Show of hands: how many of you gentle readers knew Keri would make yet another public statement about the Pillar family’s experiences with ICE? If betting on comic strips ostensibly about sports was a thing, you’d be playing with house money.
One might think that by now Gil and/or Emily would’ve had a sit-down with Keri and told them something to the effect of “y’know, you don’t always have to be the one who starts every protest. Or, if you do, be a little more selective in how and where you do it.” In this case, a school walkout will likely end in nothing but suspensions and/or expulsions of the students who participate. A protest march in front of WDIG, or a sit-in at Janet’s Diner, would get the point across to a larger audience with a smaller impact on a student’s status inside the walls of Milford High.
But nooOOOooo! That would not be modus operandi for Keri Thorp, Attention Whore and Social Justice Warrior. Instead we’ll have Keri facing some sort of discipline from Dr. Pearl and Gil acquiescing while standing up for Keri’s right to blah blah blah and yakety schmakety. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Speaking of lather, rinse, repeat, when are we gonna address the acromegaly epidemic that’s hit Milford?
As they try to put the heartbreaking loss to Valley Tech behind them, Keri and Inma carry groceries across an open field to an enormous house. Today’s strip cries out for the MopMan treatment:
Now for the actual strip:
So we know Isis and the Pillar family got a visit from ICE recently, and it wasn’t to help them get through TSAPreCheck. Whatever happened didn’t get them sent to Alligator Alcatraz or South Sudan or keep Isis out of the next game. It did rattle Isis enough to have a bad game against VT. Unlike her mother, who looks none the worse for wear, Isis still looks like she’s afaird to stick her head outside.
That, of course, may have less to do with her immigration status than it does with Keri Thorp, Sexual Omnivore, who checked their neck at the door and now swoops in for the attack. Isis is giving off serious Edward V in the Tower of London vibes here.
The whole situation as presented raises two major questions:
What exactly happened between the Pillars and ICE that has forced the former to stay at home, except for their daughter who still seems to be able to go to school and shoot hoops?
What exactly is in those grocery bags? From here the contents look to include two baguettes, a feather duster, a pitcher of beer from Barney’s Pub, a head of collards, a large green butterfly, a human heart, and some sentient oranges. (The daughter of one of teenchy’s neighbors is currently attending Syracuse; home on winter break, she referred to her school’s mascot as “a sentient orange.”)
Well, this should come as a surprise to no one. Keri’s poor form in Saturday’s strip pretty much ensured Keri wasn’t making this shot. Wonder if that hyperextended upper arm had anything to do with it. That, or the lack of coaching from anyone, including Keri’s parents, beyond the usual “you got this” or some other pleasantries. Meanwhile, Emily gets dap from Dark Gil a/k/a Coach Kim.
Now can someone please explain the consequences of this outcome? Milford and Valley Tech were playing for a postseason berth. Were they not also playing for the conference championship? If so, then would it not follow that the loser of this game would end up the conference runner-up? How, then, can the winner of this game go on to play in the postseason Goshen, a team in their conference that is neither the conference champion nor the conference runner-up? Clearly Barajas needs to learn more than how to just sprinkle various phrases and terminology into the strip at appropriate moments. ‘Splain, Henry.
Anyhoo, back to Emily. Ms. Clover continues to be drawn ever more grotesquely, never looking the same way twice or from one panel to the next. Today she looks like the love child of Rocky Dennis and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Color her green and she could easily pass for She-Hulk. It’d be easy to write this off as visual evidence of her becoming a increasingly miserable individual, one who is more concerned about herself and her career than about anyone else in her life, including her offspring. That would be giving the artist more credit than is deserved.
Gil’s reference to “here” and “here” makes me guess they’re all supposed to be looking at something like a clipboard or tablet. There’s none to be seen and all eyes are on Gil’s face. Meanwhile he’s talking about a player who’s not even in the huddle. Where, then is Inma? Wrong answers only, and keep it clean.
But the way he’s talking? This is actually legit chalk talk. A hard hedge happens when a defender who is being screened steps forward to try and stop the ball handler’s momentum. Here are some examples, which might illustrate it better than I can describe it.
