Comic Explosion!

Man, you leave town for a little while and then BLAMMO!, the funny pages explode. Signs of the times, I guess.

Sunday's Sentinel was one of the better comics sections in ages, filled with imaginative stuff, colorful, goggle-eyed drawings and a healthy dose of snickers.

"For Better Or For Worse" featured another "silent-movie" strip with Edgar the sheepdog doing that thing that dogs do so well - wriggling on their backs and getting dirt everywhere. This strip is positioned top left of the comics page, so the first visual I got was the very familiar sight of a dog's paws flailing in the air. A good guffaw from the start!

Naked comics! "Beetle Bailey" gets nude, following Jeremy from "Zits" several weeks ago. I sense a disturbing trend.......

"Opus" was absolutely brilliant, tying in political current events with a simple dinner out for Bill and Opus (Bill's fourth panel dance is classic). Funny how the final panel leaves them at an alley table destined for hell when the very next strip below, "Get Fuzzy", deals with the concept of "Felinism" and Bucky's rise to and fall from grace. The look on his face during "The Fallen" panel is something you just never see on a falling cat. They're usually too quick and surprised for such expressions.

"Baldo" and "Hagar The Horrible" both featured epic drawings (at least for them), bold palettes and historical imagery, surrealism to underscore flashbacks. Speaking of flashbacks (and flashforwards) "The Family Circus" laid out a nice eyefull with the "Marriage Go Round", taking mother and father from newlyweds on into a future with an empty nest. "Rose Is Rose" had a likewise charming appeal as well. Just all kinds of warm fuzzies mixed in with the irreverence. Apparently Granddad from "The Boondocks" is okay, but the discussion of CPR seems to connect with that last Sunday strip where the boys refuse to go help their elder. An interesting switch-up from "help me boys" to "Resuscitatin' each other willy-nilly!"

The "Ordinary Basil" storyline seems to have slowed down to a crawl, gathering a huge chunk of exposition at the top of each strip now, to clue readers in to what's happening. This story has been going along for some time - it'll be unusual to see the strip self-contained again. At least Louise and Basil are reunited, for now.....

On to today:

What has been up with "Blondie" of late? She's been quite abrasive to Dagwood, whether it's shoving him out of the house or questioning why he's laying on his favorite couch. What's gotten into her anyway? Maybe it's the news.

"Fred Basset" elicited a rare laugh out loud for its simple-yet-effective treatment of Diane and her Tibetan Spaniel. I don't know what happened between those two and father and Fred, but the latter two aren't sticking around to find out!

Regarding the Kelpfroth's in "For Better Or For Worse" - down deep inside, I'm thinking they're probably not bad people and we may discover that in time, but right now, they are absolutely apalling! Just another life lesson waiting to be learned - because you don't have to like people to lovepeople, right?