Comic Strip Survey: For the First Time, We Check Out the Baltimore Sun

Greetings to our blog readers in Hong Kong, Turkey, and Germany........

This week for the first time in the eight-year history of this blog, we look at Sunday comic strips from "The Baltimore Sun." We were hoping to see "Zippy the Pinhead," and as it turns out, yesterday Bill Griffith's comic strip was truly a piece of art. Today, he made vintage fun of Donald Trump; even Bao Bao, the panda at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., isn't such an easy target.

Omigosh, we just made a major faux paux as it is considered rude to mention Washington, D.C., when one is talking about Baltimore. Fortunately, when I briefly met John Waters, a cult film director from Charm City, in 2002, I did not make this mistake. But, I only talked to him for about eight seconds, which is how long I spent talking to Willie Nelson backstage at a Farm Aid concert  around that same time.

"The Baltimore Sun" features several comic strips which we don't see in the other newspapers we survey, like "The Washington Post" (whoops again!), including "Mother Goose and Grimm," "The Middletons," and "One Big Happy." All three of those strips made our big list.

First place goes to "Foxtrot," which features the family going out for a Sunday picnic at a state park in a place like The Humpback Bridge State Park in Covington, Va., and they encounters all sorts of natural elements likes ticks (top image), poison ivy, and snakes. Of course, in Florida, they would also have to worry about alligators.

Third place goes to "Speed Bump," in which a judge (center image) tweets his verdict, somehow we can't imagine Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas doing such a thing (ahhh, that's the third D.C. reference).

And, in sixth place, we have "Mother Goose and Grimm," which ironically has a nursery rhyme themed strip (given its title) as Humpty Dumpty falls off his great wall. We actually didn't get the Obamacare gag (and, that makes four), but we liked the strip enough as it is.

Now, let's give this list which you can perhaps read on the Metro after you've come back from seeing that new Woody Allen movie at the Landmark E-Street Cinema...........now, we are up to five!:

1) Foxtrot

2) Pearls Before Swine

3) Speed Bump

4) Dilbert

5) Get Fuzzy

6) Mother Goose and Grimm

7) The Middletons

8) One Big Happy

9) Garfield

10) Zits

http://www.baltimoresun.com/

http://baltimore.org/

http://www.visitmaryland.org/

http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot

10 Favorite Comic Strips from Sunday Washington Post: The Foxtrot Kids Scream at Ice Cream

We are a bit pressed for time today, so let's just mention which specific comic strips made our top ten for this week (from the Sunday "Washington Post"). We picked "Foxtrot" as our top selection of the week; in the Sunday strip the kids gripe about how limited the choices are in the neighborhood ice cream stand, of course, one of the Foxtrot kids as for Hexagonal Prism?

Second place goes to "Sherman's Lagoon" where lava lamps and garden gnomes (pict. center) are on the verge of becoming house cleaning casualties. But, Sherman promises to save them at any cost.

Third place goes to "Lio," with this week's strip reminding us of "The Addams Family" (pict. bottom) as Lio sees a hand creeping up through wet cement and he resolves this scary conflict in a typical confident matter.

Here is the top ten:

1. Foxtrot http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot

2. Sherman's Lagoon http://www.shermanslagoon.com

3. Lio http://www.gocimics.com/lio

4. WuMo http://www.gocomics.com/wumo

5. Knight Life http://www.gocomics.com/theknightlife

6. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit

7. Rhymes with Orange

8. Pearls Before Swine

9. Dustin

10. Doonesbury

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

Top Ten Comic Strips from Sunday May 31st "Washington Post".....We Like Lio Again!

Greetings to our blog readers in Serbia, Argentina and Australia.........

It took us like 3.5 hours to find the images above, so let's get straight to the list...

Well, first, we should add that Cheech and Chong (top)  are in reference to this week's "Lio" comic strip in which the title character kills a weed who is smoking weed, we imagine this might be a reason why the comic strip can not be found in newspapers in South Carolina and West Virginia.

The Danish import "WuMo" has a fat man blowing up dolls who look like him and other tourists at a beach, which is why we chose to go with an image of a potentially Cute Annoying Young Couple wind-surfing in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Lastly, we go with an image of rhinos as an homage to this week's "Mark Trail" even though the strip did not make our top ten:

1) Lio

2) WuMo

3) The Argyle Sweater (featured pizza cops at the scene of the crime!)....

