Our Favorite Comic Strips from the Sunday Roanoke Times (Oct. 12th edition)

Greetings to our blog readers in New Zealand, Kenya and Argentina as well as our domestic friends in Alaska, Hawaii and Kansas.

We are taking a H.G. Wells time machine back to last Sunday as we did not get around to posting our favorite comic strips from a week ago Sunday, but we have them for your consumption right here; for the latest survey go to our sister blog "The Daily Vampire" at: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

There is a major surprise in this survey as we rank "Zits," a comic strip about a teenage boy who hasn't aged since Bruce Springsteen's 1984 album "Born in the USA" came out and that was well, first when I was a teenager! (Actually, we just researched and "Zits" actually debuted in 1997). In the Oct. 12th issue, Jeremy, the kid who never gets passed the wonder years is seen loading textbooks on a conveyor belt as he takes them out of a '70s VW van (top image). This is perhaps the funniest "Zits" strip we have seen in ages.

The silver medal goes to American swimmer Michael Phelps (we were just trying to see if you were paying attention). It actually goes to "Doonesbury," right-wing comic talk show host Dennis Miller's favorite comic strip (yeah, I somehow doubt that since "Doonesbury" is brilliant progressive satire). which makes fun of how our government makes back room deal with Middle Eastern dictators. Since the dictator in the strip is a fictional character who looks like Saddam Hussein of Iraq, we went with an image of sheep for the comic strip (center image; these are actually sheep in Turkey).

In this place, we have the always funny Stefan Pastis comic strip "Pearls Before Swine," which features Pig offending two blue birds which leaves his frenemy Rat to come to his comfort.

Here is our top ten:

1) Zits

2) Doonesbury

3) Pearls Before Swine

4) Dilbert

5) Get Fuzzy

6) Speed Bump

7) Garfield

8) Non-Sequitir

9) Agnes

10) Jump Start

http://zitscomics.com/

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine

http://www.doonesbury.com

http://www.dilbert.com

http://www.dennismillerradio.com/

http://www.michaelmoore.com (web site for Michael Moore, we try to abide by the 'equal time' rule)

PS: Dennis Miller will be performing live in Colorado Springs, Colo., a right-wing evangelical enclave that's also home to the Air Force Academy; I imagine he will have a large crowd there.

Quote of the Week- Bruce Springsteen

Today, we quip Bruce Springsteen, the pride of Asbury Park, NJ, (or Long Beach, NJ) in the last Quotes of the Week from famous singers on our two respective blogs. The late Conway Twitty, who hailed from Helena, Ark., is the subject of our other Quote of the Week on The Daily Vampire.

BRRRUUUUCE is known for many popular songs, including "Born to Run," Born in the USA," Thunder Road" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and he turns 61 on Sept. 23.

There happens to be a folk singer friend of mine named Bruce Piephoff in Greensboro, NC, who has produced almost as many records as the other Bruce (not a joke!). He performs frequently in the Greensboro area, and he will be performing at The Grove Winery in Gisbsonville, NC, on Labor Day.

Even though Springsteen campaigned for both John Kerry and Barack Obama, New Jersey's new Republican governor Chris Christie, who has become the Paris Hilton of "The National Review," is a fan of his music.

Judging by this quote, it seems that like many folks who came of age during the Vietnam War, Springsteen is wary of being to self-servant to any given cause or organization:

"Blind faith in your leaders, or anything will get you killed."