Snark It Up, FuzzBall!

…not that Scoopy wants to interfere. (But that kitty is so gosh-darn cute!)

(And this was the inspiration…)

Actually, coronavirus everywhere. At this time, Covid-19 is worldwide. And still, some people can respond to it with humor. Yay!
On a marquee in downtown Tucson, a popular live-performance theatre there:

And when a friend posted that:

Chuck Norris has been exposed to the Coronavirus…the virus is now in quarantine for 2 weeks.

it just screamed for a demonstration (and did you know Chuck Norris is 80 years old?!?? Yep, don’t fuck with the Man!).

And, of course, Love (or Maybe Larceny) in the Time of Coronavirus:

And then there’s Art (itty-bitty, little teeny-tiny Art) — thank you, Julia H. West:

…and there have been no Public Service Announcements forthcoming. Looking back some of them, I realize that they were a hell of a lot of work! (and many of my sources, like For Better or For Worse (shudder), Rex Morgan, MD., Apt. 3-C, etc., have either stopped printing or just have substandard art these days).
Still, we muddle on, knowing that Mark Trail is our go-to guy for Good Behavior!

And sort-of-a PSA. In the land of overplenty, a number of U.S. clothing stores are rolling out (ahem) mannequins more suited for larger sizes. Someone mentioned a “Daddequin”…I didn’t, I just make fun of it.

From Crimestoppers Notebook!

And snarky pets everywhere!

October is always the month filled with Philanthropy and Good Works!

I volunteer with our fair county’s Friends of the Library.  Sometimes you get lucky.  And then sometimes someone dies and his/her estate is donated, and you find yourself with old comics paperbacks.  Not necessarily good ones, either.

But since a lot of us have bits and pieces of masochistic streaks running through us, I’m proudly offering:

Channel Chuckles by Bill Keane (that’s what it says on the cover — the title page has the more familiar Bil Keane signature):  a little water-damage, this paperback dates to a 1973 printing by Scholastic Book Services.  Nice to know that SBS’s standards improved when it signed on to distribute those funny little Harry Potter stories.

The Family Circus (“that hilarious cartoon family everyone is talking about”): 1966 printing of a Fawcett Gold Medal paperback, when the kids were still really fat-headed, Thel still had her original ‘do and Sam the Dog was still wandering the streets, homeless.

Any masochists out there? Interested?  $5.00 gives you both thin volumes of rip-roaring humor that you’ll swear you’ve see before.  All proceeds go to the Friends of the Library, which funds lots of programs in our area (the largest being the Summer Reading programs for kids, teens and adults).  Drop me a note here.

Also let me know if you’re interested in unusual comics collections/graphic novels/weird stuff.  I can’t promise you anything, but then again, you never know.

As I may or may not have mentioned, I volunteer with our fair city’s (actually, our fair county’s) Friends of the Library.  Usually the donations ‘n’ discards are nothing to write home about, BUT we just received as a donation (not library discard, so not chewed up beyond all time and space) of Tijuana Bibles, by Bob Edelman (it’s good to be in charge of the “erotica” section!).  It’s a hardback copy, and it traces the history of these filthy little works of arts in the 1930s-1940s.

There’s a large section dedicated to parodies of comic strips of the period, so you can see Jiggs gettin’ Jiggy with it, and Li’l Abner and Dagwood, plus other folks, like the Fuller Brush Man.

Interested?  It’s in good condition (a few small tears in the actually there dust jacket!), and I’d like to get $12 for it; that would include Media shipping via USPS.  All proceeds go to the Friends of the Library, which funds lots of programs in our area (the largest being the Summer Reading programs for kids, teens and adults), so if you’d like to add to the amount, I won’t refuse your generosity.  Drop me a note here.

[I also work in the A/V and  the Graphic Novels/Manga section (amazing what I’ve been able to weasel myself into/campaign for as Interesting Topics!), so if you might be looking for something in particular or I find something weird ‘n’ cool, I might post things in the future.]

UPDATE:  I think I have a buyer…no, wait! There he is!  CC’s ribinin grabbed this little beauty and the USPS delivered it on his birthday (complete coincidence, but it’s still a cool thing).  Thank you for supporting FPCPL, sir!

Now with More Snark! Thanks, Curminions!

And the Fun That Is Individual Panels Harkening Back to the Glorious Revolution!

In Monday’s strip, Mark actually talks to Rusty about going on a fishing trip (well, after checking his e-mail, which I think is short for “eagle mail,” in which Mark communes with the mighty bald eagle for no apparent reason).

Of course, I’m not going to show you the actual strip (check out 7 May 2012 if you don’t believe me).  What I will show you is a mashup of the strip, very much inspired by CC’s Illustrator Steve (words) and CC’s gnemec (hot, hot illustration — check out The Comics Curmudgeon for all the gory details that led to that magnificent photo:  http://joshreads.com/?p=13534 .

And if all this Curminion cleverness doesn’t leave you reeling, here’s a fantabulous parody by CC’s Shrug. Hit it!

“And the Giant Squirrel’s in the Cradle”

Rusty arrived in the strip one day
Appeared on the scene in a hideous way
But Mark had geese to chase and Cherry to shun
Rusty had to make his own sad fun
And he was ugly and we knew it, and as dumb as a rock
He’d say “We’re going fishing soon, Mark
And you know we’re gonna fix the dock!”

And the dog’s Up North and so is Trail,
Little boy left with epic fail,
“When you comin’ home Mark?”
“I don’t know when, but we’ll fix the dock up then, son,
You know we’ll fix the dock up then.”

The boy cheered up just the other day
He said, “Glad you’re home, Mark, and gonna stay,
Can we fish together?” Mark said “Not today,
Off to Canada,” he said “That’s okay”
And he walked away but his smile hid a snark,
And he said, “I’m gonna be like you, Mark,
Yeah, you know I’m gonna be like Mark.”

And the dog’s Up North and so is Trail,
Little boy left with epic fail,
“When you comin’ home Mark?”
“I don’t know when, but we’ll fix the dock up then, son,
You know we’ll fix the dock up then.”

Mark’s still Up North, and the kid and all
Are still back home with the Jack Elrod ball,
And the sunken dock with the broken logs,
And the mutant fish and squirrels and frogs,
And the magazine check that’s overdue,
And they all wait around for you, Mark,
And the readers have to wait around too.

And the dog’s Up North and so is Trail,
Little boy left with epic fail,
“When you comin’ home Mark?”
“I don’t know when, but we’ll fix the dock up then, son,
You know we’ll fix the dock up then.”

And Andy stops to sniff a tree,
And McQueen’s well-liked in the commun-itee,
The fish are biting off Johnny’s pier,
And Kelly sees Mark and starts to leer,
Are you ever gonna get that article in?
You know the plot will have to end right then, Mark,
Since it will be the End Times then.

I miss our Comics Curmudgeon buddy Dingo.  Even when he wasn’t being his wonderfully filthy self, he was amazingly funny.  I doubt I’ll ever be adept at computer animation, and when the comics throws you Spiderman dancing for joy (no kidding! check out the 4/17/12 strip) or the Phantom making jazz hands (okay, he wasn’t really, but a girl can dream and a mash-up can result), I am reminded of Dingo’s “Mary Worth:  Dancing Queen” on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuhiYsW7T2o.  (Holy Cow! Kit Walker even makes an appearance in the Mary Discoverse!)

So, here’s to you, Dingo, knowing you would’ve made it great.  And very likely X-rated.