Jen's sisters put Ash under the microscope...
Nerd By Northwest #337 – “Prepare for Inspection”
(Click on the image to see the full-size version)
That last line (well heck, most of the strip) is an homage to a very early Bloom County strip from the esteemed Berke Breathed... one where Milo and some of his fellow schoolboys meet their teacher's love interest, Cutter John, and subject him to intense scrutiny to assess whether he measures up. If you visit the link to the aforementioned Bloom County strip below, you'll see that Cutter John is not entirely comfortable with their unfiltered assessment...
'Bloom County' by Berke Breathed
But let's face it, Cutter John got off easy. Why? Because he didn't have women doing the assessment. When they want to, girls and women can put drill sergeants to shame when it comes to soul-destroying observational comments (kinda makes you wonder how brutal the women drill sergeants are 🤔). And the treatment Ash is getting here is relatively gentle... Jen's sisters are more interested in messing with Jen than abusing Ash. He's merely collateral damage... 😉
Lastly, quiz time for the old-school comic strip readers out there... what was the teacher Miss Harlow's first name, and who was she dating BEFORE she started dating Cutter John?
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Alas, the image won't load. I can't recall Miss Harlow's first name, but wasn't sleazy Steve Dallas her previous love interest?
Winner winner chicken dinner! Steve Dallas was in fact her previous love interest. If I recall, I think in a later strip he showed up at her door drunk trying to win her back, and stripped naked in front of her door in winter and said he'd stand out there like that until she let him in. And then the cops showed up. 😏
Okay, I think I fixed the image link. I was specifically trying to use a link to the Breathed's Facebook page instead of simply copy/pasting the image, so as to make sure all credit is given where it's due (i.e. him, not me 😉).
IIRC, this heartbreak led to Steve's on-again, off-again relationship with Quiche Lorraine.
I'd never seen Bloom County before, so no idea on the questions. Women would assess a male date in different ways to guys. There are definite differences between the sexes, but that can be a good thing. Men have tended to run things, but they can be crap at various tasks.
Never seen Bloom County?!? And all this time I thought you Brits had the edge on us Americans on all things regarding culture... 😉
The artist has a facebook page where he posts all his new and much of his older work if you want a look-see. He started the comic in the early 80's, so there's a lot of cultural references (a remarkably large number of them regarding the British royal family of that era) that you might appreciate... https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybreathed
I have have seen some of them. There are so many comics out there and pre-web we had limited access to those from abroad. Of course Peanuts, Garfield and some others were big here. Now we can see just about everything.
We also can't forget the time Donald Trump's brain was transplanted into Bill the Cat's skull.
MAKE AAAAACK!!! THPBBBT!!! AGAIN!
If you haven't read Bloom County and its sequel series Outland, you owe it to yourself to start at the beginning and read through.