The Comics Curmudgeon
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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...
Plato's cave comics
January 24, 2025
Tina's Groove, 1/24/25 A thing about being a monarch is that nobody can stop you from doing all sorts of awful sicko stuff, and usually this takes the form...
This is a sport that got its start in bootlegging, and look what it's become
January 23, 2025
Gearhead Gertie, 1/23/25 Today's Gearhead Gertie is actually a pretty great commentary about how modern fandoms of all stripes have slowly transformed from...
That head's way too big, honestly very unsettling
January 22, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/22/25 So with Kelly out of the house, Summer has been whining about being bored and lonely to everyone she knows, and by "everyone she...
Gloomy Tuesday
January 21, 2025
Marvin, 1/21/25 I really have to respect Marvin for playing the long game and getting me to publicly praise it for turning away from shit and piss jokes and...
This guy's favorite fast food chain is "Clown Burger," c'mon
January 20, 2025
Blondie, 1/20/25 The joke here really ought to be that we all know that there are plenty of cereal varieties with marshmallows out there sold in boxes with...
Bad news from bad dudes
January 19, 2025
Mary Worth, 1/19/25 "Josh," you're probably wondering, "how can this storyline about Dawn's relationship with her new emotionally volatile bully of a...
Animal spirits
January 18, 2025
Shoe, 1/18/25 It's true: closed captions aren't just for the hearing impaired. They also help viewers in a variety of contexts where speech may be difficult...
Metapost: You're commenting, I'm listening
January 17, 2025
Ready for your comment of the week? Ready? Ready???? Here it is! "As an Xer, I find Joey's Thom Browne-inspired skinny jeans and exposed ankles look...
It's a weird chin, man. Not right for the head. Not right at all
January 17, 2025
Family Circus, 1/17/25 OK, I know comics are, by their nature, cartoonish, and there isn't always that much variety between faces so other characteristics...
Polysemy ... Sarge's greatest weakness
January 16, 2025
Beetle Bailey, 1/16/25 I actually am curious about the chain of thought that determined which secondary Beetle Bailey character got the punchline said at him...
Out of the past
January 15, 2025
Marvin, 1/15/25 The thing about writing a blog post a day, every day, forever, is that you can definitely find yourself caught in some ruts, which makes me...
Should've prescribed this jerk a "chill pill" years ago in my opinion
January 14, 2025
Dennis the Menace, 1/14/25 Now, look, today I'm not really interested in litigating whether this is wildly non-menacing ("Aww, I need to show all the parts...
Soapy Monday
January 13, 2025
Judge Parker, 1/13/25 A comics tic meant to telegraph character emotional state that I always find a little odd is when they rub the back of their neck in...
She needs to "duck" more so she doesn't hit her head on things
January 12, 2025
Mary Worth, 1/12/25 This Mary Worth storyline is sadly all too realistic in its depiction of emotional abuse and manipulation. But it's extremely unrealistic...
The clam screams endlessly, it did not consent to becoming a weapon
January 11, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/11/25 Oh, I'm sorry, did you find the recent week's worth of Rex Morgan, M.D., Characters Talking On The Phone boring? Well, did it ever...
Metapost: Smoldering, patreonizing comments of the week and change
January 10, 2025
Hello all! I have this week's comment of the week for you, but before that ... a couple of notes. A few of you inquired about my safety in the current LA...
Is Dennis wearing Santa pants? Not comfortable with that either
January 10, 2025
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/10/25 Ha ha, can you imagine? The Smif and Barlow families would be lined up opposite each other, and Steve Harvey would...
I also refuse to "get out" or "live it up" under any circumstances
January 9, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/9/25 I regret to inform you that we are almost to the end of the week one of "Kelly is in college, now" and it appears we never did make...
Being able to distinguish objects and surfaces from their surrounding space? Real nerd stuff
January 8, 2025
Dustin, 1/8/25 I think I speak for insufferable pedants everywhere when I say that I immediately clocked this as not being an actual line from Confucius --...
Soapy Tuesday
January 7, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/7/25 Look, I get it, soap opera strips are a slow-moving medium, you can't count on people reading every day so you have to repeat stuff,...
The comic strip "Marvin" has also outlived many of its rivals, sadly
January 6, 2025
Judge Parker, 1/6/25 Detective Yelich has been Sam's inside man on the police force since the Great Judge Meth Caper of '23, which, you may recall, included...
You're not drunk until you're TV golf drunk
January 5, 2025
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/5/25 Lord knows I've spent enough time contemplating the economy and politics of Hootin' Holler, so I might as well take...
I'm not sorry if it offends, actually, never apologize for pedantry
January 4, 2025
Blondie, 1/4/25 Yes, I still read the newspaper comics strip Blondie every day, and I actually learn things from it! For instance, Herb saying "mega-...
They don't use cell phones because coverage is so bad, because of the hills
January 3, 2025
No comment of this truncated week, folks -- we'll let pugfuggly have the place of pride till next Friday! Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/3/25 OK, Barney...
RETURN TO COMICS BLOGGING IN THE FAR-OFF FUTURE YEAR 2025: MOSTLY MARY WORTH EDITION
January 2, 2025
Hello, faithful readers! Did you have a good Christmahanukkwanzaa? Are you ready for a return to comics blogging form, here on your favorite website,...
