Red and Rover (8/1/09)

Although I’m a fan of Red and Rover, I sometimes think its vision of middle America is…well, dated. Today’s strip does nothing to disabuse me of that notion as it shows a young boy citing well-known figures from the 40s, 50s and 60s, all of whom are deceased. This dialogue would have fit perfectly in an episode of Leave it to Beaver, but it seems out of place in a contemporary comic strip. Were there no living notables who delivered papers as a child? Barack Obama? Lance Armstrong? Susan Boyle? There are more celebrities than ever before, and the odds dictate that some of them must have flung newsprint at front doors during their salad days.

Red and Rover (3/31/09)

Here’s an example of an extremely patient kid; more patient than any child I’ve ever met and certainly more patient than I was at that age. Instead of confronting his older brother the minute he got his toy gun, this kid planned a subtle and ingenious prank and allowed a full day for it to come together. That patience paid off in spades, given that a world-weary teenager was made to believe (if only for a second) that his younger brother actually burned a hole in his T-shirt using a small plastic ray gun.

Red and Rover (3/12/09)

Breakfast is the one meal where consistency is valued over variety. We may want to “try something new” for dinner, but breakfast arrives too early in the day for such indulgence. That’s why people have the same cup of coffee, the same scone or the same peanut butter toast, day after day. This principle also applies to dry cereal. There’s nothing worse than choking down a bowl of Rice Krinkles at 7:00 am when you were fully expecting a bowl of Rice Krispies. The generic manufacturers may claim that they’re using the same recipe, but as the boy in this strip can attest, the slightest difference in flavor or texture can be intolerable early in the morning.

Red and Rover (12/11/08)

Sometimes I look at the TV listings for December and get discouraged by the volume of Christmas specials that get shown year after year. But then I catch a glimpse of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas or A Charlie Brown Christmas and realize that a handful of specials truly deserve to be called classics. It’s difficult to craft a holiday show that will stand the test of time. This year’s entry, A Colbert Christmas, was interesting, but I doubt future generations will be intersted in musical numbers from John Legend or Toby Keith (or Stephen Colbert, for that matter). So the next time the Grinch gets scheduled in primetime, I’ll try not to be grumpy about it.

Red and Rover (10/29/08)

This isn’t a comic strip, it’s an instruction manual and like most instruction manuals it makes the job look easier than it is. While this strip shows water arcing out of the boy’s mouth as if from a fountain, the more likely result is a shower of spittle drenching the bathroom mirror.  Either that or a mouthful of water dribbling down the chin and soaking the pyjamas. If anything, this is a trick to try outdoors, not in confines of the family bathroom.

Red and Rover (9/21/08)

This strip is a fitting illustration of the state of the newspaper industry. With no customers to deliver papers to, the young boy decides to fold them into makeshift sailboats and float them down the streets of his subdivision, never to be read again. The image also reminds me of last Saturday in Chicago, which was the single rainiest day in the city’s recorded history and whose record preciptiation, needless to say, drenched my newspapers.

Red and Rover (8/27/08)

That’s one sad expression on the red-headed boy’s face in panel one. It’s as if he’s ashamed of letting the dog see him with his new ‘do. Then again, if I came home with a haircut like that I would be all mumbles and apologies and staring at my shoelaces as well. In fact, every time a barber uses styling gel without asking, the first thing I do is come home, run my head under warm water and rejuvenate myself by washing the gunk out of my hair.