Book Review: BINGE PARENTING by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

BINGE PARENTING is the 34^th collection of "Baby Blues" comics. It contains all of the "Baby Blues" comics published from January 3, 2016 – December 31, 2016. The comics chronicle the ongoing adventures of the MacPherson family as Darryl and Wanda (the dad and mom) attempt to keep ahead of their three children: Zoe, Hammie, and Wren.  The strip remains fresh and is a simple joy to read.

Book Review: WETTER, LOUDER, STICKIER: BABY BLUES COLLECTION #31

WETTER, LOUDER, STICKIER is the 31^st "Baby Blues" comic collection. It follows the daily lives of the humorous and relatable MacPhersons family: Darryl the Dad, Wanda the Mom, oldest daughter Zoe, son Hammie, and baby daughter Wren.  The strips in WETTER, LOUDER, STICKIER ran in newspapers from Dec. 30, 2012 – Jan. 4, 2014. Some of the strips have notes from the series creators Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott. My favorites are usually the ones that find Hammie completing some crazy stunt. In this collection, I really like the "Peanuts" reference with Darryl and Hammie playing football. I also thought it was pretty cool they made a "Sharknado" reference in one of the strips. There really aren't very many longer storylines in this collection, but I did like the story arc where Wren names her new stuffed animal a curse word. Overall, the collection itself is a good collection of "Baby Blues" strips.

With that said, I do have one complaint about this collection. In the first 29 collections, the books were almost square (9" X 8.5"). The previous "Baby Blues" collection, BEDLAM had a different format and was 11" X 8.5". I didn't like the size of that book, but WETTER, LOUDER, STICKIER is that same larger size.  I don't like it. There are some strips that end up covering two pages and with those, although the illustrations are bigger than usual, some of the dialogue gets lost in the book binding, making them difficult to read. I hope that in the next collection, the format returns to the traditional size.

Acceptance

A few weeks ago I was watching a public showing of the movie Cinderella Man. There were a couple of older women sitting behind me. Paul Giamatti is a supporting actor in the film portraying Jim Braddock’s (Russell Crowe) manager, Joe Gould. There was one moment in the movie when Giamatti was on screen and I heard the ladies behind me say, “…and his hair is parted. It looks so nice. Men just don’t part their hair anymore. It’s a shame, they look more handsome that way.” Upon hearing this, I thought to myself, “I used to.”

I used to part my hair, but for the last couple of years I haven’t. About three years ago when I went back to school I got a totally different haircut than I had ever had before. It was partly because I wanted to try something different and partly because my usual barber was unavailable. I wasn’t able to part my hair with the new do, and I guess that’s when I pretty much stopped parting my hair.

Anyway, the comment those ladies made got me thinking. I liked parting my hair, even if I was the object of ridicule from time to time. It got me thinking about a lot of things about myself. It kind of all ties in with the Baby Blues comic above. I’ve tried very hard to live a temperant life. I know that I’m not of this world, but I am in this world. However, there are just some things I’ve had to accept about myself. Tattoos, cell phones, piercings, etc. just aren’t for me (though I did thought about getting a tattoo for almost a year and almost got this one and I’ll probably end up getting a cell phone eventually when I can afford it) and I think I’m going to start parting my hair again. I’ve had to accept that I’m just an old-fashioned guy living at the edge of this post-modern world.

P.S. This post didn't turn out as though-provoking, humorous, or even as intriguing as I wanted it to. Why can't my words say what I want them to say anymore?