Same ol' same ol'

Grrrr. Sometimes, there's just not a lot of pep in our own funny pages (correction, funny page and I like to go "out there" seeking some new and fresher angle by which to laugh at the world. But today, le internet is being le sluggish and I'm unable to surf for silly. Maybe my humor is still hitched to Spielberg's war wagon and there's nothing wrong with my funny page.

Okay, there was a smile there at Fred's annoyance at being referred to as a "still life." The world must certainly be changing if the highlight of my morning is "Fred Basset." Here's something I didn't know: this strip has been in reruns for over ten years!

Okay again - it's the details, Mr. Wilson appears to be reading a newspaper in Mandarin Chinese. I doubt that's how it was supposed to be construed, but funny in any case. Lordy-Smorgasbord, I'm looking for funny in the margins.

Goners!

I played hooky from life today, went to a 10:45 a.m. showing of "War Of The Worlds" and have just now emerged from the strange, disturbed funk that settled over me during the course of the film. Not sure how I feel about that - but a little "Pibgorn" aided me in returning to something close to normality:

Things That Make You Go.......

Have you ever given serious thought to the life of Hagar The Horrible? I mean, here is a guy who steals for a living, has an ogre for a wife and his best friend's a pipsqueak. I think he and Sarge should get together.

But besides the obvious, whenever you see Hagar, he's either on his way to a conquest, back from a conquest, arguing with Helga, drinking or eating himself silly or in the case of today's strip, hanging in manacles somewhere in a castle dungeon. How many times have we seen him hanging from some wall by rusty chains? How often have we seen the hooded executioner/jailer? How often have we actually seen him escape? We don't! In all of his rowdy, beer-soaked, overtaxed, rolling-pinned adventures, we never see the guy make a brilliant escape from those rotting prisons he's always landing in. That would make for some great material, wouldn't it, eh? I guess Chris Browne feels that seeing Hagar always on the verge of getting pummeled by some army is suitable enough, and what's up with THAT? He would seem to be a fairly stealthy viking, to bring home the loot that he does, but he never seems to be caught in the act of winning anything. What portion of the big picture, exactly, are we not getting?

Having a dog in the house, I'm quite familiar with the "sniff, snuff, snoof, snerf," routine that comes with any new odor into the abode. My wife and I contend that just the simple act of sniffing is like crack for dogs. Today's "For Better Or For Worse" illustrates this with such dead-on aim this week, it's been laugh-snort, chortle, snerf every day. John's groaner this morning was actually so funny that it wasn't a groaner.

"Sherman's Lagoon" is funny in a sick way today, considering that there have been two shark attacks in the past few days, in the same area of Florida. A little reisling, anyone?

The Reality Of Comic Strips

So, when a human character talks to an animal character, typically, the human gets a dialogue balloon and the animal gets a thought balloon (except for "Get Fuzzy", "Pooch Cafe" and a few other outcasts, where apparently the humans and animals just outright talk to each other), something that always puzzled me. Can Jon actually hear what Garfield is saying? Sometimes it seems so, and sometimes, if you just block out Garfield altogether, Jon does seem to gibber on by himself quite often. He's a pretty lonely guy. For a cat owner.

Welcome back, Marisol!

Amen, Ted, Amen

Ted from "Sally Forth" is a man after my own heart. Forget about this corporate-world crap; get a bus and form a band. Now that's honest work!

Snif, snuff, snoof! In "For Better Or For Worse" can you say "terminal velocity"? Elly is about to get bum-rushed.

Has anyone in the history of comics seen Beetle Bailey's eyes? If anyone knows of a startling instance where they were revealed, please let me know. I'm just wondering how he can get anywhere without tripping over stuff. Must be some new stealth-gadget that the army's working on.

There He Goes Again!

Snoopy's Greatest Hits continues today with the appearance of the World War II Flying Ace. He is driving Lucy absolutely bonkers!

Is it a reflection upon our society that the funny papers have introduced more and more, er, reality? I don't remember there being so much strife in the ink, especially in the vocational realm. I guess the cartoonists really know where it's hurting most people these days.

There goes "For Better Or For Worse" with the hysterical sound effects again, "boof" is indeed a more appropriate onomatopoeia than "woof", since dogs don't have the lips required to produce a "wh" sound. I need to get a life.

It's Getting Hot In Here...

Did someone turn the heat on? Can we win some air-conditioning? From "9 Chickweed Lane"



Lord, have mercy.

