Zippy

Three more on this Saturday:
Broom Hilda by Russell Meyers
Candorville by Darin Bell
Piranha Club by Bud Grace (Thanks for the ass-shot, Bud.)

Gloriouskyle left a good comment about Zippy the Pinhead after the Friday post. Yes, silent panels in Zippy are rare. Some Zippy strips have more words than a Readers Digest.

I can't say I've ever been a huge fan. I don't think it's a bad strip at all. It's probably brilliant, it just seems to be written in a foreign language I don't have the time or energy to translate.

I had a roommate in college who loved Zippy. We had a ridiculiously cheap student rate subscription to the Washington Post and the only thing this guy read out of the whole paper was Zippy. He'd read it and break down in laughter. I'd pick it up after him and the hillarious joke would transform into a non-sensical series of random images. My other roommate and I clipped out each day's Mark Trail and taped it to our front door. Imagine a door-sized spaced filled with Mark Trail; it's as funny as it sounds. We'd look over at it and just crack up. My Zippy-fan roommate one day was just staring at the door. He looked at it for a while, shook his head and said "I don't get it."

Similar

As usual, a quick Friday update. Two, very similar SPPs:

Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! by Tim Rickard
Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Just got back from seeing Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Funny, funny. funny.

Brainy

Oh, yeah, I'm not done yet. Four more today

9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney
B.C. by Johnny Hart
Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey

I love how the B.C. cavewoman is looking so disapprovingly at the Chickweed Lane ladies here. She smells blue-staters.

And here is the answer to the Frazz question:

See, I was mislead by the idea that his character was from "great" literature. I was racking my brain trying to think of a janitor from Faulkner or Cheever, and instead its from hippie Ken Kesey. Popular, yes, but great only if you've never read another book after tenth grade AP English.

Ha, I'm so cultured and smart and brainy.

Frazz

No, my work is not done yet. Four more silent penultimate panels for this Wednesday.

Animal Crackers by Fred Wagner
Monty by Jim Medick
Pooch Cafe by Paul Gilligan
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller

I hate to admit it, but Frazz has me stumped:


Now, Frazz's ostensibly refined tastes includes things like the Eagles and airport paperback master Carl Hiaasen, so this quiet janitor could be from anywhere. "Great Literary Janitors" isn't a very common Jeopardy category, so there can't be very many to choose from, and when Caulfield's costume is revealed tomorrow or Friday, I'll probably be smacking myself.

You've out-smarted me for now, Jef Mallett; enjoy it while you can.

Hogan's Alley

And two more today:
On the FastTrack by Bill Holbrook
Garfield by Paws, Inc.

If there is any strip that no one is ever upset about when I put it here, it is Garfield. Is there anyone out there who will come to his defense. Is there anyone who doesn't hate it?

Oh, I mentioned the new issue of Hogan's Alley the other day, but as a reader pointed out, I didn't really say anything good or bad about it. So, yes, it is a good issue. The most interesting article is an interview with Marcus Hamilton, the artist who has carried on Dennis the Menace after Hank Ketcham. Ketcham worked with Hamilton for several years ensuring that the eventual transition would be seamless. There is an example of Hamilton's sketches, along Ketcham's criticisms and Hamilton's ensuing revisions of a single cartoon. Hamilton and Ketcham went back and for apparently months perfecting a drawing of Dennis, Joey and a cat named Hotdog in a sandbox. The amount of work and attention involved is simply amazing--almost as amazing as the actual gag is lame. The caption for this extensively worked cartoon is "I like my sandbox, but Hotdog really likes my sandbox." Perfection is relative.

Funny drawing

I don't know... With the slow rate of silent penultimate panels in recent weeks, I'm starting to look pretty foolish out here.

Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
Red and Rover by Brian Bassett
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller

I've been trying to put my finger on what it is about Cow and Boy that puts me off and I think I might have it. First, a cow doesn't work as mentor character (cows are too dumb, Gary Larson proved that) and, second, a large animal on four spindly legs just can't do things like this:

That is just some terrible anthropomorphization. How exactly does that leg move that way?

In contrast, Darby Conley shows how to do funny animals right.

Cats lounging around in laundry baskets with big tall drinks by their sides, that is funny. It doesn't matter what they're actually saying.
Funny drawing=funny comics. Awkward drawing=awkward comics.

Fallow

It's Sunday, this is supposed to be the must fruitful of the week. And, alas, we have just one. My orchard is turning fallow.

The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom

We do have two more silent antepenultimate panels in Get Fuzzy and Cathy



And in my haste Saturday, I missed Barkeater Lake's third SPP in a row.

Pandolph may be in re-prints right now, but if I can hold a dead man accountable for strips from fifty years ago, I definitely can call out a young wipper-snapper's strips from eight months ago. It's a cruel business I'm in.

Do orchard's fallow? I need to be careful metaphorizing on subjects I have no clue about.