Gil Gets His Dig(g)s In

One of our Central City protestors (the Tommie Smith/John Carlos descendant) gets a name and becomes as central to the plot as any Milford girl.  The “other item” Gil was shaking Skip down for must have been her name and digits. I leave it to the readership to discuss the propriety of what Skip and Gil have done. Suffice it to say it doesn’t leave a very good taste in my mouth.

I’m assuming Gil’s convo with, I’m assuming, Ryan will pick up tomorrow with, I’m assuming, what Gil said to Ms. Diggs after appreciating her “taking a stand” that wasn’t written here.  Odds are it will involve some gentle variation on “keep your ****in’ mouth shut.”

From the Pantheon of Mysterious Objects Dept.: Diagonally striped thing above and to the right of the GIL mug (or is it below and to the right? I can’t tell); backdrop of P3 (they’re standing outdoors, presumably; is it a huge backstop, more Prairie Style Windows, or what?).

Did Someone Say Track?

Hey remember how there was a whole thing about one of the girls liking one of the guys on the track team? Yeah, me neither.

Bonus points:

Kaz’s barbed wire tattoo peeking out beneath his sleeve that he still regrets getting but can’t afford to get removed.

Good News Is Trouble-Free

Well, the mystery of Skip Farrow wrapped up pretty quickly. Speaking of, Skip sure does have an interesting take on the situation. Since everybody except the Cane is graduating, there shouldn’t be any issues… And, since graduation should’ve happened about a month ago, we really should be in the clear.

Bonus points:

The ‘leader’ of the ‘protest’ is almost as tall as Skip.

I love the clock on the window in panel one.

Bonus questions:

What is on the back of that student’s shirt?

Why does Skip have to call Gil from a wall phone?

What is supposed to be displayed over the window in panel two? I’m thinking worst drawing of the solar system ever.

Detective Work?

What does Mimi’s question in Panel 1 mean? Is she asking if Gil can hold Ryan out of a game without letting anyone know that they know what the protest was all about? Ryan knows that Thorp knows but who else will know if Ryan doesn’t make the trip to Central? Shouldn’t Gil discuss that with Ryan and his parents? Gil should swing by again so they know what the heck he is doing. Ugh, this plot.

How long is Mimi’s right arm? Is Gil a little peeved at the hand on his shoulder? (Maybe he’s confused about who this lady with the long arm and the face like a clenched fist is. Panel 2: phew, it’s Mimi with a levitating lemonade. )

Okay, Skip Farrow is a totally new name here, as far as I know. Who is he and why does Gil need him to do detective work? Is he an actual detective or just a friend of Gil’s who enjoys wearing fake moustaches, hanging around hotel lobbies and peeking in windows?

Skip Farrow is the best name for a detective since Richie Brockelman.

 

Blooper Reel

Daftpunk can’t run her precious little hit piece on Ryan, so she quits the school paper.  Ryan gets rattled when Central girls troll him about an event that (according to his parents) wasn’t all that, so he loses his mojo and quits on the mound. Now the rest of the Milford baseball team quits all around him and the season goes down the crapper. Gil’s quit on his team too: relying on hope and working on his grilling technique, he could give two shits about the rest of the season. Yo Gil, out here in the real world, winners eat steaks, losers eat franks and beans. (By the way, what the hell is Gil wearing on his wrist? Is he talking to Dick Tracy on that thing? Maybe he’s talking with that talking baseball with EES in P1. And what the complete hell is with his hand with integrated spatula?)

Even the color monkeys phoned it in on this one: they didn’t color the Jefferson player or whatever it is Mimi’s got in that pitcher (and don’t tell me it’s straight Everclear). I’m beginning to get the idea that the Whigrub brain trust has run out of ideas on how to wrap this arc up; not saying they’ve quit on it yet, but it’s starting to feel that way.

I’ve been on the road all day to Bakst country and just arrived only a few minutes ago.  I almost quit on this post for today, so I hope you’ll forgive me for its brusque nature.

 

Quitters never graduate they just mop floors.

Oh great – theyre actually moving the plot along! Dafne quits the paper a month after she graduates high school to end her paper career anyway…

and we’re having a Jagermeister instead of lemonade on the porch while watching .. running? Ah.. track and field.

Hey I heard Michael Phelps is racing a shark on Shark Week later this summer. I’m sure that’ll be more fun then whatever passes for a summer storyline in this strip.

Wonder who Mrs. Risqk will hire to replace her editor. My school , nobody quit the paper. It was the whole journalism class working on it, and you couldnt just drop out of the class unless you were either quitting high school or moving away.

 

Truly, Madly, Reluctantly, Unfortunately

Good thing I went with the color version of the strip today. These fair-haired women with prop glasses are all starting to look alike. Today it’s Ms. Rizk, not Dr. Pearl; we know this as Gil is the summoner, not the summoned. (Not that it’s clear Dr. Pearl summoned Gil but, you know, pecking order and all.)

Ever since the Central game the strip has been playing a huge game of connect-the-dots. Great leaps ever forward – from Kaz’s near telepathic understanding of what Gil wants to Gil’s visit to the Van Aukens to Gil’s chat with Dr. Pearl to today – with a lot of gaps to fill. Is it clear that Gil spoke with Ryan at his home? (The “genuinely remorseful” comment to Dr. Pearl might lead us to believe he did.) Whether he did or didn’t, what prompted Gil to speak with Dr. Pearl next? (To get the green light from the Doctor to lean on Ms. Rizk to quash Daftpunk’s article?)

And now, what leads Ms. Rizk to add the “unfortunately” tag to her statement implying that Dafunk’s article has already been quashed? Is it meant for us to deduce that, even though she’s been against Daffy’s hit piece on the ‘Cane from the get-go, she secretly wants to run the article? As our astute readers commented yesterday, this spring arc has turned into another of Rubin’s classic Bechdel Test fails. Girls’ sports have taken a back seat not only to boys’ sports but also to high school journalism which, by maintaining its integrity, may end up protecting a male athlete at the expense of his female victim and accusers. Ms. Rizk’s “unfortunately” may be her subtle form of protest against the Milford jockocracy.

Gil won’t give that a moment’s thought, ’cause sarcastically, he’s in charge.

The Full Story

Panel two is nearly the full Milford… Prairie style windows? Check. Freak hands? Check. Chunky Bracelets? Check. The rare bare midriff? Check. If only Dafne was registering her dismay with a case of EES, we’d have perfection.

Bonus pat myself on the back: I have continued to avoid the temptation to make a Risky Business joke based on Ms. Rizk’s name…