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amigolupus posted:NuTrail and Randy's Popeye are somewhat interesting to me, in that both authors thought that the best way to modernize an old IP was to give their female leads their own adventures. I can get their reasoning, in that they don't just want the characters to be defined as The Girlfriend/Wife, but both Jules and Randy go about it in a way that is somehow more misogynistic. Cherry and Olive don't even feel like they're part of the main cast at all, and this strip where Cherry runs into Mark just highlights how they have nothing to do with each other at all. This is actually a pretty fun idea. Doomykins posted:I see your point about us mocking Montoni's in Crankshaft vs the same failing business in Forth but there are some significant differences. I don't know the full history of the antique shop that Sally's sister owns but it seems to be a long held business and we can sympathize with her desperation to hold onto it and not face the facts.
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Dec 31, 2023 05:01
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EasyEW posted:No strip for the 5th, but get a load of the announcement. Sorry to see this. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the 1930s through the eyes of a communist kid. It makes sense, though, actual 1930s communist kids probably preferred to read about sea serpents.
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Dec 31, 2023 05:06
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readingatwork posted:Crabgrass Solid lol from the big Nate
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Dec 31, 2023 05:13
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Some Guy TT posted:I'm gonna buck the trend on this one and say that this hits me personally, not because Sally's mom reminds me of real-life horrible relatives, but because Sally herself does. By which I mean, she clearly treats the whole relationship as primarily obligational, that she thinks of herself as a person who is good because she looks after her mother and has a relationship with her, with no regard to what her mother actually wants or who she is as a person. And to the extent Sally does consider her mom as a person, it's as a broken-down fuckup from a past generation who deserves her pity, and therapy, not like Sally herself who's fine with just pop culture fantasies and girls' nights out. A lot of this feels like the kind of self-justifying fantasy the relatives I'm thinking of would come up with. As in, they'd probably describe my behavior as identical to Sally's mom and have even blown up at me just as Sally did, and it would be gratifying for them to have a version where they're indisputably in the right and everyone they know is patting them on the back for screaming at me. I kind of agree. The comic portrays Sally's mom as a complete piece of work, but even so the person here who is most in the wrong is Sally for bringing her to her house against her will. The mom doesn't need therapy (well...) she needs her daughters to treat her like a human being instead of a decoration to be displayed at the holidays.
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Dec 31, 2023 05:24
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We need another week of strips in that dark future timeline where Crankshaft is almost dead and getting wheeled around in assisted care.
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Dec 31, 2023 05:38
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Tiggum posted:The weird stretched-and-compressed endless now of comic strip time makes it difficult to know how long anything's been going on, but Jackie opened her shop just a few years ago, pretty much on a whim I think? It's not a new thing any more, but it's not a family business or something she's been working toward her whole life. When the shop was first introduced it was when Jackie went to work as an employee there. Even then it was a weird little shop with no customers and Jackie's job seemed to be to keep the owner company more than anything else. Jackie and Sal wondered how the owner could afford to keep it open at all, let alone pay an employee. I'm pretty sure there was speculation that they might be laundering money or otherwise covering for some illegal operation. So naturally when the owner finally decided it was time to close her failing business selling weird crap no one wants to nobody, Jackie bought it.
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Dec 31, 2023 06:13
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Tiggum posted:This is actually a pretty fun idea. I'm gonna be the buzzkiller here and point out that if the gutter's that high it's going to splash and cause erosion issues. Ideally you should be burying it to drain away from the foundation.
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Dec 31, 2023 06:27
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we need to bring in a young character like Hayden because 23-year-old Dustin and his younger sister surely are too old to do the "what's an antenna?" punchline
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Dec 31, 2023 06:34
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Kids know what a loving antenna is
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Dec 31, 2023 06:36
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The Demons of Baseball       
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Dec 31, 2023 06:43
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Some Guy TT posted:I am not understanding half of these at this point. These specific ones are a bad example of that (the first one in particular is quite straightforward) but way too often Out Our Way has been reading like an incomprehensible inside joke lately. Born [something] Years Too Late
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Dec 31, 2023 07:12
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Some Guy TT posted:The Demons of Baseball Oh man, this I was not expecting. Attacking With the Wife! hahaha!
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Dec 31, 2023 07:19
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Daddy Daze Take It From The Tinkersons  Macanudo  Dark Side Of The Horse 
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Dec 31, 2023 07:33
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Huxley posted:A+J Mega Holiday Catch-up Post These are always cheerful and pleasant to read, even if I usually don't notice you haven't posted them until there's a catch-up post.
