newspaper comics lessons

Have you been READING Rex Morgan lately?

For those of you who haven't: we've been following Jack, an Iraq war vet with some issues, not the least of which being his gambling addiction. There was some major tension build as we watched him play his hand of poker and at the same time saw his wife and his doctor (Rex Morgan, M.D.) scrambling to find him before it's too late (he's gambled away nearly all of the family's money)!

(There was also, I'd add quickly, a racially-charged subtext involving a Rastafarian cab driver, but that's outside of thee current point.)

So this week, it all came together as the good doctor and wife, with the help of a good barmaid, rolled up on the game, only to find Jack in shock, just having won SIX GRAND!

Of course he's going to quit NOW, because he made off with some mad loot! That's the point of this particular storyline, I think. Gambling is bad, except that if you do it anyway, it might bring you lots of money.



In other comic news, I note that this past Sunday, the narrator of The Amazing Spider-Man referred to the suicidal man who turned into West Coast Spidey as a "loser." Because people who consider suicide are losers.

It's a long way down from high-minded "Curtis" Kwanzaa fables to this stuff.