Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011






Welcome to the 20th iteration of Something Awful's most surprisingly resilient thread.

Kennel posted:

BTW, this is the first time since 2013(!) that we have 666+ pages within a year.

Forums status: not dead yet, probably gayer than ever.



Also, for the first time ever we are more active than the Politoon thread.

This thread had humble beginnings as a For Better or Worse thread, that eventually grew to expand to all newspaper comics as the scope expanded and the thread began to serve comically elaborate archival purposes. Speaking of which, the full history-

Old Thread Listing
  1. For Better or for Worse, here we go again
  2. For Better or For Worse II, The Sun May Get in 56kers' Eyes
  3. For Better or For Worse III: Who need this?!?
  4. For Better or For Worse Megathread
  5. The Comic Strip Megathread: Luann's Funky For Better Minimum Security
  6. The Comic Strip Megathread V - Just Another Uneventful Lesbian Road Trip
  7. The Comic Strip Megathread V, Part 3 - Dick and Jane Go to the Goddamn Bank
  8. Comic Strip Megathread V, Part 4: Thalidomide Theater: Day of the Jackelrod
  9. Comic Strip Megathread Part Ten: Infections and Gams... FOR ME! BARB ELS!
  10. Comic Strip Megathread Part 11: drat that's a fine elephant.
  11. Comic Strip Megathread Part XII: Reply All is the best comic in this thread
  12. Comic Strip Megathread XIII: Still can't get over it!
  13. Comic Strip Megathread XIV: Happy After Death 2013!
  14. Comic Strip Megathread XV: So smile, Margo, and move on
  15. Comic Strip Megathread XVI: Winking Throwbacks to Retro Sexism
  16. Comic Strip Megathread XVII: I have a special recipe (cackle-cackle)
  17. Comic Strip Megathread XVIII: Please refrain from erotic speculation about our characters
  18. Comic Strip Thread: WHEN MAN'S CONSCIENCE IS GONE HIS SOUL IS DEAD
  19. Comic Strip Thread: Sumpin Arful

Speaking of which I am very bad at archiving even my own comics that I personally translate. So I'm fully expecting other regulars to offer more proper introductions to their comics as well as favorite edits of threads past. What I can offer, is very unsolicited opinions about every comic currently being posted, grouped by genre.

Family Comics
The Lockhorns: Older middle aged couple hates other, is much more sweet and less mean-spirited than it sounds!
Arlo and Janis: Older middle aged couple gently caress each other, is much more wholesome and less pornographic than it sounds!
9 Chickweed Lane: Younger couple gently caress each other, while constantly playing music, is considerably less subtle and more pornographic than it sounds!
All Quiet on the Homefront: Younger middle aged Norwegian couple in the present day are happily married, love their kids.
Hagar the Horrible: Older middle aged Viking couple in an ambiguously defined day are happily married, love their kids.
For Better or Worse: Older middle age couple are ambiguously married, have an ambiguous relationship with their kids.
Sally Forth: Middle aged quirky couple maybe loves their singular kid? It can be hard to tell sometimes, lots of words and pop culture references.
Dustin: Older middle aged couple love their daughter for not being their son.
Zits: Older middle aged couple love their son, have mostly forgotten they also have another son.
Rose is Rose: Younger middle aged couple love each other and their son in a way that makes it seem like they're trying too hard.
One Big Happy: Younger middle aged couple love each other and their children but hate everyone else.
Daddy Daze: Single dad loves his son who speaks in gibberish.
Take it From the Tinkersons: Middle middle aged couple love each other and their kids and show it by being snarky.

SPACE COMICS
Brewster Rockit Space Guy: Zany comprehensible and family-friendly space adventures with little-to-no continuity. Named for the dumb, oafish main character. He's a bit of a joke.
Safe Havens: Bewildering incomprehensible and child-endangering space adventures with entirely too much continuity. Named for the daycare where all the title characters grew up when the comic started three decades ago. That's not a joke.

