Marmaduke’s fat, elderly neighbors remark about his annual tradition of inviting guests over on New Year’s for a drink “on the house,” a clever and not at all labored play on words referring to the drink both being free and coming from a faucet and bowl physically attached to Marmaduke’s doghouse.
At first I just thought they may have been impressed with Maramaduke apparently having plumbing installed on his doghouse. Then I took a closer look at the neighbors and realized they were probably upset that he hired some "damn illegals" to do the work.
Not to mention the fact that this was published the DAY after New Year's. Marm throws one hell of a party.
The owner-family's house must be near a cliff, because it looks like the ground disappears immediately past the gate.
Also: is Marm violating the side of his doghouse? Probably.
The item that caught my eye was the shadow being cast, Caravaggistically, across the entrance to the doghouse. In the absence of all other shadows, or any light source, it really stands out as being a firm--if inexplicable, and poor--choice on his part.
I like to imagine--when drunk or stoned--that Brad Anderson's parade of errors in perspective and breaches of representative decorum constitute a code that he's communicating to the Chinese, or maybe Martians. Or else it's a codex, a series of mystical keys into a wider, deeper system of belief, like a love child of William Blake and Dan Brown, that scholars will study for years to come. I desire, in short, for his oh-so-painfully characteristic visual crappiness to have some *meaning*, some existence and justification outside of itself.
But then I sober up, and to reflect on the arbitrariness of Brad Anderson's continuing employment is the grimmest sort of hangover, the consequence of a universe so empty and capricious that all its energy will go to heat. I love Joe Mathlete's explanations, but they constitute a bandaid on the gaping wound in All That's Right In The World represented by that goddamn asshole dog.
That afghan hound in the back left looks like a golliwogg.
Also, Marmaduke is quite literally "on the house". See? It's a triple intender.
The thing that makes me laugh about this strip in general is that Brad Anderson has the unapologetic audacity to use every stale, tired joke he has ever heard in his 1,000+ (give or take) years of life.
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