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Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/27/05

Today’s Rex Morgan, M.D., is actually a quite lovely chiaroscuro composition; even the sweatshop coloring hacks knew to leave well enough alone, adding only a splash of red to Rex’s tie that’s quite striking in and of itself. The mood is appropriately somber for the subject matter, but the dialogue confirms my growing suspicion that there’s only one competent medical practitioner in the Morgan family, and it isn’t the one who goes around waving some fancy initials around after his name in an overly compensatory fashion. Maybe Rex is distracted by the recent departure of his sexy blond archaeologist buddy, but his comments here give the impression less of “trained doctor” and more of “Catch Me If You Can-style fraud.” First, he seems baffled by the idea that a wounded man coming back from a war zone might have a piece of metal embedded in his body; then he claims ignorance as to why discussing an injured individual might be relevant at a medical practice. I mean, forget med school; anyone who’s seen an episode of M*A*S*H could have faked his way through this conversation better than “Dr.” Morgan.

The war in Iraq is a potentially touchy subject for the comics pages, even for an ostensibly “issue”-oriented strip like Rex Morgan (though the “issues” raised by the Fence Post Frank/Buck plot would be best dealt with by a psychologist and a landscape architect). If this storyline takes a stand more controversial than “Wounded soldiers should have their wounds treated promptly by a skilled medical professional” (which, I can’t emphasize strongly enough to Jack, would in this case be June), Rex Morgan, M.D. might find itself exiled to the Opinions page with the Boondocks and Mallard Fillmore.

Of course, if the strip needs some help in talking about the war without actually, you know, talking about the war, it should take some lessons from the master:

Beetle Bailey, 9/27/05

Soldier, I know it seems like some of the tasks you’re ordered to undertake are small or irrelevant, but each one slowly but surely advances the cause of freedom. And by “cause of freedom,” I mean “some campaign contributor’s stock portfolio.” I’m not sure how the Army gets its martini glasses, but I’m betting it involves a no-bid contract and a Halliburton subsidiary.

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I don’t know if the spammers are getting smarter of if the new version of WordPress is more vulnerable to spamming, but more and more comment spam is getting through my filters. I have thus been forced to take the irritating step of forcing you to enter a security code before you can post a comment. Not sure if this will cut down on spam or not; I’ll keep it in place if it does. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update: OK, that didn’t really help matters, and I think I’ve found something else that does, so I turned it off. Go about your business.

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I bet you all thought that I wouldn’t read the 1000+ comments on the ULTRA POST, but read them I did. One is already the comment of the week, as you can see, but as is befitting a post that was truly ULTRA in its postosity, there were a number of contenders, so I thought I’d share them here for everyone who’s too daunted to slog through them all:

“Plus we got a couple of strong sweeps from Rex’s megawatt gaydar. That’s a blip to watch out for in the future.” –Sharkbait

“Bil Keane would be rolling over in his grave, if he was dead.” –sickboy

“‘Adventuresome’? Gee, Elly, does that shill come with a tube of K-Y jelly?” –Dennis Jimenez

(Incidentally, I had been looking at Dennis’ handle for months before the then-Future Mrs. C. pointed out to me that it’s a comics pun. If you’re dumb like me, say it out loud as if you were habla-ing the español.)

“That’s it. I want to murder FBOFW and piss on its grave.” –Sourbelly

“Argh. I looked at Marmaduke. Now I’ve lost about 40 IQ points.” –meep

“I’m getting frustrated at Lynn in Mark Trail. Plus, I’m frustrated at the fact that I am frustrated at anything that goes on in Mark Trail. It’s a vicious circle.” –Mike Donovan

“Personally, I’m so awash in anticipation that I can hardly keep my pants dry.” –Adam-12

“With the constant influx of wildlife in Mark Trail, I am disappointed at the quality of the so-called ‘beauties.’ I am profoundly disturbed by these trout for several reasons. 1) They are stiff. Fish, even dead fish, tend to be at least semi-floppy, right? Right. The way that these fish are dangling rigidly makes me think that they are not indeed real fish, but poorly-made plastic imitation trout that this hirsute gentleman picked up at the local Wal-Mart to inspire jealousy in Mark’s heart 2) They are grey, but not in a fishy, slimy way. They are grey in an ‘I have run out of colors’ way, further supporting the Plastic Wal-Mart Trout theory stated previously. Either that, or (given that they are the same shade of grey as the background) they are strange, ethereal trout from another dimension that can only partly manifest in our reality. Also, the gentleman and his lady friend in panel 2 are very creepily proportioned. They look not quite like midgets, not quite like RealDolls™. Perhaps they are poorly made plastic imitation people Mark Trail picked up at the local Wal-Mart to make it seem like he had friends.” –leathermessiah

On who would play major comics characters in the movies:

“Mary Worth — Martha Stewart. No contest. That perfect melange of asexuality and insincerity.” –Islamorada Girl

“There is no professional actress who could play Cathy, as none are annoying enough.” –Chet McCord, Wildlife Defender

I’m not really sure what this means, but it made me laugh:

“I have to thank you all for turning me on to the very excellent Gil Thorp. Priceless douche chills!” –hacky

And in one point Dingo referred in passing to our favorite young-women-in-the-big-city soap opera strip as The Goyim in Apartment 3-G and I nearly peed myself.

Speaking of those wacky gentile girls, a lot of people seem to want guidance on just what’s going on in today’s installment. I’m afraid that I’d be a lot more help if anyone had entered the Summarize the Soaps contest. Which no one did! C’mon people, you can do it. I want summaries. E-mail me summaries! Check out last year’s winners for guidance.

And finally, a moment that I had long been awaiting arrived this evening. A member of the Curmudgeon household was recognized by a reader in public — and it wasn’t even me! Faithful reader Kaycee recognized Mrs. C, since I constantly plaster her picture all over the site. I wasn’t there, but I was assured that it was a very exciting moment. So a shout out to you, Kaycee! Though hopefully these encounters won’t become so frequent that we have to start putting on sunglasses and baseball caps whenever we leave the house.