Office Comics
Dilbert: Is banned for transphobia and Scott Adams being a dick.
Safe Havens: Is allowed because it effectively demonstrates how Americans rationalize abusive work environments.
Cheer Up Boss Dharma: Is probably technically a crime since I translate them without permission from the Korean author.
Working: Daze: Is allowed because...I don't remember it's terrible and I don't think it's actually published anywhere.
Tina's Groove: Is allowed because when you think about it restaurants are kind of like offices except with food.
Retail: Is allowed because when you think about it retail stores are kind of like offices except with more unwanted social interaction.
Intelligent Life: Is allowed because...I don't remember it's terrible and I don't think it's actually published anywhere.

Furry Comics
Kevin and Kell: Is not made by a furry, despite being gross and horrifying.
Phoebe: Is made by a furry, despite being cute and wholesome.
Breaking Cat News: Probably not made by a furry despite featuring an overabundance of fur.
Sherman's Lagoon: Probably not made by a furry since sharks aren't furry. Otherwise structured like a family strip.
Rae the Doe: Is possibly made by a furry but it's hard to tell because there's more puns than worldbuilding.
Pearls Before Swine: Is possibly made by a furry not because it's about animals but because the man who makes it is very clearly depressed.
Buni: Is possibly made by a furry although this has no apparent connection with the content.
Moomins: Not sure. Do hippopotami have fur? Otherwise structured in a very unique, dreamlike manner.

Pet Comics
Pooch Cafe: The dog has a dickish personality, but is smart.
Get Fuzzy: The cat has a dickish personality, but is dumb.
Footrot Flats: The dog has an endearing personality, and also a job appropriate for a real dog.
Mother Goose and Grimm: The dog has no real distinct personality quirks.
Garfield: The cat has a lazy personality, but becomes bland over time.
Heathcliff: The cat has an affable personality, but becomes weird over time.

Comics Predating World War II
Ella Cinders: A reimagining of the Cinderella story featuring no glass slippers.
Thimble Theater: A preimagining of the Popeye cartoon featuring no spinach.
Skippy: A preimagining of Skippy Peanut Butter.
Out Our Way: A reimagining of the really old days from the perspective of the kind of old days.
And He Did: An imagining of what would happen if he did.
Outbursts of Everett True: An imagining of what the world would look like if justice were real.
Hitz and Mrs.: A preimagining of zany husband sitcoms.
Gay and Her Gang: An imagining of flappers.
Oaky Doaks: An imagining of chivalry from the perspective of a goofball.
Dark Laughter: An imagining of how black people would look in comics if they weren't drawn as racist stereotypes.
Mopsy: A reimagining of flappers after the flappers went away.
Patty Jo 'n Ginger: An imagining of what if Mopsy lived with Nancy and also Nancy's a leprechaun.
The Timid Soul: A preimagining of the now common word milquetoast.
Dok's Ducks: An imagining of the world if we were all ducks.
Brenda Starr: An imagining of what the life of a reporter would be like if she never actually did any reporting.
Smokey Stover: An imagining of what the life of a firefighter would be like if he did odd jobs around the station.
Popular Comics: A reimagining of which comics used to be popular.
Origins of the Sunday Comics: A reimagining of which Sunday comics used to be popular.

ACTION COMICS
Modesty Blaise: Legendary long-running competence porn and I'm kind of surprised there's still interesting ideas left in there.
Axa: Legendary short-running regular porn and I'm kind of surprised it has so few interesting ideas.
Rip Haywire: This one definitely has action but I can't keep track of what's going on in between the action.
Prince Valiant: Where there's no action, there's still indisputably beautiful art.
The Phantom: Exactly the right amount of action.
The Shadow: Action without the police.
Dick Tracy: Action with the police.
Spider-Man: Action that sometimes features cooperation with the police.
Mandrake: Quite a bit of action despite the main character's power being his ability to avoid action.
Zorro: Uh I assume there's action in here somewhere it's kind of hard to tell.
Flyin' Jenny: Action with airplanes.
Blueberry: Action with various soldiers in the Wild West as imagined by Belgians.
Dinky Dinkerton: Action with a detective who indulges in slapstick.

