Comic Strip Megathread XV: So smile, Margo, and move on.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > Comic Strip Megathread XV: So smile, Margo, and move on.

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Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

All these posts, and not one of you has posted the strip that defined the comic strip megathread series.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2014 00:51

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 22:15

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Where might we get all of these comics for posting? Well, there's a variety of sources, but the one that I use is called GoComics. They have a large number of syndicated comic strips, and while their collections of older strips may have a few gaps here and there, it's still quite a useful resource.

Let's take stock of which comics they've seen fit to run this year, skipping over those comics which already have people to post them, shall we?

First, we have 2 Cows And A Chicken, which is one of several knock-offs of The Far Side.

Then there's 9 To 5, specializing (probably) in occupational laffs!

Adam @ Home could have something to do with a stay-at-home father in this crazy, mixed-up technological world of today!

Agent Gates is... a parody of Downton Abbey? "An added perk: there's steampunk involved."

Agnes seems to come from the same vein of material as Crock, Miss Peach, and Broom Hilda.

Alley Oop has dinosaurs and cavemen. Why does nobody post this one?

Andy Capp is the continuing saga of a man in the debilitating grip of alcoholism, and his abusive domestic environment.

Angry Little Girls is "a cute but snarky weekly comic strip about life as a girl."

Animal Crackers is what you would get if Frank And Ernest was set in a zoo, I guess.

Sometimes people post Annie, sometimes they don't. No one really objects either way.

The Argyle Sweater is like The Bus, but with sweaters. Sorry, I'm lying.

Ask Shagg follows in the foot-steps of those comics where you write in a letter, and it never gets printed, but someone else's does.

Aunty Acid is, sadly, not a companion comic strip to psychedelic heavy rockers Uncle Acid. It's about how a continued existence inevitably leads to tragedy and/or suffering.

Those are the comics from the numerical and 'A' section, but don't worry, there's so many more! That's just part of the magic of comics! :getin:

# ¿ Jan 1, 2014 07:34

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

I post Bloom County and Calvin And Hobbes. Since they ran in the same time period (with the first starting a few years before the latter), I post their respective comics from the same day in history. With both of them, we're beginning the year 1987.

Bloom County, by this point in its run, is basically centered around the life of a penguin named Opus, and the events in the lives of his friends and acquaintances in the titular locale. We may occasionally jump to British royalty, Madonna, Michael Jackson, or other notable icons of the 1980s, as Bloom County is very much a product of its time. It tends to throw in some topical references, which I try to point out and explain, though I don't always catch all of them; if you spot something I missed, please chime in!

Of course, at other times, no explanation is needed. I'll still make a comment, as it's become a habit by now.

Calvin And Hobbes is much less topical, and between that and the quality of the strip, I feel that it's better to post it without dropping in cheesy commentary. However, I'm always very happy to see people comment on Calvin And Hobbes, as it is probably my favorite comic strip of all time.

For both strips, I'll be doing a large post of their Sunday installments in roughly a week and a half, once I get back to my scanner.

# ¿ Jan 1, 2014 17:19

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

If we're throwing in edits, here's some stuff I made in the last thread that I'm not too embarrassed to repost.

And one by tiistai

Ulfhednar:

Kennel:

R Ubbish:

Plus some Luanne avatar fodder:

And Mandrake being amazing:

The Amazing Spider-Man wins, though. This is just one instance.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 04:57

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

The sign says "Point Resolve", suggesting that that's Opus' list of New Year's resolutions.

Calvin And Hobbes

B.C. is about post-apocalyptic cavemen, super-intelligent ants, and the fragmented remains of religions which pre-dated the great bombs.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 18:26

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

I have to assume this refers to the Iran-Contra scandal, since the timing (early 1987) seems about right for continued fallout from that affair.

Calvin And Hobbes

Back In The Day looks like something from the back-pages of Nickelodeon Magazine a couple of decades ago.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2014 16:12

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Is this Bloom County's all-purpose musical act housing?

Calvin And Hobbes

Badlands might be in re-runs, since it's referred to as having had a 12-year run in The Sun.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2014 18:05

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Tiggum posted:

That actually works. People give more money to well-dressed beggars.

Mandrake the Magician (1941-09-14 and 1941-09-21)

So they had knowledge of clubs and battle-axes, but not punching? :raise:

# ¿ Jan 5, 2014 07:24

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Talk about music that empowers its fans.
:rimshot:

Calvin And Hobbes

I remember Baldo not being too bad, but it doesn't seem to have aged well.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2014 17:49

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Mister Beeg posted:

For what its worth, I started skipping strips that focus on Nina's love life. Some sneak through, but otherwise I skip them.

