Two Alfred Hitchcock References?!?!?

Hey everyone, Zachary the Stupid Inventor here with today's comic review. Let's begin shall we?

The BAD

Frank and Ernest: There's only one bad strip today, but it's a doozy. Besides for the fact that it's not really funny, the people mentioned in the strip are pretty disgusting people, so referencing them in a strip is in poor taste. But the real head scratcher in this strip is why are these evil people in HEAVEN?!?! Seriously, at least make the scene hell and have them tied on a rack or something....

The Good
The Pajama Diaries: I love the way this strip is drawn, besides from the fact that it's very funny. I love how she was able to put that much action and emotion into a tiny space in panel 2.
In The Bleachers: Not a strip I normally read, but I like it when comic strips sometimes break the 4th wall.
Pears Before Swine: Funny strip, I just wanted to point out the cartoonist's choice of making pig scream in the second panel and making the 3rd panel silence. The fact that the characters feet lead into the 4th panel is a nice touch as well....


Heart of the City: A funny strip, but also a great example of turning a normally 3 panel strip into a single panel. Mark Tatulli manages to stick about 3 gags in here, and I think it works rather well....

Anyways that's it for me, until next time!
Zachary
Stupid Inventor

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Tuesday Quickies

Big conference this week. Freaking out over preparing my talk, so here are some quick hits.

Mary Worth, 3/29/11


Yes, we're still talking about the excitement of kite flying. Tune in Labor Day weekend, when someone will excuse themselves to get another cup of iced tea.

Rex Morgan, 3/28/11


Generally speaking, Rex Morgan is only slightly less of a snooze than Mary Worth. (Sort of like comparing watching sunflowers grow instead of grass.) But the occasional mildly interesting panel by Graham Nolan and little signs of life like the name "Holland Dikes" keep it on my comics page.

Zits, 3/29/11


I generally leave the "wouldn't it be funnier if" to the actual cartoonists on this blog. But wouldn't it be funnier if the oh-so-hilariously-named Pierce was holding a phone?

Pearls Before Swine, 3/29/11


Meanwhile Pearls makes the already funny pun kill with the Pillsbury outfit.


Arlo and Janis, 3/29/11


I thought this was pretty funny too.

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Naked Legs

So it appears the comic strip Zits is teaming with AAA to do a storyline about texting while driving. Zits hasn't been relevant in a long time. The last time I can remember a relevant storyline was when Jeremy decided to grow his hair long, which was the style at the time.

*Cough*

Okay, onto Sunday comics.

Ink Pen

The more important question is who took the pictures.

The Dinette Set

So the point of this strip is old people suck and are liars. Sounds good to me.

9 Chickweed Lane

So is this strip now just a hodge-podge of naked legs, kissing and/or dancing scenes and odd, slanted drawings in the panels? Because that seems to be all it is to me.

Hi and Lois

I'm sure there is a joke here somewhere.

Funky Winkerbean

Look at how depressed everyone is. And I swear there has been a perpetual cloud over Westview for the last three years. How are the people getting their Vitamin D?

Popeye

I actually laughed at a contemporary Popeye strip. I can now cross that off my bucket list.

The Born Loser

There is a lot of talking today. Veeblefester is rambling on about how Jason Bateman is not as a good a salesman as he and blah, blah, blah. Then Brutus makes the claim that he has opinions too which we all know he doesn't and if he does, who cares?


Oratorical?

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A Day Late, A Buck Short

Hey everyone! Zachary the Stupid Inventor here for Wednesday's comic review!
Sorry it's so late, and sorry I didn't write a review last week, but I recently got married (Last Sunday) so things have been a bit hectic (but awesome). Let's begin, shall we?


The Chuckle Bros.: I've complained before about the way this strip is set-up, that since its available in both strip and panel format the layout always look weird, but today I want to focus on how bad the joke is. The gag is horrible because it's so general. Instead of Mission Impossible, it could have been made about any thing, show, etc.

Lio: This strip disappointed me. Although Cybil the cat is usually a bit crazy and gun/weapon heavy. She usually is stopped before she causes any actual damage. The implication here of a blown up dog seems a bit in poor taste for this strip. Just my opinion of course.

Pearls Before Swine: I love the drawing of an old-time Clark Kent in the 2nd panel. Although this whole gag seems ironic in a newspaper strip with print media dying and all...
Loose Parts: Ew! But it made me laugh....
Pickles: Always a guaranteed laugh, this has become one of my favorite strips!


