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I would have completely forgotten if faithful reader Zorba the Geek hadn’t pointed it out, but today is in fact my second anniversary in the comics blogging biz. Yes, on July 11, 2004, I made my first blog post, about Non Sequitur of all things, though I didn’t unleash it on the world (by which I mean, I didn’t e-mail the URL to the handful of friends that I assumed would constitute my entire audience) until the end of that week. If you’d like to see this blog in embryonic form, check out these posts from that first week.

Over the last two years, my readership has grown way, way beyond that initial group of people, and one of the things that has encouraged me to keep going is the knowledge that you’re all out there, reading, laughing, and often topping me in the comments section and in the forum. You’re also incredibly nice and generous to me, and, apparently, often forward this URL to your friends. One of the nice things that happened to me today was a note from faithful reader Mooncity, creator the comic Autumn Lake, who was nice enough to work me into his comic today. Thanks Mooncity! Read and rejoice!

A couple of other readers saw my new sidebar picture from yesterday against a “green screen” (it’s just the wall of my office! our house is very colorful!) and puckishly put me into various odd situations. DCBirdblaster sent me to the United Airlines VIP lounge in Inchon Airport, S. Korea:

And Devil in the Drain helped me live out my longstanding fantasy vis-a-vis the Apartment 3-G girls:

(By the way, those are the original girls, from the ’60s, back when the strip had actual sex appeal. If you haven’t seen this this Website, from which the above graphic is derived, you are in for a shock.)

In other sidebar photo news, you may have already noticed the dynamic, prize-winning married duo of Lucy Van Pelt and Dr. Jeff Cory, showing off their spiffy new Comics Curmudgeon gear:

Join them today! Send those pics!

Finally, I leave you with two more blog finds. On the single-comic-blog front, there’s Joe Mathlete explains today’s Marmaduke in 500 words or less, which is pretty much what it says on the label, really, and is also frickin’ hilarious. And Livejournaler mia_d has this post, which is in and of itself a hilarous but perfectly natural reaction to the existence of They’ll Do It Every Time, but what really caught my eye was this comment from lostbirdfound, which revealed the following:

Jimmy Hatlo [the original TDIET artist] also did a strip called “Hatlo’s Inferno” which is basically “They’ll Do It Every Time”… in Hell. Needless to say, it rules.

Holy crap. Click here and here for more. I order you to find more of this for me.

Update: A Halto’s Inferno slideshow and an eBay auction of a classic Halto’s Inferno book (scroll down for a good “naughty damned nurse” cartoon). Thanks to bigoldgeek and DarkHorse02GT for the respective head’s ups. I think this strip achieves Outbursts of Everett True levels of horror and wonder.

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Pluggers, 7/11/06

Boy, you read a strip for a while and you think you know it pretty well, but I have to admit that I’m shocked by how quickly Pluggers has gone from “smug and self-satisfied” to “soul-wrenchingly depressing.” Rhino-Man (not to be confused with the Rhino) must be very, very hard up for cash if the $7.50 or so he’ll get for his Carter-era 13-inch is going to get him out of some bind. That’s bad enough, but what’s really bringing me down is his incredibly glum facial expression. Presumably he’s thinking about the long trudge back to his tiny, barely furnished apartment, where he won’t even have broadcast TV to distract him from the fact that he’s broke and he’s going to die alone.

I know Pluggers doesn’t usually do continuing storylines, but I’d like to see the new, bleaker Pluggers follow Rhino-Man for the next few days:

• “Plugger venture capital.” (Rhino-Man is rooting through a dumpster, looking for bottles or cans he can return.)
• “Plugger Zoloft.” (Rhino-Man is passed out in his battered easy chair, surrounded by empty cans of Milwaukee’s Best.)
• “Plugger liquid assets.” (Rhino-Man is selling his blood.)
• “This is how a Plugger’s wages are garnished.” (Two Bear-Men are cutting off one of Rhino Man’s thumbs.)
• “Plugger therapy.” (Rhino-Man has a shotgun in his mouth.)

