The third panel originally had substantial percentage of Witcher references - nearly one hundred percent, by volume - but the final version of the strip leans more heavily into synthetic cathinones. But then the title stayed? I don’t know. I’m leaving it. At some point in your “ouvre” you have to start studding your work with incongruities just to give historians something to do. Let the studious inheritors of this archive say that this is when Early Onset Coot Disease finally began its lethal arc.

As for the first panel, though, he really should have known. I read the fucking magazine cover to cover every month. The show Lego Masters actually reminds me of Strip Search a little bit, in terms of how conscious it is of the fundamental ridiculousness of the premise. I like the frankly weird tone Will Arnett delivers, perforating the affair, sawing through a bridge he is currently standing on. But it took me a little bit to warm up to it. I had a similar feeling when watching Nailed It on Netflix. Once I understood that they were “nailing” the show itself, that is to say, Not Nailing it At All, and they knew it, I was onboard.

The cast of human beings they’ve chosen to compete in this thing are a crew that nourishes the spirit. I love seeing all the different kinds of people who derive meaning from these bricks. Except for that one lady. I’m glad that she likes to play Lego, that’s awesome and a testament to them. But I think she’s possessed or something; occasionally she will smile, and you can see flames through the seams of the body she was issued in hell.

Gonna try some more Legends of Runeterra on the stream at 2pm with Ryan, to see if we can get squeeze anymore juice from this Spider Deck. Out here in the unkempt hedges at the edge Ranked Play, you can do okay with a few spiders and a dream. I’ll be curious how much further we can get without getting under the hood and really looking at what we’ve built with an unsentimental eye.

(CW)TB out.