comics update, 1/9/07

Some things have been going on on the comics pages, and I thought you might like to know.

Most importantly, Mary Worth is fixin’ to pack up and go to ‘Nam¹ to find Jeff Cory, since he went there without keeping in touch with his mission (or whatever you call it) and has been gone for like months, which I realize usually translates to about 6 days in Mary Time, but trust me, it’s been months for her too. Also, there’s been a lot of hemming and hawing in the Weekend Mailbag of the P-G about fears of Mary being cut. Some people have even insisted that her plot lines have grown weary and she needs to be given a rest. These same people laud the creativity of “The Amazing Spider-Man” (and its marketability, what with a new Spider-Man movie in the works). I kid you not.

Bill Amend went Sundays-only with Fox Trot, which makes me pretty sad — for a guy who was apparently feeling inferior and dried-up, he was still as of last month writing a comic with more original material in a week than most newspaper comics have had in the past five years. But it’s good that he at least thought to slow down while he was ahead. Take a hint, Chip Sansom. (While we’re at it, Chip Sansom’s nephew, read the rest of Wikipedia and take a hint not to disclose your relation to the subject of an entry when you’re creating it.)

Lio is the new comic that took the place of Fox Trot in the daily paper; it’s actually pretty good. I would’ve preferred “F-Minus,” or “Pearls Before Swine” (which was never ever test-run), but I’ll settle and not complain.

Speaking of “Pearls Before Swine,” it runs daily now in BOTH the Trib P.M. and the regular daily Trib. I don’t endorse reading either of these, but since the P.M. is now delivered to my house through no request of anyone living here, I feel justified in opening it up just to read that comic. I try not to glance onto the opposite side to see the immensely idiotic “Girls and Sports.”

Oh and also, little Niki from “Rex Morgan, M.D.” is about to get capped by his mom’s pathetic loser drug user no-shavin’ haircut-needin’ boyfriend, and if June gets in the way, she’s toast too. Same with the landlady. Same with that crazy lady with the bad hair from last summer’s plot line. No one is safe.

1. Do you capitalize the N in “‘Nam” even though it’s not the first letter of the proper noun, really?