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Pluggers, 4/22/24

John Cougar Mellencamp sits at the intersection of plugger and poet, and I have long believed that “Life goes on/ long after the thrill of living is gone” is one of the most poignant lines in the corpus of 20th century American literature. Anyway, mad respect to Pluggers today for briefly but explicitly acknowledging the overpowering miasma of hopelessness that suffuses every panel of this comic that’s ever been published.

Mary Worth, 4/22/24

So I was right that Wilbur truly is going into a fugue state in mid-conversation, but wrong in that Iris very much is noticing. This is actually pretty triggering, as Wilbur retreating to his mind palace so he can imagine himself as a spandex-clad superhero is surely a familiar scenario to her, from when she and Wilbur used to have sex.

Rhymes With Orange, 4/22/24

YOU are concerned about the potenial fire hazard that could arise from YHWH’s appearance as a burning bush

I am concerned about why these bears are being forced to learn religious dogma about human deities, rather than being told the truth about the great and awful Ursine God

We are NOT the same

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Mary Worth, 4/21/24

You’d think that boxing talk combined with Wilbur going into a traumatized fugue state would be a perfect opportunity for a return of the boxing Wilburbabies, but, no, instead he’s fantasizing about being a superhero or whatever, probably because even he knows he couldn’t defeat Zak in a straight-up boxing match. I think it’s funny that his super-alter-ego is wearing a domino mask, I guess for disguise purposes? The character is called “Wilburman,” everyone knows it’s Wilbur, c’mon.

Beetle Bailey, 4/21/24

THING I ENJOYED ABOUT THIS STRIP: That the tattoo artist looks genuinely miffed about having to undo his previous work

THING I DID NOT ENJOY ABOUT THIS STRIP: Learning that Cookie’s distinctive shoulder hair is strawberry blond

Marvin, 4/21/24

CREATOR OF THE COMIC STRIP MARVIN, DESPERATELY TRYING TO AVOID DOING ANOTHER JOKE ABOUT THE TITLE CHARACTER PISSING OR SHITTING HIMSELF: Uh …. uh. Wife bad? Wife bad.

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Between Friends, 4/20/24

Not to sound like the old person that I literally am, but TV used to be a lot fewer two-hour movie premises stretched out over eight to ten 45-minute episodes and a lot more 85 episodes about friends just kind of hanging out and then, if they were popular enough to get a little budget boost, the occasional Very Special Episode where the gang all went on vacation to Italy together or something like that, to the genuine delight of their fans. Anyway, Between Friends is a strip that’s been running since 1994 and is about the titular friends just kind of hanging out, and Uncle Lumpy and I have posted about 17 times over the past 14 years, so you guys are probably fans of it by now, right? Well, the gals are going to Paris, so get excited!

Beetle Bailey, 4/20/24

This strip got me to Google “mouth taping for snoring” to discover that yes, this is a thing, and yes the photos that you get are all extremely disturbing, like even more than this weird creepy drawing of Sarge. One of the tape brands promoted for this is literally called “Hostage Tape!” Anyway fingers crossed that my wife, who claims that I snore (unproven), doesn’t read the blog today.

Hi and Lois, 4/20/24

Wow, Hi and Lois is leaning into becoming an experimental slice-of-life strip with no punchlines, huh? They could do worse, I guess. In other news, Lois’s business is failing!