9 Chickweed Lane is a syndicated cartoon strip that actually defies traditional logic: it’s funny. Oh, not all the time, but then again few comics are funny everyday. I include the gag-a-day strips in that bunch as well. Sometimes you just have an off day… or you’re building up a storyline and don’t want to sacrifice the story for a punch line.

Fortunately, it’s part of the United Media syndication group, which means the last month of strips is available free of charge. Sure, you don’t get to go archive surfing without subscribing to the archives for at least 6 months, but on the plus side quite a few of the archives are available for sale in book form.

And you don’t really need to know the storyline to grasp the Sunday comic. Think of it as a side-strip, taking a glimpse at the everyday lives of the characters without interfering with the actual storyline going on. So you don’t need to wonder what’s going on with Amos and Edda and why they’re on the outs. You don’t need to know that Seth is gay and is rooming with Edda, or that he’s plotting to get Amos and Edda back together again because he’s a big romantic.

Instead, you can take a moment to laugh at the evil delight in Edda’s face as she clings to Seth’s arm, denying the young floozies and their moms the chance to annoy Seth by flocking all around him. And of course Edda’s silent admission to herself that she enjoyed clinging to Seth far too much. (Or… was she enjoying being evil to the young floozies? Only Edda truly knows for certain.)

The nice thing about 9 Chickweed Lane is that you don’t need to know everything that’s going on. Newspaper strips tend to be easy enough to jump into. And 9 Chickweed Lane is definitely worth a read.

Besides, the weekday strips has Seth’s plot to get Edda and Amos back together again working nicely. Especially with Saturday’s strip, and Edda just relaxing into Amos’s arms as they tango. But then again, she just looooves to tango…

Addendum note: Unfortunately, the cartoonist decided to jump the shark in terms of storytelling, and I have to recommend readers to avoid this comic. It’s a shame, as for a while it was one of the innovative and interesting newspaper comics available online.