Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for August 17, 2009

Now he’s seriously worried….

What did you break, Baldo?

With that bat, he reminds me of Deniro in the Untouchables.

What does Baldo do with that baseball bat? I think he already breaks something with that baseball bat.

baldo, i was in that position when i was in my early teens, fortunately the window i broke only cost me an hour labor and about one dollar to replace,

Thanks again, Joe Allen Doty! Without your sound explanation I would NEVER have been able to parse this strip. Imagine: Baldo is concealing a baseball bat because an unfortunate event has occurred involving a BASEBALL! Who woulda thunk it?

One thing puzzles me, though. In the last panel, why do drops of water appear to be surrounding Baldo’s head? Has he inadvertently set off the sprinkler system? Does that mean his baseball game was rained out? Were rain-checks issued? WHY DOESN’T THE CARTOONIST SPELL THESE THINGS OUT!?!?

“Plewds”, fritzoid

(Beetle Bailey term for sweat he manages to generate without working)

Mort Walker’s “Lexicon of Comicana”, where he defines “plewds” (as well as “hites”, “briffits”, and other essential weapons in the cartoonist’s aresnal) is a much more entertaining and informative book that Scot McLeod’s “Understanding Comics.” Well worth the price.

Hites are the horizontal lines that follow a running figure. Briffits are the little clouds of dust they raise (often seen at the termination of hites).

Despite the temptation to homophony, hites do not refer to the vertical lines that appear beneath a jumping figure (or a hat rising from someone’s head when they’re surprised). Those are related, but more correctly are called “uphites” (which of course are followed by “downhites”).

McLeod’s term for hites is “zip ribbons”, but that is clearly an inferior term.

Walker’s book is certainly silly in many places, but it really IS as useful as McLeod’s, and where they overlap I consistently prefer the treatment in “Lexicon…”

Berke Breathed gave his own “Handbook for better Comix Comprehension” in a Sunday Bloom County. [Date? (reprinted in “Classics of Western Literature,” contemporary with Opus’ marriage to Lola Granola.)] Baldo’s affliction is diagnosed as “sweatles.”