Curtis: Z

As bizarre as Ray Billingsly's annual Kwanzaa interludes are, he does deserve credit for being willing to change up the format of his strip, even on a regularly scheduled and temporary basis. Considering that the comics section is plagued by endless mediocre repetition, I wish more cartoonists were willing to take even a modicum of risk to tell a different sort of story every now and then.

Billingsly also deserves credit for being willing to poke fun at himself for those bizarre Kwanzaa interludes, as he does in today's comic. Today's comic also has the advantage of immediately reestablishing Curtis's major character traits, thus preparing us for another year of standard-issue Curtis. Until the next bizarre Kwanzaa interlude rolls around, that is, for which nothing could really prepare us.