Mimi Thorp | This Week in Milford

May 29, 2026

The Queen Is Dead. Long Live the Queen.

Filed under: Barney's Pub, Beth the bartender, Brown Hair, Cami Ochoa, Coach Ochoa, exposition comics, lazy artwork, Mimi Thorp, talking windows — teenchy @ 10:15 pm

Almost tempted to do another MopMan treatment today but the word balloons aren’t big enough and tbh, it’s the artwork that lets the dialogue down more so than the other way around.

The first panel starts out innocently enough, even with the overused Barney Pub exterior shot. Merrill has had plenty of time to fix the spelling error; why hasn’t she? Oh, yeah, just doing her part as one half of the DOGE of the comics pages. The Cami/Beth banter seems plausible enough…

…until you get to panel two. A stern-faced Cami – oops, she’s still in her work uniform so make that Coach Ochoa – has the gall to make possibly one of the most tone-deaf, biased and misinformed statements I’ve ever read in this strip. The “Milford royalty” part? Okay, maybe we’ll give her that. Milford has always been a tank town so putting its high-school-sports-coaching spouses on a pedestal is par for the course. But “the perfect couple”?

How do you define “the perfect couple,” Cami? A couple in which one partner is a closeted homosexual and the other is clueless about it until the closeted one comes out and initiates divorce proceedings? A couple in which the clueless one flirts with the bartender who would become his future fiancee while still married to the closeted homosexual? A couple in which the closeted one can’t remain cordial post-divorce for the sake of their kids – or show any concern for the kids, period, except to blame the clueless one for their shortcomings? This says more about Cami than it does about Gil and Mimi. Remember she was first introduced to we gentle readers late in the Rubin Era as a super soph promoted from jayvee who lit a fire under the Lady Mudlarks. Then Barajas aged her, had her join the Milford coaching staff (where she still lit fires), and made her canonically (yet another) lesbian. Maybe that explains why she saw the Thorps as “the perfect couple.”

It’s almost as if she’s blaming Beth for breaking them up, which would explain why her looks don’t match her words in panel three. (Actually it’s because Merrill couldn’t be bothered to change more than one element in the panel. This has been a running gag for her lately; two of three panels identical save for changing an arm or a facial expression, the third original artwork. We don’t even get that today. Again, the DOGE of the comics pages.) What isn’t an almost is that Cami qualifies her acceptance of Beth as conditional upon Gil’s acceptance of Beth.

Though she puts on a smile, it finally dawns on Beth that everything in Milford revolves around her husband-to-be. Milford is a jockocracy, and Gil is the head jock. His name is even spelled out in little picture frames on the walls of Barney’s Pub. (Granted, she might’ve done that, but still.) Her little elbow at Cami is just a subtle gesture acknowledging that sports are king and queen of Milford. Well that, or a subtle dig at Cami’s hockey coaching ability.

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May 22, 2026

You’re Killing Me, Barajas!

Filed under: actual action, anatomically implausible, Bad Jokes, Colorist Error, freak hands, Gil Thorp, golf, Jackie Carter, lame jokes, Marty Moon, Mimi Thorp, Miserable characters, same story 2 days straight, sports Henry knows nothing about — teenchy @ 8:28 pm

Once I learned Milford High has a sandlot, today’s post title was a natural. (Acceptable alternate titles would have included The Longest Day, It’s Another Tequila Sunset, [The Mudlarks Wanna Wear My] Red Shoes.) Once I learned Milford High is still fielding a baseball team – one we never see – I realized that today’s strip was just one big troll. Let’s break it down, shall we?

P1: Tiny putter, oversized golf ball, hovering in red sneakers, and what the hell is going on above his knees? Who is “he” anyway?

PP2-3: Telling but not showing the baseball season (who’s coaching baseball? gotta be Luke, no?); the crowd is a monochromatic shadow when nothing and no one else is; the new colorist can’t even color a sunset correctly!

P3: Even Gil knows what just finished was a “match.” Calling it a “game” is just playing dumb and feeding the narrative that he’s bad at golf. Add the handshake while still wearing a golf glove (why would the coach be doing that, anyway?) and it’s a big double diss to the ex. Emily’s “those who can, do; those who can’t, coach” retort is weaksauce.

Tomorrow: back to the ICE detention center? Keri’s social justice crusade? Or do we find out where Jami’s been all this time? See you then!

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May 20, 2026

McKees Rocks

Filed under: actual action, Fat Guys, freak faces, hands in the air, Henry's friends, Lantern Jaws, Mimi Thorp, Miserable characters, Pissy faced Mimi, same story 2 days straight, sports Henry knows nothing about, Valley Tech — teenchy @ 9:04 am

Another day, another strip worthy of the MopMan treatment.

