….and Jason’s sabbatical from this blog is now over! Where was I, you ask? Well, let’s just say I used to work for Apex Industrial. Fortunately, my current employer allows me to stay at home all day. (On the down side, my boss is not potty-trained, unable to walk or form a coherent sentence, and doesn’t pay me a dime. But hey, at least she’s cute as a button!) Please all give a gigantic thanks to Ned Ryerson for pinch hitting again at a moment’s notice. I feel horrible I may be responsible for killing so many of his brain cells, but I suppose that’s the risk we take to bring you this mind-crushing commentary.
And on to the comic! First, we’re witness to the punishing torture within the Larkin household: Brenda must stand perfectly still as her parents scuff around the carpet and then zap her with copious servings of electric shock! (which they learned from their lame neighbor, Electro.) Then after an appropriate length grounding of approximately five years, Brenda is tortured even more by her idiot brother, who likes to use 103 year-old terminology (that I’ve never heard used in my life) to insult Milford and her loser boyfriend. Naturally, this makes her eyes explode.
Welcome back! Glad you have the time to get back to blogging.
Better head to your boss’ ofice- I think she’s poopy.
Comment by Ian — February 19, 2009 @ 9:41 am
What’s with the Nefertiti costumes being worn by the Larkin women?
And does this mean Brenda can order the immediate execution of all who displease her, including her a-hole brother?
Comment by johnw — February 19, 2009 @ 9:42 am
Panel 1 is wierding me out on many levels. Are Brenda’s parents performing some Index Finger Ritual. Is it still night time… If so why are the parents dressed up? If not Brenda is wearing a different outfit at Breakfast.
Speaking of Breakfast and changing clothes, Bryce is missing his mouth with the spoon by at least 6 inches. I would expect better coordination from a guy that just landed Milford’s 91,762th Single- Single. Plus how did he get his web hand that flat! And more nightmares about Brenda’s Claw hand holding the spoon
Panel 3 Has it all.. Bryce regressing to his childhood playing patty cake or peek-a-boo, Brenda’s eyeball exploding
Comment by el lumpbo — February 19, 2009 @ 9:48 am
Anyone that would use a term such as “tank-town” might be the same type person that would demand money from a “till”. There needs to be a locker check for Nutboy’s.
Comment by BigB — February 19, 2009 @ 10:40 am
Not to mention using the word, “Ergo” !
Welcome back Jason, and thanks for an excellent job, Ned!
Comment by Gil'sBarber — February 19, 2009 @ 11:03 am
Welcome back, good job, all that.
Now, panel 3…WHAAAA? This may be either the best or worst panel of the young year. What the hell is he doing? What the hell is he says? Where did his spoon go, and what happened to the cereal that was en route to his mouth via said spoon. Also, Brenda better be sure none of her eyeball gets in her bowl.
On the other hand, I give that guy props for using the word “ergo.” I guess they teach Descartes at Teasipper Academy.
Comment by Teasipper Academy — February 19, 2009 @ 11:11 am
Welcome back, Jason! Give your current employer some Nut Boys! They’re shitty!
Comment by Don, the Rebel without a Blog — February 19, 2009 @ 11:19 am
Welcome back Jason and many thanks to Ned for helping us get our daily snark fix.
Like you I was like WTF when I saw “tank town”. think I heard it once in an old Humphrey Bogart movie. And Ergo??? I think I heard that in the same movie as well. I expected him to call Dylan a “mug” instead of a lowlife. I liked it when he called Milford a “down market dump.
I hope you don’t have to resort to stealing nutboys and selling them on the black market like Marty Moon.
Comment by Regina — February 19, 2009 @ 12:00 pm
Jason when you mentioned the carpet scuffing, it made me think of a MadTV skit where Stephnie Weir worked in a carpet company with her family and their hair was all frizzed out because of the constant scuffing on the carpet. This guy (Paul Vogt) comes in with steel toed cowboy boots and makes them sing his company’s them song, which consists of scuffing on the carpet. The massive load of static blows them off the earth. We can only hope that happens to the Larkin family.
BTW, I am still waiting for the dick-off between CurleyHorse and Bryce or is that gonna be shoved under the rug like Marty Moon’s being canned from the Public Access radio show.
Comment by Regina — February 19, 2009 @ 12:10 pm
Welcome back, Jason!
Chief Whigham, please pick a face for Bryce and stick with it? Today he looks like a cross between Todd Bridges and Gary Coleman.
#3 El Lumpbo: I guess you could say Bryce has an eating disorder. (Sorry.)
Comment by Sourbelly — February 19, 2009 @ 12:39 pm
Welcome back to tank-town, Jason! This tank-blog about this tank-comic was in good tank-hands, but it’s still great to tank-have you tank-back.
And now, I have become a tank based supervillain. Tank Santo.
Comment by El Santo — February 19, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
“Tank town”? Seriously now. “Tank town.” I have a teenage son, and I’m fairly certain The Kids Today are NOT saying “tank town.”
Or “ergo.”
Welcome back, Jason, and thank you, Ned! Have a “Nutboy.” Go on, there’s enough for both of you!
Comment by jules — February 19, 2009 @ 1:10 pm
Brenda was so traumatized by her parents’ torture, she’s going bald.
Comment by Gil'sBarber — February 19, 2009 @ 1:27 pm
Bryce looks a little light-in-the-loafers (do they still say that?) in Panel 3 with his hands up like that. I’m imagining him using a Paul Lynd high-pitched voice.
