I know his smiling face is meant to look benevolent, but there is something unsettling about Dinkle in the third panel today. Like I can imagine him hissing “Do it in key!” with a low gentle threat in each word, gripping Bingo’s neck ever so slightly; the gentle petting turning to a slight controlling clutch around the jaws. Like at any moment he could grab the cat by the head and fling him forcefully into the nave below. “Do it in key…” Dinkle whispers, “or you’ll be flat.”
A chilling thought; but more likely it’s Dinkle who is in for a world of hurt. Because you do NOT put your face that close to a cat you’ve just met.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Who wants to bet that Bingo will never appear in the strip again? What a pointless interlude. Granted, you don’t need a strong story if the jokes are funny enough, but we didn’t get good jokes either.
Kili never did. Just a one shot character, like Phil Holt or Lenny. Although someone mentioned the possibility of Bingo appearing on a hypothetical St. Spires Rose Parade float and sadly I wouldn’t rule that possibility out.
I doubt it. The upcoming real-world float is “Saluting America’s Band Directors”, not “Saluting America’s Church Choir Directors And In Theory Organists”.
That float’s web page says “We teach music. We teach life.” When has Harry Dinkle ever taught life? When has he ever taught anything? When has he ever shown the tiniest amount of interest in anyone else? All he does with children is use them in ways that could be legally classified as slavery.
Steve Dallas wasn’t a good lawyer, but Berke Breathed wasn’t jumping on parade floats promoting the righteousness of the legal profession.
You know, I like cats and I like dogs and there’s this annoyingly mushy part of me that never feels totally comfortable with tearing these pet-related strips to shreds but man, this is just repellent. Reading this one is like chewing on Stevia packets for an hour.
And yeah, bad idea to get right up in the face of a cat you don’t know. Mine might take your eye out if you pulled that stunt with him. Or he might run and hide under the bed for four and a half hours. They’re unpredictable creatures at times.
Unpredictable is right. One of our cats will let you scratch his belly and, when he’s lulled you sufficiently, begin nipping at your hand.
It appears that we can add cat behavior to the ever-expanding list of things TomBa doesn’t know about.
Threatening a cat? I want to congratulate Batiuk on finding yet another way to make Dingle loathsome. Seriously, the human aging process must be another of the many things Batiuk doesn’t understand because it’s like he expects Dinkle to become the new Les Moore when he grows up.
Batiuk doesn’t understand growing up, because he never grew up himself. He consumes comic books like a small child does. He has no interest in more adult implementations of the comic book archetype, like Watchmen, or even PG-13 Hollywood movies. He’s still mad about the campy 1960s Batman TV show, which is over 50 years old now. He cannot take a shred of criticism. He uses his comic strip to lash out at anyone or anything that offends him in the tiniest way. He cannot create a believable or likeable adult character. His Mary Sue characters can never be questioned. His attempts to write serious drama are laughable. Maturity-wise, he’s somewhere between ages 9 and 14.
Is that Yarael Poof in disguise in the first panel?
I like this version of Yarael Poof:
Are we really supposed to LIKE this weirdo? It’s not like he’s making a lighthearted joke for the benefit of the choir. He’s whispering his reprimand directly to the cat. He’s serious about this. And it doesn’t help that Ayers depicts him as some kind of deranged predator..
Bingo is becoming desperate. He stays crouched in the swamp, covered in mud. Completely still, barely breathing. There’s a shimmer in the air. THE DINKLE uncloaks next to him, wide rictus grin plastered on his horrible face! THE DINKLE slowly scans the swamp, beady black eyes searching. Bingo readies his weapons to attack…
“If it bleeds, we can kill it.”
BIngo and Harry are going to fight over the dead mice in the choir loft, aren’t they?
Why don’t you complain in key, you goddam Old Spice-laden delusional codger!!!
Old Spice? Now more than ever, the world needs a tuna-flavored aftershave.
Jeebus, Dinkle. It’s “ON key,” not “IN key.”