The Transition Era; Part 2: A Periods Piece.

 When I first set forth the idea of eras being divided up into periods, I noted that the Mystery Business(tm) Era's division was very simple and that future eras were likely going to be more involved. And well, not only was I right, but the very next era would prove to be the most Byzantine of the lot. As I noted in the last installment, the Transition Era was one of constant clumsy experimentation, and that wound up giving it the most periods of any era--eight periods, over a six year, eight-month span. Further, there is no uniformity here--some will last for years, others can be measured in weeks. A lot of this is because of the period's lack of narrative sinews--what might come across as a storyline in one of the more defined eras winds up being the closest thing to something holding a large sequence of strips together as a unit.

And so, to give you all an idea of what's ahead, I will list off those periods, with a brief explanation of what each entails. My classification of these periods is largely going to focus on what Zed's doing, both because he's rapidly becoming the principal protagonist and because it provides a handy measuring stick. Trust me, by the later portions of the era, Damon and Jan are already in sharp decline as relevant characters.

1. The Hardware Store Period (2008-9): For the next two years after getting laid off, Zed does the obvious thing, and goes to work as a floorman in a Home Depot. You know, what any guy who has worked in design at a high professional level and is also a highly accomplished military sniper does. With a wife, two daughters and a sister-in-law who frequently refuses to leave back at home. Politically, Muir goes from an endless cycle of denial and fretting over the 2008 Presidential election, and then, well, really losing it about Obama.
2. Opening the Bar Period (2010): Zed decides that he just CAN'T keep working at a hardware store and so the cast decides--hey, why don't they open a bar? You know! As one does! There are shenanigans with evil unions, Naomi comes back, and oh, so much awfulness over a period of months, as Zed prepares for his new business.
3. Cap'n Mitty, US Agent Period (2010-11): But it turns out his country needs him again! Yep, just three years after calling him back to service in Iraq, Zed has to go to Afghanistan. There's Muir's first, real sustained action storyline, we get a new character, and oh, boy is this bad. Prepare for awkward action, bad blocking, cheap sentimentality, cheaper shock, and a guy who talks like Ensign Chekov all the freaking time! 
4. Working the Bar Period (2011-12): With the epic adventure done, the cast settles into what's supposed to be the new normal, but doesn't actually last a year. The Bar is supposed to be a laidback place for the cast to hang out, bump into politicians and mutter about how awful Obama is. But it just sort of hangs around as a limp setting, Mystery Business(tm) only even more poorly defined and with raunchier fanservice. Oh, and Skye dates that new character I mentioned. It's weird.
5. First Trailer Trash Period (2012): Hey, remember how Obama is bad? Well it turns out he really is awful! He and his evil gubmint goons force Sam and Zed to abandon their house due to legal problems and move into a trailer. Oh, and they somehow keep the bar running in all this chaos with a government that is actually investigating them.
6. CIA-Paid-For-House Period (2012-13): Hey, remember what just happened? Yeah, forget about it. Zed's secret CIA allies have nullified it, and gotten them the house back using secret government funds which is very cool and not at all illegal. Now just settle in for the election, where the Democratic usurper will.... And... he's still here. Uh huh. Hmmm.
7. Second Trailer Trash Period (2013-14): And now the house is gone again, and this time the bar gets closed. Obama is still president, and so his evil gubmint goons took it again. But hey! Zed, Sam and the kids have moved to a new trailer--that's also designated as an Argentinian embassy thanks to El Dorado Dad! Don't think about that! It is just what has happened! So let's all scowl at the gubmint, kids! Scowl and have weird standoffs and intrigues that don't make sense!
8. Road Trip Move Period (2014): Zed's dad called, and he needs Zed's help keeping the Dusky Hordes off his lawn, that being a massive ranch on the Texan Border. It's located in Brewster County, a fact that obviously go to remain stable and true forever afterwards. Sam and Zed travel there, bitching about the gubmint the whole way, as we slowly transition into the Compound Era.

...

Yeah. Those are the periods. Seems chaotic doesn't it?  Trust me... it's worse than that impression. Each one of these is an increasingly fraught and manic stew of paranoia and weirdness, with contradictory plotlines and bad writing. So buckle in. Once again--hella bumpy ride ahead. But hey, at least it's going to start... fairly sedate.

And Lyndon Larouche Nods From Hell.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Otto Graham.

There's something deeply amusing about the man who used to swear we needed constant wars against the foreign hordes reciting the tankie's catechism these days. Though as Larouche demonstrated, that line has a way of shifting from the glorious truth of the Real True Left to a reactionary rant in very little time. 

"If Only We Could Have Cravenly Surrendered To The Genocidal Invaders! Then Things Would Doubtless Be Better Now!"

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Choujinki Metalder.

The extent to which Muir imagines he's a good guy in matters where he's on the side of fascists just keeps getting greater the longer the strip runs. It's astonishing how the only thing that got him to give up his vision of unilateral war was something even more destructive to our alliances and status in the world.

