[NOTE TO NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS This one got stuck in the newsletter machine for some reason? I had to resend it. Sorry it's late but enjoy the COTW!]

Your comment of the week in a moment, but first! A couple of you have inquired about the whereabouts and health of longtime faithful reader and poster of Shadow COTWs Baja Gaijin, who hasn't posted the Shadow COTWs in a while. Just wanted to pass on that I emailed with him and he's OK! He just hasn't been keeping up with the strips and didn't feel up to doing the SCOTWs lately, is all. So have no fear!

But do have amusement, as you roll into this week's top comment!

"In a normal family, that's the sort of puzzle that parents would watch their young kid try to solve, helping from time to time as needed. In the weird hellscape of Marvinville, shit-machine babies are highly verbal and grammatical, and the (presumably) potty-trained parents are losing their grip on what shreds of rationality remain to them, to the point where even a child's puzzle is a challenge for them. Marvin appears to be sucking their intelligence away from them and taking it for himself (though not the toilet-training parts of it). This is The Portrait of Dorian Gray, as reimagined by H.P. Lovecraft." --Dmsilev