I wouldn't mind seeing those.

R Ubbish posted:

I didn't mind seeing this.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2014 07:22

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Steve's transformed into food-stuffs more than any other Bloom County resident. Improbable, but true.

Calvin And Hobbes

Banana Triangle is a post-apocalyptic beach-set thing. It's not always a single-panel affair.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2014 20:45

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

There's a few bands that have pulled this sort of thing, with "Do your homework," and "Don't sit so close to the television," worked in via backmasking.

Calvin And Hobbes

Barkeater Lake is about a young woman who moves from NYC to a small town. It started off the year with a visit from Satan (no, really), but seems to mainly be about this small dog named Banksy.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2014 17:34

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

"It seems your insides are made of Spam and zucchini."

Calvin And Hobbes

The Barn has talking animals who do things that real animals don't do!

# ¿ Jan 8, 2014 18:10

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Ah, the old days. :allears:

Calvin And Hobbes

Barney And Clyde is about a rich man who sometimes hallucinates that he's a homeless man. He has a wife (Lucretia) and a precocious daughter, seen here.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2014 16:01

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

GorfZaplen posted:

Mandrake the Magician

How does Mandrake stay so good? :allears:

# ¿ Jan 9, 2014 22:38

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

ChickenOfTomorrow posted:

We're having Barney and Clyde back again? I remember Megathread XIV near-universlly hated it.

If someone wants to pick it up, they're welcome to do so; I'm just going through the GoComics directory alphabetically, skipping the politicomics and the ones that people already post, so that some unknown ones can get some exposure. That's how Ballard Street got introduced to the thread, after all.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 00:32

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

At last, a chance to use :bick:

Calvin And Hobbes

Basic Instructions is a comic written by a comedian, and features instructions for life's tricky situations!

Since I can't imagine anyone actually carrying about it, though, here's Beardo, which cannot get punchline timing correct to save its life.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2014 02:10

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Amanda Palmer does kind of look like a penguin, now that I think about it.

Calvin And Hobbes

_{I believe this is the only time Susie got a strip to herself.}

Ben seems to have the same set-up as Pickles, but with an art style similar to Cow And Boy.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2014 16:23

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

I hope they got a picture of that for the album's liner notes.

Calvin And Hobbes

The Bent Pinky is one of those 'wacky' one-panel comics.

I am vaguely impressed at the boldness of simply copy-pasting the companies' logos into the art.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2014 17:23

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

This is going to get ugly. And septic.

Calvin And Hobbes

_{Can you see the Peanuts influence? Can you, huh?}

Betty is like Stone Soup: Insufferable suburban pablum.

Official blurb: "Betty is a smart, savvy comic character who is unapologetically ordinary, happy and female. Betty is a truly modern woman - a wife, mother and working woman."

# ¿ Jan 13, 2014 23:14

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

cletepurcel posted:

I'm just going to ignore that the strip called the frog-people "aliens". No.

I remember this got posted for a bit in one of the old threads, eventually stopping since nearly every other strip was some smug boomer "some gizmo" joke, like about how old fashioned maps were better than Google Maps or some other poo poo. Or was that Stone Soup?

Pretty sure that was Stone Soup; definitely so if you remember a strip where all the characters were singing "All we are saying / Is give peace a chance!" and the family dog was jumping through a hula hoop going "I LIKE PEAS".

# ¿ Jan 14, 2014 01:07

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Here's the brave World War I lawyer, a prisoner of El Blobbo.

Calvin And Hobbes

Bewley, done by Anthony Blades, is about a family of blue birds. I think that's about it. At least it's not another Holbrook strip.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2014 16:46

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

The horror!

Calvin And Hobbes

Biff & Riley is about "two canine brothers who are clearly at opposite ends of the personality spectrum." But today, we've got a squirrel sidekick.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 17:21

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Aardmania posted:

Piranha Club

Referencing GRIT magazine, which started in 1882 as a newspaper, and used this selling arrangement (minus warthogs) for quite a while.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2014 04:49

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

"Heeere's Stevie!"

Calvin And Hobbes

Big Nate gets picked up for posting from time to time, but that usually doesn't last too long.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2014 19:40

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

The epitome of Steve and Opus' relationship.

Calvin And Hobbes

The Big Picture is referred to in the past tense in its GoComics blurb. Is it a zombie?

# ¿ Jan 17, 2014 17:30

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Bloom County's finest.

Calvin And Hobbes

Big Top is about a kid growing up with a circus troupe.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 17:44

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Standard S.E.P. operating procedure: Keep your distance.

