Yes or no

We wrap up the week with two silent penultimate panels:

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
Prickly City by Scott Stantis


That makes Prickly City the weekly champion with two SPPs between Monday and Saturday.

Unless, you want to count Wednesday and Friday's Get Fuzzy:



I didn't. But they certainly are legitimate candidates.

Quick Friday update

Friday is the traditional day of the week where a post just quick, picture-only update. So here it is:

Baby Blues by Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman.

Goodnight.

Shut out

Oh, wow, I think this is another shut out. Maybe may work here is done?

So, according to tradition, a joke from the kids page of the L.A. Times, from Davit, age 11, Los Angeles.

Why did the bee join a rock band?
So it could be the lead stinger.

Well, Davit, that's pretty funny, but it could be a little tighter. Try it this way: Did you hear about that new bee band? They've recorded the backing tracks, but they're still looking for a lead stinger.

See if telling it that way doesn't get you some bigger laughs. Keep it up, you're on your way, kiddo.

Antepenultimate

Just one, and it's from forty-seven years ago.

Peanuts by Charles Schulz

After nearly a year of painstakingly pointing out every silent penultimate panel possible, it's time to point out more of the variations. We've seen two silent double this week, and today we see a silent antepenultimate panel in Dog Eat Doug.

A few more

Three for this Tuesday, one rare, two all too common:

Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley
Overboard by Chip Dunham
Prickly City by Scott Stantis

Prickly City uses an increasingly common silent-double.


And it is very unusual for Mallard Fillmore to appear officially on the Watch. Not because Bruce Tinsley is a master of comic pacing (oh, Lord, no,) but because it is so rare that his panels follow each other in any sort of sequential order.


And you know what, Duck? I used to be like you. I used to hate going to work on the third Monday of February every year. I totally resented those few that did get the day off. But did I just complain and wait for a vacation day hand-out? No, I worked hard and earned myself a job with a government agency. And, yes, it was very nice to sleep in yesterday. You can have this, too, duck. Just get over your sense of entitlement and do something about your situation.

Speech bubble headroom

A big start to the week with seven silent penultimate panels:

Candorville by Darin Bell
The Duplex by Glenn McCoy
Cathy by Cathy Guisewite
Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey
Garfield by Paws, Inc.
Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley
Momma by Mel Lazarus

Candorville goes with the silent double.


Cathy makes a rare appearance. The constant thought and speech bubbles usually leave the characters with very little headroom. In the Cathy universe, you can't stand up straight without conking your head against your own thoughts.

A demonstration of wasted space

It's a relatively quiet Sunday. Three.

Herman (reprint) by Jim Unger
Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller
Brewster Rockit, Space Guy! by Tim Rickard


Today's Marmaduke: A one-panel gag
'

stretched needlessly into a full Sunday. Each preceding panel could be excised with no loss to the gag.


In fact, you could randomly rearrange the strip and not change a thing.


It's sad to see newsprint so blatantly wasted.