Thorp Force Five

Sorry for the lack of updates, but a combination of lots of legitimate work and a relatively boring storyline have kind of left me speechless. Let me shoot through these 3 strips quickly.

Elmer and Branden (???) want to date, but they can’t because Elmer’s newly-Americanized via Rotary Club dad says no. Also, Gil’s pitching sucks, but the ladies’ team has awesome pitching.

Gil gets a panel 2 extreme close up in order to deliver a not-quite-timely genetic engineering zinger. Also, new Andrew Gregory doesn’t look like old Andrew Gregory at all. Dozens upon dozens of Gil Thorp fans have been left heartbroken.

Branden Elmer blah blah. . .Ecuador? Where the heck did that come from? Zuh?

Add interracial dating to the list of potential issues Gil Thorp can be tackling next. And there’s some sort of forbidden maybe romance going on as hinted in panel 3. Also, Elmer has a spectacular mullet and one of those club arms that appeared during the baseball strip like a week back.

But what caught my interest in this strip was panel 2. As the narration shows, the action of that panel takes place “years ago.” Considering these are high school students, what kind of parties are (probable) 16-year olds going to where people are wearing fedoras? By “years ago,” do they mean the 40s? And of course that panel has the weird, incorrect visual perspective we all know and love.

It might be a bit premature, but it’s looking increasingly likely that Andrew Gregory will not be the focus of whatever the next storyline is. This is good, because while I love Andrew, I think we can all use a break from both him and Maureen. Still, things are still pretty slow going at the moment. We desperately need some drama to kick this thing into high gear. So far, we have been teased with alcoholism and immigrants. I only hope Rubin can deliver a sweet, bizarre payload that lives up to the potential he’s nudging us with. Also, Gil is wearing a different shirt than when he entered this meeting several days ago.

First, we get behavior that could lead into alcoholism, and now Gil Thorp tackles illegal immigration! Although Coach Thorp can’t take credit for the groundbreaking citizenship via Rotary Club approval process, he can rest easy knowing that he’s not the dumbest person in the room. I’m excited to see where this is going to go, since by invoking the whole illegal immigrants issue, it’s safe to assume that it will play some sort of part in our next trainwreck of a story arc. If I could be so bold as to make a prediction, I am going to guess that it is discovered that the Vargas family is not in Milford legally and maybe Tyler Jay hits someone with a stick for related or unrelated reasons.

A relatively unremarkable strip, aside from the Rotary Club including an uncharacteristically Sieg Heil-ing Lenin and someone that appears to be Hank Hill. In other words, it’s just another usual weekend in Milford.

Once again, I think I am missing something here. If it was raining line drives, and Vargas eventually hit one over the fence, why the heck is Andrew proud? The comic doesn’t indicate which pitches were Andrew’s best. Are we, the readers, supposed to assume that unseen and unmentioned misses by Vargas were Andrew’s personal best?

I’d also like to nominate the second panel an award for almost convincingly conveying the motion it is supposed to be representing. The only problem is that it looks like Vargas hit the ball by swinging the bat around behind his head. I love the new artist.

Again with the unclear Gregory shots! This is as much a tease as watching those horribly edited erotic thrillers that they used to show on the USA television network during late nights in the early 90s. We have managed to get a slightly better look at Gregory here, and he appears to have aged another 20 years or so, putting him close to finally getting that senior discount at Denny’s.

On art watch, Gil is looking very Dick Tracy in panel 3. At least someone competent will be on the case to solve the mystery of who mangled the left foot of Elmer Vargas in panel 2. And the mystery of who the hell would name someone Elmer Vargas to begin with.

You ready to put a sponge in that mitt? Oh my.

Our good friend Tyler Jay’s right arm appears to have mutated into something out of Todd Browning’s Freaksm but without a closer shot, this may just be the results of Tyler’s penchant for self-abuse. Just like yesterday, I am assuming that the difficult to discern pitcher is Andrew Gregory. Maybe this is some sort of scheme by the new artist to tease and delay the appearances of old favorites in order to surprise the strip’s psycho followers.

Meanwhile, in relation to the events in the first panels, Gil is going to make the unpleasant discovery that adults that seem too interested in kids’ personal lives are naturally assumed to be pedophiles. This is probably doubly true for drunk adults.

Wow. Look at all the fancy–yet plausible!–angles the new guy is using. If anything, I’m worried that he might be too competent for Gil Thorp. I’m also hoping that the use of Comic Sans is temporary. Allow me to speculate: perhaps as a side effect of bringing a new artist on board, the strips had to be drawn in a hurry, and there was no time for the usual handwritten text. Alternatively, this is Gil Thorp’s way of balancing out the new artist’s, uh, skill of an artist. Let’s hope it’s temporary–no artist is good enough to make enduring Comic Sans worthwhile.

And Kaz be praised–it looks like we are going to be getting a storyline about Andrew Gregory’s predicament driving Gil to the bottle. This storyline, like alcoholism itself, is good. I also like that we get an undetailed “teaser” of Andrew Gregory’s new form in panel two. That has to be him, right? It’s hard to make out a curl…this could be an issue.

So exactly where is this plot going? Gil can’t know what all of his players are going through at any given time, so the logical conclusion to this line of reasoning would be to stop yelling at unhustling children. Like most high school coaches, yelling is all Gil knows how to do, so instead he has decided to drown his concerns with sweet, sweet booze. Alcoholism: when thinking is just too hard. It’s so much like real life! I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Also: how does Gil afford such sweet track lighting on his meager coaching salary?

I like what I see, so far. New artist Rod Whigham has given Gil Thorp back a distinct look, and while it might be a bit premature to give the thumbs up, this is definitely promising.

But the art isn’t the only thing that’s changing. Maybe the artist switcheroos of the past several months have inspired Rubin to make other changes in the comic, like letting Gil have a mid-life crisis after 50 years of coaching duty. And of course, the biggest change is probably the new lettering, which is a bit too tidy for my tastes. It looks like the comic may also be tackling real issues, too. I mean, why even have this throwaway strip if not to have Coach Thorp turn into an out-of-control alcoholic over the next several months.

I anxiously await Kaz. And there had better be earrings.