Before I go I wanted to posted this great video of a test pilot that Jim Henson produced of a possible Wizard of ID puppet TV show, definitely and interesting watch, and thanks to the Daily Cartoonist for posting it.



Till next time!
Zachary,
Stupid Inventor

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S.L.O.W. P.A.C.I.N.G.

Last week I made a crack about the pacing in Mary Worth, not realizing that that very week would be a especially apt, and painful, example of just how hapless the strip can be.

Take a look at last Sunday through Saturday:

Mary Worth, 3/13/2011


Mary Worth, 3/14/2011


Mary Worth, 3/15/2011


Mary Worth, 3/16/2011


Mary Worth, 3/17/2011


Mary Worth, 3/18/2011


Mary Worth, 3/19/2011


Placed side-by-side (or end to end?) like this, the strip is almost readable, in a cold-molasses-running-uphill-in-Jupiter's-gravity-and-Pluto's-climate kind of way. The dialogue even flows from one strip to the other quite naturally. Almost as if someone writes and draws the strip and just cuts it up into 2 panel chunks without regard to the final product.

Interestingly enough, the current writer, Karen Moy, expressed a desire to pick up the pace in a 2007 interview. She states her goal as 3 stories a year. Egad.

I find the pencils on Mary Worth to be especially painful, more because of the fact that the penciler, Joe Giella, has a fascinating resume than because of how they look. Giella worked with greats like Alex Toth, C.C. Beck, Carmine Infantino, and Gil Kane on comic books during the Silver and Golden Ages. It's great that he's still working....but the layouts and especially the faces are really just terrible at times.

Meanwhile, Dick Tracy is cooking, at least comparatively speaking.

Dick Tracy, 3/20/2011


In a week we've see the return of 3 supporting characters, including a personnel change in the police force, a very Tracy-like disgusting villain arriving on the scene, some casual scenes from around the police station and cafeteria, and even an offhand mention of another bust. That's at least 4 months of most legacy strips! I'm pretty pleased.

Have a great week.

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Kit 'n Carlyle:

She hasn't given the cat a shoe to eat, of course.  The food is on the bottom of the shoe.  She was just too lazy to scrape it off of the bottom.  It's still cat food, but she happens to have stepped in it earlier.

Home and Away:

That's MRS. Jumbo-bag-of-Doritos.  She's married, and there's no reason to forget the hyphens.  Hyphens are important, and as a comic strip character whose dialogue always appears above your head, you must learn to spell things properly.  No sneaky blaming your cartoonist, either.  Those animals over at Pearls Before Swine do that quite enough for everyone.

Working Daze:

Forget about those illegal immigrants.  Forget about the robots, too.  It's the clones you need to worry about stealing your jobs.  Guess what, light brown haired lady in yellow blouse?  That clone has your job, now.  You should pick up all those papers you dropped first, though, before you leave.

Speed Bump:

At least he should be glad he's not stuck on a desert island with this guy and only one palm tree.  The texting guy, I mean.  The other guy's obviously annoying and no fun to talk to.

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Recalculating....

What a beautiful day...at least in my neck of the woods.  Which mean tomorrow it will snow.  We'll lead off this entry with today's Garfield which will segue into some shameless self-promotion.

Garfield

I don't know what made Jon think he is handy around the house.  But at least we know Garfield has a Facebook page.  You know who else has a FB page?  Meekrat, Dog Spelled Forward, The Bird Feeder, Stupid Inventor and the DCR itself.  For some reason, I used to have one then got rid of it.  Maybe I will bring it back someday.  We all also have Twitter however @theDCR hasn't been updated since July 27, 2010.

Todd the Dinosaur

Instead of making a joke about eating dolphins and pandas, I would contact the grocery store manager who would kindly ask these two douchebags to get off his property.  I mean, it is clear that they approaching people in the parking lot.  Then I would mention dolphins and pandas.

Crock

Yeah.  Okay.  I guess this is kind of topical...

Bizarro

I love the Mayhem commercials from All State.  That's really all I have to say about this panel.

Hi and Lois

Along with it being the vernal equinox, tonight is also when the Devil visits Stull Cemetery.  I notice Hi doesn't mention that.

Wee Pals

The kids in Wee Pals are way too touchy about everyday phrases.  Even the handicapped/disabled girl in the chair seems very upset and offended that that boy is using the phrase "handicap" correctly!!

Family Circus

Great.  Those dogs are eating chocolate.  Now they are going to die.

