Saturday, October 28, 2006

Quick Saturday post


Real quick tonight. Two silent penultimate panels:

Foxtrot by Bill Amend
Overboard by Chip Dunham

At Borders today I was shocked to find a new issue of Hogan's Alley. This has got to be the most erratically published magazine to still get shelf space at the chain bookstores. It's the only place you'll ever find an exhaustive article on the history of martial arts ads in comic books. (Boys! Men! I'll help you master Yubiwaza!)

Friday, October 27, 2006

Mark Trail vs Lio--no contest


Three:
Barkeater Lake by Corey Pandolph
Piranha Club by Bud Grace
Zits by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman

That's two days in a row for Barkeater Lake. Three more and Corey Pandolph will show us why a barkeater is called a barkeater.

Up until today, Lio has been one of my favorite strips.

How dare he disparage the reputation of Mark Trail like this. In real life, Mark Trail would raid Lio's illegal menagerie and fix him right with the old one-two.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Attention


Three for this Wednesday:

Baby Blues by Jerry Scott and Rick Kirkman
Barkeater Lake by Corey Pandolph
9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney

Pooch Cafe uses a silent antepenultimate panel:


Something named BoxJam's Doodle makes fun of me:


Thanks for pointing this out, Marissa. I'm a total sucker for any sort of attention.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Missing things



Another two today, another slow week.

Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley
Monty by Jim Meddick

I've been extremely busy (and sick with a cold) this week, and I have not been at the top of my observational game. Thank you all for keeping me straight. I totally missed Tuesday's Get Fuzzy. That is about as clear cut an SPP you can get and I just missed it. For the record, that was an additional SPP for Tuesday. Scorekeepers, please adjust your cards accordingly.



Because the SPP sample is sort of mysterious, I should show you all of today's Monty.

It's a cute little lights out panel.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Noc Noc


Two silent penultimate panels today:

Blondie by the Dean Young workshop
Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan

Despite the Z and the turd, the pooch cafe panel still qualifies as silent.

Today's Blondie:


This is Ugliness Man's observation: "Since when was "noc-noc" accepted comic strip sound FX? Is that French?"

Monday, October 23, 2006

Wildfire


The slowing trend continues with two silent penultimate panels this Monday

Red and Rover by Brian Bassett
Sally Forth by Francesco Marciuliano and Craig Macintosh

What's this, Smidge? I missed one yesterday? There was an SPP in my favorite strip to hate and I missed it? Let me see that newspaper.

Why, there it is. I circled it to make it easier for everyone to see. I'm sorry I missed you, duck. I looked at your strip yesterday and just saw blah blah, ugly drawing, blah.

Because I overlooked you, I'll help you get the word out on this Network of Enlightened Women. Here they are--all of them--at their national convention.

Spread that wildfire, ladies.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Matriculations



This is quiet for a Sunday. Four silent penultimate panels.

The Duplex by Glenn McCoy
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan
Sally Forth by Francesco Marciuliano and Craig Macintosh

The L.A. Times shuffled its Sunday comics today, adding the Sunday Lio, and dropping the Sunday Prickly City. Fabulous. However, I can not say the same about the front page cosmetic changes. I counted at least eight different type styles and sizes above the fold alone. Damn, Tribune Media, did a font vendor give you a bulk discount?

A reader named Joe pointed this out to me. It's from a "matriculation exam" in South Africa. (The Madam and Eve website discusses it here.)


Question 5.7 asks "account for the absence of dialog in frame 3." If you answer "it's an over-used comic strip device that creates only the illusion of comic timing rather than the actual thing," well, you might not graduate from school in South Africa, but you'll get an A in my book.
But I must say, hooray for South Africa for considering comics literacy a vital skill.

I appreciate that the folks hired to create Sally Forth attempt to shake up its inherent staleness with new things. But the Will Eisner borderless panel thing simply does not work here.
Question 1-A. Please account for the sedan growing out of the back of Sally's head in panel 2.