John Dill's wife recently passed away, and apparently the neighbors made a huge 12-layered pink frosted cake with unicorns and candles to celebrate?
It's a brand new story and I already have no idea what's going on!
And congratulations to HeyDave for predicting today would be the start of a new story. It's a Christmas miracle!
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New character. John Dill. Recent widower. Charterstone pool "holiday party". Jim and Dawn nowhere to be seen. Not a word about them.
It felt like Christmas morning when I went out to get the newspaper from my porch today. I couldn't wait to check the comics page to see what Santa (Royale) had in store for me. My heart filled with joy as I saw a new Mary Worth storyline, complete with a new character and... DANG - LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT CAKE! IT'S ENORMOUS!!
Karen Moy, obviously not known for her segues.
Abruptly, we shift to the Charterstone Holiday Party, already in progress. I feel like Comicus Interruptus occurred. Not only do we suddenly drop a gasping, under- yet somehow overdeveloped storyline, but we jump into the middle of one which somehow manages to utterly confuse us immediately in Panel Two.
Mary tells newbie John Dill that attending his dead wife's funeral wasn't her priority in Panel One.
In Panel Two, from the background, she tells him that she's glad he attended the party, and so,apparently, is everyone else.
Everyone else, though, is depicted admiring a big honking cake in the foreground. Did John Dill bring or make the cake? Is it actually an urn of the late Eleanor Dill's ashes? Is John Dill only a valued guest because he brings dessert?
If only I could Ask Wendy!
Way to go, heydave. But how happy can you really be if you're in Moy's head...?!
Have I really won? Is it possible?
I see something going on, have no idea whatsoever we're looking at...
No, Dawn and Jim will stroll into view.
Up is down, left is right.
Winning, if that's what it is, has broken me.
Love how Mary's blouse changes from Christmasy red in panel one to snow white in panel two.
Had to wait to see the larger version of panel #2 posted by Wanders. What I thought were candles on the giant unicorn-festooned pink cake, actually appear to be tiny people. So there we have it. Steve Buscemi standing behind a unicorn cake covered with little people. Probably Fargo action figures. This isn't strange. Not at all.
Wait...I'm back: what IS that guy doing to the cake?
Mary's prior commitment that kept her from attending Eleanor Dill's memorial service (take your pick, folks):
1. Pretending to answer "letters" to Ask Wendy
2. Baking kelkies for the Charterstone holiday party
3. Bleaching her hair
That honkin' big pink cake puts to shame the one that LiZa Colby served for Dr. Drew's birthday. It's so big, even the table had to grow between panels!
Meanwhile, entering from stage right, is Mary's identical twin sister, separated at birth. Neither of them yet know this, but the realization will come sometime after Valentine's Day. Mary's sister is a maneater, and the two ladies (and I use that term deliberately and with irony) will engage in a giant smackdown over the hunky new widower, but that won't happen until the 4th of July pool party.
"Holiday" is the celebration of the death and rebirth of the Sun God I guess, or maybe some other more obscure Pagan holiday that is an annual ritual at Charterstone. Does the Sun God like monstrous pink cakes with symbols of human sacrifices on top? Maybe.
Congrats (and sympathies) to HeyDave for being able to think like Karen Moy.
Legend has it that Santa Royale was built on an ancient unicorn burial ground (that would account for a lot in this strip). Residents celebrate the holiday known as "St. Unicorn's Day" with a gigantic pink cake.
The people on the cake make me wonder if the transition isn't just a poor rip off of the Newhart finale where he wakes up to have dreamed everything that preceded.
Perhaps the whole Dawn/Jim story line was just something played out on top of the cake. Stay away from the edge of the cake Jim!
The whole 'Eleanor Dill' thing creeps me out a bit too, like Karen Moy has been peeking in my windows.
I have a little Eleanor whom her brothers nicknamed 'The Pickle' when she was a baby. She is still frequently called 'Pickle' (although never 'Dill'). Fits with all the other plagiarizing that goes on in this strip.
Congratulations, Heydave!
I am not sure Eleanor was his wife. I think she might have been his dog, which is would explain the dogs romping around that cake.
