Pooch Cafe (10/30/09)

The woman in this strip looks sour, but she should thank her lucky starts that she was “cheated” out of her bagel by her husband’s voracious pet dog. As a fan of circular bread products with holes punched in the middle, I can attest that the loss of a hard, stale, dried out bagel is nothing to fret over. If you’re having trouble cutting through a bagel with a kitchen knife, then it’s definitely not worth eating. Fortunately, this woman now has the opportunity to walk over to her local bakery (or deli, or Starbucks) and find herself a fresh bagel that’s worthy of the family toaster oven.

Pooch Cafe (10/9/09)

I’m not a fan of surreal moments masquerading as punchlines, but today’s Pooch Cafe won me over with its moxie and panache. The image of a squid and a ghost chained to one another is so surreal that it nullifies any of my aesthetic objections. What impresses me most is the absence of any type of knowing aside to the reader. This sea creature and his poltergeist companion are shown as fugitives making their way quickly across an open field, eyes fixed on the horizon. The pairing is doubly unlikely since squids do not do well on dry land and the ghosts from Pac-Man have a tendency to run toward their adversaries, not away from them.

Pooch Cafe (9/16/09)

There’s something unrealistic about this dog’s relationship with his kibble (aside from the fact that he’s talking to, and attempting to woo, a bag of dry dog food). If the dogs I know are any indication, then canines tend to devour their vittles the second they hit the food dish. They have no ability to savor their meals, at least not in the luxurious manner that humans do. While this strip suggests that its canine protagonist might lovingly pour his food onto fine china and serve it by candlelight, I’ve found that most dogs would be happy with a slightly torn bag that they can topple to the floor.

Pooch Cafe (9/1/09)

The first two panels of today’s Pooch Cafe are remarkably expressive. I love the look of humiliated incredulity in panel one, which is complemented perfectly by the use of a single human finger to place a bow on this poor dog’s head. And panel two thoroughly disproves my notion that a purse dog could never be made to look frightening (at least not in the “oh my goodness, that dog looks angry” sense of the word). I’m not saying the dog in this strip could intimidate anyone, but at least he’s reached the point where we know he means business.

Pooch Cafe (8/15/09)

It’s hilarity aside, today’s Pooch Cafe stands out for another reason: its phonetic rendering of profanity. In a medium that clings to symbols (@#&*!) as a means of swearing, this seems somewhat groundbreaking. Of course, the war setting makes this cussing seem utterly believable and probably blunts some of the objections that are sure to flow form more sensitive readers. It also helps that the characters in this strip are dogs. In a literal sense, all of the males in Pooch Cafe are sons of bitches.

Pooch Cafe (7/28/09)

One of my favorite things about Pooch Cafe is just how undoglike its main character, Poncho, can be. I’ve always found pooches to be friendly, loyal and seemingly apologetic if a human expresses any type of anger or disappointment. That’s a far cry from Poncho’s belligerent stance in this strip, which is probably why the punchline made me laugh out loud.

Pooch Cafe (6/24/09)

This is one of the most disgusting comic strips I’ve seen in a long time, but I still have to give the cartoonist credit for going further than the punchline requires. Another, lesser strip might have ended with the giant bullmastiff burying the smaller dog’s face in her chest, but today’s Pooch Cafe goes one panel further. And what a panel it is. As if the look of horror smudged on the bullmastiff’s torso isn’t disturbing enough, we’re also left to wonder what on earth got stuck in the tiny dog’s mouth. Whatever it is, the thought of that substance trickling down the dog’s esophagus and working its way through his digestive system is deeply unsettling.