New Year's Angstravaganza

We close out another year. We've lost a few good comics, lost some bad ones, and some I have no opinion of, really. Also, my comic, Time-Mind Sync-Warp, has been going on for a year tomorrow! So go check it out. Why should you? For today I am giving you commentary on 85 comic strips. Well, some commentary and some existential angst. Most of them have something to do with New Year's Eve, others don't, and I'm sure I missed a few that do or have some up here that aren't technically New Year's Eve related. Still, 85 strips. Let's start with the three that aren't New Year's Eve related:

Andy Capp

Andy Capp really isn't the pinnacle of wit and my bizarre fascination with the character stems mainly from high school and a diet heavy in cheese and hot fries, but today's entry is particularly weak. Yes, Flo, a can of beer would be something else. So would a llama, or a tube of toothpaste. It's not a very difficult term.

Spider-Man

It looks like they're going through with it. Good on you, Spider-Man.

The Quigmans

Those rumors are wrong, because pesticides would kill him. That's what they do. Kill insects.
Onward to the extravaganza...

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Meandering Rant!

Hey there, folks. Only a few days left until the New Year, and here I am with some comic commentary for you. Including a meandering rant! Also, be sure to check out the Meekrat Entertainment Group.

Frazz

I don't mind Frazz. It's drawn fairly well and, most of the times, the jokes are decent enough. Not anything world-breaking, of course, but the rest of the time, it just becomes far too preachy for me to enjoy. Take, for example, this past week of strips in which it's revealed that Caulfield has asked only for gifts that he can donate to a woman's shelter. I know I've said many bad things about strips like "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee", but to that strip's credit, Edison more or acts like an actual child, albeit a super-intelligent one who cares far too much about politics. Caulfield has ceased being a child, and has now become an adult in a child's body, especially since his decision to donate everything was entirely his own. Granted, today we find out that it's some sort of plan of his, but still. This whole attempt at adding a layer to Caulfield's characterization has just left me cold.

For contrast, the only comic strip character I can think of who might try to do something like this is Linus from "Peanuts", but not even he tried something like this. Oh, and I'm not saying that donating things at Christmas is a bad thing. Donating things is a very good thing.

Spider-Man

I'm quite pleased that they seem to be going through with the whole Aunt May/Mole Man marriage. Not only that, but they're adding layers to Aunt May's character as they do so. Unlike the whole Caulfield thing, this is wholly believable.

Cow and Boy

Cow and Boy is usually pretty good, and I especially like this one. The slow-build to the punchline is done especially well.

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Oh, My Aching Stomach

Hey everyone, Zachary the Stupid Inventor here with Wednesday's comic review. I apologize for the lateness, but I'm currently getting over a really bad stomach virus... (TMI, I know)
Chuckle Bros.: I've complained about this comic strip before, how the fact that they try to make the strip available in either 3 panel or 1 panel makes the art look terrible, but the combination of poorly placed art, the fact the clown has no eyes, the lazily designed shoe racks, and the overall lameness of the joke made me post the strip as this weeks sole Bad strip.

The Amazing Spider-Man: This storyline is getting weirder and weirder, but I must say I am fascinated to see where it goes!


Hazel: Funny panel! I'm just extremely surprised that this kind of comic could run in newspapers nowadays, and Hazel is in reruns so that means it first appeared earlier!

Brewster Rockit: One of the other amazing comic reviewers here pointed out how great this storyline is and how good the strip is in general, earlier in the week. I just love the cartoonist's ability to stick as many snow jokes as possible into this storyline...

Alrighty, that's it for me, hopefully I'll be feeling better next Wednesday and the review will be earlier, until then, wishing everyone an awesome New Year!
Zachary
Stupid Inventor

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Still Recovering from The Storm

Yesterday's blizzard seems to have knocked the funny out of most of the comics.

Funny

You can almost always count on Pearls and Brewster to deliver.

