Post Content

Earlier this week, I noted a sudden change in style in Judge Parker. This prompted what I am reasonably sure is my very first comics insider tip. The tipster has asked to remain anonymous, and I have no idea how accurate any of the info is, but I’m passing it on to all of you … the short version is, new Judge Parker artist Eduardo Barreto for circumstances beyond this control (not due to dissatisfaction with his work) had take a bit of time off from the strip. He’s back at work already, but we’re just now getting the strips from his absence (remember that there’s a multiweek lead time with this stuff). This week’s strips are being done by none other than Graham Nolan, of Rex Morgan and Sunday Phantom fame. (Woody Wilson is the writer of both JP and RMMD, for what it’s worth.) He was only able to do it for a week because of his other commitments, so we’ll be getting another artist for the rest of the month, with Barreto back in January.

Today’s strip in particular looks quite Morganic. Many people noticed that Randy looked a lot like Rex, which isn’t going to help him convince anyone that he’s “the marrying kind.”

My source tells me that Barreto has actually ghosted for Nolan in the past, which goes a long way towards explaining this and this.

Post Content

Curtis, 12/7/06

I make fun of Curtis a lot, but it’s definitely a strip that I’ve come to like more over the course of doing this blog. Yes, it’s got a set stable of jokes that it trots out over and over; but some of them never get old, and one of them is the “Barry wets the bed” gag. You’ll notice that his whining, mewling response to Curtis’s jibe isn’t exactly dispelling the notion.

On another note, I have absolutely no idea what role Moses could be playing in the school’s Christmas play. Perhaps in a bid for inclusiveness, all major religious leaders will be portrayed at the birth of the baby Jesus, including Moses, Muhammad, Buddha, Ganesha, Bahá’u’lláh, and L. Ron Hubbard (who will be played by “Onion”).

Family Circus, 12/7/06

Oh my God, look at that waist: Big Daddy Keane’s battle with anorexia marches grimly forward. I’m looking forward to the coming movie on the Lifetime Network, entitled Why Won’t Daddy Eat?

Anorexia is a serious condition with a host of psychological and physiological aspects, but it doesn’t provide an excuse for those pants.

Gil Thorp, 12/7/06

You know, once-mediocre athletes who lose parts of limbs in tragic chainsaw accidents have a lot to teach us about sports — and about life. For instance, Bill Ritter has taught us that the best way to enjoy a Gil Thorp football game is with massive amounts of morphine running through your bloodstream. Milford may have lost the game, but Bill is a real champion!

Post Content

Slylock Fox, Blondie, and Rex Morgan, M.D. 12/6/06

Ye cats, it’s a panoply of intertextuality in the funnies! Slylock Fox gets in on the Blondie 75th anniversary a year and a half late and simultaneously shows us all too vividly what Dagwood’s freakish, apple-shaped skull is really like; a little girl walks by and looks on with the appropriate degree of horror. Meanwhile, back at chez Bumstead, Alexander is living out his fantasies of being a tattooed, mulletted meth-dealing bad-ass. The real Elvis and his tough but still thoughtful and compassionate crime boss refuse to acknowledge this winking series of in-jokes, as befits the serious nature of this strip.

What does not befit the serious nature of this strip, however, is the name “Eightball.” Eightball. It’s the most hilarious thing that’s happened to me this week, and I shall savor it like a fine wine. I hope that, after Rex, June, and Abby the Wonderdog inevitably take the troubled and now orphaned Niki under their collective wing, Elvis and Eightball manage to escape the long arm of the law together and get their own spin-off strip, or, even better, a TV show on Fox. “He keeps a level head when things go bad … and knows how to get out when the getting’s good! He’s got a short fuse … and isn’t afraid to smack a kid in the face! Together, they’re … Elvis and Eightball!” They could put it on right after Prison Break.

Momma, 12/6/06

When someone mashes together an e-mail address and a URL like this, you sort of get the impression that they’ve never actually seen a computer, but have had one described to them.

Mary Worth, 12/6/06

The Mr. Dent vs. Ella drama has ground on even more slowly than is typical for Mary Worth, but there’s always a payoff in this feature eventually. In this case, it arrives today, as we’re shown exactly what it would look like if Thomas Dewey were angered by a 92-year-old prostitute and paid her especially contemptuously.

Plugger, 12/6/06

Since nobody’s actually used one since 1998, I’m pretty sure that a plugger beeper is actually a beeper.