The Dinette Set is a single-panel newspaper comic by artist Julie Larson

Julie Larson

Julie Larson is an American cartoonist who draws the single panel comic strip The Dinette Set. The panel began in 1990 under the title Suburban Torture, and has been syndicated since 1997...

. Larson's comic began as Suburban Torture in the Los Angeles Reader

Los Angeles Reader

Los Angeles Reader was a weekly paper established in 1978 and distributed in Los Angeles, USA. It followed the format of the Chicago Reader. The paper was known for having lengthy, thoughtful reviews of movies, plays and concerts in the LA area. James Vowell was its founding editor...

 and other alternative newspapers in 1990. It was then syndicated daily by King Features in 1997; it is currently distributed by Universal Uclick

Universal Uclick

Universal Uclick is an American entertainment company owned by Andrews McMeel Universal. Universal Uclick is the world's largest independent press syndicate and provides syndication in print, online and on mobile devices for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and cartoons and...

 for United Media

United Media

United Media is a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by The E.W. Scripps Company. It syndicates 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. Its core business is the United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association...

.

The comic satirizes middle-class culture; its main characters are 50ish sisters Verla Darwin and Joy Penny. The comic gently pokes fun of middle-class perceptions (and misperceptions) of common, everyday issues.

Format

The strip is a single panel comic that usually has two panels in most Sunday papers. It usually takes place in the Penny's dining room or in their living room, or in the summer months, their backyard pool. Most of the humor in the strip comes from the shirts the characters are wearing and signs hanging in the background. The characters are usually wearing T shirts that have the name of a popular book or movie or TV show and then that say "On Ice". (Example: The Jerk on Ice) Usually these pop culture references have never been performed on ice. A lot of times at least one of the characters have a coffee mug that says "shut up" on it. In the scenes in the dining room, there is a to do list hanging in the background for humor. The strip usually has an object hidden in the picture for the reader to find known as a "find it".

External links

• The Dinette Set at Creators Syndicate