I Read a Week of Lousy Set-up and All I Got Was This Lousy Strip Edition (Apr. 25)

Worst:
We finally have the denouement in Curtis after a week of very awkward set-up. Ray Billngsley has been setting us up to think that Curtis has been dealing drugs, but since this is Curtis, we know it won't touch on anything remotely threatening. Instead of a series that touches on the seamier side of urban life, we're left with penny ante capitalism. This could have been great, and it's mediocre.

Runners-up: Blondie, Brevity, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, For Better or For Worse, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Prickly City, Speed Bump

Best:
I really enjoyed how Darrin Bell rendered the glow of the torch. The joke was good too.

Runners-up: Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Dilbert, Lio, Sherman's Lagoon

Bejeezus Edition (Apr. 15)

Worst:
I had to look up who Rod Serling was, which is never a good start to a strip. He created the Twilight Zone, which makes sense, and is probably something I should have known.

Runners-up: Blondie, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, For Better or For Worse, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Prickly City, Zits

Best:

Runners-up: Agnes, Frazz, Get Fuzzy, Non Sequiter, Watch Your Head

Comics of the Day

Worst: What really bothered me about this one was the last panel. Curtis delivers a punch line based on the complete dysfunctionality of his family and Chutney apparently finds this indescribably hilarious.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Close to Home, Family Circus, Garfield, Pearls Before Swine

Best: The word incent adds a lot to this strip. It works on the level of social commentary too, since we live in a world where executives need eight figure salaries to stay motivated.

Runners-up: Agnes, Baby Blues, Doonesbury, Frank and Ernest, Hagar the Horrible, Pooch Cafe, Watch Your Head

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.