January 6, 2011

Good Eats

Official Count:

Leroy - 4
Loretta - 2
Push - 0

January 5, 2011

Picture Perfect

Official Count:

Leroy - 3
Loretta - 2
Push - 0

January 4, 2011

The Situation

Official Count:

Leroy - 2
Loretta - 2
Push - 0

January 3, 2011

Coffee Talk

Official Count:

Leroy - 2
Loretta - 1
Push - 0

January 2, 2011: Sunday Showdown!

(Click to Enlarge)

Clockwise from the bottom left:

• Loretta kicks off the first Sunday Showdown of the year with a devastating critique of Leroy's nonexistent fashion sense. With such a patently ridiculous ensemble, there was no doubt that it would be a slam dunk for Loretta. The only real question was what route she was going to take in mocking Leroy's attire. While she went with the "only a crazy person would dress like that" path, she could have also gone with mocking the loudness of the colors or the outdatedness of the styles, to name a few options. Loretta goes up 1-0.
• I'm pretty tempted to give Leroy the point here since it looks like Loretta's stunned realization that she almost agreed with him is about to give her a massive fatal aneurysm. If there was ever a way to earn a point, shocking the other Lockhorn to death would be one. However, I'm going to give Loretta the benefit of the doubt that she is exaggerating her reaction even more to insult Leroy. Although that sort of blank terror is pretty hard to fake. Loretta takes a commanding 2-0 lead.
• I'm not quite sure if this poster for the surname-less Tommy "The Kid" is for a boxing movie or a boxing match. Either way, it's impressive how Leroy can work any random prop into another, Loretta annoying, jab at the institution of marriage. I wonder if there is any truth to Leroy's statement and some correlation exists between singledom and boxing success. There is still the long running belief in boxing that one shouldn't have sex during training. Leroy closes in 2-1.
• Instead of building upon the momentum of his victory in the third panel, Leroy squanders his chance at a comeback by breaking out a totally lame joke about the high cost of gasoline. If he wants to finally claim a year for himself, he really has cut down on these missed opportunities. Besides, when was "price changer at a gas station" ever a real job? Is there any gas station in existence that requires someone to specifically just change the prices? Push, Loretta still leads 2-1.
• Ever the ice cold closer, Loretta drives the nail in the coffin with a solid dig at Leroy's sedentary, couch potato, lifestyle. I really enjoyed this insult, it hit all the right notes with the image of Leroy planning his entire day around the detailed TV listings of the TV Guide being oddly plausible and suitably pathetic. Maybe Leroy really should get a day planner, if today was indicative of the kind of sloppy effort he's going to give all year, he'll need to start getting things in order quick. Loretta takes the point and the day with a 3-1 win.

Official Count:

Leroy - 1
Loretta - 1
Push - 0

January 1, 2011

A Sporting Effort

Official Count:

Leroy - 1
Loretta - 0
Push - 0

A Note from the Editor

A new year is coming upon us and many lingering "Lockhorn vs. Lockhorn" lovers may be happy to know that I did not forget my promise, when I went on hiatus in November, to return in 2011 with a new "Lockhorn vs. Lockhorn" format. It has been a magical, wonderfully contentious, deeply bitter year and half long ride, but I feel I've gone as far as I could go with the old post and analysis format and thought perhaps a slight change was in order.

What exactly will be this new look for 2011? It's really not that huge of an overhaul. I'll still keep a running year long tally of who is getting the upper hand in the Lockhorns' eternal domestic struggle (I'm thinking Leroy may be due this year), but I wanted to change up my approach to the panels. So rather than posting them and writing my usual rambling analysis and conjecture, I wanted to really go to the heart of the comic and deconstruct every insult, bad pun, sarcastic commentary, petty jab, etc. down its simplest form. It sounds a little complicated but it's really just me writing over the captions to explain the joke; I'm doing it partially because it's easier than writing out all those long paragraphs.

Fans of the old format however, should take heart, I am keeping the old "Sunday Sundowns" (unless of course I fall behind and get overwhelmed by them and give up halfway through the year) so you can get your fix of vintage "Lockhorn vs. Lockhorn".

So that's basically my plan for the upcoming year, we'll have to see if I can actually execute it for the next 12 months or if I just end up scrapping the whole project all together (man, daily exposure to the Lockhorns really saps one's optimism). Best of luck to Leroy and Loretta and here's to a new year and a new round of bouts.