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1. 

   jumbobrain said, 3 months ago

   Oooh, gratuitous expository dialog in panel three notwithstanding, this is a very nice segue.

   Plus, gotta say, even MAD would come up with something cleverer than “Conan O’Barbarian.” I would skip the name and just let readers ponder it.

2. 

   mrbribery said, 3 months ago

   “…is musician and songwriter and very rich man who likes to pretend he’s poor, Earl Lee Bird!”

3. 

   wndrwrthg said, 3 months ago

   Will he propose on national tv?

4. 

   Powerboy said, 3 months ago

   Hey Byrd, play that Harmonica Man!!!

5. 

   axe-grinder said, 3 months ago

   All right!!!!

6. 

   ORteka said, 3 months ago

   YEA !!!! I’ve been checking every other day or so to see if the storyline had changed. I’m glad to see Gertie and Byrd again. This might be interesting ! I kinda miss Norms remarks as well…LOL

7. 

   Macushlalondra said, 3 months ago

   I wonder what’s become of our friend Not Norman. I sort of miss his negative comments both here and on For Better or For Worse. Remember he hated the Earl and Gertie storyline too. Now Earl, will you have a special message for Gertie?

8. 

   stringmusicianer said, 3 months ago

   Terrific likeness of Conan. Welcome back Earl and Gertie!

9. 

   comic-reader said, 3 months ago

   who guessed this yesterday… and is this just a dream sequence?

10. 

    pierreandnicole said, 3 months ago

    One more reason Not to watch.

11. 

    harebell said, 3 months ago

    NotNorman must be on vacation.

12. 

    Gweedo Murray said, 3 months ago

    NotNorman’s, Not Norman.

    Gertie. Earl-E’s too good for you now girl.

13. 

    Struwwelpeter2 said, 3 months ago

    How come Conan pronounces it “Byrd” and Gertie pronounces it “Bird”?

14. 

    crunkbot said, 3 months ago

    Oh sweet smokin’ jeebus… “Conan O’Barbarian?”

    Really, Scancarelli? These are the decisions a full-grown man makes?

15. 

    Joe Allen Doty said, 3 months ago

    Conan O’Barbarian would be the Irish version of Conan the Barbarian and a play on Conan O’Brien’s name.

    When I worked as a desk clerk/phone operator at a retirement complex in 1976, one of the resident couple’s surname was “Bigger.”

    I thought of a funny thing that when his wife had a child, the new baby was larger than his parents. That’s because he was a “little Bigger.”

16. 

    Joe Allen Doty said, 3 months ago

    I don’t care for Conan O’Brien and I don’t watch the talk shows which come on right after the nightly news now.

17. 

    Gene Strattmann said, 3 months ago

    I too miss the GA I grew up with…….where’s Walt, Corky, Joel, Rufus and of course good old Slim?? Why try to modernize teh strip with current events? The old GA gang was the best!

18. 

    BlitzMcD said, 3 months ago

    I knew that Earl would be back! But he should have waited until September, when he could have gotten prime time exposure from Jay Lemon, instead of being on so late with Conan O’Barbarian…..:-).

19. 

    whmIII said, 3 months ago

    Here we go again…is this the best you guys could come up with???

20. 

    jtpozenel said, 3 months ago

    Can’t wait to see where this one is going.

21. 

    TheGiantBrain said, 3 months ago

    Joe Allen Doty said, about 3 hours ago

    I don’t care for Conan O’Brien and I don’t watch the talk shows which come on right after the nightly news now.
    ————————————————————————–
    Who cares?

22. 

    channce said, 3 months ago

    You are a success Notnorman. Many of us automatically thought of you as soon as we saw the Gert and Bird reprise.

23. 

    StradMan37 said, 3 months ago

    An extremely weak punch line! What new…….

    ‘N’ don’t tell me the commenters’r back to the “get the colla’d folk outta our comic strip” thinly-veiled whine, yet again. I sincerely hope not, but dem’z da breakz ‘round these heah parts, y’all.

24. 

    marvee said, 3 months ago

    I think everyone understood the references implied in the name, Conan O’Barbarian. Some think it’s a groaner, but I rather enjoy it. Also enjoy the break from NotNorman.

25. 

    vfv1 said, 3 months ago

    The alley is not the same. How about stories on the alley people, Skeezix, Joel, Rufus, Slim and Clovia. How about Corky and Judy?

26. 

    OldManMountain said, 3 months ago

    Occasional storylines about peripheral characters is fine. I didn’t mind the Earl Lee Byrd story or the Upton Nogood stories per se. On its own, each of those stories was fine.

    However, the number of peripheral storylines that Gasoline Alley now runs has gotten out of hand. They definitely shouldn’t run back-to-back.

    The strip was intended to be a story about the extended Wallet family. The family is so large that GA could go a whole year without repeating a storyline about any individual family member.

    I’ve joked here in the past about Eve Wallet and her biker friends, Nubbin Wallet’s neglect of his elderly father, Judy and Gideon Grubb’s absence, etc. My references all were intended to convey my wistfulness for a strip that appears to lost sight of its roots. As I said above, I don’t object to the apparent start to another Byrd storyline; it just makes me sad.

    Maybe, just maybe, Gertie will run away to NYC with Byrd and there will be a Wallet family conference on what to do about Walt. Nubbin, come home! All is forgiven.

27. 

    MaxStarmanJones said, 3 months ago

    I’ve enjoyed the last two story lines. Now I want to have Walt notice that we’re down to just three WWI vets (four counting him) and tell us some WWI stories.

28. 

    Dypak said, 3 months ago

    Risitas said, about 6 hours ago
    An extremely weak punch line! What new…….
    ‘N’ don’t tell me the commenters’r back to the “get the colla’d folk outta our comic strip” thinly-veiled whine, yet again. I sincerely hope not, but dem’z da breakz ‘round these heah parts, y’all.
    —–
    Man, that’s hardly fair. Most of us thought Byrd’s pretty cool. And I didn’t even know Gertie was black. I thought her and Byrd had some sort of racial barrier break through going on. If I remember right the problem people had with Byrd was that they thought his character was somewhat condescending. I mean he was not a positive role model, somewhat of a stereotype. Which I also didnt think was fair. He’s fast becoming my favorite GA character. But I never really knew the old Wallet clan.

29. 

    gocomicsmember said, 3 months ago

    All of you that think the strip “was intended to be a story about the extended Wallet family” have willingly forgotten the origins of GA (before my time, but I have read about the history of the strip) as a bunch of people sitting around talking about cars. At least we don’t have to put up with that. As far as I am concerned, the strip has always been about a slice of American life with all its occasional quirkiness. If it is specifically about the Wallet family, then fine. If it is about their friends and other people in their circle, then that is fine too, IMO. Not all the stories are going to be of equal interest to everyone all the time, and that is also a reflection of life.