The Comics Curmudgeon

Metapost: It is time for COTW

$ · August 1, 2025

No fuss no muss just comment of the week! "Yes, New York City is a dangerous place. Not the people; the inanimate structure of the the city itself is...

All old people problems, this time

$ · August 1, 2025

Crankshaft, 8/1/25 OK, fine, I guess if I'm doing Crankshaft two days in a row, I will explain why Ed and Jeff were in an airport yesterday: It's because Pam...

Problems of youth, problems of age

$ · July 31, 2025

Mary Worth, 7/31/25 I guess the "Olive uses her psychic powers to save Mary from certain death” moment was just a prelude to the main plot, "Olive gets...

It's actually short for "Truckington"

$ · July 30, 2025

Herb and Jamaal, 7/30/25 It seems like just yesterday that Herb stormed into Rev. Croom's office, declaring that he was ambivalent about believing in a...

Comic strip jokes (mostly not funny) (not my jokes, my jokes are all funny)

$ · July 29, 2025

Beetle Bailey, 7/29/25 There's a lot of Beetle Baileys where the joke is that Sarge has beaten Beetle into an undifferentiated mass of broken limbs and...

Hope Jami gets involved in the underground electronic music scene

$ · July 28, 2025

Gil Thorp, 7/28/25 There are two types of Gil Thorp summers: the wacky ones, with plotlines like "Kaz punches his way to a bodyguard job for the Rock 'n'...

We know not what may be, and what we may be is smooshed flat

$ · July 27, 2025

Blondie, 7/27/25 The Blondie creative team has never met a young person that it didn't want to call a lazy sack of shit, but ... I kept waiting for this...

The battle of the generations is OVER

$ · July 26, 2025

The Lockhorns, 7/26/25 The random, silent bystanders who show up in The Lockhorns represent one of the strip's great mysteries. Like, who is this lady, who...

Metapost: Y'all know what time it is (it is time for the COTW, for the record)

$ · July 25, 2025

Are you emotionally and psychologically prepared for this week's comment of the week? I sure hope so, because here it is: "Wizard of Id has succintly...

Sadness, death, etc.

$ · July 25, 2025

Beetle Bailey, 7/25/25 This strip is a pretty good demonstration of the fact that comic characters even within the same universe each have their own...

Thursday is for manimals

$ · July 24, 2025

Slylock Fox, 7/24/25 I gotta say, it's probably pretty annoying to have to write Slylock Fox at this point, because doing cute little animal mysteries...

I believe in everyone. I believe in you

$ · July 23, 2025

Wizard of Id, 7/23/25 I guess in the extremely sketchy world of Wizard of Id characterization, Sir Rodney's whole deal is that he's supposed to be a...

Spiral into madness

$ · July 22, 2025

Family Circus, 7/22/25 I frankly am not a fan of the smug looks on Jeffy and Big Daddy Keane's faces here. Oh, you think it's funny to contemplate how...

Monday outrages

$ · July 21, 2025

Mother Goose and Grimm, 7/21/25 You all know that "fire hydrants are like toilets, to a dog" is one of my pet peeves, but I frankly find it a million times...

Old age, youth, the past, the present, etc.

$ · July 20, 2025

Heathcliff, 7/20/25 I'm a little obsessed with the tiny fish saying "Welcome to the club!" to Jaws. (Side note: Do we agree that the shark from Jaws is named...

Jon minus reasons to live

$ · July 19, 2025

Garfield, 7/19/25 True comics internet oldheads remember Garfield Minus Garfield, a webcomic that, as the title implied, took daily Garfield comics in which...

Metapost: You know it, you love it: It's the COTW

$ · July 18, 2025

This week's comment of the week comin' at ya ... right now: "I'm really uncomfortable with the way Truck is breaking the fourth wall here. 'Are you this...

Using "game" as a verb is a huge red flag, in my opinion

$ · July 18, 2025

Intelligent Life, 7/18/25 Look, buddy, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, also liked to engage in marathon gaming sessions, but he forced his servants to...

OK, to be fair, that's not really GOOD art

$ · July 17, 2025

Gearhead Gertie, 7/17/25 Oh, man, the domestic drama in the Gearhead household just gets more fraught! Gertie's husband Harold, in a desperate attempt to...

Wednesday quickies

$ · July 16, 2025

Hi and Lois, 7/16/25 Hmm, if you have to apply, it isn't really Trixie's pre-school yet, is it, Hi? Really makes you think (about how modern child-rearing is...

Interpersonal relations and their discontents

$ · July 15, 2025

Pardon My Planet, 7/15/25 My least favorite Pardon My Planets (which is really saying something) are the "Ha ha, gender relations, amiright folks?" ones, but...

Somewhere in time

$ · July 14, 2025

Andy Capp, 7/14/25 The question of "When does Andy Capp take place" is increasingly fascinating to me -- characters are on modern dating apps but also they...

