Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for March 06, 2019

What is in Mr. Thompson’s milk? Someone should tell Marcus that checks aren’t in style this year.

I’m thinking Scuffy should at least get a bone with some meat on it.

They all seem happy.

That milk looks to be catnip flavored…

And something similiar for the dog. He’s got that look. The one where ordinary things seem amazingly interesting to those under the influence.

With that posture, our other drinker must have poured a stiff drink.

I’ll have my happy hour at the Tiki, thankyou.

I noticed today that I had put on an orange shirt and red pants. I thought, “probably not the best combination,” but I did not have time to change. Lo and behold, Mr Thompson has made the same choice.

From the look of bliss on his face, I see Mr Thompson is sipping full fat tonite.

And Marcus is on his third. Pretty soon he will go out on the porch and attempt the aria from The Barber of Seville.

Happy hour is what you make it. To each his own.

Take happy hour anywhere you .ca get it.

I’m having a little trouble with my internet…. big rainstorm making things flicker.

And apparently with my brain…. dunno what’s making that flicker… but I can’t get straight who thinks who is who.

 

I think you guys are all changing it on me.

To honor Jerry Van A, since we twist everything else, I try to leave the characters however I think he meant them…. but one could argue that it was a bit hard to tell, today.

 

In any case… Dennis… I only see one creature in clothing… the human… and on my monitor it’s all orange. No red.

Hoping your “red” is equally subtle…. LOL

 

I was thinking from their expressions that maybe all three got a taste of that bottle…. a few drops in the milk…. a little dip for the bone….

just for medicinal purposes, of course…. and to encourage camaraderie.

They certainly seem like good companions.

 

Anyway…. if you didn’t see yesterday’s comments, I think you might want to take a look back…. it’s definitely worth reading through it.

But the upshot is, apparently Jerry Van Amerongen is retiring at the end of March, and NEW Ballard Street strips are ending.

“Some Idiot On the Internet” (her name, not a description) posted a link to the article…. worth a read (thanks, Idiot..um… I mean… ).

 

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth…. lots of tearful goodbyes… I don’t mean to put that down, cos if this place truly disappeared I’d be lost.

Right now, though, in case you see it, or hear rumors, I just want to stave all that off.

 

I think things will stay pretty much the same….

We’ll be here, the Tiki will be doing business as usual…. but we’ll be reading old strips we’ve probably never seen before instead of new ones.

I don’t think GoComics would throw away a successful forum and years and years of archives without a reboot.

In fact, Happy x3 said Mr Van A confirmed that there would be re-runs. (thanks, Happy… and where, please?)

 

I wrote a longer comment to that effect near the end of the forum, in case you want to read it.

I was going to re-post it tonight…. but some of you read it already… and it wouldn’t make a lot of sense without the prior comments.

If you go back…bear the probable re-boot in mind before you panic, OK?

There is an art to Happy Hour, these three have perfected it.

I suspect the key to this contentment is that Mrs. Thompson is out of town. (Based on other comic strip wives’ obsessing on their husband’s clothes, where their pets get comfortable, and their need to comment on all they observe.)

Mr. Thompson is hangin’ with his homies!

And so they should. After a hard day they deserve it.

Toasting the end of a long and successful run!

i was wondering yesterday just how a cartoonist as yourself would ever get a chance to shut off the flow of stimulii,i guess you’ve answered my question.

Dogs are Man’s best drinking buddies.

I am not sure who is who, but going clockwise from Mr. Thompson, Scuffy appears to have gone from being a lap cat to a sipping kitty. Marcus has a bone to pick. Likely that he has nothing to drink.