Agnes: In the famous tradition of Jeff Smith and his epic graphic novel "Bone," I am starting my own.

Bone definitely falls under the Vonnegut axiom. And Agnes is good too, so everybody wins.

Agnes: How did your day go?

Wouldn't this be a good day for any of us?

Agnes is a terrific comic strip.

Agnes: You look very happy, Grandma.

I've grown quite fond of Agnes. Odd how a lot of the best comic strips are the less well known ones.

Agnes: She said if I didn't help her win the lawsuit, we would never have fine things like almost-new Toyotas or Jack LaLanne Juicers.

Jack LaLanne Power Juicers are never not funny.

I also appreciate the clever middle panel dialog and the existence of poor characters who are not grotesque stereotypes.

Agnes: I have organized this space for optimum scholastic endeavors.

This is an excellent usage of the silent penultimate panel.

Agnes: It's good to have your facts backed with vague memories.

Sadly, this is a pretty good representation of the knowledge base most of the people who argue about religion on the Internet are working from.

Agnes: I think that when people criticize my dancing, they are actually just jealous of my gifted feet.

Since I've mentioned a couple times that cartoonists often seem to avoid drawing feet, here's an alternative solution to the difficulty: draw feet that intentionally and comically look nothing like actual feet. Tony Cochran pretty much nails it.

Agnes: The title of my new paranormal romance novel is "I Wish You Weren't Flesh."

We Will Kiss After You Are Dead actually seems like a pretty great title for a paranormal romance novel. Moreover, Trout seems to be drastically overrating the quality of the romance novel market. I think Agnes is right that her manuscript has hit potential, and I could easily see it being adapted into a television series, potentially starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Agnes: Sure! Everything's good humor if you don't use laughs as a gauge.

Trout's actually wrong here, as laughter really isn't the best gauge for determining the quality of humor. While the ability to induce laughter is certainly one criterion by which to judge humorous art, other elements can be just as important. In a comic strip, for example, characterization, relationships, drawing, dialog and the construction of the strip itself are all very important. Pearls Before Swine makes me laugh a lot more than Get Fuzzy does, but that doesn't mean Pearls is the better comic. Stephan Pastis is just a lot more focused on daily gags than Darby Conley is. Conley is a lot more focused on characterization and relationships. Gags are much more likely to induce laughter, but the interaction between Bucky and Satchel is just as funny in a more low key sort of way.

Likewise, I very rarely laugh when I get to the end of an Agnes comic. But that doesn't mean it's a bad comic strip. It is, in fact, a good comic strip that just doesn't induce a lot of laughter. Which makes it somewhat confusing to see Tony Cochran subscribing to this kind of criticism.

Agnes: France is in Europe...Please write that down.

I think I speak for everyone at the National Review when I say that Agnes is to be commended for standing up to the leftist instructor trying to indoctrinate her with propaganda about the socialist Hell that is France.