I guess it could be a "green substance" gun, technically

$ · July 13, 2025

Dick Tracy, 7/13/25 It seems that the Dick Tracy time travel plot is now over ... and the Dick Tracy ray gun plot has begun! This is one Dick should have a...

Yet more teen action

$ · July 12, 2025

Gil Thorp, 7/12/25 Hey, remember when Keri was in horse therapy, for their eating disorder? Well, big news: they took their horse therapist Britney to prom!...

Metapost: You're commenting. You're commenting all week!

$ · July 11, 2025

Your comments were all very funny this week, obviously, but only one comment can be the week's top comment, and here it is: "My little friend is not so...

Indignant Friday

$ · July 11, 2025

Rhymes With Orange, 7/11/25 No, see, GoFundMe is the website you use for crowdfunding when you have an unexpected and dire financial emergency of some sort,...

Mostly teen Thursday

$ · July 10, 2025

Archie, 7/10/25 I honestly enjoy the fact that some nameless gal is clearly scoping Archie and Reggie out in the first panel, and that Reggie reacts...

Norse interlude

$ · July 9, 2025

Judge Parker, 7/9/25 Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that the cushy jobs Sophie and Reena got managing Sophie's boyfriend's family's charitable foundation...

Go East, Perpetually 60-Year-Old Woman

$ · July 8, 2025

Mary Worth, 7/8/25 "God damn it," you've probably said to yourself, repeatedly over the past few months, "Are we going to get a non-Weston recurring...

I guess Marvin never inheriting money is something to cheer for

$ · July 7, 2025

Luann, 7/7/25 Hey kids, we all love Wilbur, the sad loser who has an off-putting relationship with his fish. But did you know there's another such person in...

Old age, youth, and so forth

$ · July 6, 2025

Crock, 7/6/25 I like the fact that Crock reruns are keeping their publication year in the strip now because you can tell exactly the era that created the...

The emperor does have clothes, but they are stinky

$ · July 5, 2025

Luann, 7/5/25 Many dads enjoy drinking coffee out of mugs that declare them to be the "World's Best Dad" or "#1 Dad" or the like, generally purchased for...

Metapost: Comments bursting in air

$ · July 4, 2025

OK, sorry, I missed dawn's early light, even on the West Coast, but here is your comment of the week nonetheless: "Is Dr. Jeff's 'again’ meant to indicate...

U-S-A! U-S-...A?

$ · July 4, 2025

Dennis the Menace, 7/4/25 Kind of wild that Mrs. Wilson is waking her husband up by telling him not what time it is, but what day it is, implying that he's...

I've seen the future and it is on a single story

$ · July 3, 2025

Gearhead Gertie, 7/3/25 I am if nothing mercurial, and do you know what I've decided? I like the Gearhead Gerties where the focus is on Gertie's perpetually...

Is "Sunbeam" distinct from the Sun itself, I guess is the relevant question

$ · July 2, 2025

Beetle Bailey, 7/2/25 Longtime readers know that one of my minor Beetle Bailey fixations is that Miss Buxley's classic little black dress is actually a...

Suspicious grooming and other body presentation

$ · July 1, 2025

Rex Morgan, M.D., 7/1/25 On the topic of bad viewing angles of cartoon heads, the characters in soap opera strips have more or less normally shaped noggins,...

Mostly one-panel Monday

$ · June 30, 2025

The Lockhorns, 6/30/25 You all know that I hold the Lockhorns in a great deal of affection, but I am not blind to the truth, which is that they are squat,...

Mary innovating new insane ways to hold a small cup

$ · June 29, 2025

Panel from The Lockhorns, 6/29/25 One of the great mysteries of The Lockhorns that haunts all of us Lockheads is the identity and nature of the non-Lockhorn...

Dustin's been "halfway there" his whole life and will never get any further

$ · June 28, 2025

Mark Trail, 6/28/25 There's a new Mark Trail adventure starting this week that appears to be about fairly straightforward environmental issues -- poop in the...

Metapost: COTW? COTW

$ · June 27, 2025

Comment of the week? That's right, it's the comment of the week: "After all the other 'Ed doing things nobody visiting NYC would' entries, I have to...

One-panel Friday

$ · June 27, 2025

Mother Goose and Grimm, 6/27/25 Look, we all associate Cinderella with trying on glass slippers, but canonically, the Prince's retinue repeated the process...

Facial expression theater

$ · June 26, 2025

Dustin, 6/26/25 I really love the fact that Ed looks utterly joyless as he prepares to shove that forbidden donut down his donut hole. He doesn't even want...

Do you think Leroy was doing the gesture during the movie

$ · June 25, 2025

The Lockhorns, 6/25/25 I really like the way Leroy is clutching his chest dramatically here. I imagine he already did this routine inside at the concession...

Doom, gloom, and so forth

$ · June 24, 2025

Beetle Bailey, 6/24/25 One of my favorite bits of actual Beetle Bailey character evolution over the past few years is Zero going from being a friendly but...

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...