The old, the young, the beautiful

Family Circus, 2/24/24

The Family Circus was originally drawn by Bil Keane, with the characters all being thinly veiled versions of him and his real family, and the Bil analogue character in the strip also worked as a cartoonist; the narrative layers only got more tangled when real-life Jeffy took over, making the occasional guest stints by "Billy, age 7" a true semiotic swamp: originally these panels were Bil pretending to be his son pretending to be him, and now they're Jeff pretending to be his brother pretending to be their father. Anyway, here's today panel, which features said father vividly writhing on the floor in agony!

Rex Morgan, M.D., 2/24/24