On Today's Alley Oop - 25 November 2021

I've held off writing any reviews of AO all through the "Raptor 500" race sequence because it just seemed to get dumber and dumber every day. Oop wanders off for quite some time and yet somehow wins the 500 race even though he clearly did not go around the course 500 times. Why did he win? "Because". I really don't have a complaint about Oop doing a takeoff of a modern day race. Hamlin certainly did a number of sequences like this in the early years involving golf, football, and even the circus. But those were the stories of a young cartoonist trying to find his way rather than veteran cartoonists that seemed to have lost their way. It also didn't hurt that they were funnier and made more sense. 

In our tale there is still no sign of Oop's old friends like Guz, Wizer, or heaven forbid, Foozy. Instead we saw a token appearance of Garg, the token character of color, now retconned into Oop's BFF. As the story ends, we find our heroes unwinding in a place that looks more like Bedrock than Moo.  Elaborate punch bowls and couches, all rendered in the bleakest, industrial gray possible with horrific cross-hatching that would embarrass any real cartoonist. With the changes in Moo, can a TV set be far behind?

Does anybody understand why Ooola is floating in the second panel? Her butt is clearly not touching the sofa any longer. 

Not that she is drawn particularly well today. That last panel, her head and legs are just awkward. Huge butt, tiny torso, face falling off her body,  and the right leg looks like her left leg is crossed over her right leg.

Alley's pad once he gets cable will probably look like this. It does look like the Flintstones shop at a better furniture store than Alley does. At least they got a pillow with theirs.