Comment by Gil'sBarber — February 19, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
De Tank Town ladies sing this song, doo dah, doo dah
De Tank Town racetrack, five miles long, oh the doo dah day
Comment by Ned Ryerson — February 19, 2009 @ 1:35 pm
Welcome back! I’m glad Ned subbed though, the snark must carry on. The Larkins have an unusual method of lecturing their daughter. “Turn around! Don’t look at me! …I said DO not LOOK at me young lady, face the invisible wall.”
Comment by Emily — February 19, 2009 @ 2:54 pm
Cogito ergo sum [I think, therefore I am] a Nutboy.
Tank you Ned.
Welcome back to down market dumping Jason.
Comment by SemperFi4evr — February 19, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
Didn’t that hotshot punk, whose name I cannot remember but don’t want to, refer to Milford as a tank town a few years back? I think it was about the time Rick Reilly showed up for a guest spot.
And a big hand to Ned Ryerson, a bigger loser than me. But just barely.
Comment by southmauldin — February 19, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
Oh yeah – THE DON!!! That clown referred to Milford as a tank town! I now have a new phrase to use when I drive through every backwater redneck town in South Carolina. Hopefully the oldtimers I encounter will be sufficiently insulted.
Comment by southmauldin — February 19, 2009 @ 5:28 pm
I can’t decide: Is Bryce less likeable than Andrew Gregory and Elmer Vargas? So far I’m edging towards “yes”. I’m pretty sure he must be in the running for “Jerk of the Year” at least.
Comment by Bernard Bernoulli — February 19, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
Well I was born in a tank-town,
And I live in a tank-town,
probably die in a tank-town.
Small communities.
(with apologies to John Cougar Mellenkamp)
Comment by Gil'sBarber — February 19, 2009 @ 6:02 pm
Intrigued by term “tank town,” I look it up in Dictionary of Catch Phrases, but no find. Ok, town characterized by tank. But what kind? Surely not T-34 battle tank. Perhaps water tank, which tower over city, first thing seen from train station? Or oil storage tank. Perhaps not matter– perhaps writer just trying to be sure we realize Milford exist in some earlier time where everyday idiom not understood today. Lots of places like this is Siberia, even Urals. But no Nut-Boys there– have to come here for those. What a country!
Comment by vaganova — February 19, 2009 @ 6:04 pm
They used ‘tank town’ before – when the basketball team played Bishop Tardy in 2005. Jaquan ‘the Don’ Case referred to Milford as a ‘tank town’ when he heard where his traveling circus of a basketball team was going. He was the white version of LeBron James – star high school athlete, who proved to be very down-to-earth when the players spent time with him. All Thorp-ites remember that phrase.
Comment by Rob — February 19, 2009 @ 7:39 pm
So in Fridays strip the siblings have a fight, then have to explain away their injuries. Funny. Wait’l their respective sweeties see them.
Comment by Rob — February 19, 2009 @ 7:42 pm
Panel-by-panel analysis:
1–Congratulations, Rubin! You’ve broke the number one law of piction writing–you showed, not told. Brenda’s mother looks as if she’s about to go an Aretha Frnbklin concert.
2–When the fark is this taking place? And where the fark are the parents. It Jerry Jenkins were stiil writing the strip, Brenda’s parents would’ve sent her to some Christian school
3–Bryce disturbingly reminds me of Barry from CURTIS.
Welcome back Jason
Comment by Doug Puthoff — February 19, 2009 @ 9:05 pm
Why so much fuss about “tank town”?
Steam engines had to stop for water whether or not a town had any significant passenger traffic.
Comment by dale — February 19, 2009 @ 11:24 pm
A guy who badmouths his sister’s boyfriend right after she’s been forbidden from ever seeing him. Ergo – a retard!
Comment by Bernard Bernoulli — February 20, 2009 @ 2:25 am
RE: Friday – what the hell is in that spoon in panel 1. Whatever it is, it’s smiling.
Comment by Sgt. Saunders — February 20, 2009 @ 5:36 am
I have never heard the phrase “Tank Town” until Rubin used it a few weeks ago.
And I don’t EVER want to hear it again.
Comment by Doug Puthoff — February 20, 2009 @ 8:46 am
Welcome back, Jason! And thanks Ned for filling in; your work was better than Nutboys!
Comment by KarenD — February 20, 2009 @ 8:52 am
Welcome back, Jason! Your dreams were your ticket out.
Meanwhile, panels 1 & 3 are great. I love the fearful symmetry in panel 1, but panel 3 is just outstanding. It definitely needs to go into the “Random Amusing Panel O’ the Moment” rotation. My favorite is Bryce’s freak-hand gesture. That actually is physically possible, but incredibly weird. His forearms are inside his shoulders. Try it and you’ll see how weird a pose it is. Plus, it’s completely incomprehensible when paired with Bryce’s ridiculous dialogue. “It’s a tank town, all right. A tank town thiiiiiiis big!”
Comment by Cash — February 20, 2009 @ 11:53 am
Wait a minute. Who does Bryce think should be robbing tank-town stores, if not tank-town guys? Does he think highfalutin city slickers from Teasipper Acadamy are gonna come down to Tank Town and rob tank-town stores? If a tank-town guy wants a tank-town store robbed of its “Nutboys,” by cracky, he’s gotta do it himself.
Also, I think “robbed of his Nutboys” has great potential as a euphemism for getting kicked in the groin.
Comment by jules — February 20, 2009 @ 2:23 pm