Comics of the Day, Friday

Worst: I worry about remaining objective about For Better or For Worse. Sometimes I think I have picked up an anti-Foob mindset from the gang at Comics Curmudgeon, and read the strip looking for things to dislike about it. But Anthony's logic strikes me as kind of manipulative. His argument boils down to if you decide to like Elizabeth, we can go see Santa, and Santa wants you to like Elizabeth. First he should have validated her feelings. A little kid with a single father could very understandably be jealous of the father's girlfriend. Then after listening and validating, he should have explained that he loves Francoise and his relationship with Liz will do nothing to change that. Problem solved without giving Francoise any neuroses about competing for daddy's attention and feeling guilty about it.

Runners-up: Non Sequiter, the Piranha Club, Brevity, Red and Rover

Best:

Pearls Before Swine wins in a photo finish ahead of Get Fuzzy. Things to like about this cartoon: great visuals, gadzooks is a funny word, the names of the superheros, Pig's mild acceptance of his totally lame character. I loved this strip.

Runners-up: Speed Bump, Lio, Get Fuzzy (As is common in Get Fuzzy, the punchline is not that great, but the dialogue in the set-up is awesome. Satchel's line in panel one (I don't feel butterflies...that would be creepy) made me laugh out loud. Darby Conley must put a lot of effort into his strip. He has consistently great, detailed art, and witty dialogue in almost every panel)

Comics of the Day, Thursday

Worst: The set-up for this joke is terrible. I can't imagine anyone ever speaking the dialogue Hagar speaks in the first panel. And no one would ever tell their wife that they were flirting with a cute girl, except in some sort of anxious confession. I guess it fits because Hagar is supposed to be rude, but really, this joke fails on a lot of levels.

Runners-up: Close to Home, Red and Rover, Prickly City (Republicans are pure and virtuous, and Democrats are evil, I get it already), Mother Goose and Grimm (another bad joke with an awkward set-up)

Best: First, I enjoy the thought of a bewildered flamingo conservancy, so the baseline of humor in this strip is high. I like that Agnes fraternizes with some random drunk guy. I like Agnes' complete lack of a clue. I like Trout's complete lack of surprise at Agnes' lack of a clue.

Runner-up: Baby Blues

Comics of the Day Catch-up Post

So between Christmas decorating and work, I'm a little behind on my comics of the day. I'm going to try to catch up today.

Worst:

As usual, a joke about technology falls flat. What does Tigger have to do with text messaging? What does TTFN stand for (I'm only 27, and I don't know)?

Runners-up: Frank and Ernest, Blondie (I still don't understand the joke), Baldo, Brevity, Red and Rover

Bonus Visual Runner-up:

Hagar the Horrible might be consistently the worst strip in the Post. It's become one of those strips that uses a one off joke each day. The characters have no personality to drive jokes with. The jokes are often incongruous with the setting. This strip really has no redeeming features to it right now, and it's probably time for it to be put out to stud.

Best:

Pastis does a good job explaining the human condition (although he probably just wanted to draw a rat with a napkin on her head). It's not a nice place inside any of us, and dealing with that is one of the major questions of human existence.

Runners-up: Watch Your Head (love the third panel), Candorville, Zits (I like that Connie comes out on top of this technological interaction for a change), Frazz, Big Nate (my little love huntress is a great, great pet name), Mutts

Bonus Visual Runner-up:

Today's Lio is a good example of what makes a strip work. The joke is driven by the character's personalities. The father has typical dreams of living vicariously through his son's athletic pursuits. Lio needs to deal with a monster. Another great thing about Lio is the question of fantasy or reality. Mark Tatulli, like Bill Watterson in Calvin and Hobbes, never resolves the question of what reality is. We are left to speculate whether the monster in the third panel is real, or solely in Lio's imagination.

Random Comic Note:

I work with kids, and this strip illustrates well one of the challenges of managing kids. Barry makes an inappropriate comment, but the father reacts to Curtis' reaction. Obviously, Curtis' reaction is inappropriate, but if the father had disciplined Barry for his comment, Curtis would likely be satisfied that justice had been served and could temper his reactions.

Comics of the Day

Worst: Just plain creepy.

Runners-up: Prickly City, Non Sequitur, Mother Goose & Grimm, Red and Rover, Beetle Bailey

Best:

I enjoy the idea of bewildered flamingos.

Runners-up: Zits, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!

Comics of the Day

Worst:

Brevity is one of the worst strips in the paper. It seems like Guy & Rodd choose some random topic (My other car is... bumper stickers!) and do whatever it takes to come up with a joke, no matter how little sense it makes.

Runners-up: Family Circus, Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Mother Goose & Grimm, For Better or For Worse, Red and Rover

Best:


Another win for Agnes. The line about squirting out eggs clinched it for me. While you don't read Agnes for the art, I like how Tony Cochran expresses Trout's sarcasm with some well placed eye-rolling.

Runners-up: Sally Forth (the joke about paying someone not to play music is rather trite, but the song lyrics made me smile), Big Nate (Jenny's got quite a shove)

Comics of the Day

Worst:
The visual in the last panel explains quite well why this is today's worst comic. I think I'm going to have nightmares about this.

Runners-up: Dennis the Menace (Grumpies!?, what the heck?), Family Circus, Garfield (the fourth and fifth panels are identical except for Jon's eyes, lazy, lazy, lazy), Prickly City, Rhymes with Orange, Blondie, Hagar the Horrible, Tank McNamara (bad attempt at being topical, and A-Rod could have gotten more money if he didn't sign so quickly with the Yankers, so it's wrong in addition to being not funny)

Best:

Pastis is on a roll. We've all had our share of mayday moments while dealing with girls. I love how Pig has absolutely no idea how to deal with this situation.

Runners-up: Cul de Sac (a consistently great strip, the timing on this particular one made me laugh), Opus , Sherman's Lagoon, Pickles (does anyone not repeat stories?)

Comics of the Day (belated Saturday edition)

Worst:
The Spice Girls were popular when I was in high school. Elmo is five. The odds of him knowing who the Spice Girls are, or who David Beckham is must be non-existent. So it's a dumb joke, and it's awkwardly set up.

Runners-up: Red and Rover, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Speed Bump

Best:

I was actually a little moved by this strip. Stephan Pastis often includes short term characters who appear for a few jokes. Most disappear within a week, some stick around like effeminate vikings and the Crocs. Andy is my favorite new character in a while. He actually has personality; this isn't a joke, it's a character sketch. I just love Andy's unrelenting hope and I love the pathos Pastis imbues Andy with.

Bonus Visual Runner-up:
It took some serious deliberation to decide whether I liked Lio or Pearls Before Swine better today. I love the drawing of Lio laughing in the third panel. And the joke is better than the jokes in most of the one off joke strips.

Runners-up: Agnes, Lio