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Mark Trail, 10/30/04

I’m not the first to note this, but Jack Elrod doesn’t seem to like drawing people very much. Maybe that’s why everyone in Mark Trail looks the same. Whenever he can, he pulls back the “camera” to give us some lovely frolicking animal shots. Unfortunately, his word balloons are often nowhere near the tiny, distant humans who are supposed to be saying said words, so it usually looks like the animals are conversing among themselves. For instance, there’s no other normal way to interpret today’s strip but to assume that the leftmost bird is proposing a quick trip to the Florida Keys. At least it isn’t talking to the dolphins, though; as near as I can tell, the reply is coming from the boat itself. I’m not sure if that’s more or less realistic.

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OK, first I was too stressed about the election to write funny things about the comics. Then I was too depressed about the results to write funny things about the comics.

I’m somewhat over it now, so there will be a rash of new comics coming tonight. If you want to know how I feel about the election, click here. Feel free to heatedly agree or disagree with me, but I ask that you keep all political diatribe comments attached to this post. Any others will be removed by me at my arbitrary whim.

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Wizard of Id, 10/29/04

Welcome to a new feature here at IRTCSYDHT — IRTCSYDHT on the road! I’m comin’ at you live from New York City, the Big Apple, Gotham, the city that never sleeps! Let me tell you, New York’s good for trendy boutiques and twelve dollar martinis, but pretty crappy when it comes to comics. But by plunking down 25 cents for the New York Post (which, by the way, is the crappiest paper I’ve ever read — today they used a dollar sign as an S in a headline, as if it were the title of a bad rap song), I got reacquainted with an old friend named The Wizard of Id — or, as the Post apparently calls it, just The Wizard.

Like Kudzu, this strip has long since dispensed with its title character as its main source of yucks. It looks like its passed through the decade or so since I last read it without missing a beat: still making jokes about the short little king! Oh, he’s a hoot. I like how he always seems to be running for office — as if he weren’t a brutal monarch who was anointed by God and could crush his subjects with an iron fist! O King, why do you waste your time grovelling before your subjects for their approval when you should be taxing them blind and spending their hard-earned gold on wenches and ornaments for your palace! Your majesty, you are not worthy of your crown!

OK, so, to sum up: Wizard of Id is still stupid. Still, I have to credit it with teaching me the meaning of the word “fink.”