Pearls Before Swine, 12/28/2010


Brewster Rockit, 12/27/2010


Brewster Rockit, 12/28/2010

I'm especially impressed with how Brewster is managing to not just get multiple strips out of a gag that might be just one strip for some, but multiple gags per day too.

Liberty Meadows

While other strips struggle to wring laughs out of decades-old pop culture references, Liberty Meadows demonstrates effective and beautiful storytelling.

Rubes, 12/28/2010

This is pretty funny.

Not Funny

Bliss, 12/28/2010

Find the joke. It's hidden in there somewhere. I think.

Graffitti, 12/28/2010

Bread? The expression is "Wine, Women, and Song" Where did bread come from? Why not just "Giving up wine and women gives you nothing to sing about?" Too coherent?

For one thing, you could have written it bigger and the 4 or 5 people still alive that use this expression would have an easier time reading it.

Doozies, 12/28/2010

Just stupid, really.

Flightdeck, 12/28/2010

Maybe my interest in dogs and animal welfare is speaking here, but is this really even a little bit funny?

Dishonorable Mention

Cathy "Classics" , 12/28/2010

I've been holding off on commenting on the fact that Cathy immediately went into not just reruns, but "classic" reruns. Too easy. But when they drag up a Y2K joke for the holidays, it's time.

So...do you believe that Cathy went into reruns right away? So much for making room for new talent.

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Post-Christmas Post

While I really like this strip, it isn't too preachy or corny and mentions both Christmas and New Years, the text is so small you can barely read it--even if the strip is enlarged to 100%.

I hope those of you who celebrate had a good Christmas.  For those of you who don't, chances are you may have gotten the day off on the 24th.  If so, then, you're welcome.  My Christmas was good.  Got some interesting gifts.  From my wife, I got a set of pint glasses from the movie "The Hangover" and a cool set of vintage DC Comics postcards.  The postcards show various comic book covers ranging from New Fun Comics #1 from 1935 to New Gods #1 (1971) to Detective Comics #587 (1988).  I know that last one isn't really vintage but it has a cool cover:

 What I find funny is that there are at least three covers showcasing Superman, Batman and other heroes having some sort of superheroic gay pride parade and I've seen numerous other covers with heroes parading around.  I'm not sure if that was just the most convenient way for the artist to showcase all of those heroes or if parades were really that prevalent back in the 1940s.

And there is even one cover that celebrates Christmas!

Hey, Supes, Santa has been doing this gig for literally centuries before you were even an idea in Siegel and Shuster's mind so I don't think you need to push on Santa's stomach while cramming him into the chimney.

I also got a couple Spider-Man books from my in-laws--notably The Spider-Man Handbook which teaches you how to become Spider-Man from treating your radioactive spider bite to creating a hang-glider made from your webbing.  It should be a really funny read.

Unfortunately, this year I wasn't able to get around to reading Art Spiegelman's Maus as I was working too much and doing too many things around to house to really get it started.  I read it every year at Christmas so it's kind of my one tradition.  I'm hoping to get it read before New Years.

And now, as my own Christmas gift, the origin of my second favorite superhero, the Golden-Age Green Lantern, as presented in All-American Comics #16 from 1940.  Written by Bill Finger with art by Martin Nodell.










And finally, The Born Loser...

At first I was going to chide Brutus for getting his mother-in-law a book based on the life of a president who only known for the Compromise of 1850, being one of the worst presidents in history and being the namesake of one of the worst comic strips in history.

My own "Losers Are Made, Not Born" returns January 1st over at my own site so I hope you'll go over there and check it out.  I will still be here on Sundays and your regularly scheduled comics return next week.

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The McEldowney Cometh

Today... is the day... that Brooke McEldowney decided to invade the comics page. He eased himself in with 9 Chickweed Lane...

...simply acting as an annoyed omnipresent omnipotent being, forcing his characters to interact for his own amusement. This was not enough for him, however, and so in Pibgorn...

...he decided to take the first crucial steps to becoming one with the comics page. He does seem suitably shocked that we can see him, though. Perhaps this is the only way we have any chance of defeating him.

