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Doll House Ghost
Jun 18, 2011



Kennel posted:

Man in Black

I don't know who that is. Presumably a cameo of some other cartoonist.

I'm pretty sure it's either Ari Kutila himself or then Keijo Ahlqvist, who he worked a lot with and who's sort of a grand old man of Finnish comics culture.

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PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe



Mikl posted:

That would make a pretty good "Disaster Lesbian" avatar.

Hmmm... a companion...

Darthemed
Oct 28, 2007

"A data unit?
For me?
"


College Slice
Docks




Retail




Dick


Medenmath
Jan 18, 2003
Vintage Valiant (Aug. 04, 1940)



"Next week - The Oriental" :sigh: He's a merchant who briefly hires the trio as guards. Definitely a stereotype, but could be worse I guess.

curtadams
Mar 24, 2019

How Wonderful! posted:

Ok, I've been back from camping for a few days and have finally tidied up my work area and dug out my DtWOF books.

Dykes to Watch Out For #90 (1990)
-Alison Bechdel



I'm not going to pretend to be able to explain the Savings & Loans crisis or even that I totally understand it. Suffice to say it was a tremendous white collar scandal in which, from the mid 80s through to the mid 90s, many of the US' S&L institutions collapsed, largely due to predatory and unregulated speculating (I think?). I'm really out of my wheel-house here and I wish Mo would talk about Diane di Prima or something.
Ooh, I can take this one.

The Savings and Loan crisis was set in motion by the inflation of the 70's. S&Ls, at the time, took in short-term deposits and used them for long-term mortgages. They weren't allowed to do other kinds of banking because the government had wanted money channeled into housing loans. When inflation went up, the existing mortgages stayed at their low rates, but the rates needed to keep deposits went way up, putting S&Ls in a squeeze and leaving them short of money or downright broke.

S&Ls had been created by the government to provide housing loans in the New Deal, and it wasn't their fault that government regulations plus government money policies had squeezed them so. The fair fix would have been for the government to bail them out, funded with capital gains taxes, which would fall on those who had benefited by the inflation. But this was the start of the "market is perfect and fixes all problems" mantra so instead the feds chose to deregulate the S&Ls so they could make more profits by making large commercial loans and investments. (There were also more sensible deregulations like allowing adjustable loans, which would have helped with the inflation crisis.)

However, these deregulations didn't help much because investment banks developed new ways to get the S&L type deposits into the general financial systems with money markets, and to fund mortgage loans via collateralized debt obligations (bundling large groups of mortgages into a loan that can be traded without needing to know details about the individual mortages) Meanwhile the S&Ls lacked the size and the experience to match investment banks in the general financial markets.

Worse, S&Ls didn't have strong institutional controls to prevent fraud by their officers, because that hadn't been necessary as long as they could only make small loans backed by property. So what happened was that shady investors took control of S&Ls and had the S&Ls make huge loans to their cronies' businesses, or even their own. They got all potential profits from the businesses, but if the loan went bad most of the losses fell on S&L depositors and federal insurance. This is "privatizing the profits and socializing the losses", a driving force in financial systems today.

A sharp example of how bad things got was that then-Vice President Bush's son Neil Bush, on the board of Silverado S&L, approved 100 million dollars in loans to his business partners. The loans couldn't be repaid (I think there was outright embezzlement at the companies), and Silverado went under, costing the federal government 1.3 billion. Neil Bush eventually was fined $50,000 - which he didn't even have to pay because Republican supporters paid it for him! That tells you how massive the fraud was - the leaders made so much they'd just *give* money away to other people in the defrauding system.

In the end the federal government essentially closed down the S&L industry, and provided a bailout of over 100 billion dollars, which covered both the genuine losses and the massive fraud. "S&L" institutions continued to exist, but regulations were changed so they became regular banks. Oversight was tightened so they were no more susceptible to fraud than banks in general, which isn't adequate but was a lot better than before.

The scale of this blows one's mind, but even more unbelievably people kept saying "the market is perfect" after this and all through the Great Housing Bubble and even after that nearly took down the world financial system they are STILL saying it.

EasyEW
Mar 8, 2006

I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.
Ted Forth Knows The Score



Pearls Before Swine, in which I was under the impression that Rat wasn't supposed to be a role model.