I am so impressed by this that I will overlook Merrill’s cut/paste of the last two panels.
Less sloppy artwork the past couple of days (well, Mimi excepted) and some actual sports lingo that’s appropriate to the situation. Do you reckon B&M had a come to Jesus meeting with the syndicate? Do they anticipate Death to Pachuco: The Paperback not being a big seller? And whatever happened to Gil Thorp: The Graphic Novel? Talk amongst yourselves. teenchy out.
Will you look at this. Three panels of sports action. The players are actually posed in a realistic fashion. There’s a crowd and it’s positioned in a reasonable location from the action. (Why can’t it be this way all the time?) The dialogue is not inappropriate to the action. It can’t be when it doesn’t exist.
Some days you just have to count your blessings. This is one of them. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all.
Oh look, Ledania and Banksy are back in the Lady Mudlark lineup and have played at least one half of basketball. Why do I say “have played”? Because we’re in the Milford locker room and Ochoa is attempting to coach them based on something they’ve already done. Why do I say “attempting”? Because Ochoa seems to have forgotten that there are two boards on a basketball court that can be attacked. Which board does Ochoa want her players to attack and which one can they conveniently neglect?
What’s important today is not the sportsball talk (as if it ever is under the Bajaras regime) but – and stop me if you’ve heard this one before – the actions of one Keri Thorp, Social Justice Warrior.
Okay gentle readers, just for S&Gs let’s revisit what happened the last time a Milford High sports team was involved in a protest or was protest-adjacent. The protest at the time was about the conflict in Gaza. Inma Rimsha didn’t pick sides but wished for an end to the conflict and said as much on the air to Marty Moon*. She answered Marty’s question about a protest but wasn’t actually involved in one. Gil supported her and her First Amendment rights after some people complained about what she said. Tays (remember him?), OTOH, was not exactly of the same mind as Gil. Rodney Barnes (remember him?) kinda felt the same way as Tays.
Compare and contrast Tays’ and Gil’s approach to high schoolers speaking their mind about current events. Tays felt there was a time and place for everything, while Gil stuck to the old “kids will be kids” spiel. Guess which apple didn’t fall far from the tree? If Keri wanted to make her little public anti-ICE statement, it could have been made before the start of the game, on a t-shirt over her uniform (like Larry Nance Jr.) that she pulled off during warmups. Or maybe Keri’s visible-from-space earrings could’ve spelled ICE OUT, even if that would’ve detracted from that head of a ten penny nail sticking out of Keri’s nose.
But nooOOoo! Keri decides to scribble some slogan on her jersey after the game has already started. This after giving Ochoa a dead-eyed stare the likes of which we have never seen. Maybe a brain worm made Keri do it, or made Inma follow suit. Does Inma not remember what happened the last time Keri sucked her into doing something? Apparently not.
Along those lines, one would think that Ochoa (and by extension Gil) would know that scholastic sports leagues and their officials generally do not look favorably on political messages worn on uniforms or equipment. This is going to result in, at best, a technical foul on Keri followed by a required uni change or ejection and, at worst, a forfeit for Milford. Lesson learned? Freedom of expression does not mean freedom from consequences.
meta: I will be traveling on Saturday and would be grateful if one of my colleagues could cover for me.
*This was back when Inma was a rasslin’ powerhouse, a plot element that has since fallen by the wayside.
Now we move on to the fallout from Keri’s grounding and suspension. Was she suspended from school or just from the basketball team? Reply hazy, try again. Now we see true Gil Thorp “coaching” in action. When the team is at full strength, he’s on the sidelines; when the stars are suspended, he leaves Ochoa to clean up the mess. Good thing she has experience with jayvee super subs, having been one herself.
Too bad the artwork doesn’t support the dialogue. Easy enough to call this another Strother Martin moment, but this isn’t failure to communicate on Henry’s part. The dialogue in P1 matches up better to the artwork in P2, where a New ThaYER player appears to be driving to the basket. (Nice to see a Valley team other than Milford, VT and Goshen for once, even if their name’s screwed up on their jerseys.) In her drive to the basket, Lopez appears to knocked the Milford girl’s face clean off.