And now for the actual strip.

Once again we have a coach glued to the side of a player, following them around the course. Pretty sure that’s not how this works. We also have the ex-spouses getting the Goofus and Gallant treatment: “Goofus Emily praises her players when they do well and scowls at them when they make mistakes. Gallant Gil gives constructive advice to all his players… well, at least to one of them.”

This golf match has dragged on for two weeks now, with no plot advancement beyond showing what a horrible human being Mimi has become. Barajas might’ve chosen to work ICE into the strip this spring, but tbh the results look more like the work of another governmental agency. Bringing in a younger writer and artist to destroy what works in the name of modernization, all while drawing a paycheck? Barajas and Merrill are to Gil Thorp what DOGE is to the federal government.

Today’s post title is a shout-out to any of you Pennsylvanian TWIMers.

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May 16, 2026

If you sprinkle when you Trinkle, please do hunker and groom the bunker

Filed under: actual action, anatomically implausible, big arms, High Five Fail, Lantern Jaws, lazy artwork, metapost, Mimi Thorp, Pissy faced Gil, Valley Tech — teenchy @ 8:19 pm

Drought conditions have stricken Farmyard Golf Course. That, or the greenskeepers have spread manure over the greens. Not a problem for VT’s Alana Trinkle, she of the magical disappearing/reappearing/jumping from hand-to-hand golf glove, who places her shot from the bunker two feet from the pin. Then what? Time to turn to her coach and Wonder Twin Powers… Activate!

Shape of… a gender-ambiguous teen!

Form of… a bitter lesbian ex-golf pro!

Powers thus activated, Emily fawns over Alana publicly, showering her with the praise she never bestowed on her own children. Meanwhile, beady-eyed Gil stares at Dorothy, who looks like she’d rather be in France with Beldar and Prymaat.

What is it with these coaches constantly appearing at the side of players who just hit their shots? There are multiple foursomes on the course. Do Gil and Emily have residual Wonder Twin Powers of their own? Talk amongst yourselves. teenchy out.

meta: tdrew, will be glad to let you take Monday’s post. This cliffhanger is too suspenseful for my delicate constitution.

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May 13, 2026

Gil’s over it. I think we are, too.

Filed under: confusing dialogue, freak faces, freak hands, golf, Lantern Jaws, Mimi Thorp, Miserable characters, Pissy faced Mimi, Valley Tech — teenchy @ 9:21 pm

At this stage complaining about the art is like beating a dead horse, especially since neither the art nor the horse get better.

It has occurred to me more than once that, by making Emily increasingly fatter, squatter and generally repulsive with each successive drawing, Merrill is trying to create some visual shorthand for Barajas’ writing Emily as increasingly bitter, spiteful and generally unsympathetic. That doesn’t explain why Merrill can’t draw the character – or damn near any character – consistently. It also doesn’t explain Merrill’s latest fascination with drawing everyone with little tiny shrew eyes. I mean, I get it, Emily’s a shrew, but is everyone else?

Today we continue down that path as, under the guise of sportsmanship, Gil asks Emily if she’s coming to his and Beth’s wedding. Em’s response lacks emphasis but implies that she’s coming solo. Gil asking why Ericka can’t come seems innocent enough, as he probably has no idea there’s any trouble in Lesbian Golfer Paradise. Not to Emily, who immediately decides she needs to twist the knife and insult Gil’s golf, or golf coaching, or golf-adjacent something-or-other. Good thing she doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head to catch Gil’s little limp-wristed backatcha pose.

Taken as a whole, this little encounter just serves to reinforce the ongoing narrative that Gil has moved on and is happier with his post-divorce life than the one who initiated the divorce. Now if the strip could just move on and not make Emily and her obsession with her ex-husband one of the main plot devices. Leaving her in the Arizona desert, with occasional glimpses into her career and relationships, would’ve been more believable than bringing her back to the Valley, having her take over in the same role as her ex at her ex’s most bitter rival, and becoming obsessed with defeating him at every turn. Before you say “well, she just wanted to stay close to her kids,” remind yourself how she doesn’t do jack with them and basically blames Gil for anything that goes wrong in their lives.

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May 11, 2026

Golf at a Farmyard

Filed under: Gil Thorp, golf, Jackie Carter, Mimi Thorp, sports Henry knows nothing about — robmize2013 @ 9:50 pm

This time its Jackie Carter doing the honors for this mystery broadcast at FarmYard. Guess her mike has no cord. Everyone is a different color. May the best color win. Sunscreen is optional.

I’m going to miss it. I’m going over the pond to Ireland and Scotland for 10 days and along the way will see the home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews. So bon voyage, au juer, and hasta la vista to all these dopes for a week and a half. If you think I’ll miss this charade that passes for golf, well, I’ve got some land in Nova Scotia to sell you. I’d rather run into the Loch Ness Monster himself than look at this disaster 6 days a week.

