Transmissions

TO: Head of the CIA
FROM: Charleston Charge
RE: Transmissions (URGENT)

Hello, director of the CIA. I know everyone says that it's some guy named Petraeus, but you guys are the CIA. There's probably at least five levels over him, and you're at the top. Now, my name is Charleston Charge, and I have an important thing to talk to you about. It's recently come to my attention that over 2000 TB of unaccounted data have been transmitted daily since the year 1995, and while no one else wants to talk to me about it, I'm sure there's something weird going on. I think it might have something to do with that Verdant Orb thing that a lot of my contemporaries have sighted in various shots from space telescopes. I've tracked down some of what was transmitted today, and thought I should share with you. Here's the first thing:
It's today's "Arctic Circle", and I think the author is using this specific strip as an attempt to tell us that, soon, some weird creature is going to reveal themselves and start killing our ducks in order to eat them. Except, maybe, we're the ducks and they're going to eat us, which is probably a lot more likely. That's not the worst of it, though. Look:

This one is called "Overboard", and I think the implications are clear. Aliens are going to come to Earth and abduct all the humanoids. Man and ape will be united as they attempt to escape the humanoid aliens who come to take us to their home-world in order to mate with us. Maybe they won't even leave. Maybe they'll colonize Earth! It's sort of weird, isn't it, how one dog is a dog and the other talks? Oh, and I just noticed that pun at the end, but I'm getting off-track. Abductions, man! Breeding camps! Thankfully, other comic strips want to protect us:

"Brewster Rockit" knows that the only way to defeat the alien hordes is to take up arms against them. Yet is also shows us we have to be careful, lest we destroy ourselves. Stan Lee already knows about another danger:

In "Spider-Man", he shows us that it's only a matter of time until we betray ourselves.

I think what has to be done is clear, director. The CIA has to stand up against the alien menace that's coming, and I volunteer for the task force.

Awaiting your reply,
Charleston Charge

---

TO: Charleston Charge
FROM: Rahn Way
RE: RE: Transmissions (URGENT)

Stop sending us messages about this. At first, it was sort of fun to see what theories you had come up with, but it's just gotten sad. I'm the only one reading them. Please, you have to have something better to do with your life.

---

TO: Rahn Way
FROM: Charleston Charge
RE: RE: RE: Transmissions (URGENT)

This is my life. Who cares about finishing high school when there's so many things in the world that need explaining? So many dangers that need thwarting? You'll be hearing from me again.

---

There was no reply.

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Fost and Melman

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Earth Technology

Hey there. Meekrat here. Sorry about the short hiatus. First, I was moving, and then I was so sick I couldn't stand up. Here's your comic:

And hey, if you enjoy Subject M and his little adventures, then do I have news for you! First of all, there's a guest comic up at The Underfold. Second, I've started a new comic series featuring Subject M, sans commentary, over at my very own website. So go check it out!

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Hostess Fruit Pies?

Okay, so I don't really have a good excuse for missing the past few weeks of me supposedly doing Thursday and Friday. Let's chock it up to latent emotional problems made worse by the change in seasons. The Meekrat Entertainment Group has updated more or less regularly, though, and I return to you a disheveled mess of a human being. Let's get down to some comic stripping.

Sally Forth

Once upon a time, Sally Forth was pretty dire. Just your standard Mary Tyler Moore-esque comic strip, except with the comic strip usual family dynamic added in. For years, it simply sat there, being on no one's radar and never being particularly good. However, one day, they decided to give Ted a personality, and what a personality it was! Once a bland husband, Ted became extremely geeky, and with this geekiness came some mild humor and the strip became readable. And so it has remained. I pretty much only put this here for the shout-out to the Hostess Fruit Pie ads of yesteryear, which actually encompassed all of their items. You can find a pretty comprehensive collection of them here, but be warned that there's some salty language accompanying them. In case that sort of thing offends you.

