Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 12, 2015

Not only does Superman make coal into diamonds, he also cuts and shines them.

A barrel of crude?! Sweet!

44 gallons of stench, actually!

Sorry, but there is no ‘normal’ price for crude oil, or for that matter, gasoline. I can remember when my father was outraged because gas rose to 75 cents a gallon. Now I’m happy if I find a gas station that’s selling gas for $2.75 a gallon.

Why go to college?

Chuck Norris is reputed to eat coal and, um…, pass diamonds.

Pretty bad when Zonker is the sane, level-headed one …

Funny how the price of crude continues to drop, but the price of gas has risen the better part of a buck a gallon in the last month, because… (nearly inaudible mumbling) … Reasons. Trust us, we’re the oil industry and the government (was that redundant?) We’d never lie to you…

Zonker’s apparently driving two different cars in the first two panels. The window and windshield in the first panel are much larger than the ones in the second and you can see more of Zonker’s body in the first. Also, part of the barrel should be seen in the first panel, but isn’t.`Lack of attention to details (plus lame storylines) is a sure sign that Trudeau is now just phoning it in. The end is near.

Has he never heard of a wide camera shot? As for the so-called “lame storylines”, I know that millions of “Doonesbury” readers are wishing and hoping that Trudeau goes back to new dailies as well as Sundays, one of these fine days. He hasn’t lost his knack yet and hopefully he never will.

Miss you, Garry, on a daily basis, hope your foray into other media is doing well anyway! :)

It’s like anything else. When the market dries up and supplies are scarce, the price goes up. When the market is flowing and supplies are plentiful, the price goes up.

Hmm, “suicide rear doors”.

Did he buy the barrel of oil from Dusty Winters in The Elderberries?

a gallon isn’t 4 litres

“Carters wind fall profits tax expired early in his 1st term and was not renewed ".It was a tax on existing petroleum production in response to removing the price control which held it at $4/barrel while paying much, much more to foreign nations supporting terrorist activities and subjugation of women and minorities..It was sold under the promise of using the extra money to develop fusion energy generation but instead the money was mostly given to the poorest so they wouldn’t have to suffer like the rest of the nation and could continue to drive gas guzzlers and have energy inefficient houses.

“Don’t forget that oil speculation counts for 60% of the inflated price.”.Speculation by buying futures actually stops wild swings in prices and doesn’t drive up prices so much as keep them down. In fact, what this strip shows is an example of extremely small speculation and the dangers thereof.

In 2008, the economy was in the toilet. We don’t want to go there again for the sake of low gas prices. Not worth having hundreds of thousands losing their jobs each month, which was what happened at that time.

@DavidHuieGreen“3.785 …”.Much gooder

Trudeau was doing this strip when I was in junior high school and I retired last summer. I think he’s earned the right to ‘phone it in’ by this point.

When the price rises, speculators drove it up ; when the price falls, other factors did it. Please think.

I remember when gas was 17 cents/gallon and I could fill my VW up for $1.70 and drive forever. Life was good!!

Not quite sure where Pacopuddy is filling up; currently unleaded is about £1.13 a litre in the South East. Which, in part, explains why (compared to the US) we have very good public transport, although it is our second favourite subject to complain about.