What kind of holiday party has a pink cake? Especially a pink cake with wee little ghosties on top?
I don't think anyone else looks remotely interested in whether the guy is there or not.Is Jeff OK with Mary hanging out with widowers? Where IS he, anyway?
Well, heydave, you were right. The new story-line started today. The story line starring another "license plate" name (any name of 8 letters or less is a license plate name)
"John Dill" - could we get any Waspier? Unless, of course, he shortened his name from "John Dillinger" and he's hiding out in the Worthiverse?
Are we seeing a vindictive side of Moy?? Upset by the haranguing she received for the pathetic Dawn epic tale, she decides to blow our collective minds with an inscrutable new plot development?? Hmm...
The figures on the cake represent those who attended Eleanor's service. Mary is not among them. That cake is the hit of the party - there different people gathered around it in the two panels. Is that Toby putting the moves on Mr. Orangeshirt?
Is Mary Worth using a collective "you", and including the boyish male figure who seems to be the center of attention around Honking Big Unicorn Festival Cake? Maybe John Dill has a son--brown-haired kid in middle--who Mary can now meddle with?
Poor Eleanor. Maybe she died from a Platitude Overdose. That might explain Mary's discreet absence from her funeral.
Mary is glad that John Dill could come to the party. The others are glad too, but what about? No human being on earth speaks the way Moy writes.
Why do Mary and John Dill appear to be speaking out of the sides of their mouths to each other (panel 2)? Perhaps she is saying something like 'John, there's a dark stain of some sort on your trousers.'
ha ha @Nance--Platitude overdose!
Poor Eleanor could have also died from being suffocated by Dawn.
Oh come on. You can't tell me heydave isn't really Karen Moy. I knew she'd inadvertently "out" herself one of these days!
It looks like Joe took left over parts of panels and glued them together. This might explain why Mary has a different colored shirt in panel 1 than she has in panel 2. Then Karen Moy sent in some random dialogue she found when cleaning up from the Dawn saga, (maybe from that plot about the kidnapped Emily of Goleta). The kids in the second panel look like they tried out and didn't make it as characters in a previous strip. That might also explain why there are not 1, not 2 but 3 Mary's in panel 2. The other two in the orchid shirts were cut by MoyGiella. See! It all makes sense. . .
I've always wondered- does Moy tell Giella what to draw, or does he just make his own choices?
Moy to Giella: "Joe, please illustrate the following two panels:
Mary talks to Dawn. Mary is a well-groomed smug-expressioned older woman, wearing a pant suit in an unattractive shade of (your choice, Joe)."
Giella to himself: "Oh, whoopee. Maybe I'll make the pantsuit puce."
Moy to Giella: "Dawn is a semi-pretty elderly teen with a hairstyle commonly seen on the Little Dutch Boy, and of a color seldom seen in nature."
Giella to himself: "Wow- this just gets better and better- maybe I'll make Dawn's hair half orange and half black, yeah, that's the ticket. If only there would be one action sequence- if Dawn could just give Mary's chin a good POW! Oh, well, think I'll have another Rob Roy before I get to work."
Ian: "Di' someone mention a Rob Roy? Draw me a wee ane,an aw, Joe!"
I'm guessing those are supposed to be reindeer on the side of the cake and perhaps a nativity on top? Once again, drawn by someone who has only been told what they look like, sorta. Not sure I can explain why Mary couldn't make it to the funeral when all she's done lately is spew platitudes on her giant computer. Busy, busy, busy! Also can't explain panel two at all. Hmmm. Well, this is what we get when we ask for a reprieve from the Dawn & Jim Saga.
Will Emily Smith jump out of the cake?
MY WV is "notburs". I hope the cake is not made of those pesky things.
Pool party! YES!! Finally! I love Charterstone.
Was Eleanor killed in one of those tragic car/animal collisions? Because the sides of that cake seem to be decorated with the symbol from Deer Crossing signs. In which case, I find it in very poor taste.
Are we really sure it's a cake? I think it may be some sort of zoetrope. Don't tell me that's not the kind of entertainment that might figure large at a Charterstone holiday "party"...
Congratulations Hey Dave!
