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Here’s a relatively new comic I haven’t featured before: Watch Your Head. Check out the crawl at the bottom of the screen in today’s installment:

Cory Thomas, WYH’s author, is an occasional poster in the comments section here at in the forum, and if he’s trying to get my attention, he’s got it. (Apartment 3-G, take note … oh, like they have to work to get my attention.) Anyway, the extremely overgeneralized version of WYH’s story is that it’s about the lives of a group of college students at a (fictional) traditionally African-American university. I’m sure a lot of newspapers are giving it a look for the coveted “comic with mostly black characters that might appeal to people over the age of twelve and under the age of sixty” slot with the Boondocks going on permanent hiatus; it also, to my mind, fills a rather remarkable hole in that there hasn’t to the best of my knowledge been a daily strip about college life in general since all the kids in Doonesbury finally got real jobs.

I’ve definitely liked what I’ve seen of this strip so far (and really, I would have said that even if I hadn’t seen the first indisputable shout-out to this site in a nationally syndicated comic strip this morning), but because it doesn’t appear in the Houston Chronicle where I read my strips online, I must confess I’ve been too lazy to put it into my daily rotation and give it the Comics Curmudgeon treatment. Hopefully it will get to the Chron soon. (Note to comic syndicators: The Houston Chronicle so dominates the online comics landscape that I think it’s definitely in your interest to court them extra hard when looking to syndicate a strip.)

Check out the strip’s home page at Comics.com, the cast of characters, faithful reader yellojkt’s appraisal from last month, and Cory Thomas’ Web site.

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Here are your comments of the week, once again! A few people have pointed out to me, quite rightly, that it makes sense to put the #1 comment of the week in these posts, since they are archived for all time. So, this week’s winner:

“OK, Mary. In a perfect world, every impoverished nation would have postcards for sale on every corner and comprehensive cell phone coverage. Of course, in a perfect world, you would constantly be covered in fire ants.” –Splinky

And the almost-as-hilarious runners up:

“Ted Forth just keeps getting mildly cooler all the time. On the scale of dull preppy white guys he’s already moved from Dan Quayle to Tom Scavo. Next stop: Greg Kinnear.” –rich

“Shoot me now if I have to see Mary Worth in low cut magenta slacks. Just take the gun and point it at my head.” –Marc

“Mary is lucky to have friends like Ian and Toby Cameron. Otherwise she would be the worst person in the entire world.” –The Ray

“It bothers me a LOT that Funky Winkerbean is neither funky nor winkerbean.” –Christopher

“I say the time has come to replace Nietzche Family Circus with Margo Nietzche. She understands the will to power, the transvaluation of values, the death of morality, the philosophy of the superman, and what wine to order.” –Marion Delgado

“Christ, 4Evah’s Halloween experience makes ‘Monster Mash’ sound like Lou Reed on a three-day heroin binge.” –Facebones

“That’s the first time I have ever seen Cathy and feminism mentioned in the same sentence. Every Cathy strip lowers the glass ceiling a fraction of an inch.” –Bitter Scribe

“TWO biddies? Oh man … we are in for something big and biddilicous.” –Evey

“Binge drinking + French maid outfit = most uplifting Funky Winkerbean storyline ever!” –Zikar

“I wonder what Mr. Wilson’s job was before he ‘retired’ (read: was fired for criminal misconduct). He strikes me as the mailman type, because he always delivers the laffs.” –Joe

“Grandpa Walt [in Gasoline Alley] will never die. Why, you may ask? Cause senile dementia is COMEDY GOLD baby.” –ChefMike

“I own a handful of classic jazz records. While I don’t consider myself an expert in these matters, I’m almost positive Dizzy Gillespie’s horn never, ever made a noise like ‘bweeaappaabaapaa twaarboorp.’ On the other hand, Dizzy Gillespie didn’t suck total ass. Thanks for letting me share.” –dramashoes

“I’m into statuesque, homoerotic superheroes as much as the next guy, but what muscles are those even supposed to be on the Phantom’s back?” –bup

“Maybe Mark Trail is heading in the direction of a Pluggers origin story? ‘And that’s how Andy Dog met Molly Bear, and their unholy coupling somehow spawned a kangaroo, a chicken, and a folksy, down-home breed of class rage.'” –Sara B.

Also! It’s that time of week where I thank our sponsors, without whom I’d have to spend more time doing actual stupid work.

• The Physics of Superheroes
• Very Funny Ads (powered by TBS) (link includes sound, so turn the volume down if you’re at work)
• PETA’s Boycott KFC video (starring Pamela Anderson)
• 8 films to die for: After Dark Horrorfest

Learn more about advertising on this blog here.

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Mary Worth, 10/29/06

TOMMY’S COMING BACK! TOMMY’S COMING BACK! TOMMY’S COMING BACK!

Oh, let’s bask in the anticipatory Tommyness, shall we?

As noted, if you’re not already familiar with the gospel of Tommy, now’s the time to get ready for the hijinks. Start here and work your way forward chronologically.

Anyway, based on the sub-Crossing Over with John Edward chicanery on display here, I’m going to guess that Ella is not actually a psychic, but is a one of Tommy’s friends from the joint in drag, pulling some kind of scam over on dear old mom. It’s all going to end in tears and recriminations and basement meth lab explosions. I’m a very happy man.

Family Circus, 10/29/06

The sequence of dialog is important here. “If people see you they’ll know who we are!” “And we’ll miss out on any extra candy!” So, you give more candy to total strangers than to kids that you know? There’s only one possible explanation: Their neighbors hate them as much as we do.

Judge Parker, 10/29/06

Raju: Scholar. International traveller. Wrestling nutritionist. Renaissance man. Cockblocker.