Spider-Man

On a semi-related note, I was quite displeased when I found out that the vampire in this Spider-Man storyline was going to be Morbius and not Lugo Belosi. Of course, Belosi might still pop up as Morbius is apparently not a vampire anymore. Does anyone else think it's hilarious that he's claiming to have lost all traces of his vampirism long ago when he obviously has fangs? Silly Morbius! Hopefully you'll use those fangs to sink into a Hostess Fruit Pie.

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Sleep-Deprived Babbling

Hey there, it's Mike P or Meekrat or whatever. You should go look at my web-site, where things are generally more coherent than they're going to be here today. You see, I decided to deprive myself of sleep for reasons that seemed good at the time.

Alley Oop

In case you haven't been following Alley Oop (so, you know, this is for all of you) those two fellows up there are the kings of two prehistoric civilizations. They both recently (and by recently, I mean it's been several months) abdicated their thrones and started fishing together and trying to figure out what to do with themselves. The one king is back, and now we see a problem Alley Oop can't solve: PREJUDICE.

I was going somewhere with this, but I read these like eight hours ago so I don't remember what it was.

Get Fuzzy

This, though. This I remember! Satchel shouldn't be surprised, Bucky has always hated ferrets. It's not all of a sudden at all.

Spider-Man

Peter is very good at forgetting things, isn't he?

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End of the Week Catch-Up

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. To make it up to you, here's some comics from the past two days.

Thursday
Birdbrains

It looks like the Birdbrains revolution that supposedly began last week has ended as quickly as it began.

Frank and Ernest

This is really stupid, unless a house being under water has a second meaning I'm unfamiliar with. Perhaps something to do with mortgages? Even so, it's pretty lame to put such a phrase into your comic. Now, if it is the first meaning, they could have just shown the roofs of the houses jutting out of the water, or perhaps put the pigs and wolf in scuba helmets. Also, the pigs are out of the house. The wolf could just snatch them up.

Ziggy

I'm pretty sure this is an actual thing.

Friday
Mary Worth

I usually avoid commenting on the soap strips, since Josh Fruhlinger does a much better job, but I fear for Jeff's life now that he's decided to openly mock Mary. She'll meddle you to your grave now!

Tom the Dancing Bug

I like this comic sometimes, when it's being more absurd than political. Like today. The stand-out strip in this installment of the semi-regular Super-Fun-Pak Comix is Darthfield, though I like how the punchlines to all the dog comics are just the owners of the dogs saying their canine's name. And the Idiot Time Traveler continues to amuse me.

Spider-Man


I'm actually quite sad that the marriage didn't go through. Not surprised by any stretch of the imagination, as I did do a blog about this strip for several years and learned that the status quo will always revert.

Well, that's it for me this week. For more of my stuff, check out the Meekrat Entertainment Group.

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Heathcliff: Not Cute

A sorry haul for you today, folks. I'd apologize, but it's not really my fault. It's these darn comics not being worth commenting upon. Anyway, check out the Meerkat Entertainment Group should the mood strikes you. We've got comics, fiction, and more there!

Heathcliff

The main problem with this panel is that no one has ever called Heathcliff cute in the history of forever. Second, while I understand the limits of a single panel strip, having him standing there holding a bottle of cute pills is sort of ludicrous. Other strips, like Marmaduke and Family Circus, sometimes break their single panel into two or more. This joke would have worked better had Heathcliff sneaked off to take his pills.

Spider-Man

Look! Spider-Man is actually being clever!

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Hopes Dashed and Confusion Reigns

I'd like to start out today by celebrating the end of Frog Applause, which has long been a thorn in the sides of various DCReviewers!

...wait, that's just a joke? Curse you, Frog Applause, for offering hope and so cruelly yanking it away! Anyway, here's some more stuff.

Spider-Man

I think it might be one of the lesser (though still fantastic) Kirby monsters, and not ol' Fin Fang Foom. It's a green hand, though, so there's still a little bit of hope. I like the look on the minister's face. He's loving this so much and why shouldn't he? He's at a bizarre wedding where both Spider-Man (even though it's the lackluster comic strip version) and the Thing are in attendance. I wouldn't be surprised if he started promoting himself as a minister for officiating super-hero weddings.