In other news: when Snoopy does the Suppertime Dance, the whole world sings. True laugh-out loud funny, so what's up with Snoopy's Greatist Hits recently? Vulture, World War II Fighting Ace, The Whole Lucy Stay has been like mug-city. Keep 'em comin'!

Rip-snortin' giggles for "Garfield" - for anyone who's suddenly walked into a spider web and started doing what Jon's doing in the second panel. HAH! The words "so out of here!" spring to mind.

I weep for Brad. I weep for Reddy.

I predicted chaos at the Patterson House and I'm just ready to pull up a chair and watch the fireworks. Have you ever just felt something stupid-funny was just around the corner? When I introduced my cats to my wife's dogs, it was an adventure of a different kind. Far as I can tell, Shiimsa hasn't been declawed and has no idea what a dog is. The sideshow is about to begin.....

Pibgorn Rocks!

I. Love. This. COMIC!

The Peanuts Question

Okay, I'm firmly convinced that Charles Schulz, aware of his impending death, went into overtime and churned out countless "Peanuts" strips to be distributed and published after his passing. The reason I say this is because ever since he died, I've still not seen what appears to be a "rerun" and I know the strip pretty well, having followed it since the early 70's and have several collections from even before that. What else convinces me is that today's strip looks a bit "off-design", as if Chuck was having a hard time maintaining the smooth flow of line that has been a hallmark of the series.

Simul-comics at the bottom of the page for us Orlando Sentinel readers: Both Elizabeth ("For Better Or For Worse") and Zonker ("Doonesbury") are pictured in travel mode, sitting in those oh-so-not-comfy seats aboard some public transportation. I believe Liz is on a bus while Harris is in the air - but still - stacked right on top of each other there - I love it when that happens. Footnote - why does Elizabeth's comment to Shiimsa seem like a promise of chaos upon her return to the household? It's going to be one lively summer with the Pattersons!

Gettin' Silly Wit' It

There are times when I dig down deep for a dissertation based on the funny pages. And then there are times when I just giggle, snort and get heap-happy jollies from the silliest little details.

Today is one of those days.

"For Better Or For Worse" has had me giggling as Elizabeth attempts to get her adopted cat into a cat carrier. The look of dismay on kitty's face in today's panel two was classic. Tittering away even as I type. On another note, The FBOFW website is the most extensive comic-strip website that I've ever seen. It's as deeply charming as the strip itself, complete with character insights that go much deeper than the daily action that we see. These are truly just glimpses into a fully realized universe that's just under the surface (and sometimes glaringly on top.) Check out Elizabeth's letters page to see what I'm talkin' 'bout.

Thanks Marisol!

For turning me on to "Sherman's Lagoon" - I'm actually starting to see it in some papers as we travel around, but it's funny enough to seek out on the web while here at home.

One of the things that's endearing about "Mutts" is how it resembles old Segar "Popeye" cartoons. I wonder if that was an inspiration?

"9 Chickweed Lane" is absolutely brilliant - today's conversation is loaded to the gills. It seems like it's nothing, but when you consider that Amos and Emma are childhood friends contemplating the implications of being in love (and physically attracted to each other), it becomes clear that comedy is indeed just truth through a filter.

Poor Brad

It's just gonna break his heart to find out that Toni Daytona's just not into him as more than a friend! At least that's what I'm expecting to happen in "Luann" (who'da thought that the strip I started reading in 1978 would still have me involved today?) but you never know - she just might see something in the boy.....

We're off to play a gig tonight in Lake Worth, Florida at The Bamboo Room - will be back on Sunday for those fabulous in-color funnies!

Acid Flashback?

Is it just me or has "Doonesbury" re-run a few strips here dealing with the F.B.I.'s "torture training"? The sub-plot appeared some time ago and then abruptly vanished. Now, keeping pace with current events, it seems to have come back and reversed a bit - just in case any of us missed the opening monologue. I'll have to hand it to cartoonists like Trudeau and Lynn Johnston - they've got a lot of story to maintain, many threads to tie together, and they usually do it with style and imagination (not to mention wit.)

"...one Nation under God, invisible" goes the pledge in "Family Circus". Amen to that, sister! Invisible to the people in charge, I'm thinkin'!!

Comical Cahoots Part Deux

Though not together on the page, this occurence seems remarkable for its visionary spectrum. "Bound and Gagged" features two dogs staring at a white picket line with one saying "this is so embarassing, I'm the last one with a visible fence!"

