Gil visits city, attends inning of baseball game.
Dunno about you, but I really enjoyed today’s comic! Despite the fact this game won’t end for another week or so, there’s a whole lot to like here.
The first panel gives us an absolutely demented-looking Marty Moon, with a serious case of sausage fingers, as well as a very special onlooker: Sam Cassell, the NBA’s favorite alien.
Then the second (bonus-wide for big, big action!) panel gives us something close to resembling an actual slide into second base. Though the longer you look at it the weirder it becomes. For instance, I think #7’s legs are somehow simultaneously in front of him and behind him…is he sliding torso first? Additionally, he may be called for interference for inserting his hand into the fielder’s glove. And can that really be a regulation helmet? Or did Seton CC design special backless helmets to allow the full glory of their players’ mullets to shine through? (If so, we need to get Elmer one of those.)
Moving along, we have what I’d guess is Gil and Kaz in the dugout, but for all I know they might just be in prison watching the game on closed-circuit television. But what the crap is Gil wearing? My best guess is he was recruited by Big Ray to join the Jungle Patrol, where someone chopped of his right hand with a machete. Meanwhile, the depiction of Kaz is more promising than the last few attempts…with the moderately fluffy hair and all. He’s also closer to the numskull we’ve grown to love, as he feels the need to point at his own face while speaking. (”Me Kaz! Kaz knows to talk when pointed at by Kaz!”) However, I’m going to have to give him an incomplete grade for the day, based on the fact that inexplicable portions of his shirt are simply missing. Maybe they were chopped off with a machete as well?
I like Marty’s giant freak hand in the first panel…it’s so huge, only a couple of fingers would actually fit into the panel! The whole hand would’ve blocked all the “action.”
Of course, all the action is in Panel Two. All my life I’ve been a baseball fan, and I’ve never seen a slide that made me laugh so hard at the sheer futility. Dude! Get your legs in FRONT of you! Who’s your coach, for crying out loud?!
Oh. Right. He’s busy trying to figure out where his right hand is. (Man, that sounded bad. I quit!)
Comment by jules — May 7, 2008 @ 9:19 am
Oh wait, I just realized, the guy making the laughable slide is on the other team. Well, Milford stands half a chance of winning this long, long game, if the opposing coach is as hopeless as Gil! As for me, I’m goin’ to PUB.
Comment by jules — May 7, 2008 @ 9:21 am
I definitely like the meaner looking Marty. I also like how the runner and second baseman are sharing the same glove. Kind of like when we played pick up when I was a kid. Only we waited until the inning was over before we did the swap. Man, this is one long game, we are still only in the 4th inning. One last question. Why is Mark Trail in the dugout instead of Gil?
Comment by kenzo — May 7, 2008 @ 9:50 am
That’s a priceless “Ming the Merciless” expression on Marty’s face, but it’d be more appropriate if he were slagging Gil and the Milford team instead of delivering straight play-by-play. And I think those are giant plastic toy fingers that he uses when ordering a drink. (”Just two fingers’ worth — no, THESE fingers!”)
Jules: I think that’s the newfangled “crotch-first” slide technique, known to some as the “Ron Jeremy.” It’s designed to make the opposing team cower in dismay.
And we still — STILL — await Chief WHigham’s first closeup of Coach Kaz. Earrings or no earrings?
Comment by johnw — May 7, 2008 @ 9:51 am
#4 - The Ming the Merciless analogy is even more appropriate when you consider that “Sam Cassell” back there looks something like his loyal man servant.
Comment by El Santo — May 7, 2008 @ 10:00 am
Wow, just outstanding all around. If Marty looks this mean now, imagine how he’ll look when tearing Gil’s coaching to shreds. And our first Kaz-like drawing of Kaz since Frank left. And panel 2 is so awesome, it might make my head explode.
Comment by Cash — May 7, 2008 @ 10:00 am
RE #3 The reason Mark Trail is in Dug Out… he had nothing better to do while waiting for Andy to get kidnapped.
Comment by Lou Brock of the North — May 7, 2008 @ 10:01 am
Looks like the runner’s trying to take out 2B Jimmy Hughes, although he’s doing a pretty poor job of it. Instead of sliding where he was, you should have slid where he was going to be! Muahahahaha!
I’ve been sitting here doing that Marty Moon pose at my desk and it’s awesome. Everyone should do it.
Comment by Doc Gooden — May 7, 2008 @ 10:23 am
Poor Kaz is pointing to himself and asking, “WTF happened to the rest of my fingers?”
Comment by Gil'sBarber — May 7, 2008 @ 11:00 am
I like how fake-Gil’s head is scraping the ceiling of their luxury box/prison tower or whatever.
Comment by Gil'sBarber — May 7, 2008 @ 11:03 am
Hey Jason, do you suppose Gil’s smuggling monkey’s in panel 3?