"Always Fun To Spend Our Time Plotting Bloody Treason, Guyovitch!"

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Avataro Sentai Donbrothers.

Clearly, as a man who has betrayed both the nation of his birth and his adopted country for a fascist dictator, Russian Guyovitch is the greatest True Patriot of them all.

So Much For The Tolerant Left!

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.

Muir, of course, is trying to demonstrate how truly broad-minded he is, no not racist, not racist at all, but his attempt is this bizarre effort at the old joke form that just baffles you the more you read it. (The Ukrainian ethnicity is being used as an identifier alongside the Christian and Jewish religions, because, well, because Muir doesn't think about things.)

Not Being Racist Means... Wait, I've Suddenly Got Deja Vu.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Ultraman Taro.

You know, I find the story of how this strip blinked out of existence, and then blinked back more interesting than the strip itself, which is more of Muir's declaring that X is clearly the woke conspiracy at work, and proof of them at work, with a dash of racism. Muir's always been a bit of throwback, with these yearly fund drives in an era where multiple services exist that could handle this better. But now... it really seems he's running into problems. Let's see where it goes.

Everything Always Proves Muir Right, Always.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because the Return of Ultraman (Ultraman Jack).

It's amazing how Muir can turn any random assortment of facts into proof that diversity and the Evil Conspiracy are always making things worse.

Okay, not amazing. Tiresome.

His Misogyny Will Protect Him.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Ultraseven.

As we get another heaping helping of big-brained sexism, I note that the begging bowl is out a bit early this year.

I'm not shocked.

At Least The USSR Were Manly Commies, He Says!

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Ultraman.

And a demonstration of Muir's utter misogyny and his utter ignorance of what communism entails, at the same time.

Also, the extent to which the fictional relationships in this strip all now wave prominent red flags is... well, very much a thing.

"I Am So Clever, To Desert My Country In Its Hour Of Need Because A Bunch Of Rednecks Tell Me To!"

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because ooo-eee-ooo.

It's fascinating how Muir's impulsive decision to turn Russian Guyovitch into a Ukrainian has wound up making him so utterly loathsome. And how much Muir has wound up just like the WWII homegrown-fascists who kept insisting that they knew the real score and how if only we'd listened to them, we could have avoided shedding all that blood beating the Nazis.

Muir Faps Off To How Much Smarter He Is Than The Sheeple.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because the Castle of Cagliostro.

...

...

I need to take a bath. A long bath.

Muir Would Have Been A Silver Shirt, In The 1940s.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Harry Palmer.

Two weeks. That's how long it took Muir to shift from at least formally supporting Ukraine to tacitly backing a fascistic state invading another nation. This is a fine demonstration of a lot of things--Muir's growing fascism, the utter malleability and gullibility he demonstrates while egotistically declaring himself a clear-sighted man with a will of iron--but there's something new. Muir has shifted to de facto supporting Russia well after the invasion shifted to an embarrassing debacle on top of the horrifying crime.

It somehow is so him.

The Important Thing In This Time Of Trouble, Is To Know All Of Muir's Crazyass Conspiracies Are True.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Man Orbits Earth.

Russian Guyovitch is pretty big proof that Muir will not only ruin any character given time, but having ruined them, he will ruin them further.

Everything Reminds Russian Guyovitch About A State He Almost Assuredly Never Really Experienced.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because we will run, we will crawl.

It's kind of astonishing how America's fascist filth keeps acting likes the Cold War is still going on.

Tonight On Badly Blocked Theatre.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Black Extra-Aged Bourbon.

The combination of Muir's latest gobbledygook conspiracy theories and terrible skills at drawing actions sequences make this one especially painful to read.

Like A Serpent Swallowing Its Own Tail.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because she knows that it's demanding to defeat those evil machines.

The strip vanishes up its own ass while offering porn for chickenhawks. 

Does He Get How Pathetic This Looks?

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because the day I was a horse.

How many times as he put his imaginary supersoldiers in a hot spot while imagining he was paying homage to the people there instead of denigrating their problems now? I've actually lost count.

...Excuse Me While I Scour My Eyeballs. And My Brain.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because in their ships with painted sails.

...The combination of misogyny and leering creepiness that pretends it isn't what it is makes for a new low in this awful, awful strip.

That's all I'm saying. We can see this strip, and what it is speaks for itself.

"Obviously, They Are Puppet Party For Ruling Clique, Yes?"

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because I got a girl called Bony Moronie.

It's amazing how Russian Guyovitch is treated as knowledgeable about a country that collapsed when he was a toddler. And how little Muir clearly knows about post-Communist Russia.

Muir Goes Full America First Committee. Never Go Full America First Committee.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because when it starts, the meter clicks and it goes running all through the night.

And here we see Muir insisting his racism and transphobia are just him being for workers and women, that his sucking up to foreign dictators that he now sees as allied to the cause is him being a man of peace. And remember, he might insist something else tomorrow, because he's awful.