Some Comments on Last Week’s Funnies

Reubens’ week for cartoonists started with Labor Day and Baldo showcased both.

While Brewster Rockit started the week off with a good laugh.

© John McPherson

First thought about Wednesday’s Close to Home: Prince Valiant is not allowed to show a sword piercing.

Whereas this past week’s Alley Oop had me thinking ‘shrooms.

© Peanuts Worldwide

Psychedelics may be the cause of the Peanuts Begins GoComics colorist seeing colors that shouldn’t be there.

Of course Zippy is always trippin’

© Bill Griffith

© Tribune Content Agency

Maybe because it is out of the ordinary but I enjoyed the look of that isolated pathway in Friday’s Animal Crackers.

Staying with Tribune Content … I haven’t yet read today’s Dick Tracy. Gotta go back to the beginning of this Minit Mystery to read it in one setting and see if my Hardy Boys training is enough to solve the crime.

© Tribune Content Agency

Back to the graphic Close to Home above – Dick Tracy is not allowed to show the moment of impact.

Hey! Happy Birthday Gil Thorp!

©Tribune Content Agency

Though it goes without saying in Prickly City, I’m amazed at what is allowed in newspaper comics these days.

© King Features Syndicate

Hägar the Horrible has been drawn by Gary Hallgren for years and during that time was occasionally seen as off-Chris-Browne-model, the crowd scenes with non-regular characters really show the Hallgren style.

When are they going to let Gary sign it?

© North America Syndicate

After one or two letters questioning the science in the Sunday strips Mark Trail plays it safe with UFOs.

And that brings me to UFO and FurBabies, two of the newer comic strips I am enjoying and have kept on my GoComics feed. Now another new comic strip is being introduced.

Dumplings by Victor Van Acker debuts on Comics Kingdom today. Too early to tell but I always hold out hope.

The Comics Kingdom Facebook page offers some background:

We are beyond excited to welcome DUMPLINGS to our family of comics! Dive into the vibrant and whimsical world created by Victor Van Acker, where you’ll meet Dani, her faithful dog Benny, and a bunch of their endearing friends. Life with this crew is never dull, from student council coups and soccer team walk-outs to sidewalk pizza fights.

A little backstory for those new to DUMPLINGS: Victor Van Acker, the brilliant creator of the strip, used to sketch these delightful characters to entertain his family. After 15 years of running an ice cream stand, he decided to bring this world alive for everyone. And voilà! A year later, Dumplings was born.

© Victor Van Acker

From the future to the past – Mutts gives us a comics history lesson today.

© Patrick McDonnell

An iconic Polly and Her Pals by Cliff Sterrett from December 26, 1926:

6 thoughts on “Some Comments on Last Week’s Funnies

  1. I would imagine that the Peanuts Begins coloring mistake continues the long-standing “tradition” of colorists quickly coloring strips without reading them first.

  2. As the writer of that Minit Mystery, I hope you enjoyed it. I was very pleased with the artwork by Mike Sagara; I thought he did an excellent job. Getting the chance to write for Dick Tracy, a strip I’ve read since I was a kid, fulfilled an ambition of decades-long standing.

    1. Eric, that first Sunday led me to believe the crime was committed by a left hander, unless later clues showed the blow came from the rear. Couldn’t deduce which lefty did the dastardly deed. (Wouldn’t a sauna have left a wet towel?)
      But was happy you left a trail of clues, something missing from a few past Minit Mysteries.

      1. Ah, that was the reason it was stated that the victim had defensive wounds on his hands — the attack was therefore much more likely from the front. The wounds on the victim (injuries to the head on the right side) and the blood spatter pattern on the wall were the clues that the killer was left-handed, and the fact that the towel (with the victim’s blood, washed off the killer) was wet, not damp, pointed to a more likely usage in a shower, not a sauna, thereby implicating Demain as a more likely suspect than Hoo. (Also note the towel was found near the shower [see one of the details in the fourth panel of the second Sunday], an area Demain admitted he’d been in, indicating that Demain probably didn’t notice the blood when he discarded the towel.) The Nuremoh card was something of a MacGuffin. And yes, I did read a fair bit of Encyclopedia Brown back when I was a stripling, some 47 odd years ago — why do you ask? *grin*

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