Wiley Miller

Finishing up a big week of silent penultimate panels with five for this Saturday:

9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney
Overboard by Chip Dunham
Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan
Prickly City by Scott Stantis
The Meaning of Lila by John Forgetta and L.A. Rose

And the champion of the Monday through Saturday week is...

Wiley Miller, going four out of six with Non Sequitur.

Friday night

Friday night, picture-only update:

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller (back on track after a day off)
On The FastTrack by Bill Holbrook
The Other Coast by Adrian Raeside

That's all for now; I'm off to see Jackass Number Two.

The comically short character looking up watch

Three today:
Bo-Nanas by John Kovaleski
Foxtrot by Bill Amend
Momma by Mel Lazarus

Take a look at those three side by side again. They all use almost the exact same lay-out--taller character on the left, comically short character on the right, looking up. Interesting...something new to keep track of.

Rare feats

It's been a big week, five more silent penultimate panels for this Wednesday:
Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott
The Duplex by Glenn McCoy
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller
Piranha Club by Bud Grace
Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Wiley Miller is three for three this week. Since we have been keeping score, there has not been a Monday through Saturday straight flush. Can Wiley do it?

Jerry Scott, with two strips to his name, is here often but rarely twice the same day. So, um, congratulations, Jerry.

Boondocks

Four today, Tuesday:

Pickles by Brian Crane
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller
Peanuts (1959 reprint) by Charles Schulz
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis

For some reason, the Pearls Before Swine that appeared in my newspaper from the one online at comics.com.

Comics.com:


Los Angeles Times:


But they both had SPPs!

So, surprise, surprise, Aaron Macgruder and his Boondocks will not be returning anytime soon. If you were around during the early days of this blog, before the Boondocks "hiatus," you know that I'm not a particularly huge fan. The last couple years especially were nothing but cheap and/or boring gags with political arguments not much more sophisticated that that of its right-wing counter-part, Mallard Fillmore. (Okay, maybe that's a bit too harsh.) But I won't be sad if Macgruder and his fleet of assistants never return to the daily comics page, no matter how much fodder for this blog they may have provided.

Business casual

It's only Monday and we already have five silent penultimate panels:

Adam @ Home by Brian Bassett
Candorville by Darin Bell
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller
Overboard by Chip Dunham
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey

Monday's Cathy and The Meaning of Lila:



Hey, have you noticed that workplace dress standards are a little lower than they used to be? And I don't think anyone has ever made a joke about it. It's an untapped maple tree of hilarity syrup.

Efficiency

As usual, Sunday is a big day for silent penultimate panels:

Cow and Boy by Mark Leiknes
Piranha Club by Bud Grace
Heart of the City by Mark Tatulli
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
Mutts by Patrick McDonnell

Drabble is so lame, it can't even put its silent penultimate panel in the right place.

The rules committee has decided that the proper term for this is antepenultimate, as suggested in the comments a while back.

Today's Betty is a good example of how to build a comic pause without using a silent panel.

Instead, Delainey and Rasumussen use an extra-wide panel and place the word balloon in the right half of the panel. In this one panel, they create both a comic reveal and a comic beat. It's an efficient and snappy use of comics grammar. And efficient and snappy are two essential cells in the bloodstream of funny.