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| A gloomy year demands a gloomy header image. |
As recently as 2019, comic parodies were a regular feature on this blog. Then, without warning, they vanished altogether. What happened? Well, it's like this. Up until about December of last year, I was an active participant in a Facebook forum devoted to newspaper comics. I shared my various mashups and parodies there and then collected them into occasional blog posts here at Dead 2 Rights. When I gave up on the Facebook forum, I stopped doing comics-related posts on this blog, too.
But I never stopped reading newspaper comics or doing parodies of them. I just don't do them in such great quantities as I used to. Now it's late December, and I have a folder on my hard drive full to bursting with comics, so I thought I'd share them all at once. Sound good to you? Let's go.
Let's take a visit to Camp Swampy and see what the gang at Beetle Bailey is up to.
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| Amos dreams of Doodlebops. |
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| Is Omni still a thing? |
So... not much happening at Camp Swampy. Anything good happening at Crock these days?
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| These characters are named Maggot and Grossie. I'm not kidding. |
Maybe we'll have more luck with Dennis the Menace. Dennis and his pal Joey are always getting into mischief. Frankly, though, Dennis is starting to worry about Joey.
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| Joey's cognitive skills are not where they need to be. |
Just for fun, here's a version that's just shoes with nobody in them!
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| Is Dennis still menacing when he's just shoes? |
And, naturally, I can't help but imagine the final installment of Dennis the Menace.
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| Advantage: Wilson. |
Let's move on to the lovable melonheads of Family Circus. Yes, I'm occasionally still erasing all the human characters and leaving just the backgrounds.
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| Isn't this store nice with no people in it? |
Speaking of that clothing store, the following Family Circus shows that the strip occasionally acknowledges the global pandemic. Unfortunately, I didn't think they went far enough, so I made a slight correction. I think this is a noticeable improvement.
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| The best thing about masks. |
This year brought out something wicked in middle child Jeffy.
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| He sounds serious. |
Is it even worth adding this one? Eh, I bothered to make it. Why not?
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| Dolly knows how to get through 2020. |
Funky Winkebean remained as gross as ever in 2020. There was this whole thing, for instance, about Les getting Lisa's Story made into a movie. Again. Then the production was besieged by wildfires, forcing Les and the actress playing Lisa to take shelter in a boat. I decided to have some fun with their dialogue. BONUS: a color chart breakdown of the strip.
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| All the colors of the depressive rainbow. |
The story about the wildfires went on and on. I thought the dialogue could use a little pruning.
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| Get to the goddamned point, Mopey Pete. |
Just for gits and shiggles, here's a picture of Teenage Les about to jump off a diving board into molten lava.
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| Do it! Do it! Save us from decades of torment! |
Garfield is always good for some larfs. What are Garfield and Jon up to these days?
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| Like John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. Except way better. |
Oh, that. Anything else?
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| Remember that Snowman movie? This is what happens in it. |
Hagar the Horrible also acknowledged the pandemic. I helped it along.
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| We all knew Hagar would be a super spreader. |
I wondered what Hi & Lois would be like if the characters stopped even trying to make jokes.
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| Easy to translate, too! |
Normally, I do a lot of Mark Trail parodies. That didn't happen in 2020. All I did was this dialogue switcheroo with Arctic Circle.
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| It barely makes a difference. In either of them. |
Marvin's gonna Marvin. Most of my jokes about this strip involve infanticide.
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| "Our lives would be so sweet, Jenny. You have no idea!" |
Mary Worth used to be a staple of this blog. Again, that didn't happen in 2020. But I have a handful of parodies. Like this dialogue between Estelle and her cat Libby.
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| Because Libby cares about you, Estelle! |
Somehow, Estelle and Wilbur reconciled. Why, I don't know. But I at least put it in a fun location.
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| Get it? Solo? Huh? |
Wilbur's drab daughter Dawn had some dreary drama in 2020.
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| Why bother? They both totally suck. |
And what did Mary's neighbor Tommy do this year? Not drugs, that's for sure!
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| Those are the eyes of a sober man. |
Shoe featured a guest appearance by a cartoon superstar. Or at least it did in my mind.
