Comment of the Week

You might think this is standard Funkyverse sub-wordplay, but in fact it's something much more exciting: Crankshaft is saying, in his typically mangled fashion, that his health insurance provider has denied him coverage for a life-saving balloon angioplasty.

Vulpes

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Gil Thorp, 1/15/08

I’m pretty sure this is the most effort ever put into painting some kind of psychological portrait of a Gil Thorp character. Usually these demented cubist weirdoes just do bizarre stuff like cut off their legs or hit themselves in the back of the head with a stick without any obvious motivation, but for some reason we’re getting the full backstory on what makes the A-Train tick. Sure, it’s nothing ground-breaking — oh my God, a star high school athlete is kind of competitive! — but I have to admit to really liking the final flashback panel, where Andrew savagely crumples up his own paper when he discovers that his girlfriend is smarter than he is. His twisted, angry face makes it look like this is the moment when Lex Luthor decided to become a genius supervillain. “I’ll show her who knows more about American history … when I rule America! MOO ha ha!”

Judge Parker, 1/15/08

This is a good example of how having different people writing and illustrating a strip can result in an amusing disconnect. Gloria is Sam’s longtime legal secretary or personal assistant or something non-lawyer-y, and it’s totally possible that the dialog as written is supposed to be taken at face value and Sam really does think of Gloria as his real partner in the lawyerin’ business. But his heavy-lidded smirky expression in the second panel pretty much makes him look like the most condescending citizen of Smugville, U.S.A., and Gloria’s little insert closeup seems to indicate that she isn’t buying it. “OK, he’s a prick, but at least I don’t have to worry about him sexually harassing me,” she seems to be thinking.

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OK, boys and girls, your blogger had a lot of real work to do today and wasn’t even able to read the comics, much less blog about them. Expect Tuesday and Wednesday comics tomorrow morning. But! To tide you over, I have a big exciting announcement! Well, exciting if you live in Tucson, anyway.

Do you live in or near Tucson? At the beginning of March, I’ll be taking one of my many vacations (start whining about it now) in the greater Sonoran desert region, and I’d like to plan to meet up with y’all! And there will be a special guest: MR. BOB WEBER, JR.! March 7! Early evening! The Kon-Tiki at the corner of E. Broadway and N. Swan! MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!!

Everyone who doesn’t live near Tucson: Um, comics tomorrow, I guess. G’Night!

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Do you hate Mondays like Garfield hates Mondays, or like you hate Garfield? There’s no need for hatin’ now that Monday COTW day!

“Say what you will about Blaze, but it’s January 9th, so he must throw one hell of a New Years Eve party.” –man behind the curtain

And with each COTW, you get an array of several runners up!

“I was originally under the impression that ‘plugger’ was a sort of term of endearment and the point of the strip was for aging working-class folk to commune about their common ailments and idiosyncrasies, but I think the author has become jaded and now loathes these ‘pluggers’ — perhaps his income from his syndicated strip has allowed him to move up the socio-economic ladder to the point where he has forgotten his roots. Or maybe the pressure to meet the constant deadlines of a comic that runs daily has crushed his soul to the point where he must lash out at those who he now sees as the source of his constant torment. In any case, I expect we’ll start seeing future installments where the pluggers start to have targets and gun sight markers drawn over them as they are subject to increasingly bizarre Dante-esque horrors.” –Bobdog

“But besides that, it appears the main reason Mr. Lodge is so mad is because Archie is interrupting his get-high-and-play-bad-versions-of-Pink-Floyd-on-the-flat-guitar-while-wearing-a-gorilla-hair-sweater time.” –The Uncola

Mr. Lodge’s sweater looks more like AstroTurf than anything else, but since he’s supposed to be rich I guess it would be something rarer — like the AstroTurf featured on the hit television series The Brady Bunch.” –Kelsey

“I’m starting to get a mental image of the women who patronize Ruby’s chain of hair salons, unable to hold their heads upright under the weight of all the bows.” –Darkefang

Pibgorn: Why do I keep going to take a look when someone mentions this strip? It’s incomprehensible and I haven’t seen fairy boobies yet.” –UncleJeff

“I think Andrew’s ex has actually been brutally dismembered, then reassembled with an elaborate ball joint system so her friend (read: jealous murderer) can pose her like some ‘My First BFF’ doll. This not only explains the incredibly awkward sitting position, but also why her hand can only grip items like an action figure grips an accessory.” –Craig

“Uhm, I feel there should be a discussion of the bows in Ruby’s hair. Although I think all that really needs to be said is ‘ew.'” –ArbuckleLovesLyman

“I’m more and more concerned with the fact that every A3G comic strip features two people revolving around each other like they’re trapped in some sort of crazy video game boss fight level. I always picture them going into some sort of modern dance routine while making their comments, sliding limbs over furniture and playing around with the negative space. ‘No amount of the flooring will ever be trod on for too long!'” –Hasty Penguin

“New Year’s Eve occurs a little late in Apartment 3-G because the cartoonist needs to be certain that the idea of New Year’s Eve is fresh in the minds of the readers. If it actually fell on December 31, it would have been a whole year since the readers had last encountered the concept. Now it’s only a couple weeks ago, and some of them will remember it.” –Mr. Nice Guy

“Say what you will about Sunday’s [Hi and Lois], but realize this: the exact same plot would have served as the basis of at least two months of Mary Worth.” –Hank

But that’s not all! You also get these fine sponsors to this operation:

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