The DCR: A Return!

by Hal Bent

OK, let me try this again. Comic strips are running unchecked. Snark is missing from my life. The Daily Comics Review needs to lurch back to life like an online Frankenstein. I'm taking my cue from the always witty reader & commenter BeckoningChasm and stating that "Daily" refers to whatever planet I happen to be on at the time (not necessarily a 24 hour cycle). 

Ziggy by Tom Wilson & Tom II:



Damn it, Ziggy, the Parrot is simply waiting for you drop to feast upon remains like a vulture...it doesn't care about any "parrot news".

Adam@Home by Brian Basset:

Old Potato Nose Adam Newman ("Hello, Newman") lacks a lot of things, Katy. If this comic kept going on and on instead of ending in panel four Laura would be listing them and poor Katy staring in disbelief that this was the life her mother chose.  Then the strip would wrap-up with a little mother-daughter special moment where Laura tells Katy that she has a secret life outside the family with Maurice, her long-time lover and biological parent to her and Clayton.

9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney:







See, I take some time off from this blog and McEldowney goes nuts while he's unchecked. What the heck is going on here (Yes, McEldowney is using any excuse possible to display Edda and Amos in provocative poses--I mean, why else does anyone read this comic?), but this is kinda kooky and last week was just bizarre, even for 9 Chickweed Lane standards.

That said, I do like that the computer in the final panel looks like a "modern" flat screen (even if the telephone screams 1994). My kids (10 + 12) would have no idea what that telephone was supposed to be...they've never seen anything that shape before in their life.

9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron:



I worked for a company once where everyone was a Vice President (except for me, of course--but I did get to be a Director of nobody and no one). I would have liked to been appointed Baron of Bacon (bagels have too many carbs!).

I do have to say that I was drawn to the noses here...and then I saw the lady at that table was the only one with an eyeball and got kind of freaked out.

* * * 

Read more...

Manic Monday

by Hal Bent

It's manic, make no doubt about it! No time to chat or philosophize in the introduction. Let's jump right in:

9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron:

That so-called baby is gigantic. No way that thing is anything but a little person infiltrating this household and reporting back to his masters: "Honorable Master, the idiot Americans have no clue to my existence as an agent and not their hideous offspring who is long since spirited away. In fact, they seem nonplussed by my using my laptop in front of them and reporting on the nuclear capabilities of the reactor in town. Attached are the newest photos of the security guard change-over at 0800 and 1600 hours."


Working It Out by Charlos Gary:

Speaking of Google, not only does this joke scream "THAT WAS FUNNY...WHEN I FIRST READ IT IN 1998", but smartphones today (by today, I mean the last ten years) have these these things called "Apps" including these things called "browsers" that run...Google and other search engines.  


Shoe by Chris Cassatt and Gary Brookins:

If a comic strip references a one hit wonder terrible hippie band from 45 years ago, it should be retired. Immediately. 

Read more...

The Daily Comics Review: Thursday Quickies

by Hal Bent

It's Thursday, which means its time for the quickies (because I'm usually still up to my elbows in webcomics and finishing reading them from yesterday).

9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron:

Sims: "No, Boss. I'm actually just waving two pieces of paper like I'm freaking insane and knocking other pieces of paper askew.  But nice to know that you actually think I'm doing something like 'work'."


Wizard of Id by Parker and Hart:

For God's sake keep looking lower!  LOWER!!!  Not low enough...to the floor already!


Soup to Nutz by Rick Stromoski:

Clap. Clap. Clap.  Soup to Nuts finally steps up to the plate and knocks one out of the park.  Kudos, Stromoski, kudos. 


Real Life Adventures by Gary Wise and Lance Aldrich:

Damn straight, my friend.  "Rude drivers" UNITE! (Or as I like to say: Welcome to Massachusetts)


In the Sticks by Nathan Cooper: 

I'm inspired: look out, world!  Where'd I put my billy stick?

Read more...

Hump Day Equals DINOSAUR FIGHT!

It's already Wednesday? This week is flying by at high speed.  No time to waste: On with the show!

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis:

Wait, Pig eats bacon and sausages??? NOOOOOO!!!!!!! Pig, you cannibal!  On a side note, I bet real pigs would eat bacon and sausages without any understanding and compunction.  They really do eat anything food that you throw in front of them.  Of course, I think this used to be my diet back in the day. The unfunny part is that I probably deluded myself in the same way as Pig!


Soup to Nutz by Rick Stromoski:

I add Soup to Nuts here, not to bemoan that the United States still fails to grasp the metric system (rebels, baby! we're a nation of rebels!), but rather to mention Andrew's use of kilometerstone rather than milestone.  Really, it's an intelligent and accurate usage. Milestone dates back to the Romans marking the roads in the 3rd century, which means they weren't exactly using the United States mile as the unit of measurement. 

I also bring it up to highlight an embarrassing episode from my youth, where when learning about the metric system, I understood kilometer having read about it, but never used it in conversation or heard it on TV (I was allowed to watch baseball, not much else, in my youth as TV, per my father, was the idiot box rotting our brains).  So when talking about it in the class, I had no idea what the teacher was talking about with kilometer, as I had it in my mind as a "kilo" "meter" (that is, I pronounced it kee-loh mee-tuhr instead of kil ohm eh ter).  God knows what my classmates thought of me mangling the words, but I wanted to dig a hole under my desk and crawl away.  Funny how a memory like that stays with you into adulthood. 


