The Comics Curmudgeon
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He's not even a baby horse
$ · June 23, 2025
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 6/23/25 Now, look, you know that Spark Plug is a horse and I know that Spark Plug is a horse, but if you didn't know that...
These characters aren't real people, you don't have to be nice to them
$ · June 22, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 6/22/25 "Would it help to know that after your relationship ended in failure, she still thought about you all the time, obsessively, even...
Saturday praise
$ · June 21, 2025
Crock, 6/21/25 Not sure if we're seeing a singular mind at work here or if this is the product you'd expect to get from someone who'd been writing a comic...
Metapost: Early morning COTW
$ · June 20, 2025
Starting the day off right -- with your comment o' the week: "Leroy's plan to dramatically self immolate by pouring a bowlful high proof alcohol over a lit...
That is an extremely sweet Garfield tee
$ · June 20, 2025
Blondie, 6/20/25 Imagine how much funnier this strip would be if Blondie had spent any of the past 90 years or so developing the characters and backstories...
Major and minor developments
$ · June 19, 2025
Six Chix, 6/19/25 Remember kids, the daily comics aren't just for laffs; they also can provide important safety information. For instance, have you ever...
Disappointment after disappointment
$ · June 18, 2025
Pluggers, 6/19/25 "Wrongo!" my brain basically shouted at me the moment I read this panel. "Pluggers would not shop at Trader Joe's, which is for young, hip...
We all want to be Heathcliff, but there can be only one Heathcliff
$ · June 17, 2025
Heathcliff, 6/17/25 There are few characters in the comics whose energies are so distinct from one another as Heathcliff and Wilbur Weston, despite the fact...
Mostly one-panel menaces
$ · June 16, 2025
Heathcliff, 6/16/25 This is, of course, a hilarious joke about rectal thermometers, and I laud the strip for being subtle enough to not use the words...
Dads, but no grads
$ · June 15, 2025
Blondie, 6/15/25 The Blondie deep lore is that back in the '20s, Blondie was a flapper girl and Dagwood was the dissolute son of a millionaire, and he was...
Good strips Saturday
$ · June 14, 2025
The Lockhorns, 6/14/25 Once, not long after we moved to Los Angeles, we were driving with friends through a historic neighborhood in Pasadena, full of...
Metapost: Forgetful COTW
$ · June 13, 2025
As we move on into the weekend, let's think about your achievements for the week, as well as places you may have fallen short. For instance, did you happen...
What does Dolly even have to spend money on. C'mon
$ · June 13, 2025
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 6/13/25 It's never entirely clear whether Hootin' Holler was cut off from the rest of the Newnited States by some abrupt...
No phones, just living in the moment (they don't know how to use phones yet)
$ · June 12, 2025
Slylock Fox, 6/12/25 Years ago, I read a book about the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and one of my strongest memories of it is that after the...
I personally am on Team Snert
$ · June 11, 2025
Hagar the Horrible, 6/11/25 I find this strip genuinely funny, and particularly love the expressions on Hagar and Eddie's faces in the second panel....
Some bleak old people/tech stuff
$ · June 10, 2025
Pluggers, 6/10/25 Pluggers already did a version of this bit in 2007, only back then the joke was "When a plugger gives you directions, all the landmarks he...
Hell is for children
$ · June 9, 2025
Luann, 6/9/25 Back when I was last reading Luann regularly, a decade ago, the whole deal with Toni's niece Shannon was that she was a hellion but that was...
Slenderwilbur will haunt your nightmares
$ · June 8, 2025
Mary Worth, 6/8/25 Many of our most beloved deranged Mary Worth storylines end abruptly, with antagonists just straight up driving off a cliff or whatever,...
What's the matter, Hi? Are you afraid of the possibilities
$ · June 7, 2025
Hi and Lois, 6/7/25 Years ago, I was doing some PT for a few weeks, and at one of my sessions there was an older guy there who was rehabbing a knee injury,...
Metapost: Junetastic COTW
$ · June 6, 2025
Let's roll into summer with the comment ... of the week! "I assume this is the same hardware store where Hi buys his hair fixatives." --Joe Blevins And the...
SHOCKING MARTY MOON MUSTACHE REVEAL!!!!
$ · June 6, 2025
Gil Thorp, 6/6/25 Deep in the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, I decided that the dream of the '90s had finally well and truly died, and I shaved off my goatee and...
Josh has questions
$ · June 5, 2025
Dennis the Menace, 6/5/25 I know that "ha ha, this little boy is repulsed by the idea of heteronormativity” is one of Dennis the Menace's go-tos, but to do a...
You ever heard of this new thing called "e-commerce," Hi
$ · June 3, 2025
Gil Thorp, 6/3/25 I'm really coming to enjoy the on-the-nose "sound effects" that we're getting during sports antics in Gil Thorp. Are "catch," "swipe," and...
I too love it when comics and movies exist. Love those content formats
$ · June 2, 2025
Mary Worth, 6/2/25 Did you know that the psychological "fight or flight" response is more accurately called "fight, flight, freeze, or fawn"? I think it...
Mostly kind Sunday
$ · June 1, 2025
Crock, 6/1/25 Imagine if you petitioned Almighty God for a full accounting of all the evil you've done in your life. This is information that He, being...
