Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for October 28, 2009

Oh good lord, not this again. Please, not this.

Probably at the Home, playing canasta with Pappy Yokum.

Woohoo!

(And c’mon, Toasteroven. If you can’t stand the occasions when comics break the fourth wall or go out of continuity, then GA isn’t your kind of strip. I’d try the Wizard of Id in your shoes.)

Beautifully dreamlike quality today, with the marquee letters coming down, and the mention of the Old Comics Retirement Home…

Hey, here’s a dose of the old days of Gasoline Alley found on eBay this morning: http://tinyurl.com/yks9t85

What an artifact!

I love visiting the Old Comics Retirement Home.

I haven’t seen the Old Comics Retirement Home since I started reading this. Should be interesting.

But I hope Earl manages to catch up with her.

YES! He absolutely needs to be at the old comics retirement home! I love that place.

An interesting in joke, actually! And I for one appreciated the reference to bluegrass legend Doctor Ralph Stanley in the poster on the wall of the theatre.

I am thinking Walt’s going to have to pass on in order for Gertie and Byrd to have a permanent relationship.

I was hoping the story would go better then this. Not sure how or what. I hope it still keeps going. I agree with other comments about Old Comics old home.

As long as we’re posting eBay URLs, somebody has the book collecting Dick Moore’s introduction of Rover into the strip for sale, and it’s only two bucks! This isn’t my auction, promise…but this is a really good collection and one of only two by Dick, so I thought I’d mention it here. http://tinyurl.com/ylytmyp

Notary Sojac, anyone?

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz………

How does she figure that when Corky’s entire staff was at the show? Surely they would have collected Walt and taken him home with them.

This isn’t going to be just a visit to the retirement home, is it.

“just a visit to the retirement home”? “JUST a visit to the retirement home”?

Ok, maybe I’m a nerd, but the bits where Scancarelli riffs on comic history are, for me, some of the most inspired stuff on the comics page these days. Maybe I’m sentimental because it is such a vast, interesting and unknown history…and so much of it is so much better than what we get nowadays.

And heck, it’s not just Mutt and Jeff there anymore…now they’ve got Calvin and Charlie Brown and Opus and Gary Larson’s cows are probably grazing in back.

I’m guessing Walt will end up staying. Everyone will come visit and say their goodbyes. That’s how Walter Wallet will pass from the living to the immortal. I’m tearing up just thinking about it.

Thanks Axegrinder for telling us about the GA strip for auction. Of course I can’t afford it so I printed the colored image. For those who don’t know there are oodles of old GA Sunday strips on the Fall Walks from 1923 to 2006. Go to rogerclarkart.com or Gasoline Alley Fall Walks.

I’m guessing he’s going there to stay as well. It’s an honorable and fitting way for him to exit the strip after 91 years.

MommaMadeMe said, I’m guessing Walt will end up staying. Everyone will come visit and say their goodbyes. That’s how Walter Wallet will pass from the living to the immortal. I’m tearing up just thinking about it.

You may well be right, but I don’t know how Jim will pull off the metaphysics of that.

If Walt moves into the Old comics home, Gertie and Byrd can go on the road together and live happily ever after…

Um, re:my post on Sunday.

I’d like to think that time at the Old Comics Retirement Home runs slower, almost imperceptibly, than time runs elsewhere. This way Walt and his pals are safe and snug for us forever. Even if this just a visit I’d be happy to see all the old-timers once again.

Walt going off to the old comics home would be a good resolution for the growing dilemma of a 110 year old beloved comic character who ages in real time. Hopefully Phyllis will be there.

I don’t remeber seeing the old comics retirement home before and I’m looking forward to it. But unless it’s a euphemism for dying, Phillis wouldn’t be thre.