Who Have, Mimi, Who Have…

To Rob’s point yesterday, this is perhaps some of the most digressive panel wastage yet.

Questionable point: Is the Chief messing with me? Very difficult to faithfully crop today’s image without a single corner…

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Not much to see here folks, move along

Well its Marty Moon interviewing Gil in P1 and Gil and Mimi listening to the (taped) interview plus Martys commentary later that night at home. Too bad the lemonade ran out so fast.

No names on the team yet, just a warm look from Gil and a generic statement about the team maybe being good this year. This strip knows how to waste panels even when it thinks it isnt.

Off to Tampa tomorrow for my ‘Hell Or High Water’ trip to see the Bears and Bucs; a few days ago the trip was up in the air with that hurricane thing; was figuring on sleeping on a (real) waterbed at the hotel; but looks like the coast is clear, as the mayor of Tampa proclaimed “We got Lucky”.  Hope all of my fellow bloggers especially Doug (Ned) are ok and hope to hear from you guys next week as this fall plot meanders toward the inevitable bonfire.

Bob Kazinski, Headbanger

No pussyfooting around this fall: Gil Thorp is tackling today’s tough issues head-on. No wannabe junior detectives nosing around about some kid’s mom’s job, no protesters in the bleachers protesting what may or may not have been domestic abuse. Nope, we’re cutting straight to the chase, starting by looking at the life of one of Milford’s earliest concussion victims, Coach Kaz.

Although “accidently [sic*] bang[ing] helmets with Harry Bull” sounds like something that happened not at practice but in the showers afterward, said Mr. Bull is indeed not only a real person but also a school superintendent in Colorado with a lengthy list of career achievements and who attended Northern Colorado, where Kaz allegedly played college football. Whether Harry or Kaz came out on the short end of that collision I leave to the readers.

*BTW Rubin or his letterer needs to invest in a spell checker.

Exploring New Lows In My Cynical Appraisal Of Gil As An Authority Figure

There’s so much to cover today. For example, I do my work on a laptop, in a t-shirt, with a cup (non-personalized) of coffee to the side.

But, I work from home. As casual as I like to be, when I go into the office, I at least put on a shirt with a collar out of respect for my colleagues, unlike Kaz apparently. That said, let’s go panel by panel to tee it up for our commenters.

P1: You could crack a coconut on Gil’s nose.

P2: Kaz engages in some fundamental questioning of standardized testing.

P3: Might? I’m just gonna leave this here.

 

Establishing The Baseline

Hey it’s a lineman who wants to be something else. No, wait. It’s his uncle who wants him to be something else.

Bonus point: If you like sideburns, today’s strip is for you.

Rickey Don’t Get That Number

Rick(ey) Soto (related to Mario? If so, shouldn’t he have been in the spring arc?) will be our fall protagonist.  He looks to be yet another child of the Thorpiverse growing up in a non-traditional household. (I’m throwing the Recycled Art tag ’cause I could swear we’ve seen that house before. It’s not the Brown-Hiatt split-level but maybe it’s in Gil’s development.) He also looks to be yet another child of the Thorpiverse being pushed in a direction he doesn’t necessarily want to go by a parent/parent figure.  Will Rick(ey) turn out to have a bankable talent, on or off the gridiron? I’d say there’s a slim chance.

The entire fall will turn on the ongoing, David Greene-like conflict between Rick(ey)’s football prowess and whatever talent he turns out to have.  Stick around ’til Friday when Gil says “Rickey, you cannot go to the club!” Any major dude will tell you that’s what’s gonna happen.

Trey Facepalms for Us All

What more need we say?

P1: If Jaquan was a star these past two months would’ve been moot. Not all who wander are lost – except for Rubin, who was lost.

P2: Albrecht Dürer meets Roy Lichtenstein, Whigham style.

P3: Freeze-Frame Ending. If you listen hard enough you can hear the theme from “CHiPs.”  Here are a few more to hold y’all over until Monday.

This Had the Potential to be Interesting

Wow, is this the ultimate in laissez-faire or what? Not only does Gil deliver a contrived platitude, we don’t even get to see him do it. Gil should’ve told his football team that if they had the potential to win back-to-back state championships, they didn’t need to prove it to anybody else. They’d already be back-to-back state champions!

Maybe this portends a new turn in Gil Thorp. Young athletes or wannabe athletes do or do not do something, followed by an exposition panel where the athlete/wannabe says that that’s what Coach Thorp told them to do/not do, or maybe they should’ve listened to Coach Thorp when he told them whatever off-panel. Or something.

Hopefully after Saturday we won’t hear from Jaquan for another five or six years, when he returns as a history teacher/life football basketball coach who gamely coaches his team to fall just short of the Mudlarks.  Then he can thank Gil profusely for all of his advice and for telling him he had the potential to be a history teacher/basketball coach and didn’t have to prove it to anybody else.

metapost: That whole “new turn” thing is stuck in my brain, as this Hurricane Irma prepares to turn and deliver a blow to Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and maybe more. I’ve got a lot of friends and family potentially in the path, and it’s kinda messing with my concentration to deliver a daily dose of mirth via Milford. (You’re thinking, “Why should today be any different?”)  Just as with you TWIMers in Texas last week, you TWIMers in the affected areas please check in with us and let us know you’re safe.