So Joan Rivers and company, strap it down and bow your necks. I will return to these airwaves on Memorial Day. Unless our flight home gets cancelled like it did in Australia last year. Then I will be spared one more day of analyzing manure on a screen. Maybe I’ll even miss the wedding. You should all be so lucky. Have some cake for me. Thanks again to Team TWIM.

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March 28, 2026

Who knew? Emily’s a switch hitter on the golf course too!

Filed under: actual action, Coach Kim, freak faces, freak hands, Mimi Thorp, Pissy faced Mimi, shoe bottoms, sports Henry knows nothing about, Valley Tech — teenchy @ 10:38 pm

That’s really unfair of me to write, TBH. Emily officially stopped switch hitting off the course the day she signed those divorce papers, though in all likelihood she stopped long before then.

When this strip featured golf in the past, it was almost exclusively as a summer filler arc and predominantly involved someone hustling or otherwise cheating at the game. In the Barajas Era, it has been used as the vehicle to destroy the Thorps’ marriage, transforming Emily f/k/a Mimi from a generally pleasant, generally athletic wife and mother who could impart life lessons of her own into a miserable, misshapen lesbian who thinks only of herself.

That’s also really unfair of me to write, too. Emily doesn’t only think of herself; she also thinks about exacting revenge on her ex-husband. In so doing she follows in the footsteps of the pre-firing Luke Martinez and the God-only-knows-why Mitch Gerads. Pretty sure I’ve pointed this out previously but it is entirely possible for a coach of one of Milford’s conference rivals to have a relationship with another coach that isn’t based on seething hatred and spite. (See Andrews, Tod.)

Speaking of coaching relationships, anyone find it bizarre that Kim has this sort of fawning respect for Emily? After all, he was named VT’s AD after Luke’s firing; now she has his job yet he’s still on the staff. Don’t tell me Kim saw himself as a placeholder and now sees Emily as somehow being more worthy of the position?

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this but it’s early Sunday morning as I write and I need to crash. teenchy out.

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March 16, 2026

6 panels of insanity

Filed under: ?, actual action, basketball, Gil Thorp, Marty Moon, Mimi Thorp, uniform changes — robmize2013 @ 10:41 am

Had a nice weekend in Angola at our annual winter getaway a bit later then normal due to scheduling issues, but Im back and ready to analyze all this manure. Thanks again Teenchy for filling in Friday.

Saturday Panel 1: Is the game so far along that Mimi already thinks Milford thinks they have the game won already? Why is she sitting down? We dont even have a score in the lower section. Her players are wearing dark tops with orange stripes.** Remember that detail.

Saturday Panel 2: Mimi says what I said above. Is she a mindreader? More nonsensical phrases instead of actual coaching.

Saturday Panel 3: Mimi sends them (one player) back on the court with yet another tripe phrase that has nothing to do with ACTUAL STRATEGY. Love the hands together like a rah rah cheerleader! Every dead coach is turning over in their grave reading this. On to Monday!

Monday Panel 1: Hey its Gil and Marty Moon? Talking before the game? I thought they were playing already. Why does Gil have his own microphone? Why would it be an adjustment with all his BETTER players back? And he wasnt even there when they were gone so how would he know what it was like before?? Way to do your homework Mister Radio Guy. And whats with the fuckin coat? Youre on the radio, not CBS.

Monday Panel 2: Uh, so Jackie interviews Mimi,… before the game again? Didnt we start the game Friday? So each announcer talks with his/her gender equal? Mimi is ‘back here’ again? So the game is at Milford? When is the big game gonna be at VT? Mimi has a mic and headphones as well. Its mindboggling how little both the artist and writer know about sports. Repeat what I said above about why all this is needed for a radio interview. Nice lab coat Mimi. Are you a doctor as well, like Doc Pearl? Yeah we’re gonna make a memory all right. But we cant decide when the game starts. Wednesday we saw Milford in the locker room being advised to attack the boards. Perhaps this is halftime but NOBODY in high school interviews coaches at halftime of a regular season game like this.

Monday Panel 3: Finally some action. **VT has white tops. What happened to the dark tops? Plus nice block lettering. I wish the artist could remember details like Mimi remembers her Milford days. So Mimi put her white coat on at halftime and wears it with her arms crossed, and nobody else near her. No players, fans behind her, etc. Like shes a mom watching her kid perform in a recital. Her team is down by 12. Some memory theyre making. But theyre showing Milford what theyre made of. And finally, I wouldnt wear earrings during a game like the Milford player is. Just a bit unsafe.

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