Kids not only enjoy a good wordplay, but they live and die by the sword of wordplay. Dibs. Called it. Nothing Can Stop Me. These are rules of law.

I remember playing word play games like this a lot when I was a kid. Not terribly clever, but to a kid, everything is clever.

This is one of the rare Little Dee strips where I make some commentary on politics in the US, though perhaps it’s more merely a social commentary on our culture as a whole.

It’s amazing that Vachel never learned that one NEVER gets the last laugh when it comes to Dee.

The “S.S. Snuffkin” of course refers to the traveling nomadic character from Tove Jansson’s Moomintroll books. Love those.

The return of the quarter, and a return to the priorities of life.

We all have different definitions of bad, don’t we. :)

And Dee going over to hug Ted because she sees that he’ll have to float in the cold dark water breaks my heart every time even thought I’m the person who wrote it. <3

That panel of the dock being torn apart still cracks me up.

I find that so much of humor is based on the “nature” of a character, and so telling a dog “fetch” is so repeatedly ripe for it. Dog’s can’t help it. You say “fetch” and bang, they’re off.

As the story goes, the scorpion said “No, frog, of course I won’t sting you if you carry me across the pond. If I did, then we would BOTH drown.” Upon stinging (of course), as they both sink, the frog asks why. “Because,” said the scorpion, “it is in my nature.”

Dee is a lot more scared than she is in later strips. Perhaps parental separation anxiety was more acute back then. Hrm.

My, but Dee is strong in panel #3.

I liked playing with this concept, that to make someone bug off, you participate with them (unwittingly to them) to build their deliverance. :)