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Dec 31, 2023 07:37
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Rose is Rose I guess I'm posting this now! Just know that when we get to a feeder fetish/"Motherhood instantly turns Rose into a Rubenesque woman" strip or That drat Baby I'm going to quote the posts who asked for it. (If there are any other GoComics strips not currently being posted that people want to see, let me know; this is part of my routine now.) Here's my end of year thoughts:
I AM GRANDO posted:We need another week of strips in that dark future timeline where Crankshaft is almost dead and getting wheeled around in assisted care. Wasn't that Dark Future Timeline just...normal Funky?
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Dec 31, 2023 08:56
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Heathcliff Compu-toon  Garfield  Overboard  Monty  For Better or For Worse  Classic Arlo and Janis (January 27, 2002)  Rae the Doe, which you can support by pledging to the author's Patreon  On The Fastrack  No Safe Havens on Sundays! Zippy The Pinhead 
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Dec 31, 2023 09:00
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The less comprehensible an old-timey comic strip is, the more I enjoy it. I still haven't figured out the Out Our Way from earlier this year with two kids in a tree filling water balloons full of acorns or something and throwing them down onto the street. And that's just great. past is a foreign country and all also that wacky seattle duck being so flippant about the slow demise of a generation's youth is really incredible
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Dec 31, 2023 09:57
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Wallace the Brave and Crabgrass are my favorite comic strips that started in the last decade, Flash Gordon and Hägar the Horrible are my favorite legacy strips recently taken over by new artists, Arlo and Janis and The Lockhorns are my favorite long-running strips, Prince Valiant and Archie are my favorite vintage strips, and I love to hate Dustin. I also want to honorably mention Dark Side of the Horse, Out Our Way, Jucika, Bardiche Hotel, Scary Gary, and Krazy Kat. This thread is a treasure, and I am grateful to everyone who keeps posting comic strips, even though some of those comic strips are Intelligent Life.
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Dec 31, 2023 10:59
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If there's liquid water coming through the drain, then your snow gargoyle isn't long for this world.
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Dec 31, 2023 11:02
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For next year's thread I'll keep posting Scary Go Round, because I kind of made a joking threat to start posting it and nobody's told me it's garbage yet, and it's still in the period where it's not yet hit its stride. I expect it'll get to the "good part" in a couple months at my accelerated (3 days per day) pace. At the beginning of 2023 I joked/asked about doing Doonesbury From Zero, because at that time someone was doing Blondie From Zero. If there's anyone who would like to see it come to fruition I'd be interested in finding a format that works for that. It's a much more traditional comic strip so a week's worth of Doonesbury From Zero would take up less screen space than my current three strips per day of SGR, and unlike SGR, Doonesbury has been going for over fifty years. If folks would like, I'd be happy to start doing Doonesbury From Zero in 2024, but regardless, I'll keep doing the Scary Go Round archives. Kazinsal fucked around with this message at 11:26 on Dec 31, 2023 |
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Dec 31, 2023 11:24
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Bruceski posted:God, even if it was Copper that'd be savage but Maggie? It does make sense in hindsight. Maggie fell for Copper Ma acting like a pathetic wimp when she went to see him in that training camp. She's convinced herself that she 100% loves Copper Ma now, but seeing him lose again and again has made her doubt her decision. She's got sunk cost fallacy by this point decided she needs to do anything she can to preserve the lie that Copper Ma is unbeatable and she chose to back the right man. This is a cautionary tale about what happens if you get Copper Ma-pilled.  Hostile V posted:It's Actually About Ethics In Competitive Gardening Holbrook's shocked face reminds me of how Lynn draws shocked faces in Foob. Just this upside down triangle mouth that looks awful, especially when they draw in teeth. The_Other posted:As for the Lottie / Solver comics, I think the problem is that while Allison know what he doesn't want to do with the character, he doesn't know what he does want to do and keeps trying different things, which don't always end up working as well as some of his past stuff. The logical thing would be to follow Lottie to college, but that was ground Allison covered in Giant Days. The 6 issue Wicked Things had a decent concept (Lottie gets framed for murder and has to work with the police to clear her name) but that same concept constrained Lottie's actions (she works best as a kind of loose cannon) and Allison drifted away from the core plot and the story was left unfinished after 6 issues (Allison had been hoping for 16, and to be fair it seems he learned his lesson with the 4 issue Great British Bump Off staring Shauna). Solver had an interesting idea, Lottie tries to turn her mystery-solving abilities into problem-solving abilities, but Allison only really had two "cases" featured this, and the side plot of Lottie's first real romance wasn't as interesting a it should have been. One of Allison's strengths as a writer is having a strong ensemble cast who bounce of each others' personalities well and you see this in all his works. However, his problem is that he keeps breaking them up and having them go their separate ways. Lottie in Wicked Things, Claire in Solver or Shauna in Great British Bump Off are good ideas, but I don't think the characters are strong enough to carry the series just on their shoulders. Yeah, Allison comes up with side characters for those comics, but it's just not the same as