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For Better Or For Worse, 1/5/05

We bring you this scene of catty gossip mainly so I can remark on the name of Liz’s friend in red: “Shawna-Marie.” I think that’s funny. It’s like she’s a Québécois hillbilly!

Something that just occurred to me: Do Canada’s draconian language laws require Lynn Johnston to pen a French-language version of the For Better Or For Worse dialogue? I notice she’s real careful about getting the accents right on Thérèse’s name. You sure don’t want the Bloc Québécois all up on your ass, lemme tell you.

Incidentally, I’ve read this comic strip every day since I was about seven years old and I have no idea who those other two girls are. I mean, I know one of them is “Shawna-Marie,” but you know what I mean.

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The Middletons, 1/4/05

Panel 1: This is what an old person thinks a young person looks like.

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Curtis, 1/3/05

Once a year, Curtis takes a break from its usual urban tomfoolery to present an opaque Kwaanza fable set in some mythical ancient African locale. This year, though, the strip has moved the seasonal tale to an shameful time in our own history, when six-fingered persons were cruelly oppressed and shunned. Thankfully, we live in more enlightened times, when our digital diversity is celebrated with national events like Polydactylism Week (August 3-9).

Though I can never quite grasp the point behind the plots of the Kwaanza stories, they do feature some of the most interesting art seen in the strip. I like the long first panel here, with the sort of trippy, melty piano-y thing going on towards the middle. I have to say that I’m less in favor of the gratuitous use of quotation marks around words like “knack” and “Joe” and “untouchable.” And the less said about “naturallyier,” the better.