Gil Thorp by Henry Barajas and Rachel Merrill for October 31, 2022

Thor, Superman, and the Invisible Woman. I’m impressed!

Wait, one day Keri’s upset about a school shooting drill, the next day Jami is out trick-or-treating? How am I supposed to follow these crazy plot twists?

“Hey lady, you got any drugs?” Is Jami wearing a KKK cadet costume? Why not complement Gil as Jimmy Olsen, with Mimi as Lois Lane? Happy Halloween, posters.

Isn’t that a question you ask before you’re out on the street in your tights and cape escorting him around the neighbourhood?

Both parents escorting their son? Must be a tough neighborhood.

Excessively Long Comment, part I

On Saturday I voiced an opinion and, tongue firmly planted in cheek, invited anyone who disagreed with my opinion to call me simple-minded. Henry Barajas could tell I was having a bit of fun and accepted my invitation to call me simple-minded. I was not insulted. I was flattered that he took the time to respond to me. I am, however, a bit disappointed to those who accused him of name calling. I’d asked anyone who disagreed to apply the phrase to me.

While flattered, my complaint still stands. I still feel no coherent storyline has appeared. And the claim that a year long arc is planned does not sway my opinion. Now, while long story arcs are less common these days (except perhaps for the Phantom, where breaking a window recently took three days). Sidney Smith had a long arc in The Gumps in the 20s. Little Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy would also have arcs running months if not years. Berrill’s Bitsy Twill saga unfolded over years. These long arcs may chose to concentrate on a single storyline or may be composed of smaller arcs. (The sports seasons in Gil Thorp make small arcs a particularly effective way to build up a longer storyline).

However, the long storylines with the Gumps, Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, etc. were written/drawn with well established characters. We knew Andy was a bit of a dim-bulb, and knew Annie would spout economic right-wing philosophy, while Tracy would endure whatever torture he suffered… Torture. There’s a good ol’ mainstay of the comics page we don’t see any more. But I digress. At the moment I feel like I have no idea who Gil Thorp is. The last 60 years have all been trashed. Gil is no longer Gil, Mimi is no longer Mimi, Gil’s kids are… G*d knows what his kids suddenly are – certainly nothing I recognize. Change happens. Massive change can happen. But let’s see how that happens rather than presenting a fait accompli and/or ask

Excessively Long Comment Part II

…us to guess.

And a little more congruity with the earth on which I live might be nice. If I’m reading Flash Gordon, or _Little Nemo), Alley Oop, or The Red Knight I will suspend certain understandings of science and human behavior. In a strip set ostensibly in the real world I expect physical/psychological verisimilitude of some sort. Is soccer’s rainbow kick even physically possible with a football? Wouldn’t the rules of football say something about that, imagining it is even physically possible? One panel of the singer blasting American history before singing the national anthem? (The charges leveled may or may not be true as presented. Doesn’t matter. There would be heck to pay for weeks if such a thing happened.) And, if anyone thought my whining about how the active shooter drill was overblown should recognize the truth of my accusation. Students were shot. Paint ball guns are not children’s toys, they are dangerous. Those using paint ball guns wear protective gear – especially goggles. A paint gun pellet in the eye will blind you. The students were not wearing protection. This probably goes past careless to criminal. While the storyline may go into that (too soon to tell) I have trouble accepting any school administration or police department would sanction criminal reckless endangerment. Surely someone in Milford is brighter than a cockroach.

If Gil Thorp was going to change, and let’s face it – it does. Society changes. The strip dealt the struggles schools had in the 60s dealing with changing hairstyles for male students. Women’s sports were invisible the early years of the strip, but became larger reality in RL & strip. Berrill changed the strip to reflect the times. But introduce the change and put it within a context that makes it understandable. Oh, and will football be significant in any way this season? I’m not sure a couple strips with MHS winning a game with a kick that probably isn’t possible with a…

HaLLoWeeN iS sO SoCiALiSt AnD wOkE

Nice next level move with the left-handed Halloween greetings, Henry. You have to wake up pretty early to out snark is snarkers.

The steps in the evolution of a long-time favorite strip in efforts to be modernize (woke) until it is cancelled:Step 1 – writer writes a few strips about sports proving very limited knowledge if any about sports while overwhelming readers with so many changes introduced so quickly.Step 2 – writer become embarassed and/or angry when limited/no knowlege of sports is pointed out.Step 3 – writer writes even more modern (woke) cr*p and even less sports.Step 4 – readership declines due to departure from why readers read the strip.Styep 5 – srip is cancelled and we are spared this 6 days a week dose of cr*p.

p.s. mopped up throp is better.

P1 Somebody forgot their adult beverage open container and is a little grumpy, aren’t they, Gil?

P2 “I’m not a baby! Got milk, mommy?”

P3 Jami gets his first piece of…ummm…errr…the treater’s costume finishes the thought.

P1- Kudos to Hot Rod Whigham. Gil borrowed Mimi’s Dippity Do for a great Superman curly Q. Expected to see Luke Martinez dressed as a Wookie with all that hair shedding.

The fox, they say, knows many tricks, while the hedgehog knows only one trick: one good one. Looking at his other work, Barajas obviously knows many tricks…but writing “Gil Thorp” is (painfully obviously) not one of them.

P1.5: He may be a little old, but he DID miss it for a decade.

My daughters and their friends didn’t stop trick or treating until they were in college. Get with it, Gil.

Mimi…change in hairstyle, change in lifestyle?

P1: Jami may have helped stitch all those costumes up while he as interning overseas in the garment industry.

So, Jami is dressed as a Briard ghost?

While a handful of regulars are snarking along, it looks like an awful lot of you, on both sides, just can’t wait to turn this into social media. Take a brake! It’s three cells dealing with Halloween! Here, have a Tootsie Roll.

Anyone use to watch Pee Wee’s Playhouse? Pterri the pterodactyl’s catch phrase was “I’m not a baby!”

Hey! You got Marvel in my D.C. universe!

Hey! You got D.C. in my Marvel universe.

Just waiting to see what real or simulated carnage and damage Thor’s hammer is going to inflict on Milford.

P1 and 3: How do we know that isn’t Superman? The camera is too far away to see for sure that it’s Gil.

P 1 – 3: What is Jamie dressed as? A luchador from a church choir?

Clearly the woman in P3 is my wife, who asked me yesterday what I’m going to dress as to pass out Halloween candy. In case you wondered, the answer is disgruntled man trying to watch the World Series.

Gil as Superman??? What a metaphor.

Interesting how the person who claims he doesn’t care what people think about the strip is constantly scanning these comments to see what people think.

It takes less than a minute to read this strip. That is about right for this one as it actually has become more entertaining to watch it get worse and worse and worse than it was to read the not exactly great “plot lines”.

Maybe she should have dressed him as Oedipus.

It’s been rough for Jami since returning back to Milford. Apparently he still hasn’t made any friends. And speaking of friends, tell all your friends that today’s Mopped Up Thorp is online.

https://moppedupthorp.wordpress.com/

So has anyone figured out Jami’s costume?

Have Gil books from 60’s 70’s officially going to moppedUp better read

“Isn’t he a little too old for this?” Says the guy in a Superman suit…

Gil: Mimi, keep the costume on tonight…