Comic Strips

This Week’s Comic Cons and Pros – Here Come The Judge

Gil Thorp: three panels, 18 words, 5 word breaks; Sally Forth: three panels, 63 words, no hyphens used. I don’t know who letters the Gil Thorp comic strip but there was plenty of room to elongate the word balloons, reducing the height and doing away with splitting words. And that last word balloon – breaking up “performance” was completely unnecessary, as was “Oakwood” in the first balloon.

Sally Forth by Francesco Marciuliano and Jim Keefe – May 8, 2018

Has Marciuliano been said to be to modern equivalent to the very log-winded Al Feldstein or Don McGregor? Note: only two words broken (Feldstein) in the three samples above.

I took the Monday Mark Trail denouement as Rivera taking a jab at the Sunday Trails.

In sync

Sunday comic strips have a longer lead time than the daily comic strips, yet Mark Trail beat Ripley’s Believe It or Not to the punch with Jimothy.

By the way, isn’t it time Ripley’s Believe It or Not started giving credit to Howie Noel as they used to with John Graziano and Kieran Castaño.

This is a great comic strip. The timing, the illustrations, the perfect wording in the last panel all come together to give me the laugh of the week. It probably helps to be aware of the sibling rivalry.

In sync (reprise)

Given the aforementioned lead time for comic strips these two had remarkable timing.

Cartoonist Mallett had to know the challenge would be irresistible to a subset of his commenters.

For all the reasons given to the Adam @ Home strip above, and adding in subtly, this is was wonderful cartoon and is in running for laugh of the week. I was ready to give it “Comic Panel of the Week” status, but along came…

Hambrock’s depiction of a train in the Alps enthralled, it is a beautiful depiction.

Also: If Hambock continues this storyline for the rest of the year hopping from one classic to another, in a sort of Gulliver’s Travels-like travelogue, I would be more than happy though only two or three were mentioned in the introduction. The story started three months ago (or here if you bypass the prologue) and it is a most enjoyable adventure.

Judge Parker by “Paul Nichols” and Dan Heilman – Nov. 24, 1952

As Judge Alan Parker returns to the courthouse, and maybe as the star of his eponymous comic strip at least for a while, he looks no older than he did when we were first introduced to him 74 years ago.

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Comments 4

  1. The hyphenation in that “Gil Thorp” doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the incredible ugliness of the artwork. I’ve never followed the strip, but every time I see it appear here, I wonder why anyone would bother. The wedding announcement was another horrific example.

    1. I used to include it in my dailies, and I stopped. I already didn’t care for the new writer, but the new art was a deal breaker. There are so many artists who would love a regular gig, so why on earth would they give the job to somebody who couldn’t even draw?

    2. I follow Gil Thorp now *for* the ugly artwork and stupid story, but also for the comments as they are funny. It is, to me, the ugliest comic strip to ever appear and as the train wreck it is, it is hard *not* to watch it.

  2. Nothing wrong with being wordy but sometimes it disrupts the flow of the narrative.

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