Pissy Faced Keri | This Week in Milford

June 6, 2026

Warning – Protests ahead

Filed under: Gil Thorp, Gils kids, Pissy Faced Keri, talking door — robmize2013 @ 9:45 am

Looks like school isnt out for the summer yet as the girls are talking about prom and not attending it; I assume Keri would ask Horse Girl again? Inma seems to think Isis is still locked up somewhere,or at least barred from going to prom for whatever reason, of course its unexplained. Confused about why Keri is planning another protest at the prom but not attending it? So am I. At least Inma is good with going about her life no matter Isis’ status in it, like normal folks.

Back at the Thorp house, Beth is probably at work as Gil and Keri talk about Keri’s plan to stage another protest. Well, the previous protests apparently were enough to get that court order to release Isis and her dad, so its not all bad. But ol Keri is still mad about her dad disapproving of another one. Isnt Isis free yet? Maybe not, after all. (paperwork, red tape etc) Why is there a need for yet another demonstration? Looks like we’re going backwards. Why even have that panel the other day in the ICE center?

Again I thought the Isis thing was in the rear view mirror. We need a little more continuity instead of reading minds. Yes I know Keri’s cause is justice for immigrants, in the big picture, but her taking it out on everyone is the wrong approach, as Gil suggests, especially since Gil is footing the bill for her Isis release.

Lets see what Gil comes up with as an alternate plan to help Keri focus her energy in the proper way. Thats what we need to see Monday. But it’ll probably be back to the golf course again.

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March 2, 2026

One more week of horse****.

Filed under: anatomically implausible, Horse Girl, Milford Idiots, Pissy Faced Keri — robmize2013 @ 8:59 pm

Only a matter of time before Horse Girl came back on the scene. And Again we have more stuff that makes no sense. Every panel chock full of crap. P1 – Gil is really a tyrant father who ‘let’ Peanut leave prison. He didnt let her do anything. The sheriff let her out. And she wasnt in prison for crissake! A tyrant https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tyrant is way meaner then Gil could ever be on his worst day. Even when he was TPing the other school 25 years ago, that was hardly oppressive or brutal. I know kids tend to overreact to things but still. If Brit knew the entire circumstances of why Peanut was disciplined, she would surely if she had any brains realize that Peanut deserved SOME punishment. All Gil did was allow the cops to come in and remove the kids during the game ( yes I figured out that earbud thing was premeditated). He’s more of a doofus then a tyrant.

P2 – all caps here. KEEPING YOUR MOUTH SHUT WASNT GONNA CHANGE YOUR PUNISHMENT! AND HOW CAN YOU MISS TEXTING SOMEONE WHEN YOURE ACTUALLY STANDING NEXT TO THEM???

P3 – Now how can Keri be on the horse and still be at the same height as Brit? Does anyone see a horse under Brit? I sure dont. Artist, you were doing ok then you stepped in some horse manure at the end. Looks like if Brit is really on a horse its body comes up to her armpit. Hey gang, Ive been on many horses; never had one that I had to use as deodorant. That smell is arid, and I dont mean ARID. Yeah thats great that Gil is lifting Keri’s suspension from her phone next week. But —–WHY THE FUCK IS SHE ALLOWED TO VISIT HER FRIEND FIRST??? Hey Gil – remember when I said Cami was as dumb as a rock? Join that club – and I aint letting you out next week either. That nag is smarter then you’ll ever be.

And hey Barajas – again we love when you show us how hip you are with those cool words like doomscrolling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomscrolling– but it doesnt make up for the manure in the rest of the strip.

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February 4, 2026

Wow! That car got 30 years newer just rolling off the lot!

Filed under: bizarre cameos, Gil Thorp, Jami Thorp, Keri Thorp, noises, Pissy Faced Keri, same story 2 days straight — teenchy @ 6:22 pm

When Foxy tossed Keri the keys to the yellow Corvette, it looked like a third-generation model (or “C3” in Corvette-speak), specifically one built from 1974-77. Here’s an example:

Now she’s out on the road and the ‘Vette has morphed into a sixth-generation (or “C6”) model, built from 2005-13. Here’s an example:

Can’t blame the time jump of different artists: Louie Chin drew them both. What do we know about Louie Chin, the third guest artist in the ongoing cavalcade of guest artists? He’s based in New York, has worked in a variety of media, and has a fairly impressive portfolio. His style seems somewhat restrained next to those of Kit Mills and Jason Margos, but it also seems more light-hearted. At least that’s my hot take.

As for the plot: Add poor impulse control to Keri’s laundry list of issues. Maybe we should’ve already added that after they decked Dort or got knocked up by Pedro. Putting this many ponies under their control probably isn’t such a good idea. Not too late for Emily to get her a certified pre-owned Subaru Crosstrek.

