Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! (7/14/09)

Today’s Brewster Rockit reminds me of the recent cyber attacks allegedly carried out by North Korea against South Korean and American websites. While the sabotage seemed to focus on government websites, there’s always a danger of this sort of thing spreading. Fortunately, Brewster has come up with a brilliant plan for foiling such an attack in the future. Simply dangle a ham in front of any computer that might attract a Stalinist hacker. This should be doubly effective given the criminal food shortages plaguing North Korea. And who knows, these meat-based tactics might lead to bigger and better things. Nothing has come close to spurring reunification of the Korean peninsula; maybe it’s time we gave ham a chance.

Pardon My Planet (7/13/09)

I grew up eating Jif peanut butter and still chafe at the taste of other brands. Skippy seems gritty to my palette, and the generic stuff registers as bland and uninteresting. And now that I think of it, I’m not sure I’ve even tried Peter Pan peanut butter. I’ve seen it on store shelves for years, but have always considered it to be a holdover from a previous era, like Baby Ruth candy bars. Some people must like it, but certainly no one that I’ve ever met. Now if I were to see a jar of Dorian Gray peanut butter in the store, I would snap it up in a heartbeat…if only for the picture on the label.

Cul de Sac (7/12/09)

Maybe it’s just me, but I find the notion of holding a conversation with a supermarket cashier to be quaint. I say this even though I’m friends with one of the cashiers at my neighborhood supermarket and am regularly chatting him up as I check out. But unless I know someone personally, I see no need to start gabbing away while he or she is ringing up my purchases. It could be the fluorescent lighting or the insufferable muzak, but it seems to me that the grocer is just not the ideal place to build community.

Pearls Before Swine (7/11/09)

Although most people want their mates to be articulate, I’m not sure stilted prose, limited vocabulary or bad grammar are seen as deal-breakers, even for someone dating an English professor. So while Pig may want to improve his writing skills, or at least ask someone to proofread his letter before sending it to his ex, he may also want to focus on other areas of self-improvement. I would suggest losing the wool hat as step number one, well before picking up copies of Elements of Style and Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Candorville (7/10/09)

I haven’t spent much time thinking about Michael Jackson since he passed away. I haven’t bought any of his albums (not even Thriller), haven’t watched clips from the memorial service and have only read one newspaper obituary, published the day after his death. But today’s Candorville puts the whole sad spectacle of his passing in perspective. The image of Jackson shedding his contemporary exterior and returning to the joyful promise of his youth is grotesque and moving all at the same time. It suggests that underneath Jackson’s troubled (and to some people, freakish) exterior was a genuine human spirit, and that his death, however tragic, might set that spirit free.

Monty (7/9/09)

Once I got through laughing at today’s Monty (and after remembering how much I hated down pillows, with their thousands of pointy feathers), I began to realize how many truly bizarre things are rendered in this strip. The most obvious is the fact that a man is sharing his bed with a pet bird. There’s really no good explanation for something like that. I’m also bugged by the sunglasses that adorn the man’s head, even in sleep, but I’m willing to let that pass. What I can’t get over, however, is the size of this bird’s head, which proves to be freakishly large when shown next to his bestubbled master. I’m not sure what our fine feathered friend eats on a regular basis, but I’m willing to bet it’s not run-of-the-mill birdseed.

One Big Happy (7/8/09)

The punchline of this strip is cute, but what really catches my eye is the boy’s anguished expression in panel one as he considers what, if anything, can be done with the blank sheet of paper in front of him.

In fact, I like the image so much that I was inspired to crop out the dialogue and create a streamlined version. Whenever I have writer’s block, I tend to bite my fingernails or read Google News. These aren’t helpful habits, but at least I don’t pull my hair out and scream to the heavens in existential horror at the prospect of filling a blank sheet of paper with original thoughts. And now, whenever I’m tempted to leave my desk chair for the comfortable distractions of “doing anything but writing,” I can turn to this picture for a little perspective.