Poor Ziggy.  The ultimate Everyman with the Whole World Conspiring Against Him.

So, he has a bad job (I think), only $10 for dinner, and a hankering for Italian cuisine.  Evidently there isn’t an Olive Garden in Ziggyland, where you can get the endless breadsticks and soup and salad for under 10 bucks, so he goes to his local cucina and is mercilessly ridiculed by the waiter.

This has to STOP!, at least for one day.

This might be the only time it happens in 2011, Zig, but Happy Endings New Year.

One strip in a week with this theme…creepy.

Two strips in a week…well, aren’t you glad I can be just as creepy? 😀

Okay.  I get it.  It’s Theme Week.

If you insist…

…when everyone re-evaluates their lives and actions, and resolves to improve themselves.

I mean, just listen to Jill’s regret in Panel 1, hurting her BFF Adrian’s feelings and nearly ruining the rehearsal dinner.  (Yes, this panel is untouched…just like the art in Panel 2, when a remorseful Jill makes her intentions to set things to right is known.)

Sequitur, one of The Comics Curmudgeon’s faithful minions, did an elegant mashup just by putting a big, bloody knife in Jill’s fist.  (I’ll link it if he gives me permission.)  I’d completely missed that opportunity…but not for long!

So the 23 December Pibgorn strip concludes a few days of Santa hearing mysterious sleigh bells and running to it in a panic, only to find Dasher and Dancer going at it.  (In the words of Dave Barry, “No, I am not making this up.”)

Mark and I do our best to salvage the situation with a mid-week Nature Study.  Enjoy Nature!

Oog.

I was really hoping to finish up “Mommy’s Excellent Vacation” (PJ’s the only sacrificial victim left, if you’ve been keeping count), only dumb little Jeffy stole the spotlight again, this time with a pair of bathing trunks that got away.

Not that Jeffy naked is any great shakes (his being naked is getting to be a hallmark of Family Circus, much like hand-secks is for 9 Chickweed Lane), but given the looks of horror from onlookers, it seemed to make more sense to have Jeffy facing them rather that facing away from them.

Of course, the unfortunate term “Midget Porn” also comes to mind:

Among the curminions at The Comics Curmudgeon, there were also some references to the Floating World, aka Shunga.  Look it up.

And, oh yeah, you wish…

I can’t even begin to explain this.

[Other than Knute is my new favorite character in Luann — well, aside from TJ and Shannon.]

Poor Jeffy.  Time after time after time…same beach, same sand — um…something — same waves.

But just because Jeffy is the butt of so many jokes, I feel a wee bit guilty about it.  Here, Jeffy, knock yourself out with your little bucket and shovel:

[Update to the previous Family Circus entry, in which it was mentioned that this series of  “Vacation at the Beach” was originally run back in 1976:  the series was re-run in 2005!  So here we are, not even able to snark on sloppy seconds (I don’t even want to know what you’d call thirds…).  Someone over at The Comics Curmudgeon noted that at this rate, we’ll probably see this again in 2011.  Ech.]

Who would’ve guessed that the umpteenth edition of  ‘The Keanes Go to the Beach’ theme would still have comedy pyrite gold buried way down deep?

[CC’s Motorposus went through the archives at the official FC website and found the first printing (heck, maybe it’s a copy of an earlier strip, too) of the 25 July 2010 strip:  it’s dated 18 July 1976!  NOTHING is different expect for changing Mommy’s hair-do!  How freakin’ lazy and shameless do you have to be to pull a stunt like this and pass it off (and get paid for) a 34-year-old strip?!  I’ll bet I spent more time mashing this little piece to make it somewhat funny.  I’m sure any changes in the color of umbrellas and other incidentals was done independently, by the current generation of color monkeys, too:  http://www.familycircus.com/files/70/images/760718.gif.  /rant]

It’s not enough that Dr. “Mike,” psychiatrist lies down on his own couch, complaining of a heavy case load (22 July 2010).

No, indeed, let’s have Mary take a seat next to him and start pontificating on Freud! (23 July 2010) I am not making this up.

This, on the other hand, I am totally making up:

From this:

to this (by Dean Booth, who also just made something *snap* in my head):

to this (gee, thanks, Dean!):