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The Lockhorns, 8/13/04

One of many things I like about the Lockhorns is the set of visual cues the artists use to indicate that Loretta has been in a car accident (which happens fairly often). The fact that she’s holding the steering wheel is, well, cartoonish, but the rest of it — the purse dragged on the floor as if she’s stumbling around in a daze, the mussed hair, the torn skirt, the falling hose, and, in particular, the black eyes — are just a wee bit too realistic and painful, and thus in total keeping with the mean spirit of the strip. At least she’s smiling in this one.

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Mark Trail, 8/12/04

I’m going to start a new avant-garde performance project called Mark Trail Theater. The actors will perform the works of major playwrights, but they won’t change their facial expressions or use anything but the broadest body language. The only way they’ll be permitted to indicate changes in emotional state will be by shouting. Also, they’ll use contractions much less than a normal person would.

This is potentially the most emotionally charged Mark Trail I’ve ever seen, though that admittedly isn’t saying much. Kelly must be some sort of old flame of Mark’s, and I assume that Cherry is seething with jealousy, but I’m assuming that because of my knowledge of how human beings work, not because of any visual cues in the strip. She just sits there in profile at the left side of the panels, her eyes darkened with — well, what are they darkened with, exactly? Rage? Mascara? An ink smudge? Confusion, because Kelly looks like every other woman in the strip, only with a different hairstyle? We’ll find out. I’m certainly looking forward to some personal animosity expressed Mark Trail-style, which is to say entirely through clumsy dialog.

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 8/11/04

Sometimes, when people go through a traumatic experience — like being trapped in a cliffside cave by rising floodwaters, say — they reevaluate their priorities and decide to make major changes in their lives. Often they think about going into an entirely different line of work, one that involves helping others.

You know, like medicine. Hey, earth to June: You already run a medical practice. Maybe she’ll insist on treating people for free. That’ll be fun to watch.

I’d like to point out that Mark and June have smudge marks on their faces, which are the universal comics symbol for having gone through some kind of ordeal. Of course, they didn’t have said smudge marks on their face until after they were rescued, which is a bit puzzling. Maybe they got dragged up the side of that cliff face-first.

Finally, take a look at the odd way that June is drawn in first panel, with her turned down mouth and beady eyes. June Morgan and Grace Jones: separated at birth?