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| He can't do the laugh anymore, so don't even ask. |
Most of my comics parodies in 2020 were inspired by a great Twitter account called
Comics Outta Context (@ComicContext). The premise is simple: "Panels from comics - out of context. That makes them funnier... sometimes." Basically, whenever I see a post from this account, I feel compelled to do a parody of it. Here's a sampling of my work in 2020.
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| You're holding up the line, dude. |
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| They weren't crazy about him before this. |
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| The problems of men with long, curly hair. |
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| Awww! Remember The Brak Show? |
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| Carol is not amused. |
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| The 1970s were weird years for all of us. |
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| Elmo appears to be loving this attention! |
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| Eyebrow gymnastics. |
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| This is an actual photograph of that party. |
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| "That'll shut him up." |
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| Live your best life, Namor! |
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| Green Arrow avoids his civic duty. |
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| Each country has its own theories of education. |
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| Don't always try to "one up" your coworkers. |
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| The problems of Canadian supeheroes. |
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| When your teammates don't respect you. |
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| I'm hungry just reading this. |
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| Hey! Dennis is back! Hi, Dennis! |
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| That's not a joke. He really did direct this. |
And, as usual, we close out this little survey with a few odds and ends that don't fit into the other categories. In other words, the dregs. Like this box of ice cream bars (with a slightly altered slogan).
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| "No problem! Wait, I take that back! Big problem!" |
No one was asking for a Frosty the Snowman/American Graffiti crossover. That didn't stop me.
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| You don't want to know what happened to Hocus Pocus. Trust me. |
A second Green Arrow joke? This one was inspired by a real sign in my neighborhood.
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| I think that means you can go, lady. |
No one was asking for a Rumors/Superman II crossover either. Or maybe someone did, and I just don't remember. It was that kind of year.
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| You can go your own way... back to the Phantom Zone, that is! |
I don't really do topical or political humor. But I wanted to do one joke about voting in this election year! I thought this was pretty funny. No one else did, though.
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| Who wouldn't vote "YES"? |
A couple of "goth" jokes.
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| Fat Guy Goes Gothic! |
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| See, instead of Punky Brewster, this is Gothy Brewster! |
Things can get weird out on the lake. This was a single-panel cartoon that I decided to expand into a three-panel comic.
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| Evinrude owners have Johnson envy. |
You won't get this next one unless you watch VCR Party Live on YouTube. But I spent time making this, so here it is.
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| You have to take my word for it. |
This next one takes some explaining. You see, I wanted to do a whole article about how the Looney Tunes character Yosemite Sam was originally Semite Sam. He grew up in a Jewish family in New York. As a young man, he decided to make a complete break from his past, so he invented this "rootin' tootin'" cowboy persona. I never wrote the article, but I did create this one illustration, mostly from clipart. I think this was going to be Sam's father. Enjoy.
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| Semite Sam: Never made it past the planning stages, consarn it! |
I took the time to brainstorm a new show for the CBS schedule. Did anyone thank me?
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| Better than Young Sheldon by a nose! |
The royal family is still funny in 2020, right? Well, not all of them. But Charles is!
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| The man who wouldn't be king. Ever. |
I thought it would be funny if Tina Belcher crashed the Kardashian family photo. Few agreed with me.
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| At least one smile here looks genuine. |
Goodfellas/To Catch a Predator crossover, anyone? No? Okay then.
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| Timely, right? |
Maybe an Empire Strikes Back/Lockup Raw crossover is more your speed?
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| You know the video I'm referencing here, right? |
I told you these were the dregs. Don't worry. We're almost done here. I think we'll end with a couple of Masters of the Universe parodies. Like this one of Gwildor and Orko awkwardly sharing an elevator.
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| These two hate each other! |
And we'll close out this article with a comic strip involving He-Man, Teela, and a third character.
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| You see, the joke is... oh, never mind. |
That pretty much cleans me out. I hope at least one of these cartoons brought you some amusement. And, if not, I beg your pardon. I never promised you a rose garden!
See you in 2021! If there is one!
