t.” –Patrick

“Clearly the ‘organs’ to which the man is referring can only be two things: 1) He is a pipe organ salesman, or 2) He is aware of her need to devour human organs.” –Sarah

“They’ve already got stimulus money creating jobs in Judge Parker? Mark this day — it is the only time we’ll ever see anything in Judge Parker work faster than in real life.” –rhymes with puck

“Poor Ruby, seeking a cup of Margo’s urine but she isn’t home. Maybe a bottle of Tommie’s tears will do the trick.” –Dingo

“If I had a potato gun and access to a third-story window, I would shoot baseballs at Gil Thorp, too.” –survivor

“Billy’s winsomely ignorant remark was met with a slurred but fairly enthusiastic ‘you got that right, kid’ from the drunken derelict relieving himself in a nearby corner of the bus station in which his parents had abandoned him. The saddest part though, really, is that he’s not even reading Spider-Man.” –Violet

“Tommorow’s Spider-Man should have Spidey reading the comics and commenting: ‘Well it’s a good thing Billy’s parents weren’t afraid of cantaloupes!’ Although it’s probably just a pipe dream, as not only does Spidey lack the wit but I’m pretty sure he’s also illiterate.” –It’s time to pay the price

“The reason Peter Parker’s biological parents did not raise him is that there was something they wanted to watch on TV at the time.” –Nekrotzar

See you in a week or so! Don’t trash the place!

Post Content

Family Circus, 4/10/09

Don’t believe her, Jeffy! She claims that the mystical orb she holds is the key to spiritual enlightenment, but its roiling inky blackness tells a very different story.

Luann, 4/10/09

I don’t know if I’d call a guy who can however briefly be in two places at once “pathetic.” “Unsettling,” maybe.

Ziggy, 4/10/09

I was pretty shocked to see that Ziggy has a vanity plate that reads ZIGGY, because I always assumed that he lived his life under the constant, crushing burden of the shame of being Ziggy. If he doesn’t, he should.

Spider-Man, 4/10/09

The Spider-Man comic strip in a nutshell: Our terrifying supervillain, concerned about his son and determined to wreak revenge on the city, takes some time out to hang out in somebody’s cubicle and eat a sandwich.