Alley Oop by Jack and Carole Bender:

I'm not a big Alley Oop fan (at least, not since I was 8 and found a collection of classic newspaper comics at my grandfather's house...I still preferred Terry and the Pirates, The Katzenjammer Kids, and Thimble Theatre), but...DINOSAUR FIGHT!!!  WHOO-HOO!!!


9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron:

Gotta hand to Shwadron, that's EVERY company's business model.  I should have scrounged capital in the late 90's and started a crappy tech company to pump full of venture capital cash and get a rich business to shell out a ton of cash during that six-month period in 1999 when any company an "i" in front of it.  I was THAT close to being that greedy CEO in the cartoon. 


The Meaning of Lila by John Forgetta and L.A. Rose:

I like the Meaning of Lila. It's semi-hip, entertaining, and doesn't pander to the audience like some of the horror-shows that remain in syndication.  I add it here because it reminds me of my wife: she always had said to me "you're really a nice guy.  You must have some evil side. Where do you bury all the bodies?"

Of course, I never tell her where I stashed them all...

Read more...

Daily Comics Review Returns!

Hello! I'm Hal Bent, jumping in to rant and rave about the funny pages. Thank you for reading, and especially thanks to Bryce for letting me post here.  I may not be able to post daily, but I have years of repressed ranting at the daily comics.  I have been reading the site here at The Daily Comics Review  since the early days and am also a Comics Curmudgeon junkie. I grew up on the comics (or funnies as they were called in my house) and as an adult read them daily in the newspaper until admitting death of the industry and moving to my daily dose online. 

When not making inappropriate comments at comics on my computer, I write for my own sports blog (BostonSportPage.com) and recently joined another football-centric blog (Musketfire.com) and a fan of all things comics (newspaper comics, online comic books, collected comics, comic book guy, comic stores, free comics day, stand-up comics....seriously, put comic in the title somewhere and I’ll buy it).

I love the comics, love to write, and am glad to have the forum.  So, let me shut about the boring stuff (me) and move on to the good stuff (comics): 

This is 9 to 5 by Harley Schwadron, apparently work related.  I have worked in private and public industry for my entire adult life, and in no walk of life have I ever encountered a chart on the wall like the one over the CEO's head.  Industry growth? Competitor growth? Sales growth? Is this a failed dot-com showing that they once had sales and made a profit?  "We were great once! I'm gonna frame it and show anyone who comes in that we were cutting edge for three minutes."

Also, who doesn't change their vacation outfit when they come back to work?  I like the CEO's expression here as well, like employees wander around the office in bizarre outfits. He just asks "How was your vacation?" like nothing is out of the ordinary.  The joke? What happened in Vegas? Oh yeah. Ha-ha.  That was mildly entertaining ten years ago. Mildly.  Very mildly.

Monty by Jim Meddick has been around the comics pages for ages. Before being focused on the title character, a nerd/geek/goofball named Monty, it was called Robotman and Monty was a minor supporting character.  For some reason, they shot the robot back to his home planet or some goofy outcome, and started focusing on Monty.  After a few years, they bring in this robot character who looks kinda like Robotman.  Umm, what? He's not Robotman, but he's a robot-man.  

The ongoing story this week is some nonsense about the robot being overly attached to an ant farm.  This is a comic for people who miss Data from Star Trek TNG and need more than Star Trek fanfic to get them through a day on the Internet.  They miss Lt. Commander Data and his Pinocchio Quest to become human and not a machine. What a bunch of nerds! 

(God, I miss Data and Star Trek TNG.)

.
Finally, we have Chuckle Bros by Brian and Ron Boychuk.  Umm, what the heck is that?  What does this sink have to do with a music artist not singing their own lyrics or lip syncing?  This is vaguely unwholesome looking to say the least.  

Milli Vanilli was 20 years ago.  How is this timely, relevant, or something that is understood by the general public?  Instead they present a sink that looks like a 13 year old boy's wet dream. Uggh.  The more I look at it the more I am creeped-out thinking of some poor sap looking at this in a newspaper while eating breakfast this morning. Unclean!

* * *

Read more...

Alien Invasion

Don't forget to check out the Meekrat Entertainment Group for more comic goodness, among other things.

Read more...

Something New

I'm back from a long absence, and here I am trying something new:

Thanks for reading, I'll be back next week, but if you want more comics and whatnot from me there's always the Meekrat Entertainment Group.

Read more...

Halloween Eve comics

Tomorrow is Halloween.  To help you prepare, here are some comic blurbs, which may or may not have something to do with the holiday in question.

Brewster Rockit:
 

I don't believe that the head of the Headless Segwayman is the right kind of pumpkin for making pie with.  If so, it would be much smaller.  Also, in order for it to be carved in the way that it is, all of the stuff that's useful for making a pie has probably been taken out.

That said, his head is probably magic, and so she probably used magic to make a pie out of it.  This should probably be a cause for worry, though the captain is too stupid to realize it, as usual.  I hope he'll at least blow on it first before he puts it in his mouth.

Daddy's Home:

I should try this sometime.  It would probably only work on a small number of kids, but I would get free candy without having to go anywhere.  It would work best on the youngest kids, too.  Of course, then I might feel guilty doing it.

...

Nah, probably not.

Candorville:

Yes, I am the kind of geek that counts how many characters there are when someone puts a tweet into a comic strip.  This tweet was 125.  I am also the type that foresees someone doing a comic strip which has gags that are all less than 140 characters.  There's probably a web comic out there like that.  I can't believe no one's had the idea by now.

9 to 5:

Yeah.  Burnt umber is so much nicer than raw.  And cadmium, either yellow or orange, just doesn't look right.  I can't believe they were even in the budget to begin with.

Read more...