(Oct 16)
(Oct 17)
Speaking of old strips in new hands, as we were a week ago, Dick Tracy has become, well, "fascinating" under the guidance of Joe Staton and Mike Curtis.
That is, I don't know what Chester Gould would think of it, but, then, his last few years on the strip turned it into "train-wreck fascinating" and that's not at all what I mean.
The "fascinating" I mean is more in the line of "Where the hell are they going with this?" and that includes bringing back some of the bizarre elements Gould had introduced to the train wreck.
When they resuscitated Moon Maid, it kind of reminded me of one St. Patrick's Day when my band was playing in a bar and we had a huge party of raucous drunks front and center, led by this particularly obnoxious old woman who, thank God, began to pass out, at which point one of her (demographically if not developmentally) adult children hauled her out to the car to sleep it off.
And about half an hour later, the bar owner decided to buy a round for the table, and, to our astonished dismay, told someone to go get her.
Well, except that Moon Maid didn't throw up on the table.
And it wasn't exactly Moon Maid who/that they brought back, but ...
... well, never mind. Anyway, somehow, in some bizarre and, yes, fascinating, way, despite my astonished misgivings, it worked. Quite well, in fact.
Reading Dick Tracy these days puts you in the position of Boon in "Animal House," as Bluto is going off about the Germans and Pearl Harbor.
Forget it. They're rolling.
So this week, they sorta kinda wrapped up one story line -- which is to say, they left some pieces hanging rather than having one of those back-at-the-station wrap-up moments -- and are now careening off into a new one that apparently features a gang of hoodlums who look just like Sam, the Chief and Tracy.
Well, sure. Why the hell not?
They're rolling.
And part of the fun is thinking that, given the number of papers that probably still carry this old warhorse of a strip simply because their comics page is on autopilot, there must be readers who are absolutely flummoxed by this.
And then thinking, "Aw, hell, they probably haven't even noticed the continuing breaks with reality."
If they'd started this new arc a little earlier in the month ...
... I'd have paired it as a "Juxtaposition of the Day" with the Watson that was running then.
Speaking of Juxtapositions of the Day ...
The announcement that we can't get out of Afghanistan after all gets a similar response from Kevin Seirs and Clay Jones, which draws on the odd attraction that our nation seems to be developing for dynasties.
And less on the "John and John Quincy Adams" model or even the lesser-at-both-ends "William Henry and Benjamin Harrison" model and more on the "Krystle and Alexis Carrington" model.
Meanwhile, that ol' "Pottery Barn Rule" is turning out to be a real bitch, isn't it?
It's like some kind of Twilight Zone thing, where you can't simply pay for the thing you broke, but, rather, have to stay there until you've mastered the art of recreating it, which takes decades. Maybe centuries. Maybe forever.
Even that old imperialist jingo, Kipling, could have told us what we were getting into:
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains 
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
And now back to "fascinating" ...
Speaking of strange things you can't help but enjoy, Wayno was pre-celebrating Virgil Partch's 99th birthday yesterday, which is actually today.
Not a centennial, no, but worth marking simply for the chance to link to a posting I did a few years ago, featuring him and also William Steig, under the title "Strange is good."
Even though people are no damn.
And on an even more cheerful note
It's the announcement of the annual open studio and holiday sale at the old toothbrush factory in Florence, Mass., which happens to host, among its various painters and sculptors and weavers and whathaveyous, the studio of Rhymes With Orange creator Hilary Price.
Who cracked me up again today.
And whose Open Studio is a yearly must for me and my granddaughter, which gives us a chance to spend some time together as well as some time with Hilary and her friends and relations, and most especially her mom.
If you are anywhere within range, you need to be there. Two days to choose from, and good company, fun stuff to buy (cheap! affordable!) and free leftover Halloween candy both days.
(But don't spoil your appetite.)
Here's your moment of unintentionally strange Fascination:
(At least I think the strangeness is unintentional. Maybe it's genius.)
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