Reading the Comics, September 8, 2017: First Split Week Edition, Part 1


It was looking like another slow week for something so early in the (United States) school year. Then Comic Strip Master Commend sent a flood of strips in for Friday and Saturday, so I’m splitting the load. It’s not a heavy one, as back-to-school jokes are on people’s minds. But here goes.

Marcus Hamilton and Scott Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace for the 3rd of September, 2017 is a fair strip for this early in the school year. It’s an old joke about making subtraction understandable.

Dennis's Mom: 'How was school today?' Dennis: 'Not great. We just learned how to add and they're expecting us to subtract!' Mom: 'Let me see if I can help. If you have five pieces of candy, and you give Margaret there pieces of candy, what do you have?' Dennis: 'TEMPORARY INSANITY!!'

Marcus Hamilton and Scott Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace for the 3rd of September, 2017. The joke pretty well explains itself, but I would like to point out the great use of color for highlighting here. The different shades are done in a way very consistent with the mid-century stylings of the characters, but are subtler than could have been done when Hank Ketcham started the comic in the 1950s. For that matter, it’s subtler than could have been printed until quite recently in the newspaper industry. It’s worth noticing.

Mark Anderson’s Andertoons for the 3rd is the Mark Anderson installment for this week, so I’m glad to have that. It’s a good old classic cranky-students setup and it reminds me that “unlike fractions” is a thing. I’m not quibbling with the term, especially not after the whole long-division mess a couple weeks back. I just hadn’t thought in a long while about how different denominators do make adding fractions harder.

Jeff Harris’s Shortcuts informational feature for the 3rd I couldn’t remember why I put on the list of mathematically-themed comic strips. The reason’s in there. There’s a Pi Joke. But my interest was more in learning that strawberries are a hybrid created in France from a North American and a Chilean breed. Isn’t that intriguing stuff?

Mom-type showing a flashcard, '5 x 7 = ?', to two kids. Boy: 'Isn't there an app for this sort of thing?'

Bill Abbott’s Specktickles for the 8th of September, 2017. I confess that I don’t know whether this comic is running in any newspapers. But I could find it easily enough so that’s why I read it and look for panels that touch on mathematics topics.

Bill Abbott’s Specktickles for the 8th uses arithmetic — multiplication flash cards — as emblem of stuff to study. About all I can say for that.

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