Skippy (February 16, 1933)



Peanuts (August 8, 1973)



Mopey Pete's Grand Day Out



Crankshaft



9 "UNBRIDLED JOCULARITY!" Lane



Rip Haywire



Thimble Theater (March 6, 1937)



Out Our Way (December 13-15, 1934)







The Wiktionary editors seem to think that the Beastie Boys coined this term. It is shocking (shocking, I tell you) that the Internet got something wrong.

Dok's "Fresh Air Fund" Duck (March 18, 1913)

EasyEW fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Aug 5, 2020

Alhazred
Feb 16, 2011




ACE



Pondus

Julet Esqu
May 6, 2007






Okay, first of all, anxiety on this level indicates that Bern should stop trying to psychoanalyze everybody else and go find a therapist of her own. (We knew that already, but still.)

Second, she and Luann have been best friends since they were 7 or 8. Has Bern never in all these years had a sleepover at Luann's? Because the idea of having to use the toilet in this house while everyone else sleeps seems completely foreign to her.

Transmodiar
Jul 9, 2005

You're a terrible person, Mildred.
Modesty Blaise







Next time: new adventure!

Destroy History

Selachian
Oct 9, 2012

EasyEW posted:

Peanuts (August 8, 1973)



As you might guess, this was the season Hank Aaron started chasing Ruth's record, although he fell just short and wouldn't break it until 1974.

amigolupus
Aug 25, 2017

Julet Esqu posted:



Okay, first of all, anxiety on this level indicates that Bern should stop trying to psychoanalyze everybody else and go find a therapist of her own. (We knew that already, but still.)

Second, she and Luann have been best friends since they were 7 or 8. Has Bern never in all these years had a sleepover at Luann's? Because the idea of having to use the toilet in this house while everyone else sleeps seems completely foreign to her.

Didn't she live in a co-ed dorm room with a communal bathroom? You'd think she would be used going to the bathroom during odd hours by now.

Murdstone
Jun 14, 2005



Julet Esqu posted:



Okay, first of all, anxiety on this level indicates that Bern should stop trying to psychoanalyze everybody else and go find a therapist of her own. (We knew that already, but still.)

Second, she and Luann have been best friends since they were 7 or 8. Has Bern never in all these years had a sleepover at Luann's? Because the idea of having to use the toilet in this house while everyone else sleeps seems completely foreign to her.
I did not need to see Bernice peeing. No one needed to see Bernice peeing.

F Minus



Mark Trail



Mary Worth



The Phantom



Pooch Cafe



Rex Morgan MD



Andertoons



Apartment 3-G

Alhazred
Feb 16, 2011





"I made my wife write you the letter, why aren't you calm?!"

The Bloop
Jul 5, 2004

by Fluffdaddy
I'm glad we finally got to see Bernice peeing after all these years of waiting

Haifisch
Nov 12, 2010

Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!



Taco Defender
2017 Spiderman


1978 Comics




Dick Tracy


Locher Tracy


Origins of the Sunday Comics


Footrot Flats

Stultus Maximus
Dec 21, 2009

USPOL May

The Bloop posted:

I'm glad we finally got to see Bernice peeing after all these years of waiting

She's putting down toilet paper to mask the splashes... She isn't just peeing.

The Bloop
Jul 5, 2004

by Fluffdaddy

Stultus Maximus posted:

She's putting down toilet paper to mask the splashes... She isn't just peeing.

well that's the part I care about you weirdo

How Wonderful!
Jul 18, 2006


I only have excellent ideas
Please don't post about Bernice pooping, I have a lot to live for and I don't want this thread to kill me.

LazyQ
Feb 22, 2011

Mämmilä

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

EasyEW posted:

Mopey Pete's Grand Day Out



With all this lead-up to the wildfire Doing Anything, I'm kinda expecting that someone in this strip will die.

quote:

Out Our Way (December 13-15, 1934)



Every time I see these workers wearing these baggy coveralls, I wonder why there aren't more of these Machine Shop strips where someone is about to lose a leg.

Drakyn
Dec 26, 2012

Haifisch posted:

2017 Spiderman

I'm far too sophisticated to let this pass by without insight.

EasyEW
Mar 8, 2006

I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.

The Bloop posted:

I'm glad we finally got to see Bernice peeing after all these years of waiting

Stultus Maximus posted:

She's putting down toilet paper to mask the splashes... She isn't just peeing.

