I think I say something like this whenever a strip gets a few 'mehs' but still has merit. They really can't all be knee-slappers. Really. Since most newspaper comics pages suck these days, and the comics themselves aren't (generally -- there are exceptions) better, I'm pretty sure most of us read printed serialized comics in collected form. This is a very forgiving way to read. Flipping through an old Calvin & Hobbes book, you can read 4 nice but not hilarious strips in a row before you get to that one where he shaves his head, and the whole experience rings with hilarity. Even on the newspaper page, if Get Fuzzy isn't too great today, maybe Beetle Baily is especially gay and that makes up for it. But when you have one comic strip sitting by its lonesome on a web page, it's under a lot of specific scrutiny. Especially if you are going for much needed distraction at your office job, rather than a leisurely reading over coffee or in your armchair / on your toilet with a dogeared book. You need more out of that one comic, and it's the only one there.
Truth is, more than half of Far Sides, Bloom Counties, Calvin & Hobbes, Peanuts, Doonesburys, (your favorite daily) aren't hilarious. Almost none of them are as great as your few favorites. The 15 best Achewoods from 2004 make 2004 look great. And this gets compared to the last 4 or 5 comics of whatever arbitrary week you happen to be in. It isn't really fair to the current comic.
Anyway, as for this one... these books may answer Phillipe's questions, but they really only create new ones for us.
Also: I really love Phillipe. The idea of a tyke being raised by a scatterbrained billionaire and his stoned friends is pretty wonderful. It should be tried in real life.