them hanging out with Mildred, Sonny, Jack or Linton. Which is a shame, because the latter three get absolutely shafted in screentime as Bad Machinery progressed. So while it's realistic for friends in middle school to grow up and go their separate ways, it just kind of sucks from a storytelling perspective. Some Guy TT posted:Is this just Funky Winkerbean now? Crankshaft is barely even in it anymore. Or maybe it just feels this way because they won't shut up about this stupid restaurant. Incidentally one other thing that's pushing my contrarian view on Sally Forth is that mom's comment provoking the blow-up was about a very similar situation that the thread's been mocking here- how Sally's sister is running a failing business she barely even seems to understand. I really doubt there's any way Sally's mom could have commented on that mess which wouldn't have seemed like a brutal attack. You just know that in Batiuk's smirk-filled mind, this still isn't Funky 2.0 unless he has its main character make an appearance. Having Funky appear is like whatever to him because it only counts when Les Moore makes a cameo in the comic. Tiggum posted:Randy doesn't do the Olive comic. Randy draws Popeye, Emi Burdge draws Olive. They're separate comics that happen to run as a single feature. Ah, so that's the situation. I don't know... Even if they're separate comics, surely they could still have Popeye or Olive appear in each other's strips in a more supporting role? I think the problem is just that they might as well not exist for the other person's strip. Thimble Theater has Popeye go on this mad quest to beat up some dudes, yet he still takes the time to worry about how Olive is doing. And as others have brought up before, the deluge of obscure characters being used for the two strips adds nothing of value. They just clog up the space that could be used to show off the core cast's misadventures. riderchop posted:On The Fastrack The hell is this strip talking about? Dethany always sees things from a positive perspective. That's her entire schtick, that she's Not Like Those Other
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Dec 31, 2023 13:34
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Jucika "472 - Jucika, As A Ski Coach" "473 - Jucika, As A Wrecker"  Kazinsal posted:If folks would like, I'd be happy to start doing Doonesbury From Zero in 2024, but regardless, I'll keep doing the Scary Go Round archives. I'd be interested! And Scary Go Round can be rough around the edges but is always pretty good. I think there's less a bad period of it and more an awkward start where John realizes that Rachel and Theresa aren't as likeable as the rest of the cast. Doomykins fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Dec 31, 2023 |
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Dec 31, 2023 14:24
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Prince Valiant I'm too lazy to collect my thoughts right now but I might put together some comments for the new year's thread. I'll also try to update my recap of Val at some point for those who came in late.
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Dec 31, 2023 14:37
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Nancy 1943  And thus concludes 3 years of Nancy dailies. I may pick it back up in several months, but for now, I need a break. I do have 6 more years worth of content though! I flirted with buying the Pluggers book and scanning it to share the horror, but I'll spare us all for now I'm dealing with some vertigo/dizziness, so I don't have a lot of collected thoughts about the various strips, but man, Intelligent Life and Funky Crankershaft both suck poo poo.
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Dec 31, 2023 14:42
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riderchop posted:Overboard hosed up.
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Dec 31, 2023 14:50
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EasyEW posted:
Getting strong Don Martin vibes from this art. Missing a good KHASPLOORCH. This thread has been going on for so long now and I know some of the authors either read it or have participated here in some form. As an end of the year exercise, do you remember any published authors that came around these parts? Mokotow fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Dec 31, 2023 |
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Dec 31, 2023 15:28
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HELLWORLD WILL NEVER DIE AND I WILL POST THROUGH WHERE THE PROJECT STARTED UNTIL THE SERPENT DEVOURS ITS OWN TAIL SO THOROUGHLY ALL IS ONE AND ALL IS MEAT, MERCILESSLY WASTED MEAT Argyle Sweater's gonna stick around too.
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Dec 31, 2023 16:07
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Into Ilves  Nancy  Dustin 
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Dec 31, 2023 16:13
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:If there's liquid water coming through the drain, then your snow gargoyle isn't long for this world. Oh no! Quick, let's give it sentience before it's no longer capable of being aware of what's happening to it! Mokotow posted:This thread has been going on for so long now and I know some of the authors either read it or have participated here in some form. someone started posting Blind Alley stuff from the Patreon ahead of public availability, and the author had to write a Patreon post asking them to stop. That count? I'll sum up my comic thoughts later, but echoing the sentiment that this thread rules so much and I'm glad to be part of it.
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Dec 31, 2023 16:29
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Also who the hell calls it the holiday baby? Edit: Sorry holiday infant. That's even stupider. Is baby new year copyrighted or something? Good Listener fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Dec 31, 2023 |
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Dec 31, 2023 16:37
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Pickles  Hagar the Horrible   Zits  
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Dec 31, 2023 16:54
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The world doesn't need two Dustins, Zits.
