Today we’ve got a twosome of trifles for you to while away a few minutes of a Friday afternoon in reading.

First up is Illustrating Webster, a cute little panel where obscure words are assigned prosaically amusing interpretations. I especially like this take on “caliduct”, for its pleasing blend of old-timey and evergreen.

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Then there’s How You Felt, another slice-of-life panel that I’m sure would have been displayed on cubicle walls and refrigerators, if either of those things were in common circulation circa 1914… With each strip taking a first-timer’s perspective on events that were presumably more common when they were drawn, what’s most fun about these is their almost-complete outdatedness. Of the six panels we’ve got, only two are close to universally relevant today, including the bittersweet take on a husband’s loneliness when his wife goes on a trip seen below. Other topics, like carrying a cane, riding a horse, wearing a tie your wife bought you, and being asked to fire your cook, aren’t likely to be as relevant a hundred years after their creation…

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Welcome to Mars, a dreamland where waiters never accept tips and there’s always a seat waiting for you on the subway!  W. Clyde Spencer’s delightful A Trip To Mars follows the exploits of a husband and wife honeymooning in the most exotic of destinations.  I love the martian character designs, especially those “armfins.”  Sure, each & every episode builds up to a punchline concerning how things are so different 95,000,000 miles from home, but there are a lot of wacky touches here and there that make this strip a lot of fun.  Go ahead, climb aboard that rocket ship and take a trip to Mars right now!

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Diana Dillpickles returns in “Miss Dillpickles Participates In An Aviation Meet With A Rival Birdlady Whose Vindictiveness Would Turn The Blood To Ice In Your Veins,” featuring a special cameo from you-know-who and a shocking twist you must see to believe. This one, as always, is from Fred Shaefer, but our pal Condo had departed the feature by this point, leaving some of the usual fill-ins to take up the art chores.  In this case we have the more-than-able Clifton Meek providing the visuals.  Six parts; start with the one above.

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Well, this is an exciting development for all you Buddy Tucker fans: we now have the whole run! The episode above fills the one nagging gap we had in our collection, plus I found the four strips which were missing from the beginning of the run – that should be everything.  Buddy was originally spun off from Buster Brown; does anyone know if he was brought back into the fold once his short lived title ended for good?  (Bonus points if you expose my extreme laziness by citing an example found in our archive)