Metapost: Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good truncated COTW
December 24, 2024
Folks! It is once again time for me to take my long winter's nap, by which I mean a week or so off from posting on the site so that you can take a break from...
Various Christmas miracles
December 24, 2024
Rex Morgan, M.D., 12/24/24 Fellas! Did your asshole doctor tell you that the reason you feel like shit is because you spend all your time on the couch...
Holidays loom ominously
December 23, 2024
Judge Parker, 12/23/24 Aw, isn't that nice? Sam is going to let Alan enjoy the holidays and wait until the new year until he yells at him for sheltering his...
Ho ho NO
December 22, 2024
Pardon My Planet, 12/22/24 One of my least favorite genres of "Images You Can Buy On A Poster Or T-Shirt" is "Two Dead Celebrities Dressed In Vaguely...
O come to the bowling alley and let us ADORE him
December 21, 2024
Hi and Lois, 12/21/24 Hmm, Ditto, interesting: canonically, in the Bible, Joseph doesn't have any lines (in the sense that no direct speech is attributed to...
Emotional roller coasters
December 20, 2024
Judge Parker, 12/20/24 Last night I had the pleasure of waiting for the bus next to a guy who was doing whip-its on the street corner, and when I say "had...
Take the middle way, neither ho ho ho nor humbug
December 19, 2024
Dennis the Menace and Curtis, 12/19/24 Well, I guess yesterday's Curtis is the start of an arc about how the kids today celebrate holidays differently, using...
Not enough people appreciate a good void these day
December 18, 2024
Mark Trail, 12/18/24 Mark Trail can of course never be an anti-hunting strip per se, but it has always adhered to a strict moral code when it comes to the...
Heresy, hats, etc.
December 17, 2024
Beetle Bailey, 12/17/24 A thing that fascinates me is that deep in the DNA of the daily comics is the idea that their artists conceive of them as a black-...
Space continues to not be the place
December 16, 2024
Gasoline Alley, 12/16/24 So the whole point of these uncanny children going to space in the first place was so that they could write a school report about...
Indignant Sunday
December 15, 2024
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 12/15/24 Geez, man, what kind of weird Slylock Fox-ass riddle-telling meteorologist do these Snuffy and Lukey listen to....
Dawn will absolutely never learn anything about herself, are you kidding
December 14, 2024
Mary Worth, 12/14/24 OK, reading this almost sent me into a downward spiral -- and here I will pause to tell you that after typing that, I thought, "Hmm, is...
Metapost: Friday the 13th COTW
December 13, 2024
Don't be nervous about this unlucky Friday the 13th! Just like every Friday, we pick one lucky commenter and acknowledge them as the top commenter ... of the...
Friday quickies
December 13, 2024
Judge Parker, 12/13/24 "I mean, we haven't seen a panel showing anyone below the shoulders for weeks now, but I'm pretty sure there's no bed in here and...
Also, the patient very much is uncrustable, so the whole premise is faulty
December 12, 2024
Six Chix, 12/12/24 OK, I get the impulse to turn a bitten-out semicircle on this pastry-shrink into his mouth, but the execution is very uncanny. Like I...
Wednesday is for dumb kids
December 11, 2024
Hi and Lois, 12/11/24 Wait a minute, wait a minute, hold the damn phone, six months ago Hi seemed genuinely depressed to not receive golf gifts for Father's...
Maybe she's fallen in with Sonia, or, worse, Brad
December 10, 2024
Mary Worth, 12/10/24 I guess (for once) Wilbur leaving town is providing us with an opportunity not to see what Wilbur gets up to outside of town but rather...
Lotta carnivore action today
December 9, 2024
Suburban Fairy Tales, 12/9/24 I was going to give you the deep lore behind today's strip but I think it's pretty obvious from context, right? Third little...
Is blogging cringe? We investigate
December 8, 2024
Mary Worth, 12/8/24 Hello, fellow young people! Like me (a young person), you have no doubt been using the word "cringe" in its relatively new slang sense,...
Ha ha, it's funny because the old men hate their wives
December 7, 2024
Marvin, 12/7/24 Black Friday? Enh. Small business Saturday? Whatever. Cyber Monday? Who cares. The real biggest shopping day of the year, as anyone tapped...
Metapost: Keep on COTWing on
December 6, 2024
It's Friday? And that means it's COTW time? You know it's COTW time. "Dr. Jeff notices Mary eating her dessert with a canapé fork and immediately calls 911...
Mostly soapy Friday
December 6, 2024
Judge Parker, 12/6/24 Oh, yeah, my prediction that Judge Parker Senior has his fugitive daughter Anne living in his basement turned out to be correct, much...
Love a newspaper headline that eschews proper nouns
December 5, 2024
Crock, 12/5/24 If these two guys have names, I don't know what they are -- the Wikipedia Crock article just calls them "the men of Outpost 5," and they don't...
No AI could come up with ideas as "complex" (polite euphemism) as "Alice"
December 4, 2024
Slylock Fox, 12/4/24 An extremely fond memory I have from my youth is seeing Fugazi playing an outdoor show in San Francisco sometime around the turn of the...
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