What’s Going On In Gil Thorp? Why are Gil Thorp characters addressing the reader? February – May 2024

In recent weeks Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham’s Gil Thorp has had a bunch of panels of characters talking right to the audience. This is because the current chapter — Chapter Five, “It’s Lonely At The Top”, title given the 8th of April — centers on Rodney Barnes. (The chapter began the 25th of March, but we didn’t get a title until Eclipse Day.) Barnes has reached the skill level where he’s going to be A Sports Name, and a documentary crew has come to get footage of people knowing him when. It’s a development giving a lot of hooks for the new reader, inviting the question of whether I’m needed here.

Still, I carry on as though I am. If you need any of my Gil Thorp plot recaps, try here, especially if for you it’s after August 2024. They should all be gathered up there. For now, let’s wander around Milford and see what’s happening.

Gil Thorp.

12 February – 4 May 2024.

Coach Gerad’s crisis of confidence, being bullied by his own students, was the thread most rapidly buried since last time. We saw Coach Martinez trying to give him lessons in having authority, and that’s all. This may be a thread to be picked up later.

Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham’s Gil Thorp for the 22nd of February, 2024. It’s a nice artistic touch to have the moment Barnes stops seeing things in “black and white” be a literally black-and-white flashback. That’s a touch lost in those who get the uncolorized version of the comic, yes, although the convention of presenting flashbacks with picture-frame cut borders probably puts those readers in mind of monochrome images. And, if not, Barajas is aware so many people read the strip on GoComics, where it is colorized, so the writing choice is still one made with thought.

Inma Rimsha has a brief lunchroom quarrel with Rodney Barnes. This because Barnes had no-commented his way out of a question about opposing the war on Gazans. (Rimsha came down n the no-extermination side.) But when an opposing basketball coach tries to keep Tobias Gordon from playing boy’s basketball, Barnes knows the pain of needing someone to have your back. So he apologizes and that’s cool. Rimsha, meanwhile, has a great season, taking state in girls’ wrestling. (It’s given as the MIF State Title; I don’t know what MIF stands for. Commenters at GoComics mostly shrugged and guessed it might be a deliberately ambiguous sports sanctioning body.)

Having a more ambiguous season: Coach Gil Thorp. While his teams are going great — plus, see the Rodney Barnes thread above and below — he’s divorced for good, Mimi has moved out, and Gil’s Mom and her boyfriend(?) Rod are urging him to try dating some. And he does, building a relationship with bartender Beth from the Jack Berril Coach of the Year awards strong enough to bring her home to the kids.

Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham’s Gil Thorp for the 27th of April, 2024. From narrative context I infer these are supposed to be good presents but I admit, as someone on Comics Curmudgeon said, it’s not clear that they — Keri particularly — aren’t being sarcastic. Baldur’s Gate 3 came out not quite a year ago so it seems like something reasonably timely for a kid whom I imagine isn’t allowed to buy his own games yet, although I genuinely don’t know if it is or not. Basically the only video games I understand are Pinball Arcade and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3. Sorry.

And then there’s the big story, Rodney Barnes, who’s gotten his own documentary crew. We’ve barely seen them, but we have seen the comic strip’s cast talking to them. And the narration boxes have taken on a new voice, one more plausibly the documentary’s. This includes asking leading questions from possibly an alternate universe, such as whether Leo Atazhoon has beef with Rodney Barnes. Atazhoon will go so far as to say Barnes’s competitive attitude intimidates other players, and that Barnes knows how good he is.

Maybe overlooked in goodness: Dorothy Wolfe is having a killer season pitching for girls softball, kicking herself for losing a game 0-1 when it’s not the pitcher’s job to score. And over in Valley Tech, Kwan Tak pitches a perfect game for their boys’ baseball team, which seems like it should get more than just the ice cream cone his uncle Coach Kim buys.

And some stray other bits. Coach Thorp and girls’ Coach Ochoa have their softball teams swap up positions as a teamwork-building thingy. Coach Martinez considers how he would have gone pro, playing for the Dodgers, if not for the tendonitis, and I assume spends the rest of the day listening to some old Bruce Springsteen, or as he’s known in Michigan, Bob Segar. This year’s Milford fundraiser is pet grooming, which should keep any bright but stupid players from getting in trouble. And Marty Moon would like people to please love him or at least remember he exists. Sorry, Marty.

Milford Sports Watch!

Now for my recap of what school teams have gotten some mention. This doesn’t include all of them. We’ve seen several games against unnamed opponents who probably aren’t all Valley Tech. Of those we did get specific names for, here’s what I have logged:

• Pueblo (9 March )
• Central City high (12 – 13, 16 – 20 March )
• Valley Tech (14 – 15, 21 – 30 March )
• Valley Tech, Tilden (12 April )
• Valley Tech (16 – 20 April )

Next Week!

Is it true? Did the impossible happen? Has April Parker’s mom run for Mayor of Cavelton? Only two ways to know: read three month’s worth of Francesco Marciuliano and Mike Manley’s Judge Parker or read my plot recap here next week! Unless something happens. See you then!