Gil Thorp, 7/11/06

It’s kind of interesting that Von and the legendary Marty Moon are now palling around on the golf course, considering that it was Marty’s arrest that started Von’s mediocre radio career. It’s good to see that Marty is leading a young and impressionable fellow DJ down a dark path of illegal sports betting, and also good to see that Gil Thorp still has it when it comes to incomprehensible sports jargon. Here’s the definition of a “Nassau”, if you’re curious; I’m not even going to attempt to parse the third panel. Instead, I offer the following philosophical question: Is there a parallel universe Marty Moon, and if so, does he spend all his spare time ministering to sick children and not have a goatee?

Marvin, 7/11/06

Marvin, you may have heard, is dispensing with its long-standing “whites only” policy and has introduced a new character: “Ming Ming,” a Chinese baby adopted by Marvin’s aunt. So far, Ming Ming has spent her time engaging in a strange internal monologue about the alien beings that have kidnapped her and taken her to a mysterious planet. As opposed to the homeland that she’s gotten to know and love so well over, you know, so many years. She’s also, as you can see here, been sitting completely motionless and staring forward with her creepy, expressionless eyes. So, um, yay diversity.

Mary Worth, 7/11/06

Topographical-Map-Shirt-Girl is walking briskly for her life away from the raging game of “Bad Touch, Worse Touch” that Mary and Aldo have going here. Aldo at first looks forlorn and slouchy, his arms in the C3PO position, as Mary essentially asks him if he likes things that are alive. But with her gentle and uninvited touch on his shoulder, it’s Aldo who comes alive, and begins, and he suddenly moves to poke Mary in the face with his finger, as if he thinks that the living image of his late wife standing before him must be some sort of mirage. Who knows, maybe we’ve got it all wrong — maybe these two lonely middle-aged widowed folks are going to find comfort with each other this summer. Or maybe they’ll continue to make confusing hand gestures that have never accompanied actual human interaction in the entire history of bipedalism.

Mark Trail, 7/11/06

I’m pretty sure that in the last panel, Mark is leaning down to take a big, healthy whiff of bear scat.

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You’ve probably noticed the pictures of various cool, attractive people sporting Comics Curmudgeon gear in the sidebar just under the Amazon ad and thought to yourself, “I’d like to be one of those people, but I’m just not cool and/or attractive enough!” Well, here’s a shot in the arm for your self-esteem: you can be one of those people! All you have to do is (1) buy some Comics Curmudgeon gear, (2) take a picture of yourself wearing and/or drinking out of it, and (3) e-mail said picture to me. People have already taken step 1 in record numbers; those shirts and mugs should be arriving around now, so I order you to take steps 2 and 3 today!

As always, I lead by example. Check out my awesome new Margo Warhol t-shirt (art courtesy of David Willis):

“Hey, Josh,” you’re probably saying, “That’s pretty mercenary. Isn’t there some way for my picture to appear on this blog without me having to spend any money?” Of course there is. You could, say, pretend to be a cartoon character from a soap opera strip. Yes, the Finger Quotin’ Margo Lookalike Contest is over, but I want to emphasize that I am more than willing to give a platform to whatever wacko wants to pretend to be Margo Magee or the like. Why, here’s a picture recently sent to me by faithful reader MonkeyPants:

Now, you might be saying, “Hey, she’s not wearing a turtleneck!” But she used to work for King Features and actually edited Apartment 3-G for four years, so I think she knows a little bit more about what Margo would wear than you do.

I conclude this metapost by pointing out two more comics blogs that get more obsessive than even I could contemplate and focus their rage on a single strip: Permanent Monday, which is all about Garfield, and Dinette Set Deconstruction, which is about, well, the Dinette Set. Joy and Burl’s heads float quite creepily above the text in the latter.