Category Archives: Comics

The Proposal That Will Shake The (comic) World

Back in the day, I was a big Archie comics fan.  I still have a lot of my old issues sitting in plastic sleeves in cardboard comic boxes, including some old issues that I acquired during my comic-collecting heyday that date back to the 50's and 60's. 

Since it dates back to my childhood, there are certain elements of the Archie mythology/lexicon that never change: Archie drives a crappy car, Jughead eats a lot while wearing a strange hat, Reggie is a jerk, and Archie is always torn between Betty and Veronica.

Today, while getting ready for work, I heard a segment on the news that shocked me: Archie comics has announced that Archie is getting married.  I thought it was a funny little segment, but I've already heard more about it than any other news item today.  People are paying attention – not just in comic discussion groups like this one, but check out this on line poll.  Wow.  A lot of discussion going on just because of a comic book character.  I'm also surprised that Betty is winning by such an overwhelming majority.  Perhaps we should take this as an example of our "anti-greed" and "back to simplicity" national temperament?  Or maybe people just think that Veronica is hot, but a bitch… 

My thought is that it won't be Betty OR Veronica.  Since the story is going to be set in the future, it is probably a means by which to introduce a new character and tell her entire back story.  Maybe they will do a "Archie goes to college" type of series.  Or maybe we'll see Archie doing keg stands and hooking up with a strange girl in the alleyway behind a club? 

xkcd Web Comic

I recently stumbled across the web comic xkcd after a random post on Woot.com today.  I immediately got sucked in and found some favorites:

Listen to yourself

Harrison Ford's Worst Improvised Movie Lines

x Girls y Cups (what happens in a "1 girls, 7 cups" video???)

Scantron (We've all wondered what would happen…)

East vs. West

Drapes

Flow Chart Explanation… in a Flow Chart

I Know You're Listening

Guide to Converting to Metric

I'm An Idiot

My Favorite Comics

Finally! The answer to the burning question you’ve all been asking… "which comics are the Pop Culture Gangster’s favorite!??!  I must know!"

Well, at long last you can sleep well tonight my friends.  For lack of time to do a better post, let me share with you what I think are the best and funniest comic strips out there today:

Brewster Rockit – I only recently discovered this strip and it has quickly become a favorite. It is pun-filled and provides a fantastic parody of sci-fi and futureristic movies, TV shows and comic strips like Flash Gordon.

Pearls Before Swine – The king of the puns on the comic page.  Dark and spiteful that I think is kind of  reminiscient of Seinfield’s callous humor.

Get Fuzzy – I suppose most people would call this "Garfield gone bad" but its far better than that.

Zits – I’m not that far removed from being a teenager (or so I like to tell myself), but I think this strip does a great job of showing the world from the point of view of a teenager and a teen’s parents (official site is here, but they have limited strips to view)

I also want to say that I’m thrilled that Classic Bloom County comics are now available online.  Bloom County is my all-time favorite comic strip, bar none, and reliving these strips as I read them each day during or after lunch is great.