4) Foxtrot

5) Baldo

6) Sherman's Lagoon

7) Speed Bump

8) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

9) Knight Life

10) Frazz

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.denverpost.com/comics

http://www.gocomics.com/lio

http://www.gocomics.com/wumo

http://www.gocomics.com/baldo

Our Favorite Comics from Sunday Jan. 18th Washington Post: Maybe Michelle and the Kids Like Foxtrot Too

Greetings to our blog readers in Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.....

In the Outlook section of the Sunday, Jan. 18th edition of "The Washington Post," journalist Michael Booth made the bold proclamation that Scandinavia was over-rated. This made me rethink my foreign country travel bucket list in which Iceland and Norway are ranked second and third respectively after Liberia..........(perhaps, stand-up comic Gilbert Gottfried applauds us for making fun of Ebla, he might be the only one!).............

The images above are of: 1) Charlie Brown, but "Peanuts" is not our top-ranked comic strip, in fact, since the strip is in permanent rerun status, we disqualify the strip from our surveys, but Charlie Brown was the butt of a great gag in "The Argyle Sweater;" 2) A snowball fight in reference to "Foxtrot," which perhaps First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters found amusing; and 3) the old Flash Gordon serials with the late Buster Crabbe which is actually being used for "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" (there is also a "Flash Gordon" weekly comic strip still in circulation)....

Here is our top ten, which also includes "WUMO," a Danish import that this week illustrated what it would be life if children said inappropriate things about fat people who eat too much fast food (Gottfried probably loves "WUMO" too):

1) The Argyle Sweater

2) Foxtrot

3) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

4) WUMO

5) Lio

6) Speed Bump

7) Sherman's Lagoon

8) Knight Life

9) Prickly City

10) Pearls Before Swine

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

Halloween Tweets: Trick-or-Treat Invasions

Greetings to our beloved blog-readers in Scotland, Switzerland and Kuwait.

Today is not only Halloween; it also marks the sixth anniversary of our blog "The Daily Vampire." Perhaps some of you remember 2008, The Beatles had just arrived in America, Chairma Mao Tse Tung became the leader of China and a marijuana-inspired cartoon with a talking dog named "Scooby Doo"debuted on television..........:)

In case, you are wondering the bottom image is from the Turkish horror film "Drakula Istanbul'da/Dracula in Istanbul"!

Here are some unique tweets from Halloween night:

1) News&Record: Trick-or-treaters invade Greensboro neighborhood.
 
2) UNC Swag: Everyone in Chapel Hill tonight, please be safe and careful in what you do.....

3) Abraham Lincoln: Tonight in 1865, Lincoln, Mary, and Miss Clara attended Grover's Theatre for opera "The Magic Flute." She was with them at the assassination.

4) Bill Amend (the cartoonist from "Foxtrot"): All right enough with the sad Halloween boredom. Booze, meet Springsteen. Booze and Springsteen, meet Bill Amend.

5) Top Conservative Cat (a satiric tweeter): Next on Fox News, President Obama lures children to pagan festival at the White House.

6) Marc Maron (stand-up comic, star of "Maron" on IFC): "Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhh! WTFHaloween!!!!"

7) The Coffee Bean (a LA-based coffee producer): "Spooky Halloween greetings 2 U from Ur friends at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Have fun and be safe tonight."

http://www.visitgreensboronc.com/

http://www.visitchapelhill.org/

http://www.foxtrot.com/

http://www.wtfpod.com/

http://www.coffeebean.com/

Sunday Comics Grand Slam (1 of 4)

Greetings to those of you in Poland, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, thanks for tuning in, and we regret your respective countries not being in the World Cup.

And, greetings to our readers in Belgium, Italy and Chile, and kudos for making it to the World Cup!

We are a week behind, so bear with us. We begin with a look at our favorite comic strips from the June 8th "Washington Post," be sure to go to our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com for a look at our favorite comic strips from the June 8 issue of "The Roanoke Times."

Also, since we have a slight center-left political bias here at "The Daily Vampire," we wanted to mention that we are amused (for the moment) that Cong. Eric Cantor (R-Va) lost his Congressional seat due to a Republican Party primary which was won by tea party extremist David Brat, who will face Democrat Jack Trammell in November.

Two weeks ago, while in Richmond, Va., we saw 18 signs for Cantor and one for Brat, whom we mistook for a Democrat!

Cantor was also given the dubious Worst Week in Washington title by political reporter Chris Cillizza of "The Washington Post."

We personally think if there was a Best Week in Washington title that it should go to the Dutch ambassador Rudolf Bekink as The Netherlands shocked Spain 5-1 in World Cup play in Brazil.

Last week, our favorite strip from the Post belonged to "Dustin," a King Features strip which had a great take on the agony of remembering all 42 passwords for our respective Internet/social media sites. We are using an image of Sean Connery playing James Bond because we presume JamesBond007 is one of the worst passwords to use.

"Foxtrot" also delighted with us as the kids took in lots of ice cream, so much so that one of them actually wore a winter coat! Thus, we give the strip second place.

The bronze medal goes to "Prickly City," a strip which some times shows a conservative tilt, but this week cartoonist Scott Stantis had a great take on how cyber deities whose name we won't mention (Google, Facebook, Twitter) are inclined to watch us these days!

Here is our top ten list:

1) Dustin

2) Foxtrot

3) Prickly City

4) Doonesbury

5) Pearls Before Swine

6) Brewster Rockit

7) Lio

8) Sherman's Lagoon

9) Judge Parker

10) WUMO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.dustincomics.com

http://www.foxtrot.com

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/worst-week-in-washington/

Sunday Washington Post Comics Survey: Tell Jeff Bezos We Love "Dustin"

Yes, we have had distractions this week, but we are back with our weekly survey of our favorite comic strips in Sunday newspapers. It should be pointed out that we also love several comic strips not published in either "The Washington Post" nor "The Roanoke Times," the two newspapers' comic pages we survey; these include "Bleeker," about a robotic dog, "Pros and Cons," about the legal profession, and "The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee," about a slightly overeager science whiz kid.

Jeff Bezos who made his fortune in Amazon, we are referring to the e-purchase site not the river in Brazil, took over "The Washington Post" recently and on Sunday, there were noticeable changes to the paper as a whole, but thankfully, no changes, for the better or worse, were made to the comic strips pages. Nevertheless, we hope Bezos understands that we really enjoy "Dustin."

The comic strip about a single twenty-something bears a bit of a resemblance to Dustin Hoffman's title character in "The Graduate," as both are seeking out how to establish themselves in the world. One of the key differences is that there is no Mrs. Robinson in "Dustin" (the comic strip). In this week's strip, Dustin takes a selfie at the DMV, only to be told that is not allowed.

In "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," a strange looking alien literally robs the title character of everything he owns. While in Keith Knight's "Knight Life," there is a funny tension between the title character, an African-American male modeled after Knight himself, and his German wife, over the subject of interracial marriage.

Here is the rest of our survey:

1) "Dustin" (see top image of Dustin Hoffman)

2) "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" (see middle image of Gil Gerard and the cult '80s NBC sci-fi series "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," Gerard is still alive at age 71).

3) "Pearls Before Swine"

4) "Knight Life" (see bottom image of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner poster)

5) "Lio"

6) "Speed Bump"

7) "Reply All"

8) "Candorville"

9) "The Argyle Sweater"

10) "Foxtrot"

"Sherman's Lagoon" just barely missed out, but we're sure it will crack the top ten again soon! That was also the case with "WUMO."

"Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" is also available in the Sunday print edition of the "News and Record" (Greensboro, NC).

http://dustincomics.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/

http://www.gocomics.com/knightlife

http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.news-record.com

Comic Strip Dialogue from The Washington Post: Grandpa Going Fishing

 

Greetings to our blog readers in Canada, Canada, Canada and South Africa!

 

To explain the images, which are in reference to comic strips in today's "Washington Post," the top image above is being used for "Reply All," a comic strip about a Generation-Y woman trying to find her place in the world through lattes, yoga and (of course) her SmartPhone; the second strip is in reference to today's "Sherman's Lagoon." The strip which resolves around a shark dealt with the title character and his crab pal checking out Youtube videos, and we all know nothing is more popular than a cat playing a piano. And, lastly, the final photo of a man with a big fish deals with "Pickles." A modest, conservative comic strip which revolves around an elderly couple. In today's strip, the old man talks to his grandson about fishing.

 

Here is the dialogue:

 

 

1) "Fishing? Don't Be Silly! I'm Walking the Dog" (from "Pickles")

 

2) Uncle Z....? You Okay? (from "Doonesbury")

 

3) "Are those the videos that last 30 seconds?" (From "Sherman's Lagoon")

 

4) "Less than a week into the New Year and I've already broken all my resolutions!!!" (from "Knight Shift")

 

5) "You Wanted Me To Play Poker with My Friends at the Tavern" (from "Hagar the Horrible")

 

6) "Katherine, This is Very Good! You Have a Gift of Dialogue" (from "Judge Parker"_

 

7) "I really can't believe you made this bet with her" (from "Foxtrot")

 

8) "Well, Mark, it's that time again" (from "Reply All")

 

9) "How about Gouda? I've got Smoked Gouda" (from "Blondie")

 

10) "Are you the enemy?" (from "Beetle Bailey")

 

http://www.foxtrot.com/

 

http://www.gocomics.com/theknightlife#.Usn8DTYo6Uk

 

http://www.mayorgacoffee.com/ (Coffee Shop in Rockville, Md.)

 

 

 

 

Our Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post: Black Friday at Gal-Mart

Today, in honor of "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy," we are featuring a photo of Gal-Mart, well actually we couldn't find an image of Gal-Mart, but we did find one of Wal-Mart the store he was satirizing. The science fiction satiric strip focused on how Christmas insanity leads to overspending and basically turns us into barefoot starving children in Uganda.

Black Friday also turned into a very ugly scene in rural Tazewell, Va., which is near the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky in southwest Virginia, as one man stabbed another man for a good parking place.

But, the comics are here to take us away from the madness around us.

Other favorites, included a painful yoga workout in "Reply All," an educational look at elk in "Mark Trail" and lightning striking a beach full of tourists in "Sherman's Lagoon."

"Barney and Clyde" which is co-written by Gene Weingartens, an award-winning journalist/columnist for "The Washington Post," ranked number two in our survey. The comic strip this week made fun of cartoonists running on empty and using the same gas routinely.

Here is our list:

1. "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy"

2. "Barney and Clyde"

3. "Dustin"

4. "Pearls Before Swine"

5. "Reply All"

6. "Foxtrot"

7. "Agnes"

8. "Sherman's Lagoon"

9. "Prickly City"

10. "Mark Trail"

http://www.washingtonpost.com

Top Ten Comics from the Sunday "Washington Post:" Foxtrot Takes the Blue Ribbon

Since there are close to 30 comic strips in the Sunday edition of "The Washington Post," we weren't able to rank some our personal favorite comic strips, including "Knight Life," "Reply All" and "Rhymes with Orange." But, both "Judge Parker" and "Mark Trail" made into the top ten.

Here is our top ten:

1. Foxtrot (since this week's strip made a reference to an exclamation point, we are using it for our top image)

2. Pearls Before Swine: This Sunday's strip contained 20 panels!

3. Lio

4. Dustin (We definitely agree with the strip's premise that Fanta ads before movies are very annoying)

5. The Argyle Sweater

6. Sherman's Lagoon

7. Prickly City (since the strip has a cactus, we are using an Arizona cactus for our middle image)

8. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

9. Judge Parker

10. Mark Trail (the strip revolved around mountain goats; a goat is also one of the lead characters in "Pearls Before Swine"

Our favorite line from the soap opera comic strip this week, comes from "Apartment 3-G," which is not in "The Washington Post": "I Just Asked You To Be My Wife"


http://www.foxtrot.com

http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/  


PS: While we have a moment, we want to thank those of you in Moldova (?!) for reading our blog. Yes, we know your country is a former Soviet republic which borders Romania.

PPS: Happy 37th birthday to Dominique Dawes, one of our favorite Olympic gymnasts.

Our Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post: It's Shark Week

What does a shark, a goat and a deer have in common? Well, all three were featured in our 10 favorite comic strips from the Sunday, Oct. 27th edition of "The Washington Post."

Some of our favorite strips like "The Argyle Sweater" and "Reply All" missed the cut, while some that we don't normally enjoy as much, including the education-oriented strip "Mark Trail" made our top ten.

Here we go:

1, Sherman's Lagoon (Image One, the strip revolves around a shark named Sherman)

2. Foxtrot

3. Lio

4. Doonesbury

5. Dustin

6. Pearls Before Swine (Image Two, a goat is one of the main characters)

7. Knight Life

8. Brewster Rockit

9. Judge Parker

10. Mark Trail (Image 3, the strip from Oct. 27 revolved around how to avoid hit bambis)