Hard to say if Gil’s being facetious about teaching Jami to fly a plane, or whether he’s trying to find some way to keep his apples from falling too far from the tree. He doesn’t look too serious about it either way. If anything, he also looks about thirty years younger than he does when Merrill and the other guest artists draw him. Speaking of looking younger, in the Bizarre Cameos Dept., the role of Gil Thorp in the first panel is being played by a young Johnny Cash.

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November 21, 2025

Buckle Up, Thorps!

Filed under: Gil Thorp, huge earrings, Keri Thorp, lessons learned, Make and Model Mystery Mobile, Pissy Faced Keri, same story 2 days straight — teenchy @ 8:02 pm

One of the many long-running snarks of The Family Circus turns on its extremely recycled art, where Jeffy Keane frequently recycles panels his dad drew decades earlier. This is particularly noticeable when Jeffy awkwardly draws seat belts onto the Keanes as they ride in The Family Land Yacht Station Wagon With Fake Wood Paneling on the Sides. Looks like we could use that Family Circus crossover right about now, as Guest Artist Kit Mills has left Gil and Keri unbelted on their way back from the meeting.

That’s as irresponsible as it gets today since Gil has shifted into preachy dad mode. Funny how, after being very publicly being left for another woman by his wife and now very publicly shacking up with a bartender, Gil somehow feels the need to hold himself out as occupying some sort of moral high ground. Guess that’s what being a high school head coach for decades does to you.

Thing is, Peanut actually has a point here. That “they go low, we go high” schtick didn’t prevent American society from reaching its present state and it won’t necessarily work to protect the rights of the marginalized in that society. Be interesting to see whether Barajas wraps this up tomorrow or leaves it open-ended, to be regurgitated by the next elected school board or anti-woke parent with an axe to grind. I think this is one of the rare occasions where I can safely say that most of us at TWIM – bloggers and devoted readers alike – are ready to move on to another arc.

Winding down Joan Rivers Week with this clip, where a late in life Joan expresses mixed emotions over her relationship with Johnny.

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November 20, 2025

Clap for the Wolfman

Filed under: Gil Thorp, huge earrings, Keri Thorp, Pissy Faced Keri, Pissy faced minor character, Pointy Fingers, same story 2 days straight, shadow figures, talking hand — teenchy @ 9:57 am

Bearded rando here does his best John McEnroe impersonation but the horse has already left the barn. The crowd (such as it is) has all moved from behind Tobe and Melissa behind said rando, making it look like he has much more support than he does. At least one of them thinks it’s funny.

Speaking of horses, current Horse Girl love interest and former Horse Girl patient Keri “Peanut” Thorp has reared her head again, ignoring her father’s warning and any counseling she may have received about her anger management issues. Gil steps in to restrain her, ignoring his own warning. You know what else has been ignored in today’s strip? That it’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day founded to memorialize transgendered people who were murdered as a consequence of their status. Come on, Henry! In for a penny, in for a pound.

Musical post title inspo.

You didn’t think I’d forgotten it was Joan Rivers Week, did you? Turns out Johnny fell out with Joan when she was offered, then accepted, her own show on Fox.

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August 23, 2025

On the Soo Line

Filed under: freak faces, huge earrings, Keri Thorp, metapost, Pantheon of Mysterious Objects, Pissy Faced Keri — teenchy @ 10:32 pm

Isn’t it cute how couples who have been together a long time begin to look like each other? Same hair, same clothes, same flat butt, same profile, same ghoulish face when seen head-on… I could go on.

What’s that you say? These two aren’t dating anymore? The one in the yellow is dating their former therapist? Not creepy, not creepy at all. And the one in the ochre is dating a hijab-wearing girl from a practicing Muslim family? That must be going over like a lead balloon.

Bit of a time jump from Keri and Tobe crashing into each other in the Milford High hallway to the roof of somewhere that is not Casa Thorp, which includes some strange object emanating from Keri’s shoulder. Tobe is relating the confrontation in the mall clothing store to Keri, who is ready to spring into action. Whether that is out of genuine concern for Tobe or an appeal to Keri’s social justice warrior nature is not yet clear. Wonder how Keri plans to “confront these bigots”? A strongly worded letter to the editor of the Milford Star? Hiring the famed Milford Sign Man to make protest posters for picketing Cloth-Mart? An out-and-out doxing of the Cloth-Mart clerk who confronted Tobe and Mel as well as of everyone who works there?

meta: It’s sadly ironic that someone I referenced in my last post on this subplot died six days after that post. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a film I’ve referenced multiple times during the Barajas Era, in part because of the way it depicted LGBTQ characters in comparison to the way they’ve been depicted in this strip. (There’s also that matter of a group of gay people riding around the country on a tour bus as a plot element.)