Down below in "The Middletons", an orange tabby walks out into air ala Wile E. Coyote and then plummets to the ground as a nearby cat says to another "he's still trying to walk on that invisible fence."

Maybe these two strips are juxtaposed somewhere, making this even more highly amusing and interesting, but for those of us on the lookout for comic collusion, this sort of thing sticks right out there.

The "Family Circus" take on the Pledge of Allegiance is rib-tickling, especially today's entry "and to the Republic for witches dance...." - guess that one's got some evangelicals freaking out today!

Is Miss Buxley from "Beetle Bailey" Toni Daytona's mom? Jes' wonderin'.

Comical Cahoots

There it is, right smack dab in the middle of the Tuesday comics section - an interesting case of comic-synchronicity:

It starts on the left with "The Middletons" as Bumper the bulldog obeys the command to play "dead" and then waits for Morris to "throw some dirt on him." Right next door, "Hagar The Horrible" introduces Lucky Eddie to "Dirty Dirk" and his dog "Dirty Dog", who looks perhaps like Bumper would if Morris had gone ahead with the soil-tossing. Just below that in "Fred Basset", the hound exclaims about a diminuitive scotty that "the poor little chap has been taken to the cleaners..but he looks all the better for it!"

Not exactly all the same thing, but an interesting happenstance in any case.

Seeing Ourselves

I don't know about you, but Sarge's anger at Beetle Bailey is damn near pathological. Besides his eating disorder, the guy likes nothing more than to beat this private to a pulp or harrass him in one way or another. Maybe that speaks more to today's army than previously thought!

Grand Slam Sunday

The Orlando Sentinel knocked one out of the park with page three of today's funnies:

"Opus" and his anxiety closet is always vividly amusing, but today's edition carried a self-referential pot-shot (pun intended) that was cleverly and wickedly done. Though I don't normally subscribe to schadenfreude, Breathed's rendering of a sickly-white, pixie-ish Michael Jackson flying his standard "V" for victory was funny enough, but to lump him in with the "Pop-Culture Has-Beens From The '80s" (which included an unseen Bono and an ill-included Mick Jagger) was sheer genius. (I love how Darth Vader's helmet flies off as he retreats in a huff)

Now here's where the Comic Analyst in me comes screaming out from the depths. Considering that the violently suggestive final panel represents Bill The Cat's realization that Opus is, by nature of his publishing history, guilty by association and indeed one of the "Pop-Culture Has-Beens From The '80s", does that mean that Bill could very well turn the gun on himself, echoing certain journalistic practices of late? Was that a run-on sentence? Do I care? Non. I just really wanted to see Bono as drawn by Berke.

Call it one of those little things, but I dig how "Get Fuzzy" cartoonist Darby Conley sometimes renders Bucky as a diminished figure in the background as he delivers his lines. Always hanging around the edges of the frame, it somehow accents his acerbic take on the world. Not to mention that it also accents the fact that he is a very short and physically non-threatening cat.

I don't give "Dilbert" enough credit. It takes some kind of twisted brilliance (or obsession) to accurately portray the kind of day-to-day, textbook-ready, indignities that workers are meant to suffer at the hands of those in charge. Of course, take the dialogue out of the office and put it in the bedroom, exhange a few verbs and nouns -- voila! -- it's your current relationship, ever notice that?

Now, how many times have you driven down the street, seen those stickers of Calvin pissing on everything from Dodge logos to Republican elephants, and thought "man, I'll bet Bill Watterson is fit to be tied."? Leave it to "Pearls Before Swine" to not only illustrate that instance, but take it a step further and suggest that maybe, just maybe, we're going to see lots of stickers in the backs of truck windows featuring Pig doing something equally as noxious? Will Pastis like this development (or is it already happening somewhere?) or is he indeed attempting to encourage it in order to publicize the strip? Wouldn't that be like playing a concert and encouraging people to bootleg the recording? Does that mean that you can come back thirty years later like Metallica and condemn this kind of behavior?

Saw the coolest shirt yesterday at Disney's Polynesian Resort. It was Hawai'ian style, bright colors, with Jessica Rabbit taking up about half of the design as she stands holding a longboard emblazoned with her hubby Roger. The back is a reverse angle, which given her beach attire, is just as fetching as the front. A female friend said something to the effect of "nice coconuts." At $42, it's anti-cheap. I've already petitioned Santa.

Dick Clark, pay attention..

"Mother Goose and Grimm" does it again, while asking questions that we've been asking for awhile now. How come some comic characters age and others don't? Geez, this one panel looks like that shot at the end of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" that pans across all of the toons. So who's the fella third from the left? Is he from "Gasoline Alley"? That's "Mary Worth" beside him, right?

