Gil Thorp by Henry Barajas and Rachel Merrill for June 21, 2023

Hit the Korean Nightmare with a hit ball or letting the bat fly out of your hands? Only way to win is to injure this kid. Wonder what writer thought this up?

A wake up call for the Korean Nightmare? You’re brilliant Gil!

Gil: Hit the Valley Tech Lugnut mascot. Trust me.

Trust and Gil in the same sentence sadly left some time ago.

The WTFs per panel ratio of this strip has exploded

Aim FOR his head. Knocking this guy out of the game would increase their chances of winning.

Haha …Luke gave similar advice to his players about making an “accidental “ throw towards Gil, using the word ‘for’ instead of ‘above’

Gil ditches the “Thorp Special” for the Luke LaLoosh approach.

For a school that has problems funding its sports teams, Milford spends a lot of money buying different uniforms. I don’t remember seeing the jersey in P1 before, with white on the back.

P3.5 “Oh, and yell at him that his parents think he is a pathetic loser.”

Aha, so the strategy is to get Luke upset. He’ll go wild, get tossed from the game, VT won’t know how to win without his guidance, and the always Moral Compass GT wins again. Seems appropriate.

Hmm, or Gil remembers his time on Hill 325 and thinks if he can keep this kid from digging in, the Saber Jets can…um, I mean, he’ll lose his concentration. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

They cannot possibly win without Tobe hitting a 5 run homer,

Rudy don’t fail,

Rudy don’t lose that number.

https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1965/04/18

Posting an article on Gil Thorp which appeared in the Chicago Tribune today. https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-gil-thorp-turns-65-kogan-0625-20230621-ywjt5xmxn5etre6ayoxcqtmvp4-story.html

Ooh, Milford got some new snazzy uniform tops for the big championship game. Gil spending those funds ToBe and Rod illegally raised.

IF these panels are drawn correctly (and that’s a big if), Dee is about to bat, since he’s wearing a batting helmet. So “aim above his head” means his swing? Is everyone swinging over the ball if that’s the advice? More likely he’s telling Dee to appear wild when he goes on the mound (despite wearing the wrong cap). But that doesn’t really make sense because their problem is that they can’t hit. Unless this is going to unnerve the Nightmare when he goes to pitch the next inning. Guess we need to wait until tomorrow to see what Gil is talking about.

And speaking about waiting, you don’t have to wait until tomorrow to read today’s Mopped Up Thorp: https://moppedupthorp.wordpress.com/2023/06/21/secret-strategy/

Berrill Park is an in-joke—this strip was created by Jack Berrill.

It wasn’t an inside joke. It was an attempted tribute to Jack that failed miserably due to the misspelling of his surname.