The Comics Curmudgeon
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NEPOS|AVUNCULUS
$ · March 8, 2025
Blondie, 3/8/25 Blondie's longstanding addiction to obscure holiday themed strips and comics crossovers has achieved an uneasy peace today with its searing...
Metapost: Comments funny, you guys funny
$ · March 7, 2025
Laugh ha ha comments good top comment week funny: "I'd like to think that those background panel colors are actually happening in-universe, and that there's...
Billy is what we call a "Texas-sized dumbass"
$ · March 7, 2025
Mary Worth, 3/7/25 We have all, obviously, been thinking about Wilbur Weston's sex life for far too long, but consider the psychic damage these endless...
That's not how eggs work. I don't think? I'm not a biologist
$ · March 6, 2025
Gil Thorp, 3/6/25 Damn, Gil Thorp really has become a playground for amoral narrative outcomes. First Marty falls off the wagon and improves his drip...
Grimmer Wednesday
$ · March 5, 2025
Dick Tracy, 3/5/25 "You telling me this guy died poor or alone, or maybe under strange circumstances so his family doesn't know he's dead and can't claim...
Grim Tuesday
$ · March 4, 2025
Slylock Fox, 3/4/25 They called Count Weirdly mad at Oxford, of course, and the Medical Sciences Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee repeatedly...
Mostly soapy Monday
$ · March 3, 2025
Mary Worth, 3/3/25 Big news, everybody: Wilbur's back! Wilbur's back, and he's giggling coyly about the fun he's been having on the Mayan Riviera. It's...
Comedic (or not) timing
$ · March 2, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 3/2/25 Oh, hey, sorry I haven't kept you up to date on the tale of Summer and Augie and the bad date that Summer ditched to hook up with...
Tales out of school
$ · March 1, 2025
Marvin, 3/1/25 When I was in graduate school, I was the TA for a class taught by an elderly British professor who was eccentric in ways that were variously...
Metapost: Non-leap COTW
$ · February 28, 2025
Sorry, folks: tomorrow just the first of three boring March 1sts that follow February 28ths; we have to wait until 2028 for more leap day glory. I know...
Friday is for avoiding suffering
$ · February 28, 2025
Pardon My Planet, 2/28/25 Not sure how we're meant to understand the scenario here: did this couple literally spend their last dime on this beach vacation,...
Teen faces
$ · February 27, 2025
Hi and Lois, 2/27/25 Now, like me, you probably read this strip and immediately recoiled in disgust at the implications: that Chip is in the living room...
Their cruel, vicious hoots echo through the arena
$ · February 26, 2025
Pluggers, 2/26/25 I've been reading and making fun of Pluggers for nearly 20 years now, and over that time I have against my will acquired a certain amount...
Tuesday is for eating problems
$ · February 25, 2025
Gil Thorp, 2/25/25 Keri Thorp has been struggling with an eating disorder, and apparently their therapist has recommended equine therapy. Did you know that...
I'm on Mary's side here, that stuff's nasty
$ · February 24, 2025
Luann, 2/24/25 It's been fun ("fun") revisiting Luann for the first time in years and figuring out what's changed (there are some new characters I guess) and...
Elder Sunday
February 23, 2025
Crankshaft, 2/23/25 Wait, why does John need Crazy Harry's help? By Spider-Man logic, if he had been bitten by a radioactive cleaning lady, shouldn't he have...
Baffled Saturday
$ · February 22, 2025
Mark Trail, 2/22/25 Cherry's family drama turned out to be even more dramatic than anticipated, and, as Mark makes clear in the final panel, it was no joking...
Metapost: The comments, they're a-callin'
$ · February 21, 2025
Enjoy the siren song of this week's comment ... of the week! "I've heard of shaggy dog stories, but this guy actually grew a beard in the course of listening...
[bravely] Andy Capp
$ · February 21, 2025
Andy Capp, 2/21/25 Among the strips I'm starting to revisit is Andy Capp (never forget: ANDY CAPP!), and of course, there's an important question one asks...
Aging, death, etc.
$ · February 20, 2025
Dick Tracy, 2/20/25 Dick Tracy is a comic strip that operates in an exaggerated storytelling mode, entertaining us with outlandish plots about corpse theft...
"Guy with glasses looks at cop," exactly the sort of front-page photo that grabs the reader
$ · February 19, 2025
Gil Thorp, 2/19/25 Gil Thorp of course always deals with teen issues both of-the-moment and timeless, and there's one of the latter type that I don't think...
The meal isn't FREE, Dawn
$ · February 18, 2025
Bizarro, 2/18/25 Big fan of today's Bizarro for insisting on historical realism in the face of the gauzy, romantic revisionism we usually see on this...
CORPSETHIEF: THE THIEF WHO STEALS CORPSES
$ · February 17, 2025
Dick Tracy, 2/17/25 Not sure if America was in the mood for the Dick Tracy storyline just concluded, about how the families prominent in our civic and...
Panels 'n' more
$ · February 16, 2025
Panels from Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 2/16/25 Now, I joke a lot that the only real industries in Hootin' Holler are moonshining, chicken theft, and...
Josh goes off in some weird directions
$ · February 15, 2025
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 2/15/25 Hey, here's a fun fact for you: did you know that ventriloquists don't "throw" their voices anywhere? They just learn...