One-Off Comics
The Dinette Set: Horrible fat people make horrible observations.
The Far Side: Normal fat people make strange observations.
Junk Drawer: A single cartoonist makes scattered observations.
Richard's Poor Almanac: A single cartoonist makes many bizarre observations at the same time.
Six Chix: Six women cartoonists make one observation a week each.
Rhymes With Orange: One woman cartoonist makes whimsical observations every day.
F-Minus: One male cartoonist makes offbeat observations every day.
Andertoons: One male cartoonist makes accurate legalistic observations.
Computoons: One male cartoonist makes bewildering technical observations.
Family Circus: One male cartoonist makes observations about himself as if he were his own father.
Bizarro: One male cartoonist makes observations with easter egg hunts.
B Kliban: One male cartoonist refuses to make observations instead preferring to make bizarre sketches about nothing.
Monster Rally: Charles Addams makes terrifying observations.
Dark Side of the Horse: A horse makes reality-defying observations.
Fingerpori: A Finnish person makes frequently untranslatable observations.
Super-Fun-Pax Comix: Tom the Dancing Bug makes large groups of observations in a newspaper comic parody format sometimes and then GoComics repackages them in singular daily form.

Kid Comics
Peanuts: Kids in the fifties/seventies behave like kids.
Wee Pals: Kids in the sixties complain about pop culture and politics as if they were kids.
Crabgrass: Kids in the eighties behave like kids.
Calvin and Hobbes: A kid and his tiger in the nineties behave like kids.
The Boondocks: Kids in the aughts complain about pop culture and politics as if they weren't kids.
Cul De Sac: Kids in the aughts behave like kids.
Wallace the Brave: Kids in the tens behave like kids.
Curtis: Kids in the tens behave like they're in the nineties.
Nancy: Kids throughout the ages behave like teenagers.

Webcomics from GoComics wherever
Bad Machinery: Mostly high school adventures featuring mystery solving teens.
New Bobbins: Mostly adult adventures featuring mystery creating adults.
Robbie and Bobby: Mostly wholesome one-off jokes featuring a boy and a robot.
Mr. Boop: Mostly overly sexualized copyright infringed nonsense featuring a man who loves his wife, Betty Boop.
Nekonaughey: Mostly wholesome wordless jokes featuring a silent cheerful yet anxious Japanese cat and sometimes his silent rich yet undersocialized rabbit buddy.

Soap Opera Comics
Funky Winkerbean: Tries to be hip and relevant and profound, frequently depicts basic facts about the subjects wrong in baffling ways.
Mary Worth: Tries to be hip and relevant and helpful, frequently depicts people making bad decisions in ambiguous ways.
Rex Morgan: Tries to be hip and relevant and medical, frequently depicts medical emergencies in boring ways.
Mark Trail: Tries to be hip and relevant and zoological, frequently succeeds despite an ambiguous understanding of real estate law.
Mämmilä: Tries to be hip and relevant and managerial, frequently depicts Finnish culture so obtusely that footnotes are required.
Apartment 3-G: Tries to be hip and relevant and lovelorn, frequently depicts men in an unflattering way which may not have been intentional.
Sturgeon's Tales: Tries to be hip and relevant and historical, frequently depicts dysfunctional Scandinavian nobility.

Monstrous Comics
Scary Gary: Literal monsters persist in suburbia.
Overboard: Monsters disguised as animals are very friendly and do favors for pirates.

Single Person Comics
Luann: College students spurn relationships because they think each other have cooties.
Monty: Middle aged people spurn relationships because they think themselves have cooties.
Pondus: Middle aged people are hideous and I'm pretty sure they all have cooties.
Zelda: Younger middle aged people are pretentious and think everyone has cooties.
Dykes To Watch Out For: Middle aged lesbians are neurotic and think straights have cooties.

