One Big Happy (11/2/09)

As someone with a hyphenated last name, I can appreciate the usefulness of that particular piece of punctuation. It both separates and joins together the two parts of my last name, which are my mother’s maiden name and my father’s last name, respectively. And though my name can be difficult to explain, and even more difficult to spell, in the company of strangers and customer service representatives, it has served me well over the years. I’m just glad I don’t have to include my middle name in the conversation and that there’s no junior, senior, or esquire to contend with.

One Big Happy (9/21/09)

The fact that this girl is debating which word to choose shows that she is well on her way to becoming an accomplished lawyer. The word “busy” would seem like the obvious choice, but it could be argued that “pretty” is just as appropriate. If the test-maker wanted to show a “busy” farmer, wouldn’t he have drawn a man toiling on his hands and knees with an impossible number of seeds piled up behind him? Instead, the drawing shows a jovial farmer who’s riding his comfortable tractor and barely breaking a sweat. And since “pretty” is a subjective term, this girl will have a decent case to present to her teacher when her answer is invariably marked wrong. From there, it will be a short leap to the law school of her choice.

One Big Happy (8/26/09)

Maybe I’ve seen too many Wilford Brimley infomercials, but when I think of the classic old American male, I tend to think of white mustaches and receding hairlines. The man in this strip fits the bill pretty well, although his doesn’t have the girth to compete with Brimley. But what he lacks in stockiness he more than makes up for in mustache presence. This is especially evident in panel four, which gleefully depicts the type of facial hair that can overwhelm a man’s mug if he’s not careful.

One Big Happy (7/27/09)

It looks as if the girl in this strip is becoming too old for the types of fairy tales that trick her into dusting and other light chores. While that’s a good thing in some respects, it also might behove her to come up with some motivational tools to replace those grand stories. Otherwise she’ll have nothing but bitter disillusionment to keep her company as she trudges through teen tasks like mowing the grass, washing the dishes and emptying the garbage. After all, there’s nothing like bags full of ripe refuse to make you long for the teeny-tiny elves of your youth.

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.

One Big Happy (6/14/09)

There are a lot of things to enjoy in today’s seemingly simple installment of One Big Happy. Most importantly, the punchline is funny. This is partly because of the elaborate set-up and partly because Ray-Ray sounds like a reasonable name for an adult. I also like the elaborate pantomime of the young boy trying unsuccessfully to drink water from a water fountain. This could have been communicated in a single spittle-filled panel, but the failed attempts become even sillier over the course of four panels. Finally, I’m a big fan of the backgrounds in this strip, which seem to be done in watercolor and remind of the painted backdrops used on old movie sets.

One Big Happy (6/2/09)

Methinks the child in this strip doth protest too much. It’s highly unlikely that the fundamentals of science, geography and history will fall by the wayside over the next decade. Will photosynthesis no longer occur ten years from now? Will the Rocky Mountains disappear from the face of the earth. Will the Renaissance lose all of its relevance? I’m even a little skeptical of the revolution in spelling that the dad in this strip seems to fear. While it’s true that teenagers pound out messages using thumb-saving abbreviations, I have a feeling that respect for the English language will be spreading from the sticklers to the mainstream sooner rather than l8r.