Cow and Boy: Don't talk about global warming. People hate that.

"Barney's movie had heart, but Football in the Groin had a football in the groin."

Cow and Boy: Happy Anniversary!

I've mentioned before that I really like seeing older incarnations of a comic juxtaposed against the current incarnation. All the better when the cartoonist manages to do it in a funny way.

Cow and Boy: A wise man once said that smooshing an ice cream cone to your forehead does not make you a unicorn.

This is not an especially great Cow and Boy. Rather, it's just a regular, old, run-of-the-mill Cow and Boy. And that is why Cow and Boy is awesome.

Cow and Boy: OK, I'm down for a water balloon fight.

Early twentieth century labor relations are always comedy gold. Also, posable taxidermied squirrels.

Cow and Boy: The courage of an eagle, the strength of a black tiger, and the power of a god.

I know I already have a Best Comic of the Day listing for the fourteenth, but this comic has a Beastmaster reference. Nay, not only that, but Dr. Beastmaster! It has a Dr. Beastmaster! This has literally been the most exciting thing to happen to me all day. Maybe all week.

Cow and Boy: I guess Doctor Conrad Zimsky was right. Science is nothing more than our best guess.

I, for one, have garnered the vast majority of my wisdom through the lessons of one Billy Keane.

Cow and Boy, Cul de Sac and My Cage: Tolstoy was a twinkie man.

I'm sort of cheating on the whole Best Comic of the Day thing by listing three comics here, but they're all terrific. I appreciate the reversed gender roles in today's My Cage--generally the trope involves women trying to lose weight before their weddings. And "mongkeys" are always funny. But my heart is with the Cow and Boy below, which reads, as it often does, as though it were written just for me.

Cow and Boy: I've baited it with Bengay and hard candy.

This is how I caught myself a grandfather.

Cow and Boy: It looks just like Wolverine!

I would watch that movie.

Cow and Boy: Is all this cuz I said Ariel was prettier than Princess Jasmine?

It seems to me that this is a much better version of the whole Mary-Ann or Ginger argument (Mary-Ann, obviously). The only problem is that I go back and forth on it. In the end, I probably have to go with Jasmine, on account of her movie being better. But if you ask me again in a couple minutes, I might answer differently.

All of this is peripheral to the comic at hand, of course, which is very clever and much more subtle than the punchline would indicate, specifically in the way that the entire construction of the comic goes to undermining virtually everything Boy says. Except, maybe, for that last part.

Rhymes with Orange and Cow and Boy: Had YOU heard anything about a commuter rail?

If you don't get it, go here.

Also, Cow and Boy is on fire lately:

Cow and Boy: This looks like a hate crime, doesn't it?

The snowman with candy cane arms is an especially nice touch.

Cow and Boy: How could I be so naive?

When Cow and Boy's not being completely batshit insane, it has an awful lot in common with Calvin and Hobbes.*

*I mean every part of that sentence as a compliment.

Cow and Boy: I don't understand. Did I come off as weird or creepy?

I don't have a lot to say about this Cow and Boy, but it's funny enough that it deserves some sort of mention. The combination of bizarreness and sadness is impressive.

Cow and Boy: Life's hard, Cow.

This comic is a good example of Cow and Boy's standard format. The first two panels are devoted to Boy's abstract philosophical argument. The third panel consists of Cow's rejoinder to that argument. And the fourth panel contains the absurd literalization of the argument, which reveals that Boy's argument is specious and that Cow is in the right. It's an effective, often very funny formula.

Cow and Boy owes a certain debt to Calvin and Hobbes, of course. The philosophical discussions, Boy's self-interest, and Cow's general correctness are all lifted from the school of Bill Watterson. As is to be expected, Cow and Boy suffers by the comparison, as it is quite a bit more limited in the scope of its themes and the depth of its relationships. That said, it also allows itself to get a lot more ridiculous than Calvin and Hobbes ever did, and indeed its fourth panels often seem more inspired by single-panel cartoons than any multi-panel comic, thriving as they do on absurdity. The combination of sensibilities makes for a surprisingly unique comic strip.