Lio's Border Patrol

Mark Tatulli, in his strip Lio, riffed on comic strip panels before. They're so much a part of the comic strip convention, most readers never notice the rectangular shapes that frame the pictures and order the events. In September and October of 2016, Tatulli offered up several different ways of considering the panel border, each one imaginative and unique.

Note that there is no center panel. Lio bends open the side of the second panel and flies across to the fourth. Why? Because without its borders, the middle panel is a vast empty void.

Tautlli's poked fun at Family Circus before (sometimes with a rather sharp stick). The Family Circus began as the Family Circle in 1960, which is why it's drawn in a circle rather than a rectangular panel. Family Circle magazine objected, and so the name was changed -- but not the panel shape. In this strip, Tatulli suggests it's not a circle, but a globe -- with another poke at the too-cute Family Circle characters.

This sequence is very simple. The first panel sets up the gag, the second delivers. But take a moment to consider what the second panel means. In the first panel, the borders are treated like wire frames around a 3-D world. Here, the zipper implies the entire panel is a flat 2-D surface, with the border forming the edge of this fabric-like material.

Is this a panel border gag? I think it is. There's no panel border in the first frame. Lio is literally outside the comic strip, seeking admission. If there were a border around him, the sequence wouldn't make any sense.

In this final example, Lio's flame, Eva Rose, blows up the panel to separate them. The first and last panels have borders, but they're shredded around the explosion. The single panel has been broken in two. And, like in the first example, the middle panel has no frame -- it's that empty void again, only this time with a surface (where the crater is). Tatulli suggests the openness of the void by having the smoke rise above the tops of the outside panels.

One concept, five different takes -- and that's just with this batch. The inventiveness of Tatulli is remarkable and it keeps me reading Lio every day.

Lio and the Family Circus 3

Lio creator Mark Tartulli is one of the newer generation of artists who seem to have a certain.. disdain for the venerable comic the Family Circus (see Lio and the Family Circus 1 and 2). And, as I've also noted, Tartulli likes to play with the fourth wall of the comic strip genre -- specifically, the outlines of the panel that generally go unnoticed by the reader (see: Lio and the Fourth Wall for other examples).

In his New Year's Eve strip for 2015, Tartulli brilliantly combined both. (click on image to enlarge)

It's what keeps me reading the funny pages.

Blondie's Halloween Party

On Sunday, October 25, 2015, Blondie ran an unusual sequence. The Bumpsteads hosted a Halloween party, and a remarkable assortment of guests showed up (click on image to enlarge).

There have been character cameos in Blondie before -- and cameos in other comics as well. But there were some interesting features about this particular collection assembled by Blondie's creative team, Dean Young and John Marshall. First, most of the characters are from King Features Syndicate strips, the syndicate that also distributes "Blondie." (I've noted the exceptions in the character key below)

Second, all the strips are currently in production, releasing new material on a daily basis (albeit not necessarily from the founding creators).

Note panel B -- it's filled with kids. And note that all the teenage and young adult characters -- Dustin, Luanne, and Jeremy (from Zits) are all using their smartphones. Some characters appear more than once, and some King Features characters don't appear at all.

An interesting sequence, and -- for a comics nerd like me -- one that was great fun.

Character key:

Panel A
1. Prince Valiant from "Prince Valiant" by Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates
2. Snuffy Smith from "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith" by John Rose
3. An unnamed character from "Rhymes with Orange" by Hilary Price
4. Hi and Lois Flagston from "Hi and Lois" by Brian Walker, Greg Walker, and Chance Browne
5. Darryl and Wanda from "Baby Blues" by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

Panel B
1. Dustin Kudlick from "Dustin" by Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker
2. Marvin Miller from "Marvin" by Tom Armstrong
3. Dennis and Alice Mitchell from "Dennis the Menace" by Hal Ketchem, M Hamilton and R Ferdinand
4. Trixie Flagston from "Hi and Lois"
5. Tillman Tinkerson from "Take it from the Tinkersons" b y Bill Bettwy

Panel C
1. Leroy and Loretta from "The Lockhorns" by Bunny Hoest and John Reiner
2. Luanne DeGroot from "Luanne" by Greg Evans*
3. Mooch and Earl from "Mutts" by Patrick McDonnell
4. Mother Goose and Grimmy from "Mother Goose and Grimm" by Mike Peters
5. Curtis from "Curtis" by Ray Billingsley

Panel D
1. B.C.  from "BC" by Mason Mastroianni**
2. Marvin (again)
3. Jeremy, Walt, and Connie Duncan from "Zits" by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman
4. Marmaduke from "Marmaduke" by Paul Anderson
5.Joe and Marcy Cobb from "Jump Start" by Robb Armstrong

Panel E
1. Beetle Bailey and Sarge from "Beetle Bailey" by Mort Walker
2. Buckles from "Buckles" by David Gilbert
3. Dilbert from "Dilbert" by Scott Adams*
4. Arlo from "Arlo and Janis" by Jimmy Johnson*
5. Oscar, Gordo, and Ed from "Arctic Circle" by Alex Hallatt
6. Rose Gumbo from "Rose is Rose" by Don Wimmer*

Panel F
Blondie, Dagwood and Daisy from "Blondie" (duh) by Dean Young and John Marshall

G
1. Hagar the Horrible and Crazy Eddie from "Hagar the Horrible" by Chris Browne
2. Garfield from "Garfield" by Jim Davis*
3. Mooch and Earl from "Mutts" (again)
4. P. Martin Shoemaker and Professor Cosmo Fishhawk from "Shoe" by Gary Brookins and Susie MacNelly
5. Lio from "Lio by Mark Tatulli*
6. Billy, Jeff and Dolly Keane from "Family Circus" by Jeff Keane
7. Earl and Opal Pickles from "Pickles" by Brian Crane++
8. Darryl from "Baby Blues" (again)
9. Goat, Pig, and Rat from "Pearls before Swine" by Stehan Pastis*
10. Crankshaft from "Crankshaft" by Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers
11. Elly Patterson from "For Better or Worse" by Lynn Anderson*
12. Mother Goose and Grimmy from "Mother Goose and Grimm" (again)

*Syndicated by Universal Uclick
**Syndicated by Creators Syndicate
+Syndicated by United Media
++Washington Post Writers Group

Mike Du Jour's cameo du jour

Some newspaper comic strip artists make cameos a regular part of their repertoire -- such as Steven Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) and Mark Tatulli (Lio). Others do so occasionally, which sometimes make them even more effective. (see: cameos)

In an early September, 2014 sequence, Mike Lester did just that in his strip Mike Du Jour. Here's the sequence. (click on images to enlarge)

 There were two things I particularly liked about this story arc. First, the cameo was an unusual choice. Most comic strip cameos are familiar figures from Peanuts, Family Circus or other legacy strips. Earl of Brian Crane's Pickles isn't one of those.

Second, I love the way Lester references Crane's strip.

And of course, the primary focus of Lester's humor is about the T-shirt. The grandfather could be anyone and the jokes would have still worked. But making it a recognizable grandfather just added to the fun. At least for some of us.

Lio and the Family Circus 2

Lio creator Mark Tartulli has riffed on the vintage comic the Family Circus (see Lio and the Family Circus). He again uses one of the overused tropes of the strip -- the meandering dotted lines that creator Bill Keane (and his son Jeff, who now draws the panel) use to show the paths of the easily distracted characters.

In the September 9, 2014 strip, Tartulli uses it in combination with another of his own personal tropes -- breaking the fourth wall (see: Lio and the Fourth Wall). (click on image to enlarge)

The Family Circus children meander across Lio's strip and off into the distance, moving beyond the panel border. The main gag is the caution sign and what it means -- but the way Tartulli plays with the Family Circus trope is original and -- for me -- just as entertaining.

Lio and the Family Circus

There's no doubt in my mind which comic strips Lio creator Mark Tartulli likes -- and which ones he hates (see Lio and the Comics Commentary). Lio has featured characters from both likes (Calvin and Hobbes) and dislikes (Peanuts) several times. Sequences about the latter always seeming to have the same subtext: why doesn't this strip just die?

Take, for example. this panel from 4/22/13 (click on image to enlarge)

Bill Keene's "Family Circus." started in 1960, and has settled into some pretty comfortable tropes over the years. One of them is the wandering path, in which one or more of the children trace a dotted path through the cartoon to wind up at the end of the journey delivering a punchline.

And the same thing's happened here. Except in this case, the characters have wandered out of their own strip and into Lio's. But the end of the journey still has a punchline -- a special sale for witches -- and Tartulli's message for over-the-hill strips. Time for these characters to go -- if only in a witches' potion.

Lio and Marmaduke

I've never been a big fan of Brad Anderson's comic Marmaduke. The single-panel strip's been running since the late 1950's, and even as a kid I never found the Great Dane's antics amusing. So I enjoyed a recent installment of Mark Tartulli's Lio quite a bit. (click on image to enlarge)

I'm always appreciative of a comic strip that shows its self-awareness in a clever fashion. I think lobbing a hand grenade from one comic to another on the page qualifies. And for the non-fans of Marmaduke, the image that suggested the strip might go out with a bang simply added to the fun.

 What would have made the gag even better, though, would have been a coordination between the artists of both strips -- similar to what Stephen Pastis and Jeff Keane did with their  Pearls Before Swine/Family Circus crossover gag (Breaking the Fourth Wall of Comics).

But how would Anderson resolve the joke started in Lio with Marmaduke? I don't know, but it's something to think about.