Althouse: "Tia Carmen is ever haunted by the grim specter of death, and her single slice of birthday pie cannot make her forget the creeping dread."

May 14, 2009

"Tia Carmen is ever haunted by the grim specter of death, and her single slice of birthday pie cannot make her forget the creeping dread."

These comics are making me very uncomfortable.

24 comments:

traditionalguy said...: It is weird how much cartoon images can affect the mind more than seeing pictures of people in real settings who seem so temporary and weak next to a cartoon image of a person. Cartoon images speak in an exagerated languge of their own.; 5/14/09, 12:36 PM
Ken Pidcock said...: When I followed the link, I was worried that there were more than four. I have a compulsion with comics, such that I have to read them all. If I'm out of town, I'll follow serials where I have no idea what's going on. I even read comics I can't stand. Fortunately, I don't go looking for them; they have to be in the paper.; 5/14/09, 1:08 PM
Skeptical said...: Son of a bitch! The Lockhorns on that page is kind of funny. It's like my world has turned upside down.; 5/14/09, 1:18 PM
Wince said...: Who has birthday pie?

Whatever happened to Judge Parker?; 5/14/09, 1:19 PM
paul a'barge said...: Yes, but the comments kill.; 5/14/09, 1:42 PM
Beth said...: I even read comics I can't stand. I used to do that, religiously. Then I tried eliminating just one: Garfield. It's just not funny. I had to train my eyes to skip a row, but after a short while, I felt good about it. Then I went for Cathy. Cathy won't shut the hell up, and she's still not funny. After I mastered that one, it became easier to just read what I found entertaining. (The art of losing isn't hard to master.)

Of course now the comic page is so crammed and small, I can't read it anyway, not even with my sparkly new bifocals.; 5/14/09, 1:48 PM
SteveR said...: "These comics are making me very uncomfortable."

These pretzels are making me thirsty.; 5/14/09, 2:07 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: EDH : Whatever happened to Judge Parker?

The Comics Curmudgeon covers Judge Parker too. I think the judge has retired and his son has taken over his place on the bench.

It's funny how the internet is killing the newspaper, but making the funny pages come back to life.; 5/14/09, 2:13 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Beth : I used to do that, religiously. Then I tried eliminating just one: Garfield.

There's a web page that does that for you! They take the regular Garfield strip and remove Garfield from it. You're left with a crazy man talking to himself.; 5/14/09, 2:18 PM
Pete the Streak said...: Gil Thorpe still inspires Milford High to kick ass.; 5/14/09, 2:29 PM
Beth said...: Jason, I'd like that better if they removed the crazy man and left the cat. Or removed them both and left the props.; 5/14/09, 2:44 PM
peacelovewoodstock said...: Be sure to see also "Dean's Comic Booth" for generally hilarious (and often NSFW) creative license with our favorite strips. Thank God for fair use!

http://comicbooth.com/blogengine.net/

Not affiliated with the site, just a fan!; 5/14/09, 4:07 PM
rhhardin said...: I'm down to Dilbert.

There's a site with historical Dilbert too, here.

I wish somebody could find my favorite Dilbert, at cafeteria lunch table

Woman holding a copy of ESTRO magazine: It says here that men earn 25% more than women, $1 for every $.75 women earn.

Wally: Actually, that's 33% more.

It's probably before 1990.; 5/14/09, 5:35 PM
Ken Pidcock said...: Ah, my favorite Dilbert is of more recent vintage.

Dogbert is serving as a financial advisor to the boss.

You should invest all of your money in diseased livestock.

It would be unwise to invest in just one sick cow, but if you aggregate a bunch of them together, the risk goes away.

It's called math.; 5/14/09, 5:49 PM
William said...: Is it part of the maturing process when you no longer find Doonesbury very funny, or did Gary Trudeau just lose it?; 5/14/09, 6:33 PM
KCFleming said...: Beth, Cathy is an anti-comic strip.
Unfunny to the point of enraging.
Nancy without the three rocks.

She was always thrusting that stupid finger in the air as way of exclamation. God, I hated that strip.

And no, Doonesbury isn't funny anymore, unless you're also fond of Fred Bassett.; 5/14/09, 6:55 PM
Ken Pidcock said...: Whoa. The Althouse commentariat doesn't care for Doonesbury?

I guess if you live long enough, you'll see everything.; 5/14/09, 7:44 PM
Anonymous said...: S'pose so.; 5/14/09, 10:01 PM
George Grady said...: Beth, Cathy is an anti-comic strip.
Unfunny to the point of enraging.

Cathy Guisewite was the speaker at my graduation from college. I still get annoyed when I think about it.; 5/14/09, 11:03 PM
Bissage said...: I haven’t been able to read a comic strip ever since that regrettable incident involving an anthology of “Krazy Kat” and an overdose of mescaline.; 5/15/09, 6:13 AM
KCFleming said...: 'Cathy Guisewite was the speaker at my graduation from college."

Did she point into the air for emphasis?

And if this was your graduation, I do feel for you, man.

I like this thought about her:
"Cathy was and is the early warning sign of a culture about to fall, of a grand civilization tottering toward its grave. When historians look back at the United States, Cathy Guisewite will be held up as one of the first signals that something was wrong. They will shake their heads at our folly and ask, “Why was nothing done?""; 5/15/09, 6:25 AM
Larry J said...: My all time favorite Dilbert comic dates from somewhere in 1993-95. They installed motion sensor light switches in the office but cubicle workers didn't move enought to keep to lights on, so they hired an intern to run around flapping his arms. Dilbert looks at him and says, "Ah, another journalism major has entered the workforce."

We have those motion sensor switches at my work, but no interns.

If there was a golden age of comics, it was when Bloom County, Dilbert, Calvin and Hobbs, and The Far Side were all running at the same time.; 5/15/09, 8:12 AM
traditionalguy said...: There are The Far Side lovers like Treckies everywhere I go. The troops in the war zones of the Middle East especially appreciate that Far Side point of view...A little like Catch-22.; 5/15/09, 8:35 AM
George Grady said...: Pogo, yes, that was the one. On top of her being the speaker, it was a cold, rainy day in Ann Arbor and the ceremony was at the football stadium. I couldn't see beyond the umbrellas of the people in front of me, the wind was whipping through the stadium, and I was listening to Cathy Guisewite say how she knew she would be a good writer when she wrote an A- paper on Ulysses without having read it.; 5/15/09, 12:59 PM