Metapost: Romantical COTW
$ · February 14, 2025
Folks ... it's Valentine's Day, and you're gonna LOVE this week's top comment! "Dolly makes a crack about her brothers whilst the pitch black void looms ever...
Love is ... somewhere. Not in the air necessarily
$ · February 14, 2025
Mary Worth, 2/14/25 Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! Mary Worth would like to take a break from Dawn's romantic crisis to show you what real love looks...
Kudos to Jamaal for following aviculture best practices
$ · February 13, 2025
Archie, 2/13/25 Of course, you've seen a bunch of comics and cartoons and know that spiciness represented by literal flames and smoke emerging from a...
One-panels and more
$ · February 12, 2025
The Lockhorns, 2/12/25 Inexpensive compared to what, Leroy? Eating at a "nice" restaurant? It still is! Eating at home? It never was! No, you've just decided...
Tuesday catchups
$ · February 11, 2025
Mark Trail, 2/11/25 Oh, sorry I didn't update you on the "Mark helps return a displaced manatee to the sea" storyline, or even [checks archives] tell you...
Blasts from the past
$ · February 10, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 2/10/25 Even as I age, I stick to one of my core values, which is that nostalgia is, ultimately, a poison, a way to project your discontent...
Tragic Sunday
$ · February 9, 2025
Mary Worth, 2/9/25 I have not really been talking about this Mary Worth plotline much, because it turns out that seeing a big beefy asshole act in a way...
Indignant Saturday
$ · February 8, 2025
Blondie, 2/8/25 Man, what's your least favorite part of this deeply unpleasant Dagwood dream sequence? A lot of people are going to say "the glasses on the...
Metapost: Who likes comments? You! You like them! (Hopefully)
$ · February 7, 2025
Today is the day when I pick the top comment of the week and honor it publicly, and I got your comment of the week ... right here, buddy. "I'd be pondering...
Gloomy scenarios
$ · February 7, 2025
Beetle Bailey, 2/7/25 Unfortunately, Beetle's little prank happened to fall on the morning when the coalition of America's enemies finally launched their...
Fishy business
$ · February 5, 2025
Hagar the Horrible, 2/6/25 I think the joke here is supposed to be "Lucky Eddie, who is notoriously soft and weak, is a cat guy," and as a cat guy I'm not...
One-panel quickies
$ · February 5, 2025
Hagar the Horrible, 2/5/25 Hagar is of course no friend of kings, so obviously this strip, where he appears to be halpertfacing to the reader while hanging...
"Dustin" is in the middle of what seems to be a week-long haircut plot, God help us all
$ · February 4, 2025
Blondie, 2/4/25 Today is in fact "Thank A Mail Carrier Day," or at least it is according to National Day Calendar Dot Com, and I'm sure that's good enough...
Some gross stuff today, not gonna lie
$ · February 3, 2025
Crock, 2/3/25 Look, man: if you're going to do a comic about a restaurant where they serve flies instead of fries, I think you can get away with just having...
Barry rightfully refuses to risk his good rep as an editor and participant in the African diaspora wikiproject
$ · February 2, 2025
The Phantom, 2/2/25 A fun thing about The Phantom (the comic strip) is that it's one of the oldest superhero franchises, and the Phantom (the character)...
Sorry, nothing that goes on in the Bumstead home constitutes a "healthy lifestyle"
$ · February 1, 2025
Blondie, 2/1/25 You know, this strip originally became a cultural sensation when it was about a dissolute failson who wooed and married a flapper and got...
Metapost: Last comment of the week of the month
$ · January 31, 2025
Let's send January off with a bang in the form of this week's top comment! "Hi is in sales? He is the dourest sales guy ever. He's the opposite of Alec...
Terrible children (and old people to be fair)
$ · January 31, 2025
Pluggers, 1/31/25 I actually sleep with a second pillow -- not because it prevents me from falling out of bed, how would that even work, honestly it makes no...
Unpleasant heterosexuality comix
$ · January 30, 2025
Pardon My Planet, 1/30/25 There's a joke at the core of this panel that is, if not good per se, at least perfectly serviceable -- ha ha, her husband is a...
Grim Wednesday
$ · January 29, 2025
Between Friends, 1/29/25 Really kind of depressing that in every panel where we see the Blonde Between Friends Friend's face here, her facial expression is...
Simply refuse to believe that Hi Flagston has a satisfying social life. It doesn't add up
$ · January 28, 2025
Sam and Silo, 1/28/25 You know what would be awkward? If you were a corrupt city official taking kickbacks from a local sporting goods supplier, and one of...
Crime and punishment comix
$ · January 27, 2025
Slylock Fox, 1/27/25 Now, on the surface, this one is a puzzle. I'm not talking about the actual puzzle in the strip, but the bigger picture: why would this...
Based on how they look and their and sexual chemistry, it should be Luke/Leia honestly
$ · January 26, 2025
Pluggers, 1/26/25 It's interesting that the caption tells us that "pluggers know when they are ready for an upgrade" when the older dog-man very clearly does...
Cancelled riff Saturday
$ · January 25, 2025
Shoe, 1/25/25 I was going to go on a riff here about the circumstances under which a lawyer might have to quickly shift from shoes-off relaxation to...
Metapost: Friday = COTW day
$ · January 24, 2025
Greetings, fellow humans. It is Friday, which means it's the day I share with you my favorite comment of the week from this weblog: "You are among at least...
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