Poorly Political Edition (Apr. 29)

Several weeks ago, Scott Stantis published some bold strips condemning torture. Here, Mike Peters' demonstrates the wrong way to approach torture. Comparing a bath to waterboarding trivializes the impact of torture. If you're going to send the wrong message, at least make it funny.

Runners-up: Baldo, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, Hagar the Horrible, Pickles, Red and Rover

Best:

Runners-up: Baby Blues, Big Nate, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Frank and Ernest, Frazz, Pooch Cafe, Speed Bump, Watch Your Head, Zits

Comics Note:
The bargain that Dolly has made isn't that different than that made by a housewife. In return for the validation of having a boyfriend, she is doing his work for him. A housewife, in return for the validation and support of a husband, does his work for him. Hopefully Thel will sit Dolly down tonight and read the Feminine Mystique to her, but I wouldn't count on it.

Metanote: For the first time in a month I am caught up. If you're lazy and intermittently committed, I would recommend not starting a blog that needs to be updated every day. Hopefully I will do a better job of keeping up, although I have a vacation in June that will set me back about a week and a half.

Not Sure What to Make of this One Edition (Apr. 4)

Worst:
As is all too common with Brevity, this makes no sense. Guy and Rodd take a random situation and assume it's funny.

Runners-up: Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Speed Bump

Best:
Poncho is a great character, and that is what drives this strip.

Runners-up: Frazz, Lio, Mother Goose and Grimm, Piranha Club, Sally Forth (cynical and charming, I enjoyed it)

Comics Note:
I enjoyed Mother Goose and Grimm today, despite the outdated boom-box reference. Pop culture references by adults usually fall flat, but the image of Castro dancing with his boxers hanging out was so absurd I enjoyed it.

Metanote: I have a lot of catching up to do, so I decided to just keep going with the current strips rather than getting bogged down in the backlog. I will do catch up posts for all the days I missed, but it's not going to get done until my weekend (Sunday-Tuesday).

Sexist Edition (Mar. 6)

Worst:

This bothered me on a number of levels, not least because I spent many hours reading Baby-Sitter's Club books growing up. I just find the idea kind of sexist that a guy can't read and enjoy books about a group of girls, especially when they are well written, at least on the scale of elementary school lit. Also, Billy would need to be a pretty precocious seven year old to reading Baby Sitter's Club books, and the general demonstrated intelligence of the family, it seems unlikely that any of them would be called precocious.

Runners-up: Close to Home, Curtis, Dennis the Menace, Garfield, Watch Your Head

Best:

One of the better jokes I've read in a while. The set-up is not awkward, and the punchline is clever. It's a pleasant change of pace from most joke strips.

Runners-up: Agnes, Baldo, Beetle Bailey, Big Nate, Blondie, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Candorville, Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, Mutts, Non Sequiter, Pooch Cafe, Sherman's Lagoon

Metanote: So you might have noticed that I've fallen a little behind. Part of my philosophy of life is that there are many excuses but very few good excuses. I will say that I have been working a lot of overtime at work, but ultimately, I could have kept up if I had been more dedicated, so ultimately all I can do is apologize to any readers I might have and say that I'll try to do better. I should be able to catch up over the next day.

Comics of the Day

Worst:Terrible on so many levels. Why don't they cancel this strip already?

Runners-up: Brevity, Pooch Cafe (I find Droolia kind of gross to look at), Prickly City, Red and Rover

Best:

The strip contains a silent penultimate panel, which is bad. The joke, while not very original, is well presented. I could not help but smile at Andy's simple response to the Olive's philosophy of relationshipness.

Runners-up: Big Nate (Mr. Rosa is a good teacher if he is willing to invest in a student on his lunch break), Curtis, Frazz, Garfield

Metanote: Sorry about the sporadic posting. It's a combination of laziness, getting involved in another project, and occasional problems connecting to the internet. It's going to continue for a few days, since I'm going out of town this weekend. After I finish today's comics, I probably will not post again until Monday.

Worst: This dialogue is incredibly stilted. It's impossible to imagine someone speaking like this. For example, why does Grimm need to tell Phil that the tree is outside. Why does the conversation veer from psychological problems to forestry? I'm starting to get pissed off, so I need to move on with the post.

Runners-up: Red and Rover, Family Circus (again the dialogue is awkward, a real five year old would not throw in the line about beating dad, he would just ask mom to play), Tank McNamara

Best:

And here we have an example of good dialogue. Tony Cochran sets up the joke well. The punchline is subtly implied in the last panel. And the dialogue, while certainly unusual, is believable.

Runners-up: Doonesbury, Watch Your Head, Baby Blues, Lio, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!

Metanote: I had a debate with myself while I was preparing this post. I thought Family Circus was the funniest comic in the paper today. But it was funny in a schadenfreude kind of way, because Billy is going to be scared because his dad won't play with him. In the end, I decided this does not count. The strip is funny only because it is bad, and that does not reflect well on Bil Keane.