Old Person Comics
Crankshaft: An old man refuses to retire, is a menace to society.
Pickes: An old man has retired, bickers with his wife in a cute manner.

If you want to post something, and it even comes slightly close to any of these categories, just post. If you have an observation about any comic that you see here, just post. Want to make an edit? Go nuts- it's not as hard as you'd think-

SubNat posted:



Basic moominfont v0.1: I used Calligraphr and it was pretty simple, might add variations and tweak the character spacing and etc some other time.


Only has basic A-Z + some punctuation.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iemx2s04xyc240q/Moominish_90-Regular.ttf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjkswcarzzyrjsv/Moominish_90-Regular.otf?dl=0

This is a thread for posting. Don't overthink it. That is all, and have fun.

Some Guy TT fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Feb 17, 2021

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Welp, my real life situation sure turned into a mess almost immediately after I finished the OP.



Cheer Up Boss Dharma appears in the South Korean newspaper the Sports Dongah. It's the successor strip to It's All Right Chief Dharma from the South Korean newspaper Money Today. The title character is a low-ranking manager in the office of a low-to-mid size importing/exporting company. His punny name is meant to give a feeling of spiritual acceptance with the farcical realities of doing business.

This guy isn't Dharma though, this is Carl Dashum, whose Korean name roughly means running with a huffing puffing sound. It's meant to be ironic, which I tried to recreate in translation. He's a bit of a Caspar Milquetoast type character, except self-aware of it and trying to defy his stereotype to limited success. I would say he got off to a good start this year- except that I'm still a couple of weeks behind, as you can see, and unlikely to catch up in the near future. Nuts.

Some Guy TT fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jan 4, 2021

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

What gets me about that is that she already has the slides. If she did what he said she'd have to rebuild the entire presentation from scratch with technology she doesn't know how to use. That's a really dumb suggestion compared to just looking up whether modern slide projectors even exist and what do you know, they do exist, and they don't even cost that much.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

The other hunters sure, but why can't the deer tell the difference?

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

MockingQuantum posted:

Okay I'm new to this thread, having just jumped on board at the start of this year. So is it possible somebody could give me the Cliff's Notes version of what the gently caress is going on in Mr. Boop? Without context it is deeply disturbing, though I'm getting the impression it's not much less disturbing with context, either.

If it's any comfort not everyone agreed that it ever belonged in the thread in the first place which is why I didn't mention it in the OP. Well, that and it had been so long since it had been posted, and the reaction to the later strips was so negative that I wasn't expecting it to come back.

The literal justification How Wonderful! had for Mr. Boop being thread appropriate is that she liked it to a modern day Tijuana Bible. So if you're interpreting it as deeply disturbing you are indeed interpreting it correctly.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Anytime Kevin and Kel has offscreen murder I think of that one fan (?) comic depicting Kel killing a married couple mentioned offhandedly as being old acquaintances of Kevin. The setup being that they were going to send them Christmas cards I think but apparently Kel recognized their names.

Anyone have that? New thread, new readers, and they need to see it.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

catlord posted:

The Shadow Jul. 18th, 1940



What's Flyin' Jenny?

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Her precious heirloom is the skin of some famous person. Well isn't that just delightful?

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Slammy posted:

Gay and Her Gang (February 11, 1929)


Hey, that's not a joke, it's just a unadorned recitation of the proverb!

quote:

Dark Laughter (August 19, 1939)

“Bootsie darlin’ this reminds me of that picture we seen at the Bijou where Tarzan an’ his old lady is quietly restin’ by a lake.”

