Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for May 14, 2010

OH NO! Now Gertie has taken Walt’s medicine.

So, that was a wig after all!!

gerdo put on the wig last October, while primping for the early berdo travelin’ blues show. Before that, she had white hair pulled back in a bun. Now it’s a healthy shade of brown. It must like living in the dark.

…Now that she knows Walt isn’t seeing things, maybe it’s not too late to fish those pills out of the loo!

A Loo?

Yeah, well, if waste water’s being recycled into drinking water up your way, I’d be ten times more concerned about the millions of gallons of detergents, cleaners, raw sewage and, oh, HUMAN WASTE than I would be about a fistful of pills every now and then.

we just went from the silly to the stupid… sorry, but today’s version is just not up to par

Aha! Walt’s really a latent mutant, and the drugs have stimulated his mental powers to where he’s now able to physically manifest his illusions. Within the next few strips, Gertie will be sent out into the cornfield.

The contrast between a fairly realistic Gertie and a cartoon lion is a bit jarring, but Jim’s still my favorite strip artist. And the wig flying off? Classic strip reaction! Those never get old! Next she’ll be fainting, and falling out of the panel so that we only see her feet.

Airboy20 said: “The contrast between a fairly realistic Gertie and a cartoon lion is a bit jarring”

My comment (FWIW) - In the old days, Gerty was drawn as a stereotypical “Negro.” Then, in the 70’s the artwork was changed to avoid offending anybody. The result is a typical PC overreaction. We have a “real” looking human in a cartoon world.

I knew it was a wig! I commented on here about a month or so ago about Gertie’s wig and someone replied that it wasn’t a wig, that it was her own hair. It made me wonder if I missed a day for when she actually did get her hair cut similar to her wig. Good show Jim!

It’s just the circus come to Gasoline Alley. Admittedly Gasoline Alley was already a circus….

I was beginning to wonder if Gertie had her hair changed off-screen to be more like the wig from last fall, myself.

As far as how she was drawn in the “old days,” Gertie wasn’t in the strip prior to Phyllis’ funeral, I believe. but there was a character named Rachel in the REALLY old days of the strip that was drawn in a stereotypical way that would be offensive today. Those strips can be found on the site: http://www.ilovecomixarchive.com/G/Gasoline-Alley

I’m glad that ol’ Walt can finally be vindicated for what he said that he’s been seeing now. On with the show!

As for the images of Rachel and Gertie: I have wondered here in the past if Scancarelli is balancing an old debt King incurred upon the strip with that unfortunate portrayal of Rachel. The good old days weren’t all good.

Laugh - I was just going back over the last few days of GA, trying to catch up. A few days ago there was alot of discussion on trolls. Somehow the site must have picked up on the topic because it loaded up the page with all sorts of ads on trolls. Where to find them, sites to buy them at. Looks to me like we’re outsmarting ourselves with all the software we’re writing. In the end I decided to forgo the purchase of a troll. I’ll settle for the ones we have now.

Yeah, we’ve gotten into Rachel territory here. It’s not horribly racist, but some may see it that way. Still, it’s kind of sad.

Gertie was a mistake right from the start. In the B&W versions, it wasn’t all that clear what her race is. Now we know, thanks to the superbrain behind the colorization.

Just sad. In a way, I don’t want to see Uncle Walt go, but at 110, let’s just let it happen. Skeeezix should be the star now. But you just know that knuckleheard Slim will be.

Just sad.

It’s a cartoon lion because Scancarelli trades sensitivity and intelligence for buffoonery and cheap laughs every chance he gets.

Laughs are cheap in the ‘toons, but Jim’s art is gorgeous!