Why Is Paloma Standing Behind Gil’s Desk?

I mean, other than to gratuitously fit her in the frame. Really, Panel Three concisely symbolizes the whole approach of this arc. I’m not even entirely sure what the heck Jorge is talking about when he says Gil ‘might’ be right.

Fortunately, Gil’s not really listening as he strains his neck to make sure Paloma doesn’t clock him with her standard Milford High issue stack of text books.

Minus points: Sartorially, things seem out of whack. We have Mimi in a skirt (!) and long scarf, Gil going from wearing a jacket to short sleeves, and I don’t even want to begin to figure out all the ways Paloma is not dressed like a teenager.

 

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Welp, It’s Long Past Time For Pitchers And Catchers To Report

And the NBA playdowns are just around the corner so I guess it’s fortunate that we’re taking this week to wrap up all of the loose ends of a typically thoughtful treatment regarding the tragic plight of a serious, real life, on-going crisis.

Duncan with a fucking parrot on his shoulder indeed. At least panel three shows us why he needed to go for the pirate hat to round out his look.

Metapost: Apologies for the late post as I got pulled away from my desk before hitting ‘Publish’.  Boy, I wasn’t in too good of a mood to start the day, was I?

It Could Happen To You

P1: Thanks for the exposition, Kaz. How much gel does Kaz have to use to get all of his sideburn hairs in parallel do y’all reckon?

P2: Is that even Paloma in the foreground hug with, uh, Karina I guess? Because the brunette in mid-panel looks closer to Paloma. Also, too, wasn’t this whole thing pretty much a Karina/Duncan joint with Jarrell ‘Spielberg’ Atkins directing?

P3: Jeeze, Mimi with a devastating toting the laundry walk by zinger. Meanwhile, Gil looks incredibly constipated as he just cannot deal with it that people keep bringing up this Marty Moon bullshit to him. It’s bad enough he has to show up at the games but he sure as hell didn’t sign up for talking about them for days afterwards.

Minus point: Karina has a terribly advanced case of trigger finger there in P2. Perhaps the Spring arc could help inform us about this potentially crippling condition and the plight of so afflicted high school athletes.

I Had No Idea It Was Sweeps Week In Milford

I feel duty bound to remark on behalf of my esteemed colleague, Rob, that any strip that has two mentions of the Milford Star without a drawing of Marjie Ducey is bullshit. Full stop.

That said, it would seem that, as improbably as we’ve all noted that it would be, the Milford Pirate Network has gone ‘viral’. And, you know what? Props to Pocket Square Sporting Radio Station Manager for being on the ball! This guy sees the needle moving in the wrong direction in the coveted Madison 13-18 year old demographic and he is on top of it.

Minus points: I wrote those last two sentences and then realized that the only reason Pocket Square is vaguely aware of this shit is because he is literally reading about it in a print newspaper… What in the name of Andy Travis is going on around here?

 

Six Months After Maria

The above is asinine.

The below is infuriating.

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/17144550/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-today-explained-podcast

 

Ad Guys, Plural?

I’m off to go frolic amongst bluebonnets in the Texas Hill Country. I’ll leave y’all to parse the rest of this.

So, Uh, They All Just Stopped Chanting When Marty Got Up?

In the long history of student demonstrations at Valley sporting events (which I am too lazy to document here), this has got to be one of the weakest ones ever. No signs, no props, not even a particularly clever chant. Just a forest of Freak Hands and Chunky Bracelets to assure that we are indeed in the Milford milieu.

Assorted questions:

So, is the game still going on? Is there someone back at the studio to fill the air? Why isn’t Karina shouting back at Marty? Who’s face is that in Panel two? Does Marty’s mike not reject most ambient noise and if not, why the hell is he wearing a headset then? In short, just what the hell is going on here?

Minus points: Let’s go back to Panel One for a moment… With the possible exception of Duncan, those are supposed to be the hands of teenaged girls.

 

Somehow, I Don’t Think This Is Helping Ad Sales

So, you’re a manager or perhaps the owner of Los Morenos restaurant, the new (and probably only) Tex-Mex restaurant in Milford if you don’t count Taco Bell. You’ve been told by the incessant sales guy who only orders shots of bottom shelf tequila and eats a LOT of free chips and salsas to tune into the game. What’s going through your head in panel one?

Meanwhile, we get an interesting reaction shot in panel two as we see that Paloma has nearly fully assimilated into her new hometown, chunky bracelets, exploding eyeballs, freak hands and all.

Panel three has my full attention, although I’m not quite sure about number 31’s defensive technique there. Is he about to hammer Jorge* number 50 in the back of his neck with an elbow? It’s been a pretty chippy game from what we’ve seen so far.

Bonus points: I’m trying to decide what Whigham was going for on that logo in panel two. My guess?

Also, I like how Paloma is doing kind of a reverse Vulcan salute with her left hand.

* Further research (no, I don’t know what is wrong with me that I researched this) reveals that Jorge is number 33.