The girl in this strip is about 10. Thanks to Sue for suggesting and discussing this one. “Why is Gracie smoking??” she asks.
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Gracie isn’t smoking. The parallel is being demonstrated between the relief a smoker has on lighting up, and the relief a smart phone user has getting out their phone.
Yes, there’s a current arc on Gracie’s addiction to her phone. It’s a weird, but very clear metaphor…
And also that phone use and smoking can both be addictive.
Quite the disturbing imagery. I’m actually surprised the artist got away with it in a syndicated family strip.
Tobacco cigarettes, of course, are also physically addicting in a way that phone use absolutely is not.
Gracie’s experimenting with cigarettes, and taking a video of it. After the cigarette, she reviews the video to admire her style. She’s smiling into the phone in panel 3.
I wonder if there’s any significance to the background change in panel 3?
Ínteresting “realist” position there, Zbicyclist. I can’t make out the phone in panel 3, however — but note her hand positions are identical in panels 3 and 4, with just a replacement of the gripped object. To me, that works better with the “symbolic substitution” position several commenters have suggested.
Thanks, @waltmorris — not that I have any useful thoughts on the background of panel 3, but calling our attention to the background at all made me realize those are not windows, but some kind of posters or pictures, stuck up with corner taping.
She shouldn’t be smoking in bed. As they used to say, if you smoke in bed you risk making an ash of yourself.
Which reminds me of something Stanley Myron Handelman said. “It’s difficult to be funny on stage when you’ve just had a death in the family. My uncle just died. He would always smoke in bed. We told him, over and over, if you smoke in bed you’ll die. But he would never listen to us. One night he was smoking in bed and a man came in through the window and shot him to death.”
As noted, this is the start of an arc about Gracie and cell phones. She was not literally smoking in the strip. As someone in comments noticed, her hands are in the exact same position in Panel 3 and Panel 4.
As bad as phone addiction is, it’s overkill to compare it to cigarettes for two main reasons: Cigarettes/nicotine are strongly physically addictive, and the smoke can ruin your health. (Yes, I’ve heard the “cell phones cause cancer” claims.) I realize psychological addictions are also strong, in fact many smokers trying to quit find it tougher to beat than the physical addiction. But it’s misguided to equate the two addictions.
I usually love Baldo. However, the image of Gracie lighting up and enjoying smoking disturbed me. Poor vehicle to get a message across about being addicted to her phone. At first I thought is was a book because she is always reading. Showing her with the cigarette in bed sends so many bad messages. Really terrible strip.
Today’s strip it’s not clear if this is meant as a finale to the arc, or a non-sequitur. Normally an arc that begins on a Monday will conclude on Saturday, or carry on to the next week. It wouldn’t be an unusual strip for joke-a-day mode.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Gracie isn’t smoking. The parallel is being demonstrated between the relief a smoker has on lighting up, and the relief a smart phone user has getting out their phone.
Yes, there’s a current arc on Gracie’s addiction to her phone. It’s a weird, but very clear metaphor…
And also that phone use and smoking can both be addictive.
Quite the disturbing imagery. I’m actually surprised the artist got away with it in a syndicated family strip.
Tobacco cigarettes, of course, are also physically addicting in a way that phone use absolutely is not.
Gracie’s experimenting with cigarettes, and taking a video of it. After the cigarette, she reviews the video to admire her style. She’s smiling into the phone in panel 3.
I wonder if there’s any significance to the background change in panel 3?
Ínteresting “realist” position there, Zbicyclist. I can’t make out the phone in panel 3, however — but note her hand positions are identical in panels 3 and 4, with just a replacement of the gripped object. To me, that works better with the “symbolic substitution” position several commenters have suggested.
Thanks, @waltmorris — not that I have any useful thoughts on the background of panel 3, but calling our attention to the background at all made me realize those are not windows, but some kind of posters or pictures, stuck up with corner taping.
She shouldn’t be smoking in bed. As they used to say, if you smoke in bed you risk making an ash of yourself.
Which reminds me of something Stanley Myron Handelman said. “It’s difficult to be funny on stage when you’ve just had a death in the family. My uncle just died. He would always smoke in bed. We told him, over and over, if you smoke in bed you’ll die. But he would never listen to us. One night he was smoking in bed and a man came in through the window and shot him to death.”
As noted, this is the start of an arc about Gracie and cell phones. She was not literally smoking in the strip. As someone in comments noticed, her hands are in the exact same position in Panel 3 and Panel 4.
As bad as phone addiction is, it’s overkill to compare it to cigarettes for two main reasons: Cigarettes/nicotine are strongly physically addictive, and the smoke can ruin your health. (Yes, I’ve heard the “cell phones cause cancer” claims.) I realize psychological addictions are also strong, in fact many smokers trying to quit find it tougher to beat than the physical addiction. But it’s misguided to equate the two addictions.
I usually love Baldo. However, the image of Gracie lighting up and enjoying smoking disturbed me. Poor vehicle to get a message across about being addicted to her phone. At first I thought is was a book because she is always reading. Showing her with the cigarette in bed sends so many bad messages. Really terrible strip.
Today’s strip it’s not clear if this is meant as a finale to the arc, or a non-sequitur. Normally an arc that begins on a Monday will conclude on Saturday, or carry on to the next week. It wouldn’t be an unusual strip for joke-a-day mode.