Comics of the Day

Worst:
So is the joke that morons are likely to get stranded on desert isles, because that is the only way this makes any sense to me. Otherwise it's just the typical representation of evolution with the word morons attached. Maybe morons are funny, but probably not.

Runners-up: Red and Rover, Curtis, Rhymes with Orange, Candorville (Darrin Bell is capable of much wittier and relevant jokes about the quality of the media)

Best:
This comic wins a lot of points for the visual in the third panel, which I thought was cute. Otherwise it's the same joke Stephan Pastis has been riffing on all week, but no one else did better today really. And if you're going to use one joke all week, at least make it a good one, which Pastis usually does.

Runners-up: Watch Your Head, Dilbert, Agnes, Non-Sequiter

Other Comics notes: Dennis the Menace and Mother Goose and Grimm both have dumb jokes today, but I wanted to praise them for the visuals. Joey's expression and Attila stuck upside down in a Pringles can both amused me. This doesn't make up for the lame jokes, but at least they did something well.

Worst:



First, it's not a particularly funny joke, and like most jokes in the Circus, it's dependent on the kids being stupid. Second, I always find the split dialogue to be really awkward. Having part of the dialogue spoken in the art and part in the caption really ruins the timing for me. I suppose that's one of the challenges of a single panel strip.

Runners-up: None today, I felt everything was at least mediocre.

Best:



I liked today's Dilbert, which is unusual. The glory days of this strip are past I fear. I have a brother who reminds me of Wally in this cartoon. He's an engineer, and has limited fashion sense. So if he is doing something (for instance growing his hair long), it makes me reconsider that as a fashion possibility.


Runners-up: Lio, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! (I liked the visual), Pearls Before Swine

Random Note: The joke in Rhymes with Orange was bad as usual, but what saved this for me was the details in the visual. The torn up curtains and plant and the tally marks scratched in the wall were nice touches.

Comics of the Day

Worst:

It took me awhile to figure out that the joke is Capt. Gizmo wants every gadget, no matter how ridiculous. So what you've got here is a bad joke, poorly presented.

Runners-up: Rhymes with Orange (would have been at least relevant three years ago), Family Circus (incredibly awful wording)

Best:

I like Agnes complete either ignorance or acceptance of Trout's sarcasm in the last panel. And the idea that maybe Agnes does not know that they are not on Madagascar

Runners-up: Lio (the squirrel reading the comic book almost won this one for Lio), Garfield

Worst:

The joke is lame; Garfield is a cat, of course he takes Jon's stuff. But what really sets this apart is the artwork, or lack thereof. Jim Davis (or his lackeys) have done is move Garfield's arms. There is no background, no change of expression, no effort at all to create any sort of interesting visual.

Runners up: Non-Sequiter, Piranha Club, On the Fast Track, Curtis, Hagar the Horrible

Best:


A surprise win today. It's nice to see one of the Foobs showing some sort of spirit. And April makes a good point about the composition of the crowd, and the self-important bubble the Mike and the other Pattersons live in.

Runners-up: Pooch Cafe (the relationship between Chazz and Carmen is really sweet), Agnes (I like the thought of Communists on the mean streets)

Comics of the Day

Worst:

Modern art is less accessible than more traditional, representative art forms. Deal with it.

Runners-up: Tank McNamara, Agnes, Family Circus, Brevity

Best:

Watch Your Head is in the third tier of comics. The first tier is Get Fuzzy. The second tier consists of comics that are generally funny, cute, or thought provoking. The third tier is comics that are generally good, occasionally very good. I like this particular strip because of what it doesn't say. We're left to speculate about what circumstances would make a college student marry Tina Turner. I really like the first panel also. I enjoy way Jason invites his roommate to his wedding in a completely off-hand manner.

Runners-up: Pooch Cafe, Pearls Before Swine