Deconstruction of Meta-comics

Herb and Jamaal 7/31/08
Ha ha, Herb has a boring life. No really, he does. I read this every day. Still, there are some things about this comic I don't understand:

• Is Herb's wife directing her rant at me, the reader? Does she not understand I cannot hear her thoughts, or is she so self-aware that she knows she is a character in a comic? Creepy.
  
• Is the wife's rant not actually a rant at all, but rather the text of the book she is reading? If so, is she reading a book about the comic she is currently in a la The Neverending Story? Still creepy (but if a big white dragon appears tomorrow, this comic will improve one thousand percent).
• Did Herb actually have to narrate twelve years of his life to himself in one night? That is, does he start from birth every night, or just start from where he left off the night before? If we're going with the whole self-aware comic hypothesis, Herb didn't even have a childhood. This is getting creepier the deeper we get into it.
  
• Most importantly, how could Herb possibly sleep when he is actively telling a story (even a boring story that no one would ever listen to)? Isn't that more or less not possible?

No matter what conlcusions may be made, the overarching fact is undisputed: Herb's life is boring.

Fred Basset 7/31/07
Fred Basset pretty much has two styles of jokes: incredibly tame puns and self-aware meta-comics, as exemplified in today's installment. The incredibly tame puns are like my cup of mental earl grey tea in the morning. They are nicely drawn, gentle, and bring a feeling of contentment. The other kind, usually involving Fred in a blank white space accidentally knocking down the sides of the panels or talking to the camera, are like a disgusting cup of smack-the-reader-in-the-face. How can a cartoonist be so lazy and uncreativ...aww those ears in the third panel are just so darn cute! Next time, Fred Basset! Next Time!