Friday Morning Guilty Pleasures

Every now and then I come across a website or a comic that is good enough for me to incorporate in my morning routine. That is, before I go to work in the morning I visit these sites and read them along with my morning email and coffee.

Cul de Sac – National Cartoonist Society 2011 “Cartoonist of the Year,” Richard Thompson’s Cul de Sac, is a comic strip about the life of a pre-school girl named Alice Otterloop. It’s a light-hearted comic strip centered around a four-year old girl and her suburban life experiences on a cul-de-sac with her friends Beni and Dill, older brother Petey and her classmates at Blisshaven Academy pre-school. It will remind you a lot of Calvin and Hobbes and that is the finest compliment I can pay to any strip.

Multiplex – Written and drawn by Gordon McAlpin, the webcomic Multiplex, centers around the staff of a movie theater in Chicago. It is a smart strip that captures the inner workings of those working on the edge of the movie entertainment industry. The dialogue is witty and the characters are well developed and polished. Published twice a week, this comic is a keeper.

Les and May – This comic by Larry Lewis  is one of my new favorites because it is one I can definitely relate to. Les and May tells the story of  a married couple entering their retirement years. The husband, Les Mature (get the joke in his name?), looks forward to his retirement while his wife, May Mature (another joke in the name) dreads it. The couple love each other but retired life sometimes drives them crazy. This strip is a string of real pearls in the junk jewelry drawer of the internet.

Out There – Perhaps the best way to describe Out There is to use the description from the website: “…it’s about a pretty bartender named Miriam who’s lived her life a certain way, decided it’s probably not the best way, and is now trying to figure out a different way. But not too different.” This adult oriented, but PG-13 rated strip by R. C. Monroe is an an acquired taste, but is more than worth the trouble in following the extensive cast because the story lines are segmented and move along at a nice brisk pace.

South Park Studios – South Park Studios is not a site I visit daily, but it is one I visit every south_park_boys_posterother week or so and is truly a guilty pleasure. South Park is the wickedly delightful Comedy Central show about 4 fourth graders who attend South Park Elementary School in South Park, Colorado. The site, like the show, is definitely not safe for work, but most of the episodes are unbelievably funny. You can view all of the episodes from the past 15 years from the talented team of Trey Parker and Matt Stone including my favorites (Again NOT safe for work):

  • Make Love, Not Warcraft –  When an on-line gamer won’t play by the rules, the boys dedicate their lives to defeating the renegade and saving the World of Warcraft.
  • The Coon, The Coon: Hindsight, Mysterion Rises and Coon vs. Coon & Friends –  The kids play superhero in this nicely executed four part story tribute to “The Dark Knight.”
  • Cartmanland – Eric Cartman inherits a million dollars, buys an amusement park and learns Business 101 the hard way.
  • All About Mormons – This episode is the basis for the Tony nominated Broadway play, “The Book of Mormon.” You’ll hum the music, I guarantee it.
  • Creme Fraiche – I’ll never be able to look at a Shake Weight commercial again without giggling like a child.

All of these sites make my day and they just might make yours as well.

3 comments

Comments are closed.