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Mary Worth, 10/7/05

Remember The Abyss, James Cameron’s 1989 sci-fi vehicle? Remember how goddamn annoying it was because it had, like, five endings? Oh, I know, I’m gonna hear “genius” this and “director’s cut” that and “Orson Scott Card novelization” what have you, but my chief memory of it was that it just wouldn’t end. Every time you thought it was over, there would be another ending that we really didn’t need.

I’m beginning to feel that way about the Rita storyline in Mary Worth. First we see that she’s saved by grief counseling. Then we find out that she’s really saved when her cousin comes to take her back to Bumpkintown. Now we find out that she’s really, really saved by the love of an adorable little macrocephalic with a bad haircut. Next week: Rita gets really, really, really saved when she gets her first paycheck from Vic’s store.

Faithful reader Brian Tencza (who is apparently part of a “Mary Worth discussion group”) points out that in Sunday’s installment, a suddenly Jackie O-esque Rita is playing ball with Shanna, who has mysteriously morphed from unattractive blonde to homely brunette:

Brian suggests that Rita has dyed the little Vicling’s hair to enhance the resemblance to her dead, brown-haired daughter. While I’m reasonably sure that this anomaly can be chalked up to the usual coloring sweatshop incompetence, I too would like to think that Rita’s relationship with her second cousin will soon veer into Vertigo-style obsession (“Shanna is such an ugly name! Wouldn’t you rather I called you … Fay?“). Just imagine that Mary’s little wrap-up narrative voiceover has some eerie strings playing behind it for the full effect.

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One Big Happy, 10/6/05

OK, it’s a slow comics day today, so guess let’s play: guess what I like about today’s One Big Happy!

Go on, guess. I’ll wait for you.

Ready?

Word balloon, panel two. I like how rather than writing out the word “blank,” the artist actually put a blank in. Clever, no?

No? Maybe a little?

Well, I liked it. Like I said, it’s a slow day.

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Gasoline Alley, Herb and Jamaal, and Kudzu, 10/5/05

There’s nothing that brings out humor better than the interplay of two opposing minds! Yes, it’s the back and forth between two different points of view, and the zingers that well-formed characters can throw back and forth at one another when they’re versed in each other foibles, that really form the core of sparkling wit — nay, heart the comedic enterprise itself.

Or, you know, you could just have three or four panels of some character talking or thinking to herself, with nobody else in sight. Your call, cartoonists!

The saddest thing about this Herb and Jamaal is that, since Mrs. Herb here (I forget her name … Peaches?) spends half the comic mentally rehashing what her husband said, the comic could just as easily been written with the miserly Herb speaking for himself. And maybe Mrs. Slim (I forget her name too … Jim?) is showing some sort of meta-awareness of her soliloquy by reminding us that we’re never really alone, what with the omnipresent LORD always listening in on our conversations. As for Doris the Parakeet … well, I’ve always found it to be a good policy to say as little about Doris the Parakeet as possible.