In non-McEldowney related comics, Spider-Man continues to be delightful...

...as Spider-Man himself has become resigned to his aunt's decision. I also like how the Mole Man didn't so much manipulate the minister as just sort of paid him off. It's the season of giving, after all, and what better gift to give your aunt than a chance at happiness with the ruler of a subterranean empire?

Then there's Bewly...

I think the mince pie and sherry tradition means that this strip is from the United Kingdom or something, as well as the take-away slang. There's probably been loads of other things confirming this, but this is the only one that reminded me of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, so this is what I've honed in on.

I hope everyone has some happy holidays, or had some happy holidays, or whatever. And check out the Meekrat Entertainment Group! It's filled with holiday cheer, but not really.

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JUMP BREAK!

Hey there, folks. Another light load today. Check out the Meekrat Entertainment Group, though.

Spider-Man

I'm still pulling for Mole Man and Aunt May to get married, and I'm delighted that the minister the Mole Man has managed to manipulate into performing the wedding is completely unfazed by all the insanity going on around him. Super-people in an underground land filled with monsters? It's nothing that the Minster can't handle with a smile and his holy book!

Full article...

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Helium, Heifers, a Spider and a Walrus

Hey everyone! Zachary the Stupid Inventor here again, sorry I wasn't able to do the comics review last week, my computer had major issues and I was unable to connect to the internet.

The Bad:
Frank and Ernest: This comic is so bad that even the cow has this "Oh G-d, kill me now" expression.

Wizard Of ID: Again I ask, when did the prisoner get a talking spider roommate? They're ripping characters straight from Garfield! In fact, this could totally be a Garfield strip, I wish I had the time to photoshop the exact spider and speech bubbles to show my point.

The Good
Rubes: This is a good strip, I just wonder why the cartoonist felt the need to add the "oops".
Pickles: Funny strip, although where would Earl GET that much helium? Does he live next door to the old dude from Up?

The Doozies: Once again, the doozies really makes me laugh, I don't mind that it's drawn so simply if the gags are this consistently funny.

Arctic Circle: Funny strip, I like the cartoonists method of having a group discussion along one panel instead of two characters having a back-and-forth dialogue. I think it works well here.

Anyways, that's it for this Wednesday's comic review, thanks for reading!
Zachary
Stupid Inventor

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Is that supposed to be a joke?

Oftentimes when I see Mallard Fillmore (and before you ask, no I don't know why I look. I guess because of this gig?) I think "Is that really supposed to be a joke?" Then I saw yesterday's.

Mallard Fillmore 12/20/2010

Holy socks! That's almost, but not quite, funny. After something like 2 weeks of trying to wring a way to make fun of liberals using the "sitting on Santa's lap" gag, he broke down and tried to tell a joke. I was tempted to poke around and find who he stole it from, but then I remembered that nobody cares.

The New Adventures of Queen Victoria, 12/18/2010

Wow. Leave it to Sungenis to out-obscure even xkcd. Here's some light reading, but don't blame me if you don't think the strip is funny after you're done. I did, but I read that paper a few years ago. I'm just kind of weird that way.

Strange Brew, 12/21/2010

Tyson bit off Holyfield's ear in 1997. He lost his last title match in 2002 to Lennox Lewis. He officially retired in 2006. When that's your best option for a celebrity, your gag is about something no one cares about.

Rubes, 12/21/2010

This is vaguely disturbing enough that I almost like it. The spray can really sells the "close the door" gag, but placement of Pinocchio's nose is almost a two-for-one.

The Flying McCoys, 12/21/2010


Marvin, 12/21/2010


I've seen this gag at least once already this season. A google search for "rudolph santa gps" yields over 1 million hits. The top hit (for me at least, YMMV) is dated 2008.

Kudos to Marvin for dragging three panels out of it though. I'd expect nothing less (or more.)

Merry Christmas, if that's your sort of thing. Happy Solstice, Kwanzaa, Festivus, if not.

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