Calvin And Hobbes

Biographic used to be posted regularly, alongside Striker(s?), a comic about British football and tits. R.I.P., Striker.

Birdbrains may be a Far Side knock-off, but it is nicely illustrated.

Darthemed fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Jan 19, 2014

# ¿ Jan 19, 2014 19:23

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

To me, this is one of Steve's iconic moments.

Calvin And Hobbes

Bliss is another of those single-panel comics, in the same vein as Pardon My Planet and dozens of others.

Bo Nanas has a monkey! You might think, 'Wait, that's a chimp or some other classification of primate', but nope! It's a monkey!

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 18:36

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

The Betty Ford Clinic is best known as a recuperative center for celebrities suffering from 'exhaustion'.

Calvin And Hobbes

I was set to dismiss Bob The Squirrel based solely on the name, but I kind of like today's, even if it is a joke that's being hammered into the ground.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 19:20

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Wanamingo posted:

Nancy

If only there were a smiley with the old man from Dick Tracy shouting "IT HAPPENED."

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 04:32

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

"Sylvestor"

Calvin And Hobbes

Boomerangs is about "Jane Tinker, a recent divorc�e and mother of two who suddenly finds herself a member of the new "Boomerang" generation when her financial situation forces her to move back into her parents� home." It can't be worse than Dustin, and might have some Pickles sweetness to it.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 19:13

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Mr. Berkeley must not have had a copy of The Terminator sitting around the house to check the spelling. Or, you know, deadlines forced a typo.

Calvin And Hobbes

The Born Loser is about some schlubs. Inoffensive, but bland.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 19:40

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

BlankIsBeautiful posted:

Brooke's definitely got some tongue action going on

Bloom County

This raises enough questions for a Conspiracy Frog strip.

Calvin And Hobbes

Bottomliners breaks the mold of single-panel comics by being a team effort, done by brothers Eric & Bill Teitelbaum.

Bound and Gagged is a gag-a-day strip by Dana Summers, who also does some politicomics.

Bonus: the strip from the 22nd.

For a third single-panel strip, there's Break Of Day, by Nate Fakes.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 17:07

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

GorfZaplen posted:

Mandrake the Magician

This has me seriously considering tracking down some Mandrake collections. I love this comic.
Mandrake's stance and the utterly nonchalant delivery has me hearing his lines in the generic kung fu film over-dub voice. Frogman has the hammy villain voice, of course.

Mr. Cool Ice posted:

These are all really bad.

I completely agree. One-panel comics just don't have a good track record; there's a handful of great ones, and the rest feel like 1:30 p.m. sitcom offerings.

Thanks for posting the Moomins, SubNat!

Darthemed fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Jan 24, 2014

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 19:41

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Hanging onto that 't'.

Calvin And Hobbes

Brevity gives us a really painful groaner today.

Broom Hilda is a relic that tenaciously defends its position in papers against newer, and oftentimes better, strips.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2014 21:24

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

"This unfortunate affair was to end suddenly down in 'Miller's Mud Flats' with some injury. And while events were marked with general chaos, it was, nevertheless, apparent to all that the "Schwartzeneggerization" (sic) of Opus was simply not to be."

Calvin And Hobbes

_{Panel 3: Good avatar material. Just saying.}

The Buckets is not very good today.

"Art holds a mirror up to Nature. The Buckets come along, turn the mirror on Art and say, 'Look how goofy you�re acting. Now get to work, Art. Your kids need an Xbox 360.' ...Greg Cravens looks in the mirror and see not himself, but all of us. And then he draws up the silly, grand, goofy, thrilling, utterly human things we do and calls it The Buckets." - From The Buckets' strip blurb

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 05:14

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Mister Beeg posted:

This strip was originally done by Scott Stantis, an editorial cartoonist who also does "Prickly City" with Eric Allie (he had four strips in syndication).

Would you happen to have any examples of what the strip quality was like in that period?

e: SOME GARFIELD

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 05:38

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Mr. Turner was a real stand-up guy. He'll be deeply missed.

Bloom County

Well, there's some nightmare imagery.

Calvin And Hobbes

Buni vaguely reminds me of Panto, due to the soft line-work and absence of dialogue.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 19:22

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 22:15

Darthemed: Oct 28, 2007; "A data unit?
For me?"; College Slice

Bloom County

Of all the pet names Lola might have had for Opus, 'Sweet Pea' is not what I'd expect.

Calvin And Hobbes

Caf� con Leche, "created by Charlos Gary, is about an interracial couple getting to know each other's African-American and Latina cultural background."

# ¿ Jan 28, 2014 17:17

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > Comic Strip Megathread XV: So smile, Margo, and move on.

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