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To everyone who is experiencing technical difficulties on the site: it’s not you, it’s me. The server is kind of overloaded. Between you and me, the server has been overloaded for some time, because my traffic growth has outpaced it. Now the chickens have come home to roost, and it looks like an upgrade is in order — ’twill be more expensive, but should be more reliable. I will keep you posted, and sorry in the meantime. One specific thing that seems to be happening is that the site appears to time out when you post a comment, even if the comment really goes through; please check to see if it has gone through before you repost, as all the reloading and reposting and such isn’t helping matters.

In happier news, today is the third anniversary of the launch of this site! On July 11, 2004, I did something that I’d almost never do again, which is make fun of Non-Sequitur. When I started this blog, mostly for the amusement of myself and my family and friends, I had no idea that it would be come a widely-read site that would make me pretend Internet famous, forge community links among comics lovers, and crush server after server as it grew more popular. I would never have kept on with it if I didn’t know that you all enjoyed it (and enjoyed yourselves chatting on the site), so here’s to all of you! And thanks to faithful reader Mooncity, who reminded me of the date with this very nice cartoon.

UPDATE: OK, I think maybe I have fixed the commenting problems? Maybe? Lemme know if you are still encountering them. FIRST POSTs are still lame, though.

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Gil Thorp, 7/11/07

Ha ha! Oh, man, the Gil Thorp summer hijinks are getting started even more quickly than I could have hoped! I’m totally in love with Gail Martin, the “rock and roll Carole King,” as she was called yesterday; truly, nothing shouts “rock and roll” like a collared shirt and a long braid that you clutch dramatically to your chest while you belt out your non-hits and your banjo player grooves behind you. This looks exactly like the kind of scene where a brawl would break out, and I look forward to tomorrow’s weirdly proportioned and strangely angled fisticuffs. Since Kelly has a troubled past with guys with rage issues, this should provide excellent fuel for one of the eleven rapidly crosscut dramas that will be entertaining us until football practice starts up again.

Apartment 3-G, 7/11/07

Ruby’s dialogue says “funny Texan with more realistic ideals of beauty than these supposedly sophisticated New York City girls,” but her solemn expression in panel three, along with Tommie and Margo’s panicked exchange of glances, says “violent feederism.” In two weeks, look for the two of them to be tied to their chairs, their faces smeared with tangy barbecue sauce, begging for mercy, as Ruby says, “Nuh-uh, Maggie, you still only got one chin!”

Ziggy, 7/11/07

If you thought that the sight of a desperate, insane, bald dwarf with no pants jabbering about the dishonesty of inanimate objects while thrusting a fifteen-year-old household appliance at bemused service worker wouldn’t be funny, well, today’s Ziggy is here to be prove you wrong. I actually laughed aloud at this. Ziggy may continue to exist, as far as I’m concerned.

As I look at it more, I’m sort of hypnotized by the text in Ziggy’s word balloon. The symmetry between the sentence-initial “i” (lowercase, in defiance of all known typographical conventions) and the final exclamation mark, makes it look like he’s actually shouting “T lies!” in Spanish. Which, for my money, is even funnier.

Luann, 7/11/07

I’m only marginally less sick of Brad-Toni than I am of Curtis-Michelle, but this sequence is growing on me. If Toni ends up running off with uberskeeze TJ because of his cooking (or “cooking”) skills, I will be willing to forgive a lot that’s happened in the last few years.

Dick Tracy, 7/11/07

It just wouldn’t be Dick Tracy if the payoff didn’t include somebody writhing around in pain. This isn’t the optimistic fantasy land of Mark Trail; those eyes aren’t growing back.

Family Circus, 7/11/07

Hmm, what’s the most alarming part of this? Yeah, I’m going to have to say that it’s Big Daddy Keane’s little smile.

Gasoline Alley, 7/11/07

Gasoline Alley: the one comic strip that isn’t afraid to show you how the system is stacked against the white man.

Spider-Man, 7/11/07

In a strip that brought us such epic battles as Dr. Octopus vs. his television, Spidey vs. a bowl-hatted butler, Spidey vs. his own outdated ideas of economics and gender, and, of course Spidey vs. a brick, today’s struggle between J. Jonah Jameson and Larry King may represent a dramatic zenith.

And, finally, I’m sure sexy toast-eating is somebody’s fetish, so:

Panel from Rex Morgan, M.D., 7/11/07

Go to town, perverts!

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A one-off, if only to keep it in a post separate from the sad previous one: today’s Shortpacked (that’s the comic by David Willis, the genius who brought you the Margo Warhol t-shirt) is a must-read for foob-haters.