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.

The Republicans Are Coming! The Republicans Are Coming!

This just in_ tonight in Las Vegas, Republican vice presidential nominee Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who is to the right of my namesake Attila the Hun, told a partisan crowd that USA Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney, who won a gold and silver in London, will replace Gov. Chris Christie as the keynote speaker at the Republican Party National Convention during the week of Aug. 27th in Tampa, Fla.

Maroney is also a worldwide social media sensation as the use of her image when getting a silver on the vault has made her a meme.

We are kidding of course, though we wanted to calculate the weight difference between Christie, who has a major weight problem somewhere around 300 pounds, and Maroney, who weighs 105 pounds, according to Bing.

And, oh yes, we had to capitalize on the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, which seems like a great filler  from the Olympics to the Republican convention. We should point out that not all Republicans are like sharks in a tank, but if we mentioned their names, we might cost them their seats (this is a center-left blog, when we discuss political matters, which is not always the case). Although since he has been in Congress for 32 years, I suppose I can admit I really admire Cong. Frank Wolf (R-Va) for his stance on human rights, particularly Sudan.

Our intention during Shark Week II is to cover the convention both subjectively (as in the Cenk Uygur of Current-TV sense) and objectively (as in the Charlie Rose sense) as well as get some views from some partisan right-wingers (in the Dennis Miller sense).

So, whether you prefer Nancy Pelosi or Michele Bachmann, we look forward to seeing here in 11 days.

http://www.mckaylaisnotimpressed.tumblr.com

http://www.dcs.discovery.com/sharkweek

http://www.current.com

http://www.charlierose.com

http://www.dennismillerradio.com

http://www.state.nj.us/governor

http://www.wolf.house.gov