Many of you have no doubt noticed that the Houston Chronicle has cleaned out their old comics.  I am working on a solution, but it may not be implemented for a few days or even weeks.  Please keep checking back, and I’ll be sure to post when everything is back to normal.

I also hope to post more often, and discuss more comic-related things, especially good web comics, of which there are surprisingly many.

Here is a scandal that will ROCK THE WORLD OF COMICS!

Here is today’s Apartment 3-G:

Apartment 3-G - 02/21/2009

Here is a Mary Worth strip from two years ago:

Mary Worth - 01/05/2007

Notice any similarities?  Not to mention that the gentlemen in question are both working in Asia at the time.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

I smell a lawsuit.  Stay tuned for all the details!

“Somebody screamed! And all the lights went out!”  Thanks for filling us in Mary Jane.  The “EEEEEE” across the top, and the copious amounts of black ink probably filled most of us in on both of those facts, but maybe some of the slower readers appreciate your keeping them informed.  Of course, describing to Peter exactly what he just saw happen not two seconds before doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but ‘not making logical sense’ is kind of par for the course with this strip.

Spiderman - 02/13/2009

To me, the ironic thing is that when the Spiderman strip unvieled it’s HUGE CHANGE back in January, they used constant large dialog boxes to fill us in on what was going on when they could have used character exposition to catch the readers up on 90% of what was happening.  In this case, Mary Jane insists on describing what’s happening for the benefit of the reader, even when it’s completely unneccessary and mostly nonsensical within the strip’s dialogue.  Meh.

So when we last saw Curtis, he was 19 feet tall and asking the police for help after losing his brother at Obama’s Inauguration.

Since then, we’ve seen Barry return home safely, and about a dozen jokes about how Curtis is abused by his parents.

Curtis - 02/07/2009

Curtis - 01/22/2009

Curtis - 01/24/2009

Curtis - 01/27/2009

So let’s see, we’ve implied that Curtis gets beaten with belts, he’s forced to sleep standing up, and his punishment will be worse than getting beaten in an alley or mauled by rabies-infested dogs.  Saturday’s strip about not getting yelled at when other people are around is pretty tame in comparison.

Today, gunk unleashed some sort of Flyspeck Island creature that steals things with it’s tongue, so it looks like this plotline is finally at an end.

Family Circus - 02/09/2009

I’m not sure where Dolly got those apples, but I have a feeling that she’s about to regret that bite she took.  Jeffy seems unsure about whether or not to follow his sister’s lead, but if she could talk him into wearing those royal blue ankle-warmers, he doesn’t stand a chance with the apple.

So we’ve already seen some similarities between Peter Parker and Electro, and now we’re being shown even more.  It’s like they were separated at birth!

So we’ve spent the last week learning about the history of “Electro”, and we now see him returning home to his family, just like how Spiderman returned home to Aunt May in Sunday’s strip.  Both walk into their house in broad daylight, clad in full super-hero/villian regalia, and then change clothes quickly, hoping that their family members won’t just happen to be in the room when they walk inside the house.

I, for one, can’t wait to see how the final showdown happens.  Peter Parker will freak out because he left his Spider suit in Aunt May’s laundry basket, but then a brick will fall on Electro’s head, making him forget who he is.  All this followed by a surprise ending no one will expect - be ready!

Spiderman - 02/01/2009

Spiderman - 02/06/2009

What is it about Wednesday that causes cartoonists to use their morbid pen?  Several strips went down the Winkerbean path today, attempting to find humor in death and destruction.  I’m not so sure any of them succeeded.

Close To Home - 1/28/2009

A body bag?  In a (supposedly funny) comic strip?  Seriously?

Bizarro- 1/28/2009

You see, it’s funny because jungle people like to eat humans, but now instead of killing unsuspecting jungle travelers, they can just go down to the supermarket and…. oh, nevermind.

Wizard of Id - 1/28/2009

Nothing garners applause like having your friends and relatives shot through the chest with an arrow or two. I’ll wrap up with this heartwarming B.C.

B.C. - 1/28/2009

Spiderman - 01/27/2009

It’s not enough that Spiderman has been moping around for the past week because his camera was broken(he secured it to the ledge of a building with his webbing, but his webs were no match for Super-Pigeon).  Now Electro is whining about losing the money he stole.  Instead of actually doing any fighting, these two will just see who can complain the most.  Eventually, one of them will probably do something stupid and defeat themselves, and the other one can claim a ’sort-of’ victory, and go back to watching television.

Family Circus - 01/23/2009

Meanwhile, the Keane’s are cleaning out the junk from their attic.  So did Papa Keane attend this USC or this USC - or maybe this one?  Either way, it looks like Dolly will be attending Sweet Briar University, a women’s college in Virginia.

The Sunday funnies today were a little extra-weird today, sometimes bordering on creepy.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith - 01/25/2009

Poor Jughaid. All he wants is cake and ice cream. If it means he’ll end up toothless, short, and bald, with a giant nose, he’s totally fine with it. At least he has something to aspire to.

Beetle Bailey - 01/25/2009

Here, we see Sarge, wading aimlessly through a creek, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he’s getting wet. He’s staring off into space, wide-eyed. Maybe Beetle’s antics finally caused him to snap.

The Family Circus - 01/25/2009

Sick of their parents’ constant yelling and arguing, the Keane kids decided to build a replacement family from snow. Jeffy’s cuddling up next to his snow creature, futilely craving any type of human contact.

Sally Forth - 01/25/2009

I noticed Ted starting down the path to crazy-town a few months ago, but it looks like maybe the whole family could be headed there before too long.

I meant to write about this the other day, but never got around to it.  The world’s most famous art museum, home to the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo among many others, has added an exhibition featuring comics for the first time in it’s history.

The featured cartoonist is Bernar Yslaire, with his comic strip “The Sky above the Louvre”.  He is one of the increasing number of cartoonists who do everything digitally.  “My comic strip is done exclusively on a digital screen - there is no paper at all”, he says.  “We are in the 21st century of communication.”

You can read more about the exhibit at this link.