New Adventures of Queen Victoria

Using the formula of comic book characters can use powers while the Archie and Newspaper side use popularity, my Final Four is Green Lantern, The Hulk, Jughead and, reluctantly, Calvin with Hulk and Calvin being the champions (based on popularity).  Who would win the championship...I'd go with Calvin.  What would your Final Four and such be?  Let us know in the comments.

Ziggy

Does Ziggy now live in a dystopian future that looks eerily like three weeks from now?

Wait.  On the bracket, are the Wee Folks the same as Wee Pals?

A quick search reveals 'Yes.  Yes it is.'

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Better Dick?

After 32 (full-time) years, Dick Locher has retired from Dick Tracy. Some, myself included, would add finally to that.

Locher first started assisting strip creator Chester Gould on Dick Tracy in the late 50’s. He left Gould in the 70’s to draw editorial cartoons, but then returned to take over the strip in 1986. In 2009 Jim Brozman came onboard to do penciling.

Horrible penciling.

Take a look at the difference between Saturday (Locher and Brozman’s last daily) and yesterday’s ( Staton and Curtis’ first daily) strip.

Dick Tracy, March 12, 2011

There really is no excuse for Dick’s arm in panel 3. There’s style and there’s sloppy. Unfortunately, this has been typical of the strip for a long time.

Dick Tracy, March 14, 2011

Wow! Like going from Rob Liefeld to someone that can draw feet, huh?

Locher’s glacial pacing, even by serial strip standards, was also a major drawback. Dick Tracy makes Mary Worth look like MTV.

I’m already excited about the new team. In the first strip we have 3 things happening in 3 panels! Dick woke up, his “wrist geenee” rang, and we saw the caller summon him to the office. That’s an entire week of Locher strips, not counting the Sunday recap.

I was first introduced to Dick Tracy in the Sunday Daily News that I discussed once in an earlier post. I wasn’t a fan, being more drawn to gag-a-day strips and serials like Dondi that had characters I could empathize with more. (It also looks like I first saw the strip after Gould had started to experiment with goofy sci-fi a bit, and was on his way out.) Of course at this point I had already started reading Bronze Age Marvel comics, and was also comparing Tracy to the Hulk, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four.

But a few years later DC Comics (I believe?) reprinted some of Chester Gould’s classic strips, with the first appearance of villains like Flattop, Pruneface, and Breathless Mahoney. They assembled them like comics, which helped make the material more accessible for a young “Marvel Zombie,” but in addition, the strips were damn good. Gould had a punchy, simple style, with great pacing and characters that were iconic and archetypical without being too exaggerated.

Dick Tracy, around 1938

I also completely missed Max Allan Collins run on the strip which I have read good things about. Apparently with Collins writing and Locher pencilling, the strip was pretty good for a decade or so. I have a few issues of Collins’ Ms. Tree. Good stuff.

Hopefully the new team heralds another revival of what ought to be a good strip.

I’ll leave you with Locher and Brozman’s swan song.

Dick Tracy, March 13, 2011

For many, Dick Tracy looking at his wrist radio watch (later wrist TV watch) is the iconic Tracy image. That's why Locher/Brozman show it so often. You'd think that after a few year's of practice they'd have nailed, huh?

Nope.

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Silly ignorant children!

On TV, kids are funny because they act older than they are and are always sarcastic and wisecracking.  In comic strips, kids are funny because they're stupid.  Observe:

Soup to Nutz:

I think he can be forgiven for this.  It does happen to be the only state with the word "island" in the name.  Also, it isn't an island and yet its name suggests that it is.  In fact, if I was running that geography bee, I'd give him extra points for pointing out that glaring inconsistency.  Good job, kid.

The Buckets:

Look, if your kid asks you a silly question, they ought to expect a silly answer.  He could just say, "Because we're not birds," but that answer, while slightly informative, is incredibly boring and uninteresting.  Also, it's not guaranteed that the kid will accept that as a valid answer.  Not only did he give an answer that was acceptable, but it was also entirely true (I mean, the rain would ruin the toilet paper, among other things).  Good job, Dad.

Wizard of Id:

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was always under the impression that St. Patrick's Day was primarily an Irish holiday, and that kilts and bagpipes were primarily Scottish.  If I am wrong, this strip might be mildly amusing.

Either way, I would also like to know why the wizard is about to put a bottle of "X" into that washtub.  Beware, whoever is going to take a bath in that!

The Barn:

I imagine the final panel is meant to be referencing a certain popular song.  The song it is referring to is, however, not coming to my mind at the moment, no matter how many times I read the strip.  It might be  a brilliant pun otherwise.  Very well set up, I thought.

Who's ignorant now?  Me.  Yeah.  Shoot.

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