12/11/08
This week, in (a down-market dump like) Milford:
Bryce and Brenda Larkin? Hmmm, you could say they were this strips timely rip-off of Beverly Hills 90210‘s Brandon and Brenda Walsh, but I think they’re kinda the opposite: Rather than average kids from Minnesota relocating to snooty Beverly Hills, we have the snooty set of twins relocating to the down-market dump that is Milford. How will they adjust? Who cares? Frankly, I’m still stuck on the perspective nightmare of the fork full of gelatinous food in the first panel…
12/12/08
…and now Mimi, apparently concerned that her husband has been completely written out of the strip, has taken to wearing clothes three sizes too small for her, in order to attract a new partner that can ignore her for the next fifty years. Too bad there’s not a single looker trying out today. When your best prospects are a girl about to devour a freak hand floating in front of her, and Andrew Gregory in a blond wig, you know you’re in trouble. One girl got a look at those freaky fish lips and is already cutting out early. Wise choice. I think I’ll do the same.
A different plot begins every day! Holy cats!
Comment by K.T. — December 12, 2008 @ 12:30 am
Hey Rubin and Chief Whigham: find one plot and stick to it for a couple of days, please. This jumping from plot to plot is making me dizzy!
That girl cutting out looks like a guy in drag. WTF is going on with Mimi’s lips in panel three????
I have a question: why are the 90210 twins in Milford or is that another thing we’ll never find out, due to the schizophrenic pace of the lastest strips.
Comment by Regina — December 12, 2008 @ 3:59 am
Jason, that gelanitous food is from the Mary Worth school of non-descriptive and disgusting looking food.
Comment by Regina — December 12, 2008 @ 4:01 am
Apparently, Neal Rubin didn’t borrow the names Bryce and Brenda from a real-life set of twins. “Bryce Larkins” are numerous, but the #1 Google hit is the name of a character on the TV show “Chuck.” Brenda is, among many other things, a doctor in Louisiana. But no pair of siblings of that name.
Well, with each passing day it’s looking like no resolution to football season, to the fate of discarded broadcaster Marty Moon, or to the ratings success of Sacko and the Rajah. Not that I particularly care about the fall storylines, but it’s especially egregious for Rubin to leave open the fate of a long-term character like Marty. Serial strip malpractice, I call it.
As for the onset of hoops… exactly how many kids are trying out for the girls’ team? 12/12 first panel, there are about ten girls wedged into a small section of bleachers. It’s either enforced camaraderie, or Mimi’s got about 50 kids to sort through. And I’m almost positive that 12/12 panel 2 is some sort of code for “Brenda’s a slut.”
Comment by johnw — December 12, 2008 @ 5:44 am
12/11 Panel 3: Damn that is one masculine looking female.
That’s all I got for you this morning. Thank you! G’night!
Comment by 5-4 Emptyeye — December 12, 2008 @ 5:55 am
The Addams Family, the early years:
Panel 1: A young uncle Fester (when he just had a bald spot) jams food into his jaw while saying “I heard it was just a starter’s pistol.”
Panel 1: Thing rises up to reply “I heard it was a .357 Magnum.” Thank you, Thing!
Panel 3: A young Morticia Addams argues with her twin brother.
Comment by Richard — December 12, 2008 @ 6:51 am
I was going to bring up “Chuck” (judging from the ratings, it’s likely I’m the only fan here) but I see I’ve been beaten to it. Larkin twins… Barry Larkin is a twin, though his was a brother.
Comment by Mac Thomason — December 12, 2008 @ 8:08 am
Dear Frank & Neal, In the spirit of the holidays would you please quit screwing with us? Or get some help.
Comment by SemperFi4evr — December 12, 2008 @ 9:34 am
Yesterday’s Panel One: it took me a full five minutes to figure out that was a forkful of food (or some foodish-type substance); it was like a magic eye painting, I had to let my eyes go all crossways before I could see the fork. When you look directly at it, it looks more like a tiny, tiny freak hand giving you the finger. A tiny disembodied freak hand, no less. Which wouldn’t surprise me much, given that this is Milford, Land of Freak Hands.
Comment by jules — December 12, 2008 @ 9:43 am
I like to imagine that Bryce and Brenda speak in creepy robotic monotone. You know — like all twins are supposed to speak. The expressionless face in panel three of 12/11 clinches it.
Comment by El Santo — December 12, 2008 @ 11:18 am
How is it that anyone could have heard anything about the gun? Maybe the robber was carrying so many boxes of Nut Boys that had to leave it at the scene. “Nut Boys: They’re Shittilicious!”
Personally, I think “down-market dump” is a pretty righteous turn of a phrase.
Comment by sourbelly — December 12, 2008 @ 2:55 pm
Wait a minute. In the first panel she says “No one’s position is guaranteed” but the third panel she’s talking about “Two returning starters”
That was a fast try-out. (Or would that be a ‘try-on’ in Thorpeland, because you’re trying to get ‘on’ the team?)
Comment by Neil — December 12, 2008 @ 3:40 pm
11 – Even if the girl isn’t talking at school, there would be a police report. That leads to newspaper / tv reports. The only question is would she have a clue as to what type and caliber the gun was.
12 – It’s reasonable phraseology. They were starters last year. They’re returning.
Comment by dale — December 12, 2008 @ 10:15 pm
The girl in the last panel of the 12/11 strip looks just like Gogo (the teenage bodyguard/assassin chick) from the Kill Bill movies.
Comment by Bill — December 13, 2008 @ 9:45 am
..and again today – she just needs a plaid catholic schoolgirl skirt and a meteor hammer! :eek:
Comment by Bill — December 13, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
Aren’t basketball tryouts usually held in September or so? By now the roster should be set, practices held, and a few games played. My alma mater is 7-1. But no, we had to waste a month on nonfootball games.
Comment by Rob — December 13, 2008 @ 5:47 pm
I just have to point out that a post on my site in which I do pretty much nothing but link to the picture of Gil Thorp’s Exploding Head from October 14, 2006 is suddenly inexplicably popular (Well, for my site anyway). Weird.
Saturday’s comic. Um, yeah, that sucks for the Larkins I guess.
Comment by emptyeye — December 14, 2008 @ 11:05 am
Lest I be seen as a horrible leech, I should point out that I put the image itself on my site so as to not suck up (small) bandwidth, and gave full credit to TWIM for it.
Comment by emptyeye — December 14, 2008 @ 11:07 am
[...] And today’s third panel flashback sequence is brought to you by Move It! The folks at Move It! would like to remind you that you may leave Milford at any time, you don’t need to get laid off to abandon this down-market dump. [...]
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