Is it just me or are these scans a lot more visible compared to when you started, to the point that the transcript isn't really necessary?

quote:

Wee Pals (April 2, 1965)


Well, that sure was a prescient prediction of late capitalist psychological disorders.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

I'm better appreciating through this run of Bad Machinery how the character designs all change extremely subtly between stories to mark the passage of time/puberty. In that context the new designs in the new story aren't really that out there, if we just assume there were a couple years' worth of subtle character design changes we didn't see.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011


I feel like I should be angry about this particular pun being unnecessarily esoteric but since I get the reference I'm not.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011


I had a very affectionate cat once who just would not or could not retract his claws when kneading my legs. He loved to do that any time I lied down on the couch. So I had to make a point of wearing jeans almost all the time since otherwise he would just cut right through the fabric and start scratching me.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

You're not missing the joke. I've only ever heard the altered phrase and didn't realize there was an original one, because apparently this joke has been around so long it turned into its own epigram at some point.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Medenmath posted:

This should be in the OP.

Oh, right, I guess that's my job now. Done.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

maltesh posted:

There was an Electric Company reboot from '09-'11. As such, I think "Rugrats" is probably the longest-canceled series mentioned in the comic, if you don't count "All Grown Up", and if you do, then it's "Maya and Miguel", which aired its last new episode in '07

That said, it's '21, and most of the mentioned series are probably reasonably available for streaming.

My niece and nephews had a period where they really loved the Adventures of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. This was especially bizarre because neither they nor anyone else in the family liked the Sonic the Hedgehog games, and this is a cartoon old enough that even I'm too young for it.

I could see why they liked it though. It's a pretty solid formula, kind of a hybrid Bugs Bunny Speedy Gonzalez lead character in a superhero style format. The algorithm can take kids pretty strange places some times. Now they're all about Alan Becker animations.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Professor Wayne posted:

I hate to even ask this, but Kevin and Kell always makes a huge deal about hybrids, and I don't think you ever see an adult who's part elk and part penguin or whatever. Were species only having kids with themselves before the protagonists casually broke barriers and started making magic babies?

The transherbivore guy and his sheep wife are confirmed infertile and adoption is quite common in the worldbuilding. At least four characters that I can think of. I'd like to think hybrids tending to be infertile is coherent worldbuilding based on real life biology but I know that in reality this is probably just a coincidence and that if it ever comes up it's going to be the dumb explanation you wrote.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Selachian posted:

Brenda Starr 8/19/45



I don't really understand why women wear pantyhose but at the same time it seems unlikely to me that leg paint would be a usable substitute.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Nylon chat fired up some neurons.




I feel compelled to note as the OP that while Maus was not a newspaper comic, it was serialized in a magazine, and certainly no more of a departure from the spirit of the thread than certain other recent comics if someone wants something to post. Scans are easier to find than I would have thought too, given it's one of the few comic books people actually buy anymore. For university classes of course, but still.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

FrumpleOrz posted:

Mother Goose & Grimm


Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011


Are we supposed to dislike Keith? Cooper doesn't have a monopoly on the idea of retail blogs. It's not like he's getting paid for it, and Keith works in a totally different department so he would have completely different stories to tell.

Slammy posted:

Those Were the Days (March 1, 1951)


I'm reminded of the Boss Dharma from forever ago where the Ghana guy comments on how Korean people will go to work even in horrific, dangerous circumstances. It's not phrased as a compliment, the implication being that the modern capitalist work ethic sounds pretty nuts to people who haven't been conditioned to accept it. This comic intrigues me because it suggests there was a time during the postwar period where people were pushing back against this ideology in the United States but ultimately failed. The Dharma comic for reference, thumbnailed since it's a repost-



It is, for the record, also a fairly recent phenomenon in South Korea. Contrary to what you might have heard the infamous workaholic Korean culture only really started to be a thing in the eighties when the culture started to get hypercapitalistic. An old expression called "Korean time" is meant to denote people working slowly although it has long since faded to meaninglessness. German and Japanese culture were seen in the same stereotypical terms prior to the twentieth century, ridiculous though that may sound today. Yet despite the persistence hardworking German stereotype in actuality they have the shortest working days in Europe.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

It's a minor complaint over all the rest of the insanity, but I'm just sort of struck how despite the buzzard having godlike power over their society's entire structure, she apparently couldn't be bothered to make a world where she wouldn't lose her day job for being a single mother. Why she even cares about having a day job in the first place, well, that's just another mystery.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply