I don't generally read the newspaper's comics section, because 1) the comic section is where humor goes to die and 2) newspapers, ha. But alert Topless Roboteer Duy N. alerted me to the Family Circus strip, which ran on Halloween. I swear this has not been photoshopped in any way:
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Look, I'm as skeptical as anyone that the Mayans knew when the world was going to end. But if Family Circus making a Warhammer 40k reference -- a correct reference -- isn't a sign of the upcoming apocalypse, I don't know what is.
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I could have sworn I saw this story on ComicsAlliance, but it seems to be gone now. They posted a picture of Sgt Tarkus from the Blood Ravens and totally messed up it would be to see Jeffy in that kind of outfit. Google Sgt Tarkus if you don't believe me. ;)
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Cool.
I don't know, doesn't seem that weird. Were kind of doing the, were the elite and only get the joke. I mean even if it didn't come from his own experiences are we also saying were the only people who understand google?
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It's not a sign of the Apocalyps, it's a sign that they're making a movie. ">sigh< So now we need to get with the 21st Century."
I hope this makes it into the movie. It's clearly the most noteworthy thing about Family Circus in eons.
@gagagalvatron @DoctorWhat As I recall from the brief time it ran in a local newspaper, you can't call Lio a "must-read" strip because one does not actually "read" Lio. You just kinda "take it in". The number of words that actually appeared in that strip in the last year is probably fewer than I've put in this comment.
@gagagalvatron @DoctorWhat Believe it or not, but Lio is not in every paper in America. I'm practically the only person in Arizona that owns Lio compilations
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All I can picture now is Space Marine troops leaving dotted trails on the battlefield.
@skrag2112 In Dawn of War 2 Terminators do leave dotted trails: and by dotted trails I mean wall and other obstacle/cover destroying path of destruction.
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Me too: Seanbaby did at least two articles of photoshopped Family Circus toons--I assumed this was from one of them at first.
My guess?
Keane submitted something the syndicate or an individual newspaper company did not approve of, and so they got some intern to fish around on the Internet for a replacement to run at the last minute, and this is what they found.
Either that, or Keane couldn't get his strip to them due to the weather/power outage/kaiju attack, and so they had to find a quick replacement and this is what they found.
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well at least it got us to stop talking about lucas. nice to know we've found a life. too bad it's a life that involves family circus. let's go back to not having a life.
... :| well, damn. If this isn't proof the world is ending, then I don't know what is.
Back to the bunker. It seems I only leave when the evidence of the world ending really starts to pile up...
the only crazy part of this cartoon is that the characters are actully keeping up to date with things including billy there asking for that characters costume for family circus thanks to the movie and now this cartoon showing billy asking for a costume of a blood raven character shows family circus is becoming a more powerful culture force . be afraid now
Creepy fact of the day: Bil Keane (a.k.a. the dad) died last year. Mrs. Keane (a.k.a. the mom) died in 2008. The strip is currently written by Jeff Keane (a.k.a. "Jeffy"). One big screwed-up family circus.
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@general_apathy How is that creepy? That the kid runs the business after his parents passed away?
@wonkothesane1986 @general_apathy I think it's creepy because instead of bringing something new to the table, he insisted on keeping the unfunny shenanigans all in the name of tradition.
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@JohnnyProblem The comic Rob is showing was in the newspapers. I remember making the exact same remark when I saw it.
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I know what's going on here, last week the internet went crazy when they announced a Family Circus movie and this is there way of telling the internet, "hey guys we're cool. so love our cool movie when it comes out."
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*Looks at comic closely*
I guess I really did die in that car accident because that's the only way I can explain this right now.
If the son said he wanted to be Cyrus instead of Tarkus would the mom shot the idea down because Cyrus is just plain overpowered? O.K. Tarkus was even more overpowered in Retribution after you gave him the perma-cloak armor and a plasma cannon.
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I'm still sticking to my theory that FoxTrot's Bill Amend somehow ended up taking over for a day. I'm guessing a bet between cartoonists was lost by someone, but I can't tell if it was Keane or Amend...
@slydante Well, I remember reading somewhere that Jason and Jeffy were friends in school, so it might infer that the two artists are friends somewhere down the line. Note that I used the term "artist" lightly here.
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@10glfan59 @Lithroe @slydante I gave up on trying mobile. But the regular experience isn't so great, either.
Clicking on an article or loading more comments sometimes brings my computer to its knees. I like reading comments. Locking up my browser, sometimes for five to ten seconds? Not so much. What the hell is it doing?
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@NeoRickicker Paragraph breaks, paragraph breaks, wherefore art thou, paragraph breaks?
As I said before in The Irregulars, this is so, so much less than a friendly nod to nerd culture and more nerd-pandering. This is Jeff Keane flashing his crayon-and-cardboard nerd credentials card and shouting, "Look! Look! I'm one of you guys!"
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@NeoRickicker I'm pretty sure it's not nerd pandering so much as Jeff Keane making a joke about how his own kids are incomprehensible to him. (That was obviously the joke: the people who usually read "Family Circus" would have no more idea what little Jeffy is talking about than the Mom does.)
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@Sabreman @NeoRickicker The length of the follow through helps, as well. Even if someone doesn't get the references, it is long enough and detailed enough to *sound* real.
It also has words that might sound "dangerous" (sergeant, Blood Ravens, Warhammer) to an unknowing parent or grandparent, but at the same time aren't an obvious danger (hooker, drug dealer, Grand Theft Auto or other high publicity violent game). One of those situations where a parent just can't slap down their kid's wish on first hearing, because they don't know if they are slapping down something "bad" or something relatively innocent that just sounds bad (like a Harry Potter character or a weird Disney reference).
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Conversely, though, I could see this as Jeff Keane hating his father's creation, and is now actively trying to ruin his creation in any way he could think of. And THAT, sir, is the Family Circus movie that I'd like to see!
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@NeoRickicker It's also very specific though for random pandering. He could have made something up and it would have been funny to 90% of readers who found the joke funny.
A lot of cartoonists are on good terms with each other, for that matter. Heck - Stephen Pastis made fun of Family Circus all the time but was on good terms with the creators and had nothing but good words when Bil Keane passed away.
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@GeneralTekno @NeoRickicker I've heard Keane loved a lot of the parodies of his work.
Should also be noted the early strips weren't as saccharine, so it's speculated he went that direction due to how popular it was (at the time).
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@NeoRickicker Well naturally. Gotta scare the grandmas that are the only ones who enjoy this crap somehow.