Comment by Striker — May 7, 2008 @ 11:11 am
What I’d like to know is how the 2nd baseman managed to pull off this double play, considering he appears to be standing about 2 feet off the base.
Comment by Len Bias — May 7, 2008 @ 11:53 am
Isn’t that Captain Picard in panel one? Perhaps he arrived via the flying saucer in panel three on May 2.
Comment by Richard — May 7, 2008 @ 11:57 am
Right on Richard. That is Picard.
Comment by kenzo — May 7, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
Actually guys, I think it’s Brenden-Oyl post head-shave.
Comment by Striker — May 7, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
If you taper that skull just a bit and add a bow and eight hairs, you’ve got Zippy the Pinhead. Pass th’ Taco Sauce!
Comment by sourbelly — May 7, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
12 - In other words, no different than how the guys pull of double plays in MLB.
Comment by James G — May 7, 2008 @ 1:49 pm
No, it’s a Shaolin monk in panel 1, teaching Marty Ming the Lightning Fingers technique. “Ow! Goddammit Marty! WTF?”
At first I thought Gil had bulked up from his stringent diet of beer, cheese, brats, beer, and beer (coincidentally the official state food of Wisconsin). However, Gil’s unnatural posture and heavy crease lines in the pants area makes me think he wants to…umm, Striker, help me out…rearrange the monkeys. His reluctance to play pocket pool in from of dazed out Kaz (”Hey! Lookit my finger!”) is understandable.
Comment by julienne — May 7, 2008 @ 1:53 pm
What I like about the new artist is pretty much anything he draws starts looking freaky if you stare at it long enough. Marty Moon’s hair, for example. Plastic fright wig or fabric beanie? Kaz’ upraised “arm”: Bread loaf or giant single finger with fingernail?
By the way, where are they playing this epic game? The middle of the Gobi desert?
Comment by Laura Jane — May 7, 2008 @ 3:42 pm
I, too, have moderately fluffy hair like Kaz, and I often point to it while I talk.
On the other hand, maybe Kaz is just flipping Gil off, which is perfectly understandable.
Comment by Don, the Rebel without a Blog — May 7, 2008 @ 4:15 pm
@#8: That actually is pretty cool. I imagine it’s somehow a bit less menacing coming from me, though, given that I am currently wearing a tie dye t-shirt with “Smile, Mon!” written on it.
So…which leg is that in panel 2? Is it the slider’s left leg (At a hideously knees-do-not-work-that-way angle), or his right (At a marginally less awkward angle)? And yeah, he appears to not be sliding anywhere near the bag. Still, at least the text matches the action this time out.
Comment by emptyeye — May 7, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
Marty has gotta stop cutting his hair with his mom’s pinking shears. That big-assed hand reminds me of the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman when all you saw of her was her big huge hand grabbing her husband. Maybe Marty’s girlfriend got a dose of radiation and she’s coming to grab him.
That being said, I think that’s Mandrake the Magician’s trusty manservant, Lothar, back from Jungle Patrol with Gil and Big Ray. http://www.hindu.com/yw/2004/05/01/stories/2004050100140400.htm. Too bad Lothar was unable to save Gil’s hand from being hacked off. Glad to see some semblance of a Kaz-Like character. He’s ready for his close-up, Mr. Whigham.
Comment by Regina — May 7, 2008 @ 5:25 pm
I think Panel 2 looks OK. The runner is executing a hook-slide, with his right leg reaching for the base and his left leg ‘hooking’ behind him. Most of his right leg is obscured by the dust. Hughes the shortstop is taking the throw from 2nd, sliding across the bag, grazing it just enough to get the call (sometimes the ump will give you the call even if you dont touch the bag at all; this is called the ‘neighborhood play’). He is now out of the way of the runner as he throws to 1st. He’s right where he should be.
The hand really isnt in the mitt; its just depth perception. This isnt a 3D comic strip.
Just one thing I dont like - the uniforms look the same.
Comment by RobM — May 7, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
Well sure, Rob, you could make the case that’s it’s all a matter of 3D perspective, but what fun is that, really? Hmmm, 3D comic strips? You may be on to something. We need to convince Todd McFarlane to do a line of Milford action figures. Meanwhile, Frank McLaughlin sits at home making crappy Gil Thorp dioramas.
Comment by jasbeattie — May 7, 2008 @ 6:16 pm
Hot damn, Spawn Milford action figures? DO WANT! Marty Ming would be so awesome! And Kaz - definitely a Warrior of the Zodiac.
Oh. You mean sports figures. Pfffft.
Comment by julienne — May 7, 2008 @ 6:45 pm
#16 re Zippy - Great Call Mr. Sourbelly! As much as it looks like him I think Zippy is way too sophisticated to visit Mil[ame]ford though.
Comment by SemperFi4evr — May 8, 2008 @ 6:57 am