The Bloop posted:

well that's the part I care about you weirdo

#LetBerniceDropADeuce

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

How Wonderful!
Jul 18, 2006


I only have excellent ideas
Let the woman do what she needs to do in peace. "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen"

Hempuli
Nov 15, 2011



B. Virtanen
That third strip has probably actually been a valid logic for a lot people :smith:


ANSU



riderchop posted:

i love Ansu, thanks for posting it

Thanks a lot for saying that! :) I've been a bit unsure if people feel that Ansu's stuff is a bit too simplistic/nonsensical or somesuch.

Parahexavoctal
Oct 10, 2004

I AM NOT BEING PAID TO CORRECT OTHER PEOPLE'S POSTS! DONKEY!!

Drakyn posted:

I'm far too sophisticated to let this pass by without insight.



Mm, such delicious low-hanging fruit!

amigolupus
Aug 25, 2017


Ah, yes. You can totally feel the love in the air from this proposal. :geno:


Did the Dick Tracy writers even read Fastrack? Dethany has never once refused any of her abusive boss' whims, why the hell would she start now?

Green Intern posted:

With all this lead-up to the wildfire Doing Anything, I'm kinda expecting that someone in this strip will die.

Considering how Batiuk never does any research for the things he writes, I suspect the wildfire will burn the studio where they're filming the Cancerwife movie and somehow no one would have thought to save their progress on the Cloud. That way Les can feel relief that no one will desecrate his book while everyone feels sorry for him.

Murdstone
Jun 14, 2005



Hempuli posted:

Thanks a lot for saying that! :) I've been a bit unsure if people feel that Ansu's stuff is a bit too simplistic/nonsensical or somesuch.
I don't comment on it, but I've been enjoying it. Good nonsense is hard to find.

catlord
Mar 22, 2009

What's on your mind, Axa?
Conan the Barbarian May 5th- 11th, 1980









Ah, that's a nice bit to tie in this discussion. Remember when I said this:

catlord posted:

Crom was described in the first Conan story, The Phoenix on the Sword:

There was also a scene early in the first movie where Conan and Subotai discuss their deities. I believe most of the information on Crom, such as his mountain dwelling, comes from the later pastiches, though I could be forgetting a line from a Howard original.

Well I absolutely did miss some lines like a dumbass! Here are a couple more quote on Crom and Cimmerian religion from, respectively, The Tower of the Elephant and Queen of the Black Coast.

RE Howard, The Tower of the Elephant posted:

His gods were simple and understandable; Crom was their chief, and he lived on a great mountain, whence he sent forth dooms and death. It was useless to call on Crom, because he was a gloomy, savage god, and he hated weaklings. But he gave a man courage at birth, and the will and might to kill his enemies, which, in the Cimmerian's mind, was all any god should be expected to do.

RE Howard, Queen of the Black Coast posted:

"What of your own gods? I have never heard you call on them."

"Their chief is Crom. He dwells on a great mountain. What use to call on him? Little he cares if men live or die. Better to be silent than to call his attention to you; he will send you dooms, not fortune! He is grim and loveless, but at birth he breathes power to strive and slay into a man's soul. What else shall men ask of the gods?"

"But what of the worlds beyond the river of death?" she persisted.

"There is no hope here or hereafter in the cult of my people," answered Conan. "In this world men struggle and suffer vainly, finding pleasure only in the bright madness of battle; dying, their souls enter a gray misty realm of clouds and icy winds, to wander cheerlessly throughout eternity."

Also in the same general area of Queen of the Black Coast we have Conan showing his thoughts on Kull's philosophical broodings, another one of those little ways the two characters differ:

RE Howard, Queen of the Black Coast posted:

"[...] I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.

Compare to this scene in The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune where Kull looks at himself in a mirror:

RE Howard, The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune posted:

"Nay, by Valka, am I the man or he? Which of us is the ghost of the other? Mayhap these mirrors are but windows through which we look into another world. Does he think the same of me? Am I no more than a shadow, a reflection of himself - to him, as he is to me? And if I am the ghost, what sort of world lives upon the other side of this mirror? What armies ride there and what kings rule? This world is all I know. Knowing naught of any other, how can I judge? Surely there are green hills there and booming seas and wide plains where men ride to battle. Tell me, wizard who are wiser than most men, tell me, are there worlds beyond our worlds?"

catlord fucked around with this message at 23:54 on Aug 5, 2020

nishi koichi
Feb 16, 2007

everyone feels that way and gives up.
that's how they get away with it.

