If you ever thought comic books were the only ones to “retcon*”, here’s an example that even Charles Schulz did it in “Peanuts”, via a 1960-something ‘Classic Peanuts’ strip that re-ran recently.

But wait a minute! What about Spike?

And Andy and Olaf and Belle and Marbles and Molly and Rover, all his other siblings from the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm? It’s hard to explain what was going through Snoopy’s canine mind at the time. Could it be that he, like his hiphop namesake, used certain substances? It was during that same period that, as a punchline, he defiantly declared “I ain’t no beagle!”

Still, it’s good to know that someone has taken all the bits and pieces from various strips to assemble The Complete Text of Snoopy’s Novel. I don’t usually weblish spoilers, but I have to say that the final line, “More importantly, he had learned about life,” is a thought I’ve kept with me to this day.

*Retcon: ‘Retroactive continuity’, deliberately changing previously established facts in a work of serial fiction.

Many comical comics, web-and-newspaper-based, have been making me smile lately… Dan Piraro’s “Bizarro” is awfully hard to find on the web (but the Washington Post site has the last two weeks worth), but this one is extra-good:
Which reminds me of a classic interchange from Albert Brooks, on a ficticious radio talk show taking questions from a caller:

Caller: “What’s the most important thing in comedy?”

Albert:”Ask me again.”

C: “What’s the most important thing i…”

A: “Timing!”

C: “But what about delivery?”

A: “Oh, you can pick it up yourself.”

C: “Lemme write that down… pick.. it… up… yourself…”

In other Bizarro-sity, here’s something firing on two levels:
Yes, I know it’s a flawed analogy, since it’s so unlikely that new DNA evidence would ever be of any value, unless you’re shaving someone else’s beard.

Maybe a twelve-blade Anonymous Razor with one blade for each of the Twelve Steps.

A seven-deadly-sin-blade razor would be dangerous and cool.

Or a Shakespearian Seven-Ages Blade Razor:
Blade 1, the Infant, “mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms”
Blade 2, the Schoolboy, “creeping like snail unwillingly to school”
Blade 3, the Lover, ” sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad to his mistress’ eyebrow”
Blade 4, the Soldier, “full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard”… oops, I guess that falls apart there.

Here’s an unusual Internet-themed “Boondocks”:

And I am so relieved that Hollywood (and specifically Dreamworks Animation) couldn’t ruin “Over the Hedge”, one of my favorite strips for years (and yes, Bruce Willis turned out to be a pretty good raccoon). But since the movie came out, the newspaper version AND its main animal characters have seemed more daring, and the observations on humanity more accurate than ever.

“It’s to keep their fears in.”

Finally, the always entertainingly obnoxious “Pearls Before Swine” with one that was obviously written just for bloggers like WendellWit.com…
Yeah, me neither.