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Dec 31, 2023 17:08
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EasyEW posted:Toonerville Folks (April 3-5, 1922)
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Dec 31, 2023 17:08
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Haifisch posted:1981 comics Classic Spider-Man, compared to the newer stuff, seems pretty loaded with anticlimaxes. quote:Compared to newer Rex Morgan, classic Rex Morgan seems every bit as tangentially related to the existence of a doctor somewhere. quote:Is it just me or does classic Mary Worth have a lot more background and detail than the newer one? quote:I have lost track of who exactly is writing Nancy in the eighties but it's much closer to older Nancy than newer Nancy in tone and vibes. quote:I'd say classic Beetle Bailey is good but since we never read modern Beetle Bailey, I honestly don't know if the improvement or devolution is especially meaningful. quote:I like this one mainly because I enjoy seeing what stores used to look like forty years ago. quote:Dick Tracy Of all the Dick Tracies that could be posted in this thread, this one feels like the most off-brand. quote:Footrot Flats I love that dog. He's a good dog. quote:The Lockhorns There's something almost aspirational about the very specific way these two make each other miserable, as if they know that they (and life) are full of it, and need the reliable reminder from someone else to keep from going insane. quote:Computoon: Origins You know, at this point I think we can safely say that this comic has never made sense.
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Dec 31, 2023 17:18
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Pancho Jueves posted:The world doesn't need two Dustins, Zits. Dustin and Zits often exist as two sides of the same coin, but I am almost always willing to forgive Zits because it's overall a wholesome strip with a family that likes each other (and in this particular case, I Agree With the Cartoonist's Opinions. Next year I'm going to continue posting what I post, it's worked well so far. However there hasn't been much reception to Alley Oop since I started posting it. I like it enough to keep going but if there's not interest, my own interest will peter out eventually too. Breaking Cat News   Phoebe and Her Unicorn   Wallace the Brave   Heart of the City   Curtis  
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Dec 31, 2023 17:21
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Some Guy TT posted:I have lost track of who exactly is writing Nancy in the eighties but it's much closer to older Nancy than newer Nancy in tone and vibes. Ernie Bushmiller did Nancy until he died in 1982.
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Dec 31, 2023 17:31
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Mokotow posted:This thread has been going on for so long now and I know some of the authors either read it or have participated here in some form. One of the co-creators of the My Cage strip was briefly active in a previous thread until that old-fashioned strain of brutally honest goon criticism ran him off, which seemed to happen a lot during that period of the forums. There was also that brief window where Francesco Marciuliano was reposting thread edits to his blogs. and an in-strip shoutout from Kevin Frank of Heaven's Love Thrift Shop:  But let us never forget... Otterloop posted:A friend told me about this thread 6 or 7 months ago, saying it's written by actual newspaper comic strip fans, close readers of the form who hold passionate opinions. So I started lurking, not so often as to be creepy, but enough to get a feel for what the readership is thinking. I'd sworn to keep my mouth shut and my head down so I didn't sway the conversation, or stifle the debate, or something.  Mutts  Sally Forth  Peanuts (December 26, 1976)  Crankshaft  When Mindy said "We just have to keep doing this every day!", she left out "for the rest of our lives". Also, thinking about writing this up for the next thread reminded me that Mindy used to have a comic book gig too. We know Pete suffered from burnout, but what's her story? (He said knowing full well that the answer is "Silly poster! Women don't get A-stories in this strip!") Li'l Abner finally touched home plate. (July 1-3, 1935)    Thimble Theater (August 4, 1940)  Popeye 
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Dec 31, 2023 17:47
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Giant Ethicist posted:We Are Reproducing There's something oddly therapeutic about how We Are Reproducing packages educational premises about childrearing in a format clearly intended for men, that neither condescends nor panders to them, while still maintaining a fundamentally feminist tone. quote:We also have a new, seasonal chapter of Bardiche Hotel: Chapter 9, Snow Can a comic be too weird? Probably not, but if it could, Bardiche Hotel would qualify.
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Dec 31, 2023 17:51
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manero posted:Nancy 1943 Thanks for these. My partner's grandmother (who also had horrible vertigo) loved Nancy and it has hopefully given me some insight into an amazing woman's humor and life.
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Dec 31, 2023 18:17
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I mostly want to say thank you to all of you thread regulars. Extra thanks go to people who are manually scanning in old/obscure comics from books or papers, and even more thanks heaped on top of that for the people who are translating foreign comics into English for us. And of course, I raise a glass to the actual authors and artists of all these comics, without whom we wouldn't have a whole lot to talk about. Bizarro  The Family Circus  Slylock Fox  Flash Gordon  FoxTrot 
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