Saturday quickies
$ · May 31, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 5/31/25 Wait, is something happening in Rex Morgan, M.D.? Is something interesting happening in Rex Morgan, M.D.? Wild. Truly wild....
Metapost: [COTW title goes here]
$ · May 30, 2025
[Joke or quip setting up COTW and establishing that the reader has been waiting for it all week goes here] "Mrs Wilson's smiling face makes the gag work....
Did anyone really call him Steve "Guitar" Miller or was that just my dad
$ · May 30, 2025
Blondie, 5/30/25 Here's a joke for you: a guy with a master's degree in ancient history and a guy with an MFA in poetry were coworkers once, back in the late...
Crime, love, etc.
$ · May 29, 2025
Mother Goose and Grimm, 5/29/25 Look, obviously I'm not asking that a comic strip that deliberately has fun with a character that's in some ways like a...
C3P0 would be a great press secretary, actually
$ · May 28, 2025
Dennis the Menace, 5/28/25 When you have a long-running strip like Dennis the Menace, where one of the main characters is a child who never grows up and...
Modern-day foibles
$ · May 27, 2025
Herb and Jamaal, 5/27/25 Of the 99 most recent Herb and Jamaal strips I've commented on, all but one have four panels, so I guess the strip is pretty married...
Trouble brewin'
$ · May 26, 2025
Mary Worth 5/26/25 OK, sorry, it's very funny that Wilbur's instinct upon stumbling onto this perfectly insane scene is to address not Belle, his...
The hottest frat fads from the early 20th century are back! Up next: phone booth stuffing
$ · May 25, 2025
Panel from Slylock Fox, 5/25/25 Every once in a while, I get frustrated with myself for not being able to remember my parents' anniversary, or the names of...
Downer Saturday
$ · May 24, 2025
Crankshaft, 5/24/25 The wisteria guy from earlier this week is, as Uncle Lumpy remembers so I don't have to, the former paramour of Lilian's now-deceased...
Metapost: The comments ... they ain't stoppin'
$ · May 23, 2025
It's Friday and you know what that means: You can't stop the comment of the week. You can only hope to contain it within this metapost: "I love how fast the...
Carpe diem comics
$ · May 23, 2025
Shoe, 5/23/25 This strip would be -- well, not funny, exactly, but it would at least make some sort of sense if the Perfesser was married, which to the best...
Some might say the mythological Icarus loved the joy of flying a little too much
$ · May 22, 2025
Archie, 5/22/25 I dunno, Jughead, that looks more like blood to me. Presumably the LORD will be passing through to smite all those who harbor Archie in their...
Are his wish-granting capabilities all sunflower-focused
$ · May 21, 2025
Heathcliff, 5/21/25 Real heads who read Heathcliff daily know that most weeks have a theme of some sort -- "dirt week", "garbage week", and so forth. This...
Sitcom-adjacent jokes
$ · May 20, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 5/20/25 On Sunday, June got the mail, and told her sons that the family had gotten a wedding invite, and they were like "You get free cake...
Crime and/or punishment
$ · May 19, 2025
Hagar the Horrible, 5/19/25 I really appreciate how chill Hagar is about his own prosecution here. Based on the wigs, he's probably being tried for his...
Bleak Sunday
$ · May 18, 2025
Shoe, 5/18/25 You know I'm a fan of the depressing Shoe strips where either the Perfesser or Skyler is sitting in the living room chair and the other one has...
Current and future ghosts
$ · May 17, 2025
The Phantom, 5/17/25 One of the key ongoing dramas of The Phantom is the question of what woman will contribute her genetic material to the ongoing Phantom...
Metapost: May flowers COTW
$ · May 16, 2025
Spring has sprung (not eligible in all areas), and now it's time for the comment of the week! "YES! The grueling, meaningless life uneventful!! That's the...
Speaking affectionately ill of the dead
$ · May 16, 2025
Dick Tracy, 5/16/25 The current Dick Tracy story wrapped up with our criminals fleeing from the cops and in the process conveniently getting into a terrible...
Thursday is for little games and tasks
$ · May 15, 2025
Hi and Lois, 5/15/25 Sorry, Hi: today's teens would never try to read something and listen to something else simultaneously. Instead, they focus all their...
Wednesday quickies
$ · May 14, 2025
Mary Worth, 5/14/25 Wilbur appears to be smiling guilelessly, but he has to know at some level that this conversation is not going great. That's why he's...
Tuesday is for death
$ · May 13, 2025
B.C., 5/13/25 Remember a few months ago, when I criticized Mother Goose and Grimm for doing a take on the classic Far Side "I'm a cowboy!” vulture joke that...
Fish fancy? These fish certainly aren't
$ · May 12, 2025
Pluggers, 5/12/25 Man, the facial expressions in this one really make it, and by "make it" I mean "make it clear what a grim marital scene these two will be...
Dagwood's "waiter routine" involves delivering one (1) cup of coffee
$ · May 11, 2025
Family Circus, 5/11/25 My favorite part of this strip about a husband taking exactly one day to help with the domestic labor his wife does all year is how,...
Saturday quickies
$ · May 10, 2025
Mary Worth, 5/10/25 God, I really want to hear the withering contempt Dawn is putting on the word "love" here, which is being conveyed orthographically by...
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