I’ve been spending some time in the archives of Jonathan Rosenberg’s Goats, having not followed it since its non-auspicious debut on April Fools Day, 1997 (It’s not too early to start shopping around for a Goats Tenth Anniversary card, folks!), and, frankly, I had gotten thoroughly befuddled since the beginning of the “Infinite Typewriters” story arc 17 months ago. It certainly has increased my respect for J.R. and his growth as a comic storyteller, from the first color strip to the first two-row comic eight months ago (the longer format was a necessary change to follow the multi-layered story and still provide daily giggles). I found that a full readthru - not from day one, but from the beginning of “Infinite Typewriters” - was well worth the trouble, and this saga is going to be awesome in print… except for the occasional animated gif strips.

But one thing I have especially noticed is a different attitude toward ‘celebrity cameos’ in the comic. Back in the prior millennium, Rosenberg was totally willing to cut-and-paste familiar faces into the b&w strip for an easy laugh, and none was easier than Scott Baio.

A little Monty Pythonization effect, and Ol’ Chachie was Comedy Gold.

I believe the correct term for Mr. Baio’s character here was “Assclown”.

Of course, the cut-and-paste look went a little beyond weird once the strip was in color and Scott made his last appearance in a scene in a gay bar with Bruce the Sleestak.

But now, the storyline is so much more important that… wait… is that Kevin Smith standing next to that talking broccoli in a cave in Topeka Prime?

So, how did Mr. Rosenberg decide to utilize this multi-level fictional character with the multi-level punnical name? (Violent Robert… I like it.)

Oh. I guess Celebrity Cameos are now the Goats multiverse’s equivalent of Star Trek redshirts. You know, it’s been about two years since we’ve seen Rosenberg’s caricature of George W. Bush. And, hey, that movie in Canada where he gets killed got plenty of publicity… just sayin’.

I totally missed the Rally ‘Round Lea Hernandez Campaign becasue, well, frankly I haven’t been into the comics scene long enough to know her work and thought it would be rather presumptuous to jump on a charity bandwagon in the first week of my comic-blogging, OK? But I understand how awful it must be to lose your home, much of your original work AND several pets in a single tragic event. So, if you haven’t thrown a couple dollars her way, use the second link up there.

But another appeal has come up, and since the debut of the Blank Label Group was what really pulled me into the webcomics thing, and Wapsi Square was the second long-running webcomic I went back to read the archives from the beginning of (is my participle dangling?), I wanted to loudly express my support here (especially since it’ll be next week before I can free up a few dollars for a direct contribution). Wapsi creator Paul Taylor is the proud-but-concerned father of a brand new baby boy who isn’t bouncing very well yet, and, as with anything involving a lengthy hospitalization of anyone at any age, it’s going to cost an arm and a leg, and all us Wapsifans don’t want it to be the arm with his drawing hand. All the Blank Labelators are contributing goodies to be auctioned off here (and when they say “Original Art”, they mean Original), or you can make a direct donation to the Little Eddie Taylor Fund via PayPal:

If this button doesn’t work (and I can be an interactive internet idjit sometimes), look for the same pic on the Wapsi Square homepage. Give ’til it feels good.

Aside from those creepy blinking people at For Better Or For Worse, I like it when comickers use animated gifs. And, in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, UberGeek Illiad of User Friendly has provided today’s strip in both normal AND Pirate Talk, using a delay timer set for 30 seconds (yes, it’s on the same timer as his ‘nag strips’). For those of you too impatient to wait, the clowns at Clowns Around present the following static image. Please do NOT cross your eyes to attempt to get a 3-D effect. There is none.

There’s nothing more fun than a User Friendly Pirate. (And let’s face it, by itself, this is not one of UF’s funnier gags)

UPDATE: Ther comic for the day after Talk Like a Pirate Day makes up for it merely with the line “Thar she blows chunks!”