Manic Monday

by Hal Bent

Much apologies to the regular readers (all three of you!) for my self-imposed exile from the site--it was a week of adjusting to a new schedule and lack of free time just kind of snow-balled from there. So it seems appropriate to christen the week with just another Manic Monday and the Bangles and lead singer Susanna Hoffs <Insert *teen-age love-struck sigh*> rattling in my brain as we settle down for another week of the Daily Comics Review. 

For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston:

I like this new story-line where John and Elly have sold their daughter to a Hong Kong pimp in Toronto on business.  It really livens up the strip.  Sure, John gets his sports car he always wanted, Elly has the necessary capital to start her own home-based business, and Michael doesn't have the annoying sis anymore, but poor John is finally feeling the guilt of his decision creeping back to his thoughts.  The horror of what life she has now after he made his choice for the good of his selfish self and the rest of the cruel self-centered family.

Well, that would be a more interesting, Rex Morgan MD type story-line, but in the strip the kid is just sick and in the hospital with a high fever. 

(I usually don't comment on "For Better or For Worse" because I hate crossing over onto comics that the Godfather of Snark, Josh Fruhlinger, comments on at his ground-breaking/inspiration for this site/long-running humor site, The Comics Curmudgeon. However, his love of all things FOOB-related has dissipated and I can't remember the last time he snarked on For Better or For Worse.  He, like most comics fans, was likely appalled by the strip not ending, but instead re-booting and retelling/re-imagining the original, early strips.  I know I was appalled by it--another classic strip refusing to ride off into the sunset and allow an opportunity for another quality strip on the limited and shrinking comics pages of America.)


Adam@Home by Rob Harrell:
Don't screw around with me, Harrell. Don't hint at melon-nose dropping of a heart attack and his wife with that satisfied smile in panel four imaging the joy of cashing that fat life insurance check and the strip being renamed "Husband Hunter". Don't screw around with me, Harrell--just do it!

Strange Brew by John Deering:

Like, maybe a three-way? 


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Hmmm, maybe today is "showing skin day" in the comics and no one told me. Check out this assortment of flesh:

9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney:

Sven's arm is thicker than Fleurrie's torso.  Yikes.  I guess this is can count as female and male skin show.  McEldowney is always a flesh-fest, so he doesn't really count. 

Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson:

Arlo thought he'd find her with the mailman.  Now he has to delete the Letters to Penthouse email he was working on when he saw Janis go out to the backyard in her bikini while he was pretending to nap on the couch.  No wonder he's so angry in panel four!

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So are comics sexist? Check out the flesh the ladies and non-heterosexual men get stuck ogling today:

Monty by Jim Meddick:

For the ladies, they get Monty. Yuck! I agree with the replacement RobotMan. Cover your shameful beer belly, you be-goggled goon.

Alley Oop by Jack and Carole Bender:

Oh, God, these are some mighty unattractive men, even for cavemen.

The Duplex by Glenn McCoy:

Now that is one sexy man.  Really loved seeing that crotch shot in the second panel while eating my Cheerios. (Oog.)

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Thanks as always for coming back! Have a great rest of the (Mon)day!