The bits where "Garfield" is sitting in the chair watching a t.v. that we can't see; they remind me of "Pinky and the Brain" in their left-field, non-sequitur dalliances.

Brain: Pinky, are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Pinky: Yeah Brain, but burlap chafes me so.

Dabbling In Watercolors, Eddie?

So, I've gotta admit, I have a new favorite strip. "9 Chickweed Lane" is a freakin' hoot. Probably a little too risque' for most newspapers. That Emma - she's somethin', isn't she?

All I can say about today's strip is: "nice save."

Cruelty To Comic Characters

Damn. Today's "Hagar The Horrible" isn't funny (to me), it's just plain ugly. Hagar says to a disgruntled-looking woman with a blonde afro "my wife doesn't understand me" to which she replies "what's to understand, you're a simpleton!"

And this is what passes for humor these days?

It's a growing trend, easily witnessed on television, in sitcoms and on reality shows. The art of comedy has slowly but surely regressed into a culture of caustic clinquant, taking its cue from the David Spades of the world; a one-line put-down is often mistaken for clever when it's usually simply cruel.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox for now.

After my musing about Zonker's former riches, it seems the prior millionaire is thinking about taking classes on how to get back there. "Doonesbury" is on a roll.

Is there a bigger warm fuzzy in the comic strips than "Rose Is Rose"? Even trips to the Dungeon of Resentment or dalliances in the rivalry of rugrats quickly give way to sunny, shiny, happy celebrations of sunbeams, first snows, leaf-leaping and in today's strip; hugs. I love how the artists' illustrated imagery of joy involves little icons of rainbows, sunshine, candy canes, hearts and musical notes. Those things sure make me happy, how about you?

*sigh*

Kitty's going to be okay. We think.

Busy day - seriously have to run!

Monday Monday

So, Key West was a blast - and a chance to see what other people are reading in the comics section. When we travel, it's always a trip to catch up with our "home" faves while popping in to the mini-worlds of other strips; some are easier to get into than others. They all have their own little quirks, whole histories of setting the tone of humor. Some strips in the Key West Citizen were familiar to me from home - "Rose Is Rose", "Peanuts" (sans the "classic" there for some reason), "Garfield", "Beetle Bailey", etc. Some others I was familiar with, but hadn't seen in a while, like "Frank and Ernest", "Herman", "Marmaduke" and an old favorite: "Shoe".

Some others were totally foreign to me, both in design and humor. "Big Nate", "Monty", "The Grizzwells", "Arlo and Janis", "Moderately Confused", all of which left me hanging in the entertainment department. Nice to get a little variety though.

On to Sunday back home: didja get a load of all the funny movie titles that the Pattersons consider at the Multimegamax theaters? A few of my favorites: "Massacre This!", "Groins!", "A Whiff Of Evil" and "Borborygmus", which sent me to a dictionary to discover that it's basically the medical term for a rumbly in your tumbly.

Did Charlie Brown get aggro with Snoopy or what? It's rare to see him in such a cruel mood with that crazed look on his face.

What's up with the portrayal of non-regulars in "Blondie"? They're usually some of the most freakish folks in the funnies.

Don't know if it was an ink issue or not, but the cast of "Baldo" looks like they spent an extra hour or five in the tanning salon. Any darker and I might've confused them with "The Boondocks".

On to Monday:

Remember the days when Pasquale and Clem couldn't speak? Still, the two have always had an aggressive rivalry, which leads me to wonder about Clem's folks and their parental skills. Still, I doubt that Clem has a cool guardian angel like Pasquale (or a Dream Ship.)

And now I can breathe easier, for it would seem that Ted and Sally are going to forego a trip to Paris in order to save Kitty in "Sally Forth." Gasp! Not only does Ted get the last word in the final panel, Sally's looking quite sympathetic instead of sarcastic!

Remember when Zonker was a millionaire? What DID he do with all the money? I forgot. What a blow that's got to be - from lottery winner to working at McFriendly's - that's got to be more than humbling, hey?

Back from the island.....

WELL! What a nice vacation/anniversary, it was just long enough to make us wish for even more. Returned home to a stack of newspapers the size of Rhode Island. Honey went for the front pages, I skipped to Life and Times, starting catching up with the comics.

And I still am....so until tomorrow, all I have to say is "Sally Forth" is going to make me cry by weeks' end. SAVE KITTY!