Tag: Darin

Look Back in Anger

It speaks to the drawn out pacing of this comic strip that today’s strip could seamlessly follow last week’s, completely doing away with Cindy’s fire escape escapade. I’m not an avid Mary Worth reader but I imagine the same thing must happen over there a lot.

A cursory search of Grandpa Google for the phrase “grandpa google” reveals that nobody except Pete and Tom Batiuk actually call Google that, so into the Batiuktionary it goes. A good gag would have had cranky old Cliff reply to Pete “Who are you callin’ Grandpa?” But clearly this is one internet savvy old man. He’s used the web to move enough SJ collectibles to create a trail that has led these strangers hundreds of miles to find him. What little inventory he has left fits in an old suitcase: a raygun, rocketship, some action figures (and were “action figures” even a thing back in the days of serials? Boys didn’t play with dolls until G.I. Joe), along with a rather intriguing “coloring book” whose cover will probably serve as next Sunday’s entire strip.

I…D…U…L…L!

HAnzMFG here, looking at today’s strip, and wondering: Does Tom Batiuk ever actually read aloud what he writes for dialog? Does it really count as a pun if you just slowly spell out a homophone? If an inoffensive “joke” is uttered in an old guy’s apartment and nobody smirks at it, was it even told?

Alas, we don’t even know if the cops have been called. Cindy happily introduces herself as if nothing’s unusual about harassing and entering an old man’s apartment via window after initially being denied entry at the front door.

But thank you, Cindy, for at last cutting to the chase, and sparing the long story of Buddyblogs and fading beauty and absurd discriminatory workplace firings. We’re here for what’s really important: the story of an old B-movie actor, who is possibly going to be press-ganged into Stan Lee-ing in an equally bad remake. Excelsior!

“I…D…L…E…?”…

Horsehead_Facepalm

Over a Cliff

HeyItsDave
March 29, 2016 at 11:15 pm
Gosh, if only there was a searchable database of movies available on the internet!

$$$WESTVIEW ONCOLOGIST$$$
March 31, 2016 at 1:07 pm
I know this has been said before, but a quick google search could probably confirm whether Cliff Anger is dead or not…

Partial credit is due, I guess: the gang has managed to use “that internet thing” to get a potential lead in their search for Cliff Anger. Not via IMDb, nor Wikipedia, nor the Google; any of which might provide fairly reliable info as to old Cliff’s status and whereabouts. But—hello, what’s this?— someone’s selling off a cache of SJ memorabilia on eBay or Craigslist. Perfectly logical, then, to assume that this mysterious seller would be the man himself, and reason enough for three people to fly to New York to go looking for the guy.

Technicolor Yawn

Albeit only briefly, Cindy brightens as she remembers that she too has a career, and can maybe wring some publicity out of old Cliff Anger. Until she does the mental arithmetic that the rest of us have already done. But Mason is having none of it. He’s either trying to sound pithy with his “technicolor to monochrome” rejoinder, or perhaps he’s watched so many “Oscars In Memoriam” segments that the idiot really does think that’s what becomes of old actors.

Angrily We Roll Along

Professor Fate
March 29, 2016 at 9:11 am
…And Mason unless your plan is to find the grave of the late Mr. Hanger and dig up his skull and drink wine from it while learning your lines, no you haven’t had an amazing thought.

No such luck, Professor. Mason’s just so pleased with his idea (and Pete hails it as “genius!”) to find a cameo role for the actor who played SJ in the “serial from the early fifties.” Well, in a comic strip universe where a WWII veteran still can find work driving a school bus well into the 21st century, this is totally plausible. In fact, I can almost see how that cameo might look: