Well it looks like Santa has given the Professor the greatest gift of all: thicker and healthier-looking hair in just five minutes. His Just for Men hairstyle isn't just for the Sunday strips anymore! It's like a present for all of us.
Um. Aunt Iris. Mr. Mallory doesn't appear to be your first guest. How do you explain all those ghostly blue figures in the background, hmm? Are those just the crack addicts and the meth heads you couldn't keep out the door?
Margo knows her neighbors allright. Snuffy. Al. Leo. Little Moe, with the gimpy leg. Cheeks. Boney Bob. Cliff. I could go on forever baby!
Whoa, what? I can't tell if Iris has already set up the apartment for a party or if she's only imagining this in her fevered brain. Is apartment 3-J really that much bigger than 3-G that they can fit a piano and a punch table in there? Crazy!
Prissy the Wonder Cat has returned, and she's changed colors! She really is quite talented. But is she talented enough to escape Iris' clutches? I didn't think these roommates would have any problems until I took a closer look at the third panel:
You can see why Uncle Henry would be so proud of this building! It has some brick, and um a door, annnnd I'm fairly sure from the context it has an inside. Hmm. You might not be able to tell, but I work in communications at an architecture firm. Maybe that's why I've been avoiding this storyline; too close to work. I'm dating an architect, so they're really just all over the place. And now they're invading the funny pages. My one refuge!
Thursday December 16, 2010
It's official everyone: Lu Ann is over Alan! WHOOOOOOOO! I'd like to buy everyone a steak dinner, but that'd be unfair for our vegetarian readers, so instead I'll just say: Mission Accomplished.
While I enjoy the massive neuroses and feeble awkwardness that Margo and Tommie respoectively bring to their relationships, I think I enjoy Lu Ann's romances the best. Lu Ann is always so cheerful and optimistic about her budding relationships, and yet they're characterized by a dark undercurrent, because we all know that she's doomed to live with her roommates in Apartment 3-G for All Time. Margo and Tommie are usually capable of ruining their own relationships, but Lu Ann's end spectacularly, with guns or drugs or ghosts or whatever. So I'm excited!
How differently these two parallel kisses ended, huh? Sunday artist apparently missed the memo that Paul is steeped in self-doubt and insecurity, especially when his totally embarrassing dad is around. Jeez Dad, can't I humiliate myself without your supervision??
Oh look, a new strip featuring the captivating Aunt Iris/Trey the Architect storyline. Looks like I lose the game of Hot Potato that Maggie, Casey and I are playing.
Sorry for the skipped posts, I think all of us have been busy/disinterested in the fake-bike courier. I'm kind of confused as to why Iris assumed he was a courier in the first place, but don't feel like looking back at past strips to figure it out. Does she just assume anyone riding a bike is a courier? I do like how his fashion-forward scarf (?????) matches Iris's shirt. It's a match made in heaven. Except I get the feeling she's going to try to set him up with Tommie.
Okay, coloring aside, this is the same shirt Aunt Iris always wears. And outside of the 70s, I don't think "burnt banana peel" has ever been a stylish color. In fact, according to this amazing chart, black is a popular color for both style AND penance. Just saying.
There's something so cute and sad about Tommie's look in the second panel. It seems to say, "Hey guys! I'm friends with you too, right? We're all friends? It feels good to be part of the gang!" Ohhh Tommie. When did your makeover start making you look so much like Christopher Robin?
Paul, please! No one likes a desperate piano mover. E... Except Lu Ann.
"Remember me, Lu Ann? Paul Linski? The guy with the aggressively blond hair? Hi. I just got this new thing called a 'cellular phone.' I'm not really sure how to operate it yet. I think you grip the top half and then yell into the bottom. What do you think, Lu Ann? Lu Ann? Are you there? I can't hear you! Say something, Lu Ann!"
After ONE WHOLE GRUELING DAY of inconvenience, Margo can't wait to ditch that piano, and hopefully Tommie's icky dreams of stardom with it. You'd think, being the day after Thanksgiving, there'd Margo would make some cute joke about how it was hard to cook Thanksgiving dinner with the couch in the kitchen, or how she was giving thanks that the piano will be gone soon, but everyone knows Margo doesn't cook/gives thanks.
Taser Lady, I grow more and more disenchanted with you each day that passes without you producing a taser. However, your cat is filling your place in my heart. In panel two, is Prissy...I'm hoping for option 4. In any case, she appears to have doubled in size since yesterday. She really is something, isn't she?
Normally, an unusually affectionate cat would be depicted rubbing against someone's calves in a figure eight pattern. However, since this is the A3G Universe and it's illegal to show your legs at any time, Prissy has evolved into some kind of supercat that can and will leap onto Aunt Iris' shoulder like a parrot on a pirate. Just be thankful you're not wearing Prissy as a hat right now.
Wow, love the oversized yellow question mark hanging over Aunt Iris' head in the second panel! The bobble alone is usually enough to convey surprise or confusion, but today it's just not enough. She's probably just wondering why they went to sleep in their clothes last night, because you know there's no question that some one named "Aunt Iris" will love cats.
Well! I'm eating my words immediately. That's not such a bad drawing of a grand piano. I have no idea how it fits in the room, or if they have a concert hall in their apartment, or what, but there is no longer denying the existence of the piano.
