9/13/12
“Coach Shaw! Teach this brutal bastard how to play defense, will yah? I think I’ve found the antidote to 1-8. Oh yeah, any of you other losers want to try kicking off?”
9/14/12
“Coach Shaw! Could you reexplain defense to this vicious bastard. I don’t want him to maim one of our few non-sucky players. Also could we reevaluate the use of red jerseys? The kids just seem to switch them around indiscriminately.”*
9/15/12
Look at the birds flocking around the Irish eejit. I thought this was already established at the Bucket. Wait, school is just starting now? Kids in Milford get a few extra weeks of summer so Gil Thorp can make the awkward transition from golf story to football. Eh, who cares about education?
9/17/12
“Burn him! He’s a an eejit…oh wait, he’s going to save our team. Burn that hippie girl’s guitar!!”
I guess nobody else could figure out how to kick off. Here’s to an outstanding football season.
*reference to all the fun we had with colored strips way back when. Remember that?
So it’s The Waterboy with Irish accents instead of Cajun accents. An improvement?
I miss those years where Rubin would have the artist sneak messages into the signs at the preseason bonfire, stuff like “Fire Millen” and “No playdowns in a decade, for shame Thorp”.
Comment by billytheskink — September 17, 2012 @ 7:13 am
So we go back to the black and white versions just when there is a reference to a “red jersey”? I thought half of the practice squad wore white jerseys, half wore red. So what is the Milford player talking about?
Comment by Scott de B. — September 17, 2012 @ 8:10 am
9/13 P2: And by ‘hurling’ he’s talking about too much stout. Oh, and I looked up: eejit = Irish slang for “idiot”; most or you probably knew that as you are so cultured. Sigh, and I’m part Irish. And my vote is to toss Neil’s summer golf ‘plot’ into the bonfire; it was especially vapid. Summer ’11 too. Hronk!
Comment by semperfi4evr — September 17, 2012 @ 8:11 am
Oh, and the “one bonfire” referred to in today’s strip apparently is the town of Oakwood, MI. Good luck fielding a football team if you don’t have a town or school, suckers!
Comment by Scott de B. — September 17, 2012 @ 8:12 am
Scott de B., the red jersey is, I assume, a reference to certain players (usually quarterbacks, other skill positions) wearing a red jersey in practice. Players wearing red jerseys are not supposed to be hit, protecting them from being injured.
Had I included today’s colorized strip, which you should be able to look at here, you would see that all the players shown (including Terry the Torpedo) were wearing red. So clearly, whoever is coloring this strip is not reading it, nor do they have any idea what’s going on.
Comment by Ned Ryerson — September 17, 2012 @ 9:57 am
“We only have one bonfire — because we always overdo it, and eventually the whole town is engulfed in a cleansing conflagration. It takes them a whole year to rebuild, and then the cycle starts all over again.”
Good catch on the red jerseys, Ned… In the colorizer’s defense, it’s probably low-paying gruntwork for an underemployed art major. Doing the job is bad enough; expecting the poor schmo to actually read Gil Thorp is beyond the pale.
Comment by John S. Walters — September 17, 2012 @ 10:28 am
Torch Oakwood!? Tod Andrews isn’t gonna like that. Doesn’t he pretty much pwn Gil every year?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but did we just miss Coach Matt Shaw’s one and only opportunity this fall for a speaking role? For that matter, where the hell is Kaz, waxing his dojo?
Comment by Dood — September 17, 2012 @ 10:58 am
isnt that one arm dude a defense coach too ? where is he bringing a cufflink to the one arm dude in mary worth ?
Comment by mr12ozcan — September 17, 2012 @ 4:43 pm
Terry ready to play free safety already? Yeah right – its either an INT for a TD or getting burned deep. Please be the latter.
Comment by Rob — September 18, 2012 @ 7:02 pm
9-17 p2: Those Milford students sure wear a lot of the same watch/bracelet/armband! Are they Power Rangers about to activate? Or is that the latest Milford pride item? I guess they are easier to remove than tats.
Comment by milfordian — September 18, 2012 @ 7:49 pm
Right, Rob, free safety is not the position you would send a kid in for in the first game he has ever seen. But this is Milford, and Gil is probably telling him in code to just blitz. Not to get all thematic, but what we have here is called “exposition.” Gallaher is being foregrounded as a terrific natural football player, which is not the material for a season-long plot (wait a minute– we have seen GT plots built on less!) But seriously, what will the complication be? Immigration issues, on the model of Elmer Vargas? Swelled head problems, as with Jamaar Gaddis? Jealous teammate conflict? What’ll it be, then? The return of the conveniently Irish Molly Kinsella is admittedly too much to hope for.
Comment by vaganova — September 18, 2012 @ 8:56 pm
I would play him at strong safety myself, as thats like a 4th linebacker in a 4-3. That way his tackling ability would be highlighted, and he could even be sent in on a blitz. Larry Wilson invented the safety blitz, and I believe he was a free safety, so somebody was open on those plays. I could apply for assistant coach, but I have too many arms and not enough tattoos.
Comment by Rob — September 19, 2012 @ 3:11 pm
9/21 – is there some positive correlation between the words and the pictures? Do the readers always have to guess at the events that were left out?
Comment by Dale — September 21, 2012 @ 11:46 am
Coach Shaw! Take Terry to the sideline and give him some pointers on defense! I’m off to PUB!”
My advice is to throw Gil in that raging bonfire that’s engulfed half the town.
Comment by reginathenydivaR — September 23, 2012 @ 7:28 am