In yesterday’s comments, faithful TWIMer hitorque mused that, in the old Thorpiverse, this suspension would get the full Marty Moon treatment. Wishful thinking now that Marty’s been turned into an emasculated recovering alcoholic (whatever happened to his daughter, BTW?) who drinks with Gil’s rivals. Jackie Carter, however, may have created an opportunity for exactly that as she spills the tea on the air. How much of this would’ve been public knowledge and how much of it would have had to been spilled by the Milford sports information department? Also, who is the severe-looking blonde with the headset sitting next to Jackie? Fox News covering Valley hoops now? Talk amongst yourselves. teenchy out.
Awfully nice of Five-O to let these kids change out of their uniforms before grilling them. Must’ve been fun doing that while they were still cuffed. Besides the kids, the arm and beverage position of the bad cop, and the direction of the wind in the interrogation room, the artwork is the same in all three panels. Let’s break it down like game action, shall we?
P1: Keri is the lead dope in this parade of dopes. If you’re gonna do crimes, why buy a yellow Corvette and use it as your getaway car? At least they know better than to incriminate themselves verbally. Wonder who’s gonna represent Keri? Hadley V. Baxendale? Knox Foley? The poor schmuck who had to defend Del Bader?
P2: No need to go to PR to see Bad Bunny: just watch the Super Bowl halftime show on YouTube. Besides, he’s touring Brazil and Europe this year. This is just a throw-in on Henry’s part to try to stay on the bleeding edge of the headlines, while also painting Inma as the spoiled rich kid of the group. That wrestling scholly keeps getting further and further away.
P3: We kinda had an idea, but now we know for certain why the Pillar family “felt better” about bringing Isis to Milford: they saw how the Tobias Gordon Affair played out. And here you thought it was something in the Milford water that was creating these transgendered teens. There’s a fine line being drawn here, however. There’s trans, like when the female Tabatha transitioned to Tobias, and freaking trans, like the male Ivan transitioning to Isis. Isn’t it cute when Barajas and Merrill scribble through trans people’s deadnames? Isn’t it cuter when the trans kid picks a provocative name to transition into? It didn’t cross Ivan’s mind to just add an “a” to the end of their name? Too political?
Poor Isis. Doesn’t speak English as a first language, of questionable immigration status, and now freaking trans on top of it all. Three strikes, and Isis is out… but to where?
This Week in Milford 
Hard to dribble with a facehugger clamped onto your head
Now we move on to the fallout from Keri’s grounding and suspension. Was she suspended from school or just from the basketball team? Reply hazy, try again. Now we see true Gil Thorp “coaching” in action. When the team is at full strength, he’s on the sidelines; when the stars are suspended, he leaves Ochoa to clean up the mess. Good thing she has experience with jayvee super subs, having been one herself.
Too bad the artwork doesn’t support the dialogue. Easy enough to call this another Strother Martin moment, but this isn’t failure to communicate on Henry’s part. The dialogue in P1 matches up better to the artwork in P2, where a
New ThaYER player appears to be driving to the basket. (Nice to see a Valley team other than Milford, VT and Goshen for once, even if their name’s screwed up on their jerseys.) In her drive to the basket, Lopez appears to knocked the Milford girl’s face clean off.In yesterday’s comments, faithful TWIMer hitorque mused that, in the old Thorpiverse, this suspension would get the full Marty Moon treatment. Wishful thinking now that Marty’s been turned into an emasculated recovering alcoholic (whatever happened to his daughter, BTW?) who drinks with Gil’s rivals. Jackie Carter, however, may have created an opportunity for exactly that as she spills the tea on the air. How much of this would’ve been public knowledge and how much of it would have had to been spilled by the Milford sports information department? Also, who is the severe-looking blonde with the headset sitting next to Jackie? Fox News covering Valley hoops now? Talk amongst yourselves. teenchy out.