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Shoe, 2/3/21

The “punchline” here isn’t a new joke; I’m reasonably sure I said this more than a decade ago about Michael Phelps, who owned the pool where I swam in Baltimore and who I therefore saw in the locker room multiple times, and I certainly didn’t make it up. In fact, I’d argue it’s barely a joke at all, more just a funny turn of phrase, really. But I do appreciate that they’ve given this cliche that special Shoe twist, which is to say they’ve put it in the context of one of the main characters’ devastatingly depressing personal lives. “I’m tellin’ ya, Shoe, he had muscles in places I don’t even have places! No wonder she left me. I hate my body and myself.”

Pluggers, 2/3/21

Pluggers, like all comic strips, must evolve to survive, and it could go in any number of ways. But I think I speak for all of us when I say that I sincerely did not want or expect it to go with [late middle-aged dog-man doing a sexy baby voice] “Hey, it’s a shiny quarter. Oopsie, did my pants fall down again?”

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Pluggers, 2/2/20

There is a surprising amount to unpack in today’s Pluggers! Let’s start with the idea that Groundhog Day is some kind of national plugger holiday, like the Oscars is for us coastal elites, and they get up early to catch all the shadow-seeing action on TV — or, if they live in DuBois, PA, a mere thirty minutes from Punxsutawney, drive to see the event in person. Then you have a thought balloon from the poor groundhog, indicating that he’s capable of sapience, which reaffirms all our worst fears about the blurry lines between “humans” and “animals” in the world of Pluggers. Finally, there’s the content of that thought ballon: Punxsutawney Phil feels like he’s done this before, implying that he’s stuck in the same hellish time loop that ensnared Bill Murray in the 1993 film Groundhog Day, only he doesn’t have access to the possibility of the redemptive love that freed Murray’s character. Real grim stuff!

Dennis the Menace, 2/2/20

Not only does this panel feature Dennis engaging in actually menacing behavior — and with malice aforethought! it’s menace in the first degree! — but it also features a movie theater worker who isn’t some teenager who can laugh this off as a story to tell his buddies because fuck this stupid job anyway, but a man who looks like he’s in late middle age, probably lost his full-time job due to outsourcing or computers or apps, who can even keep track, and who took a minimum wage job to put food on the table, just while he’s looking for other work, just so he can keep a little dignity. But it’s hard, man. It’s hard to hold onto your dignity when they make you wear that hat, and it’s even hard when you have to deal with little shits like this. Real grim stuff!

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 2/2/20

Ha ha, it’s funny because … Hootin’ Holler, economically impoverished and physically isolated, has only one medical professional serving the community, and it turns out he’s a fraud? And nobody cares? I’ve said it before, but: real grim stuff!

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Six Chix, 2/1/21

OK, fine, I admit it, you don’t do a whole manifesto on your comics blog to the effect of “I’m doing commentary, it’s not like I don’t understand what the joke is supposed to be” unless you’re a little concerned that there are times where you don’t understand what the joke is supposed to be, and, I’ll admit: today’s Six Chix is one of those times. The main joke here is about the “it’s the journey, not the destination” cliche, where the lady is painting a journey, realized in concrete form by her painting a plane full of people on a journey, but … is the joke also that the plane is hanging there in midair indefinitely to have its portrait painted? Or did that aspect of how planes and paintings work not intrude into the creative process of this strip? I’m really getting myself into a lather about how irritated and/or amused I should be here.

Dennis the Menace, 2/1/21

This seems like Alice is passing on a compliment to her son, but in fact, in an indirect way, she’s complimenting herself and her husband, because for once they both managed to refrain from saying anything really cruel and cutting about her old college friend that Dennis could misunderstand and repeat in front of her. Good job, Mitchell parents! Dennis still has a menacingly high level of self-regard, though.

Gasoline Alley, 2/1/21

Oh, I’m sorry, did you read about how Slim and Clovia needed a new dryer back on December 29th and think to yourself, “Surely they’ll have this transaction wrapped up by February”? You fool. You absolute moron. How could you be so naive? You make me sick.