Slugger, Leader, Hat Model

Fellow TWIM bloggers, where are you going for the color version of the strip?  I used to use the Seattle PI comics page but it looks like it might be behind a paywall now and just accessed it again (thanks to loyal TWIMer Downpuppy).  If one of you find it, could you please update this post with a copy?  Check out Jocelynn’s hat in living color.

That is some serious Carmen Miranda-level shit going on right there.  Somehow I doubt she got a free bowl of soup with it.

This wraps up what has been a long week – five strips to play one game.  Something tells me we’ll see two or three games in a single strip more than once and hey, what about those Mudlark boys?  Been kinda nice not hearing about them.  Kinda nice for Mimi to play cheerleader and not field leader, though that may prove problematic down the line.

A couple of odds and ends to bring today’s post to a close:

We carp about playdowns in the Thorpiverse but I only found out recently that here in Pennsylvania we have high school playbacks!  In multiple sports even!  Best as I can tell, they’re kinda like double elimination rounds where you can play your way back into the state playoffs.

Finally, in stumbling around looking for a color version of today’s strip I stumbled upon this blog, which concisely summed up the BRobby Howry arc in far drier fashion than we did here.  Maybe that’s where all of Jason’s readers wandered off to…

 

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Nothing Personal. It’s Just Skating.

As I predicted yesterday, we’re getting Molly Hatchet’s exposition of her synchronized skating hobby.  As I didn’t predict on Wednesday, the RINK she was skating at isn’t in Milford but in Central City.  As every faithful reader knows, Central City is nothing but trouble for Milfordians (or is it Milfordites?) so Molly’d better keep her head on a swivel while she’s over there. Of course, if she can convince more of her Lady Mudlark softball teammates to join her, maybe Mimi would have to cancel softball season.  Mimi gets her drinking time back, and we’d get to see a different sport for a change. Sounds like a win-win to me.

What’s up with Molly’s shirt? Is it a Steven Universe shoutout or, given the neckline, a Dallas Stars jersey with the “D” left off because the Stars wouldn’t give Whigham permission to use it, kinda like those old sports cards you used to get in cereal boxes?

“And we care because?” could be this blog’s motto

Well, that explains everything, doesn’t it?  The big “RIN” in the sign behind Andre’s head yesterday was short for “RINK,” which Milford has one of, apparently.  (Of course it does. How else could kids practice for skating at the Winter Blast in Central City? And why hasn’t ice hockey ever been a thing in Milford?)  Andre watched his little sister – odd hand gesture meant to signify “little” – skate and saw a group of synchronized skaters perform*. On his way home he got his cheek pierced and had that shark tooth he found at the beach on summer vacation mounted on a stud.

Oh, yeah, one of the synchronized skaters is also one of Mimi’s softball players.  Heaven forbid she prioritize something else over Milford High sportsball!  Prepare for multiple strips shaming poor Molly Hatchet off the ice and onto the diamond.

*I’m sorry, but every time I read “synchronized skating” I thought “synchronized swimming” and could only picture Harry Shearer and Martin Short in that old SNL skit.  Skate away, that’s all.

Your 2019 Lady Mudlarks: Flirtin’ With Disaster

The jokes will write themselves.

It’s only a matter of what kind of disaster will befall them.

I’m running with the B&W version of the strip ’cause I believe Mimi’s brunette locks to be a colorist’s anomaly, not an indication that she’s given up dyeing her hair in an effort to gain more attention for Milford girls’ sports or to fulfill Gil’s Kenzie Hanley fantasy.  Also pulling the Pantheon of Hair tag for Molly’s kinda sorta pixie cut.

Perfect Kaz

The Mudlarks are not pleased with the ripping they receive from Robby Howry and they want revenge! We’re not sure which clever boy suggests the swirly (for the uninitiated, a swirly is holding somebody’s head in the toilet and flushing) but a more level headed boy rightly points out that it’s hard to give some random civilian a swirly without being in the same bathroom with him. Extra points for that sharp tack!

Of course the ever vigilant amateur detective Coach Kaz sniffs out this plan to exact revenge on Robby before it can go any further than the logistics of how to get Robby’s head in a toilet. He levels stern steely blues at the boys and establishes a Hands Off Robby rule.

The real star of this strip is Coach Kaz’s hair. We’re all very familiar with Kaz’s coiffure, but it really pops in all three panels today. It’s stacked up nicely on top, it cascades down the back, it fans out nicely around his collar and is accented by precise, geometrically manicured sideburns. As Warren Zevon said of his famous werewolf, “his hair was perfect!”

The title is inspired by Perfect Tommy from Buckaroo Banzai. Kaz’s do isn’t exactly the same as Tommy’s but they share a certain essence.

Getting Ripped Every Day

In typical Gil Thorp Saturday cliffhanger fashion, none of the Mudlark seniors come right out and give rando underclassman the straight dope on B/Robby.  Just some passive-aggressive reasons they didn’t like him.  Could it be that none of them actually know what went down?

I’m having a difficult time figuring out what’s on Andre’s locker shelf.  The rectangular object with the “12” on top I figure to be a shoebox with a genericized Nike logo, unless Andre’s gone super retro with a pair of Batas like Magic Johnson used to wear.  But what’s that next to the shoebox?  Pack of Luckies?  Some Gold Bond?

Also having a difficult time figuring out how B/Robby is sustaining himself such that he can go on Marty’s show every day.  I can’t imagine he’s on the WDIG payroll… yet… but as soon as station manager LBJ figures out Howry will cost him relative peanuts, Marty will be on the streets and dumpster diving behind Schultz’s Polynesian quicker than you can say “Clumsy Amy Lange.”

Gil’s Next Trick Play: The Tiki Eligible

Kaz can’t conclude that

Tiki eligible, so

Off to the weight room

 

Then while bench pressing

Bet Kaz wasn’t expecting

Gil to teabag him

 

There’s no clear-cut call

On eligibility

To keep us guessing

 

Gil Thorp logic:

“What would our opponents think?”

They don’t have to know

 

No Urban Meyer

More like Kirby Not-so-Smart

Or next Petrino

 

Andre Ruffin sez:

“Wish you were playing tonight.”

“The jury’s still out.”

 

Benched Tiki again?

Didn’t even dress him out?

Why did he show up?

 

Surely Marty Moon

Has noticed. He should be on

This like white on rice

 

Through all this shitshow

Where’s the movie buff punter?

Off watching game film?

 

Is he reviewing

This travesty of a plot?

Give it the finger

Same Shirt, Different Day

He’s a cornerback!

He’s a safety!

He’s a floor wax!

He’s a dessert topping!

What isn’t he? Nosy, like you bastiges.

Since having read timbuys’ comment yesterday to the effect that Gil Thorp may be a constrained comic, I can’t shake that idea out of my head. So much so, in fact, that I’m sorely tempted to constrain my TWIM posts for the remainder of this arc to haiku form. What say ye?