in which we explore comics that start with “b”

Yesterday was an interesting time on the comics page, making today a big day on a comics-interested blog.

First, let’s check in on yesterday’s Born Loser. You probably know by now how I feel about the Born Loser, but occasionally there IS something weird enough in that strip to be worth a second look. Yesterday, Brutus was eating at a diner, and setting up the requisite weekly joke about “FOOD SO BAD EVEN THE EMPLOYEES DON’T LIKE IT!” But in order to change things up, Art & Chip placed him at a table, instead of at the counter where he usually is, and instead of ordering from the cook, he’s ordering from a waitress . . . who . . . looks . . . like his wife?

Is is a joke? Is it a biting social commentary, revealing the alienation of Gladys as domestic servant to Brutus? Is it simply proof that these guys can only draw 5 different characters, or is it the first glimpse of a new, more critical direction for the Born Loser? I suppose time will tell.

Oh, wait. Today’s Born Loser gag is another joke about getting a wrong phone number. Oh well.

Now, that having been explored, the meat of the issue: yesterday’s Beetle Bailey:

On the surface we see a simple gag: Beetle is signing up for another year in the service (his 57th year, for the record), his reasoning is his “desire to live another year,” when he says this, Sargeant Snorkel is revealed and the implication is that Sarge will, yes, kill Beetle if he fails to enlist again (protest THAT, POG!)

But look beneath the surface. What if Beetle DID decide not to enlist? What would happen? His entire universe, as constructed by the boundaries of the strip, is Camp Swampy. Occasionally the characters “hit the town” on the weekend — otherwise, there is nothing beyond Camp Swampy. If Beetle decided to throw in the towel, one can envision a large-scale crumbling of his world: perhaps he couldn’t escape if he tried.

On one hand, yes, the strip is about Beetle (ostensibly, given the title), but in fact the strip is about the entire camp, the ridiculous bureaucracy and the power relations within the structure of the military unit. (OF COURSE I realize that it’s generally a boring, silly, largely uncritical look at these things, but bare with me). The fact that it all ties into Beetle is important only on the surface; if Beetle left the army, I would venture to guess that the strip would soldier on (bad pun intended) without him, or, more likely, it would just end — that whole universe would collapse. I can’t foresee Beetle’s life outside the military being fodder for the strip — that’s just not what it’s about.

All that having been said, I heartily endorse the idea of Beetle finally just packing up and running away with Miss Buxley, even if it means the collapse of their universe. I think it would be worth it for both of them.