Sometimes, Alanis, it really is ironic.

I love this Pearls comic first because, as is so often the case with comic strips one loves, I can relate. So much.

 

Seriously. I have been kicked off two fan forums, chatted on ESPN during the Chicago-Green Bay game, participated in fan fights on TWoP and spent several months cruising the comics blogosphere (remind me to tell you about the ‘Spider-Man doesn’t enrich my mind, thus is a miserable waste of ink!’ crowd someday).  I want somebody to manufacture this thing and sell it on late-night informercials for $19.99. I am assuming it will come with a special FREE! extra-soft banky for edit wars on Wikipedia.

Which leads me to the second reason I love this strip: Because some people actually pored over the second panel and came up with a Magic-Eye style ‘F—‘ . (Just to save you time, it’s in the lower right-hand corner – that’s actually a ‘# rock‘ after panel compression.) Then — this is the part I love more than anything else — they called their papers and made a stink about it. And the papers dutifully wafted it over the masses. Leaving an utterly baffled cartoonist in their wake.

Self-fulfilling self-references are wonderful things.

Sometimes, you just have to give in to the glee.

It’s not so much that this strip is hilarious (although it is) as that, y’know, Rat in a teeny Edwardian topcoat and topper? Making him look like some sort of wee postmodern HG Wells-esque mad scientist? ADORABLEST FREAKING THING EVER.

(BTW, I should really start crediting my source for these! Thanks jfboyd over on the Pearls LJ comm, subscription to which I highly recommend for your daily dose.)

Yeah, well, mine aren’t insightful, either.

Sometimes, it’s a little scary how much you can relate.

Sometimes, you just have to concede.