Gerard, we are never going to see this piano. Unless they start making pianos that look like desk lamps or blazers, we're just never going to see it. I don't see why Aunt Iris didn't get an upright, it'd be much more size efficient and waaay easier to draw.
That space near the refrigerator? Hope you guys don't have a galley kitchen! I can just see Margo in the kitchen with an oversized chef's hat on, sauteing large pieces of the couch in a big frying pan, and then shoving them in Tommie's face.
That's more like it! Margo looks exquisite in panel two, gritting her teeth, spitcurl coiling defiantly, immediately exasperated and cursing. I probably would be upset too if I had to squeeze a baby grand into a Manhattan apartment with two other roommates. I think her distressed look in panel three is meant to communicate: do I have the strength to throw the piano out the window and kill the guilty party in one night? Only if it's a full moon, Margo.
Wasn't Lu Ann hanging out with the lovebirds all day too? Or else, what does she do all day? I guess since she owns the building, maybe she has to stay on call all day. Someone's got to! At least three floors, at least seven rooms a floor.
So orginally I thought, "Oh that wacky Aunt Iris just can't stop spending, she went out and got Tommie a piano so she can keep working on her showtunes or whatever." But nowwww I'm thinking that she just went out and got Tommie a male stripper, because no delivery person on earth wears a shirt and jacket on the job.
Did I say Aunt Iris insists on hemorrhaging money? Because I meant she insists on HEMORRHAGING money. Jeez, Aunt Iris, get a grip, can't you not spend money for twenty minutes?? Then again, as long as you're just window shopping for boater hats, I guess you can't get into that much trouble. Prove me wrong!
I like LogopolisMike's prediction that this bike-on-car pile up is basically just a way to get fresh meat into the apartment. I also like that idea that Aunt Iris will inevitably worm her way into whatever budding relationship she is the catalyst for. Based on Bike Guy's speedy escape into oncoming traffic, I'd say she's not welcome. But once she starts paying his hospital bills, he won't have much of a choice.
Monday November 8, 2010
Where on earth is this storyline going?
How can Tommie even muster up that bobble or surprise? Whenever someone mentions an upcoming vacation and a beloved pet in the same conversation, you know how it's going to end.
You're lucky, Taser Lady. Old Tommie would've turned you in to the landlord in a heartbeat. But new Tommie knows that rules are for squares! New Tommie will also shirk her responsibility to your cat and foist it on her fishy Aunt Iris, so you know, watch out. We should start taking bets on how dead/missing this cat is going to be in three weeks.
OH MY GOSH, Taser Lady is back!! SHE'S BACK, EVERYONE!! I knew she'd come back for us if we just believed hard enough, and now she's here!! She's really here! Although it sounds like she's just about to leave us again... aw. At least she'll leave Tommie (read: Iris, obviously) in charge of Prissy, which I can only assume is her pet name for her taser.
Well Tommie, even though you're my own flesh and blood, you still haven't invited me to stay here, so I guess I'll check out the hostel situation in New York. I blew all my money on deli food, there's no way I'm shelling for a real hotel. No no, really, that's okay, you don't have to put me up, I understand... but could you please wait until I'm gone to look so relieved?
Nice, Iris. Reeeeeeeeal subtle. "Oh, I just had this really weird dream where all the bright lights in the big city said, Hello Aunt Iris! Welcome to our fair city! Why don't you kick off your shoes and stay a while, stay in a nice comfy apartment with sweetest, prettiest niece in the world, stay stay stay oh please oh please Tommie LET ME STAY!!" 
Panels from Sunday's strip. If you read the middle strip as "homes and families," it makes sense that Iris might have a few regrets. However, if you read it as "homes and failures," as I did when I read it, then Iris' alternate lifestyle doesn't seem so bad!
APARTMENT 3-G YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY. You promise me deli food, so I'm thinking pastrami on rye (seedless, please!), maybe with some pickle spears, maybe a little potato salad, top it off with a fountain soda, maybe even an egg cream!... and then you show me an empty plate. I can't stand it.Meanwhile, Aunt Iris is worldy? I think we've all assumed that Ohio + Gary Larson style glasses = bumpkin, but apparently she's a vagabond. The world's dowdiest vagabond. You'd think she'd have better luggage by now!
Oh, the play? Is that still happening? I really did assume her part in it was just an belabored set up to get Tommie on I Dressed in the Dark. An elaborate hoax, if you will! Um, I haven't noticed her going off to practice anymore, or to the theater at all. I think the play opened, right? And she's going off trying to find work before finishing her other gig? Burning bridges, Tommie. That's all I'm saying.
Tell you what, Aunt Iris? Tell you that it's dangerous to walk in the middle of the street? Ohio is more rural than I thought... now come back to the sidewalk. And watch out for the yellow ones, they don't stop.
"You mean like cheap luggage? ZINNNNNNNNNNNNG"
Oh... Tommie. That piece of pie isn't your Aunt Iris. She's the one holding the pie. Come on, you know better. It's terrible that young women these days think they have to act dumb to be popular and stylish. Or at least just popular. What happened to all the v-neck shirts?
Oh man. I bet the shouting matching that will inevitably occur between sweet old Aunt Iris and Margo will be as delicious as that buckeye pecan pie. Who wants a piece indeed! I don't believe in delayed gratification either, so you two might as well get started. Let's see some fist shaking and expletives, pronto!