Please post the next powerball numbers for us so we can live like newspaper advice columnists and take impromptu trips to Europe to cheer ourselves up.
We could charter a ship and ask Jim to be Captain.
I would like to say, that, in light of the Tuesday strip, I am officially delighted with the direction of this new story. 6 months from now, I might change my tune, but for the time being, this is awesome. Please world, don't end this week! We must find out about John "Wannabe Cake Boss" Dill!
Gee, I hope Mary can convince him to come out of the pantry- or the pie safe.
"Just between you and me ... I've always dreamed of becoming a professional cake designer! Eleanor always thought that was a stupid idea, but now that she's permanently out of the picture, the sky's the limit!"
"Just between you and me..." John Dill is divulging his 'cake dream' to the absolutely wrong person! Not only will Mary be blabbing to Toby and Dr. Jeff in future strips, she'll probably write about it in her Ask Wendy column too.
So it really wasn't John Dill that everybody is so happy to see. It's the cake. They are gathering around ogling the cake and totally ignoring the baker.
Of course, it's probably the first cake they've had in years that wasn't either ghostly white or salmon-flavored.
Really nice John Dill: nice implication that you can finally pursue your dreams now that your wife 9or sister) died.
You know, I think we may be hitting a new low - I know, that's not easy when dealing with the Worthiverse - but a male wanna-be CAKE DECORATOR?
Since Moy's been taking a lot of her "story lines" from the news, I wonder where she got this crazy one.
Love the exchange!
First, a sentence no one would ever say: "It's a hobby of mine that's actually more than a hobby." Generally something is a hobby, or it isn't.
And just in case we missed the stunning revelation, Mary clarifies: "More than a hobby?"
Wow! This story is going to be great! (Sadly, I actually mean that, in the sense that is it not about Little Miss Pouty Pantsuit.)
@phoebes in santa fe at 11:55 AM, I can just hear John Dill sniff, "Cake DECORATOR?! I do not aspire to be a mere cake DECORATOR. I will be a DESIGNER!"
How long before we see Mr. Dill in Mary's kitchen?
TUESDAY'S STRIP:
So, if he's a cake designer, does that mean someone else bakes and frosts them? Does he just create the look of them? Like...a cake architect?
And I'm with you, Dave in Parma. There is a definitely cruel implication that Departed Eleanor was holding him back.
I can't believe that...wait, of course I can...
Moy will get six months out of Mary/Wendy encouraging John Dill to open his own Charterstone Cake Shoppe. Maybe Toby The Artiste will finally get some gainful employment there.
I think that Eleanor was a dog or cat. "lucky to have had her as long as I did" sounds like what people say when their pets die. He doesn't look like the kind of man who ever had a wife. (ahem)
Glad to see Hillary lurking in panel one-looks like she's on the phone...But who is the orange-clad Homer next to her? He doesn't look like a Santa Royalean.
Well, at least John Dill thinks out of the box, artistically anyway. None of us have ever seen a cake quite like the ginormous unicorn cake with little people on top. What's next?
So if the Charterstone community is celebrating with a "holiday" party, shouldn't they have some other decorations (or other food like a salmon square and kelk casserole) around besides only one scary big cake?
What would you bring to a Charterstone "holiday" party? Me, I bring walnuts in the shell with no nutcrackers - so I can watch Mary crack them open with her bare hands.
The most disturbing thing about this new plot is: ... (drumroll please).... that it may not be a new plot, but a continuation of the old one, the one which heyDave so boldly and seemingly accurately predicted demise.
Dawn may have gotten over her commitment issues; John Dill may simply be here to design Jim and Dawn's wedding cake.
And once married, THAT will bee the end of the Dawn and Jim plot, and we will all live happily ever after as they will never be seen or heard from again.
Next prediction: in the Möbius strip that is logic in the Worthiverse, John dill will create the wedding cake for a certain someone and her dashing young soccer player! I'm sure they're still planning that thing!
And thanks for the congrats, guys, and yes, I do feel dirty for channeling Moy.
I saw the name John Dill, saw he was a widower, and could only think of his and late wife's famous offspring, Bob Dill, the folk-singing pickle. http://www.tigerman.net/CARTOONS/bob-dill.htm
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