Balloons Can't Scream 'No'

This will be my last DCR post for awhile as I will be getting ready for, leaving on and be on vacation the next three weeks or so and while I will be blogging on my own site during my vacation, I don't think I will have time to sift through the Sunday comics to post. Anyway, let's go on with today's comics.

The Argyle Sweater

We'll start off with a comic that's actually slightly humorous.

Drabble

Why would you do that? Unless they are constantly harassing me, I'm not gonna call them back to find out why they called and only let the phone ring once. I know there are people out there that call the number but that she is so sure that someone is going to call back that weirds me out.

Marmaduke

Marmaduke has apparently found religion and has renounced his evil ways. But the Marmaduke we know and love will be back Monday after realizing, after "loving his neighbor", that human flesh tastes pretty darn good.

Calvin and Hobbes

I love how even after 25 years, Calvin and Hobbes remains just as relevant. I watched a "Saturday Night Live" Best of David Spade the other day and in order to get an interview with Sean Penn, Spade had to get a tattoo and he got Calvin and remarked how in 15 years his tattoo will be of a forgotten comic strip character. How wrong he was.

Nancy

Sluggo, an original Forever Alone.

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Lazy Sunday (Part 1)

I have two posts for you today considering I flaked out on last week.  In case you haven't noticed, the comments on Brooke McEldowney's Pibgorn have been disabled.  That I don't really care about.  I know Mr. McEldowney's work tends to get a lot of criticism and such.  9 Chickweed Lane's comments have been disabled for years.  The problem I have is the way McEldowney phrased the reason the comments were disabled:

So, I objected and objected and objected as time went on and the tenor of posts became subject more and more to abuse. I wanted my work to appear as it did in the beginning, alone, without a raging public forum affixed to it. It was like looking at a work of art with the walls about it scrawled densely with graffiti.

I firmly agree that comic strips are a work of art.  I mean, look at Krazy Kat, Pogo, Terry and the Pirates and Calvin and Hobbes:

Heck, even a one-panel day for Pibgorn can be amazingly beautiful.

But actually reading McEldowney's blog, he just seems like an angry old man who doesn't like people criticizing his work.  While I admit, I believe most of the comments were not appropriate and possible misogynistic (which was the reason Chickweed's comments were disabled), that's what people do on the Internet.  They post anonymously about things they have no knowledge about.  I could post a picture of Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" and while there will be dozens of comments praising it and calling it a true masterpiece that all other masterpieces can only dream to be...

...there will be one jerk who will post that "Irises" is better because it doesn't get as much "face time" or maybe he posts it just to be a jerk (which the Internets call a "troll", Mr. McEldowney).

McEldowney wanted the comments moderated, which seems fair enough.  Newspapers can do it, opinion blogs can do it, The DCR can do it.  The syndicate refused giving him a spiel about them being a corporation and yada-yada-yada but the main (and untold) reason is probably they couldn't just justify paying a bunch of shleps to monitor every single comic posted on gocomics.com because if they are going to monitor comics they are not just going to monitor Pibgorn.  I do agree that there should be some moderation of comments when they do get out of hand (i.e. threats and libel) but Mr. McEldowney signed a contract with a syndicate and even though Pibgorn is a webcomic, he still has to abide by their rules.  He should be glad people are actually reading Pibgorn and that he's able to do what he wants to do for a living and that people actually pay attention to it.  I wish half the people who apparently read Pibgorn read my stuff.

But maybe if I could write or draw half as good as McEldowney, people would read my stuff.

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Identities, lies, and the cakes who tell them

Time for an afternoon snack and a cool glass of comic blurb goodness, brought to you by the one and only Arkholt (seriously, have you ever heard of anyone else named Arkholt?).

Watch Your Head:

 

Wow.  I've never had an ID, student or otherwise, that identified me so thoroughly.  I'd be afraid of how the institution knew all of these things about me.  I guess sometimes you can just tell from the photo, as in this case.  Usually my photos just send the message of "I'm smiling because I have to, but I hate pictures because I always end up blinking, and please take it as quickly as possible." At least, that's what I see when I look at them.

Over the Hedge:

Verne truly has an amazing body.  Not only is he a turtle who can take his shell completely off, exposing his tiny censor barred turtle butt, but the top of his head apparently flips open as well, revealing...  nothing, I guess.  If you opened Hammy's head, though, you may be disturbed by what you find.

Brevity:

 
I'm a little confused here.  I understand that the tornado caused the entire cake to be finished, sans icing, of course.  However, did the rapid stirring cause the tornado, or was she stirring and a random tornado happened to come by while she was stirring?  If it was the latter, she's in luck because she has a cake despite her house being destroyed.  If the former, she's in terrible shape because even though she now has a cake, she's destroyed her own house in the process.  I don't believe that getting a cake at the expense of your house is a fair trade-off.

The Argyle Sweater:

 
The only problem is you have to keep shaking it in order for the spirits to show you your future.  She also must never have anyone look at the other side of the table, because if they did they'd definitely spot the snow globe box.  Maybe it's one of those places where it's really dark anyway, so they wouldn't see it even if they looked.  Who knows.  I just know I would have hidden it underneath the table instead of beside it.

And finally, today's classic Calvin and Hobbes strip from Uclick:

Little do both Calvin and Hobbes know that it's actually already the middle of August.  Not only is time marching on, but both his calendar and his watch are entirely incorrect. 

That is unless he's going by the lunar calendar.  He'd be about right then.

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Circo de la Familia, Calvin y Hobbes y el perdedor nato para el domingo.

Terrible selection of comics today. Nothing really jumped out at me except I did see that there was a Humptey Dumptey synchronicity today in Frank and Ernest and Off the Mark but other than that, it was pretty slim pickens today.

Now, I have been reading Family Circus since I could read so I have gotten used to the kids oddly shaped heads and have stopped wondering what sort of methamphetamines Thel used while she was pregnant with all four of her kids but Friday's panel disturbed me beyond comprehension and I'm pretty sure a couple years have been taken off my life because of it.

Haha, isn't Billy cute and Jeffy is standing there so forlorn that HIS HEAD IS MELTING INTO HIS FACE!! BURN THEM! BURN THEM!

Send them to Hell...

Calvin and Hobbes 8/8/10


The Born Loser 8/8/10

Shouldn't you also get the bland background music on an endless loop while waiting for a customer service rep?

Also, where's the option "For English, press 1. Para español, presione el número dos."?

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