Hempuli posted:

Thanks a lot for saying that! :) I've been a bit unsure if people feel that Ansu's stuff is a bit too simplistic/nonsensical or somesuch.

yeah, it’s delightfully simple, like “man in black”, or “dark side of the horse”. i’ve gotten shades of “the bus” at times, too. we need more art like that, in general.

Some Guy TT
Aug 30, 2011

Cheer Up Boss Dharma



MiracleFlare
Mar 27, 2012


FrumpleOrz posted:

On The Fastrack


Wait... Admittedly I don't know my Holbrook lore, but the impression I'm getting from this is that she and her husband both work in the same office. And they're just... okay with the fact that they're being forced to live apart solely because their boss is an egomaniac who wants to monitor her employees' personal lives? It's lovely enough that she's quarantined them all in her McMansion, keeping them away from whatever obligations they might have had at home (Kids and pets to feed? Elderly parents to care for? Too bad!), but here she would rather split apart a family than just let them both work their office job from home.

Like, this isn't a case of an actual medical professional saying "hey, it's safer if you two live apart due to X reason". This is their employer dictating where they should live, with no timeframe for when she or any other employee will be allowed to leave.

MiracleFlare fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Aug 6, 2020

Ghostlight
Sep 25, 2009

maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me



What are they going to do? Quit? They can't, the comic strip is about the company.

Ghostlight
Sep 25, 2009

maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me



キューライス

Johnny Aztec
Jan 29, 2005

by Hand Knit

MiracleFlare posted:

Wait... Admittedly I don't know my Holbrook lore, but the impression I'm getting from this is that she and her husband both work in the same office. And they're just... okay with the fact that they're being forced to live apart solely because their boss is an egomaniac who wants to monitor her employees' personal lives? It's lovely enough that she's quarantined them all in her McMansion, keeping them away from whatever obligations they might have had at home (Kids and pets to feed? Elderly parents to care for? Too bad!), but here she would rather split apart a family than just let them both work their office job from home.

Like, this isn't a case of an actual medical professional saying "hey, it's safer if you two live apart due to X reason". This is their employer dictating where they should live, with no timeframe for when she or any other employee will be allowed to leave.

They use the Q word but they just work at her mansion during the day, and go back home in the evening.

Archduke Frantz Fanon
Sep 7, 2004

if she quits then who would be in charge of the mission to send a bunch of orphans to mars???

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

Moralists don't really *have* beliefs. Sometimes they stumble on one, like on a child's toy left on the carpet. The toy must be put away immediately. And the child reprimanded. Centrism isn't change -- not even incremental change. It is *control*. Over yourself and the world. Exercise it.

Fantastic Voyage


Raine Dog intensifies.

Pastry of the Year posted:

Arlo and Janis



I don't miss corded phones, but I still think that many of them are beautiful artifacts, if that makes sense.

Are these actual old strips, or are they just in that style? The date's current and they're remarkably crisp.

Selachian posted:

Smokey Stover 12/13/36



"Christmas seals"?

EasyEW
Mar 8, 2006

I've got my father's great big six-shooter with me 'n' if anybody in this woods wants to start somethin' just let 'em--but they DASSN'T.
Funny, I always assumed my first probation would be over reminding everyone that Pibgorn still exists. :shrug:

Anyway, I am a lowly sinner, and my penance is Toonerville Folks (October 10-11, 13, 1916)





Kennel
May 1, 2008

BAWWW-UNH!

Vargo
Dec 27, 2008

'Cuz it's KILLIN' ME!

Ghostlight posted:

キューライス


I want this on my wall.

BCN


Phoebe


Wallace


Curtis


Increased awareness of what, Billingsley?!

I'm finding myself less and less patient with Curtis' cutesie mention-the-problem-without-mentioning-it games, especially as Bianca Xunise is being dragged through the mud for the mildest of criticisms about white people and even loving Herb and Jamal managed to address the BLM movement by name.

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Vargo
Dec 27, 2008

'Cuz it's KILLIN' ME!
You know what, this prompted me to go and see what Jumpstart, a comic about a black cop-and-nurse couple, had been up to, and there's a handful of mask and COVID jokes, but literally no mention of police brutality, protests, or BLM. I read all the way back to May and nothing. So I guess Billingsley's beating someone.

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