Let's wrap up today with two strips that puzzled me:
2 Cows and a Chicken

The first three panels are self-explanatory, and even if you haven't been following the strip everyday, you can figure out why each is important. The last panel just mystifies me, though. Is that back at their farm? I still don't understand what's happening.

Reynolds Unwrapped

I have no theories about this one. It's just confusing.

That's it for this Friday. Check out the Meekrat Entertainment Group today, and especially tomorrow, when we celebrate the third annual Otter Pun Day. It OTTER be a good time.

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Typographical Errors

Well, it's that time again when I take a break from my duties at the Meekrat Entertainment Group and blather on about comic strips. Let's get to it, shall we?

Compu-Toon

The first thing that struck me about this panel was that the joke is sort of clever. Of course a wireless network would work at a wire company, though that's not why this is posted here. For one, the caption seems clumsily written. If they just replaced the "if" with the "that", it would read better, though it may not be grammatically correct. Second, all the words in the panel are skewed. The type at the bottom should be slanted to match the sign, and the lettering on the door is a bit better, though not perfect. Also, "We sale all types of wires"? I'm going out on a limb and guessing this is another "Yenny" type incident, where the strip's grammatical and typographical mistakes stems from the strip being produced in a non-English language. If not, there's really no reason for a syndicated strip to be so lazy.

Gasoline Alley

On a semi-related note, this joke only makes sense if Slim hasn't been reliably portrayed as a well-meaning but slightly dim character every other time I've seen him in this strip. There's no way on Earth he'd be confused about the double meaning of fine.

Spider-Man

Meanwhile, it looks like the marriage I've been pushing for is going to be dashed by a rampaging monster, hopefully Fin Fang Foom but likely not him. Chances are, the Mole Man will either vanish, leading Aunt May to return to the surface a heart-broken mess, or Aunt May will realize the constant danger she might be in living underground and call off the wedding. In either case, I won't be happy.

Crock and Piranha Club


I leave you with two strips about rump roast. Bizarre? Yes.

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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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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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Lazy Sunday (Part 2)

Sorry about my rant in the earlier post today.  I wanted to do something more than just post comics and that was one of the few things I could actually get done without having to do a lot of scanning and research.  Anyway, here's a normal post of comics.

Pluggers 12/19/10

Hey, they make bicycles that come assembled already.  You no longer have to spend hours putting bicycles together the night before your kids are supposed to see them.

Panels from Dick Tracy 12/19/10

Why does the kid's mom look more dangerous than an Internet predator?

Amazing Spider-Man 12/19/10

Melvin?  According to the Mole Man page at Wikipedia, Mole Man's real name is Harvey Rupert Elder.  Not Melvin.  I also love the look on Mary Jane's face in the fourth panel.  She is not amused by the way this plot is progressing and is ready to go back to her apartment and take a bath.

Mallard Fillmore 12/19/10

You know what sounds good for Christmas dinner?  Duck.

Wee Pals 12/19/10

So apparently Diz only goes to the library to check out erotic adult fiction books.

Born Loser 12/19/10

My wife would probably enjoy footwear for Christmas but I feel 30 pairs of shoes are more than enough so I'm looking into something unique and different.  And I don't think Gladys is implying the gifts are mundane and unoriginal, she's implying that you are mundane and unoriginal.

Hope you all have a safe and merry Christmas and if you don't celebrate Christmas then I hope you have a safe a merry holiday season.  Several years ago at the height of my ghost-hunting days, my friend and I went to the Eldridge Hotel which was supposedly haunted and obtained this picture of their yearly Christmas photo from 1993 I think.

A nice Christmas portrait with a poinsettia tree.  But look over at the elevator on the left side of the picture.  Looks like the shadow of a man on the doors.  The only people in the room were the cameraman, the owner at the time and the two people in the chairs so there was no one else around and no one could explain what it was.  More than likely it is just an odd shadow caused by the regular lighting in the lobby and the flash of the camera but what fun is a scientific explanation when ghosts is a much more fun one?

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