Terence Stamp had already had a long and dignified career playing mainly villains (including the probably best-remembered General Zod) by the time he agreed to take the role of Bernadette (formerly Ralph) Bassenger in Priscilla. Tony Curtis, John Cleese and Tim Curry had been approached to play the role and they were either unavailable or uninterested. Stamp was very uneasy about the part, as it was extremely out of character for him. Nonetheless, he brought dignity and gravitas to a role that could easily have been played for laughs and ridicule and ended up nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance.

Whenever I read the Tobias strips in Gil Thorp, I immediately think of how Terence Stamp portrayed a transgendered character and compare that to how Barajas portrays one here. Unfortunately I think the latter falls short in a lot of ways. Can this confrontation of bigots lead to A Very Special Gil Thorp and redeem Tobe? That remains to be seen.

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August 6, 2025

“OMG, Large Marge was your dad?”

Filed under: A Tinge of Regret, boring memories, exposition comics, Gil Thorp, huge earrings, Just plain sad, Keri Thorp, Lantern Jaws, Pissy Faced Keri — teenchy @ 1:07 pm

“On this very night, ten years ago, along this same stretch of road, in a dense fog just like this. I saw the worst accident I ever seen. There was this sound, like a garbage truck dropped off the Empire State Building…”

Eight straight non-Peanut strips was just too many for B&M. Keri is seen here riding to a lake with one of the many indistinguishable blondes in this strip. Which one is it? It’s not Mimi; she’s still in Berlin with Ericka and Jami. (Keri presumably would know what happened to Mimi’s dad, otherwise she wouldn’t blurt out such a thoughtless question. Does she know what happened to Mimi’s mom? Do we? Will we?) Could be Dorth; Dorth went off to camp with Keri, who didn’t want to go to Berlin with Mimi, Ericka and Jami. Could be Horse Girl; why else would Keri say “Whoa…”?

Seriously, if an artist in a visual medium can’t be bothered to visually distinguish among characters, why should the viewer be bothered to make the effort to distinguish among them? The artist could just cut and paste identical images and let the writer’s dialogue be the images’ distinguishing features. At that point, there’s no need for the visual component of the artwork at all. If a comic strip contains just words and no pictures, is it still a comic strip?

On that note, I would be remiss if I didn’t include the clip that first came to my mind when I read today’s installment.

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April 2, 2025

That’s Gil Effing Thorp to You

Filed under: actual action, anatomically implausible, baseball, big arms, exposition comics, freak faces, freak hands, Gil Thorp, Gils kids, huge glasses, Keri Thorp, noises, Pissy faced Gil, Pissy Faced Keri, soccer — teenchy @ 2:33 pm

In case you hadn’t seen, GoComics made some changes yesterday. The image size of their strips decreased by about a quarter; the image above has been enlarged by the same amount and it doesn’t look to have lost much in the way of sharpness. More importantly, at least from yhs’ perspective, is that the archives have gone behind a paywall. Unless you’re a subscriber, you can only read strips from two weeks before the current date. (The same is true at the Seattle Times, and I imagine it the same at any site that carries Gil Thorp.) No big deal for a gag-a-day strip but for serials where plots take weeks or months to unfold, a subscription is almost a must. At least if the reader is invested in the strip.

It’s also a bigger deal when you’re trying to blog about a serial strip that revives characters from many years in the past. Unless you have access to the archives or, if you’re lucky, to published anthologies of the strip, you really can’t make informed ~~snark~~ comments about those characters. I can’t speak for my fellow bloggers here, but I’m neither a GoComics subscriber nor do I have access to any of the Gil Thorp anthologies. On the other hand TWIM has been around long enough that it’s become sort of an archive in itself. So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.

Now for today’s strip. We got two days of “Clam” (who may or may not be “Clambake” from the spring 2007 arc*) giving Marty AA support then this clash of gears. Was that the end of Dark Side of the Moon and another volume of Gil Thorp, The Graphic Novel? Time will tell.

Meanwhile, this reads like the beginning of Nineteen Eighty-Four. No academic institution does sports better than Milford High School, Milford is at war with Valley Tech: therefore Milford has always been at war with Valley Tech – until the moment it is announced that Milford was not after all at war with Valley Tech. Milford was at war with Goshen. Valley Tech was an ally.

Business as usual otherwise in Milford. Athletes continue to make noises describing what they do, rather than reflecting what they do. (Wait for a pitched ball to say “PITCH!” and a stolen base to say “STEAL!”) Action takes place at unlikely angles and in implausible directions. Coach’s kid gets away with murder throwing an extra-pointy bulimic elbow at a teammate in practice while the coach himself stands with his back turned.

The mental image of Gil as connecting tissue reminds me I have to cut up chicken for dinner tonight. With that, I end today’s post. teenchy out.

*Clambake was in actuality Otha Yancey, a retired mailman and ex-Navy man masquerading as a former Negro Leaguer. Don’t get any ideas, Rob. ;)

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