Week of 9/2/2024 Sunday-Edition

In my first Sunday update since June, I review more Naughty Bits and rant about getting into San Diego Comic Con.

Naughty Bits #24 Review

After an entire summer of not putting out Sunday updates due to other life priorities, I’m finally back making a splash with a familiar favorite title of mine, Roberta Gregory’s Naughty Bits in another interesting issue. Unlike the other issues I’ve reviewed, there are no short comics in between here and two main stories in the Bitchy Bitch universe, “Marcie’s Super Sunday” and “Bitter Old Bitch”, the former of which is the thematically stronger piece surprisingly.

In most Bitchy Bitch stories, the titular character also known as Midge is the best character because she’s the most richly developed one and star of the show while the supporting cast often feel like flat props there to contrast her. So naturally when I saw there was a plot dedicated to the Bible-thumping Southern fundamentalist Marcie, I had no idea what to expect. Gregory being the great writer she is, my concerns were quelled as I read the comic because this turned out to be my top 5 favorite Bitchy Bitch comics. The self-explanatory plot follows how Marcie spends her Sunday which you probably already figured out by now.

The comic is not subtle about Marcie’s religiosity making it very clear with almost every line of hers in the first panel appertaining to the church or the gospel in some way and Jesus’s name being plastered in just about every background item in her house including the cereal box, bowl, fridge magnets, keychains, wall paintings, and even the goddamn plant pot, dear Lord! When we get to the church though, we can see exactly why she is that way. At heart, Marcie is a well-meaning person and is nice to the people around her. However, the church she attends is one of those of a fire-and-brimstone conviction where the preacher straight-up proclaims at the beginning of the sermon that most of the congregation is going to hell for not being good enough Christians or aggressive evangelizers. As a result, Marcie’s Southern hospitality can turn and manifest as judgmental hostility which we see when her friend Ramona confides her guilt about having premarital sex. Marcie's initial reaction was to comfort her before remembering the pastor’s sermon and quickly switching her tone to a more reprimanding one.

It’s even sad to watch the close-minded bubble Marcie and her circle of church friends confine themselves in centering their lives around their fundamentalist fanaticism spending their free time opposing pretty much anything remotely pagan and deemed “ unchristian” like an art exhibit or The X-Files.

“Bitter Old Bitch” is just ok in comparison. Plot-wise, while it does contain the same day-in-a-life structure displayed in the previous comic, this time with Midge, it lacks the thematic cohesion that made “Marcie’s Super Sunday” so remarkable as a character study and satire. Here, we’re mostly reading Midge’s thoughts as she complains about various stuff such as menopause, aging in general, dating, and the economy to name a few. Her individual lamentations are fine on their own as little episodes which makes sense since many scenes are altered versions of material from the alt-weekly Bitchy Bitch comic strip. Put together, however, there is no overarching motif that connects the comic as a whole.

I laughed pretty hard at the pigeon joke.

Overall though, while shorter than other issues Naughty Bits #24 is another doozy worth picking up if you find it just for “Marcie’s Super Sunday” alone.

SDCC Pre-Game Stress

I was considering for a moment making this column about preview day at San Diego Comic-Con, but then my memory reminded me I didn’t have a badge for that day, and the only remarkable thing that happened to me that day was landing at the world’s only binational airport Tijuana International Airport. Alas, nothing interesting enough took place there to justify dedicating an entire article to it. So instead, I’ll be diving into the enigma that’s actually getting into Comic-Con. Brace yourselves for paragraphs of grueling frustration and what’s basically glorified whining.