The Comics Curmudgeon
Subscribe
Archives
Mostly sullen teen edition
$ · April 17, 2025
Dustin, 4/17/25 Really loving Dustin's facial expression in the second panel here. "Ah," he's thinking, "he doesn't love her either. He may hate her as much...
Journeys through time
$ · April 16, 2025
Archie, 4/16/25 I can't even keep track anymore of when these Archie reruns originated, and whether the coloring actually dates from that era or was added in...
Several historical deep dives
$ · April 15, 2025
Blondie, 4/15/25 When I read today's Blondie, I had one immediate and overwhelming thought: isn't Dagwood's beloved living room chair blue, rather than the...
Milky Monday
$ · April 14, 2025
Gil Thorp, 4/14/24 Look, my mission is as always to read the comics so you don't have to, but sometimes with the continuity strips you really do need to read...
Soapy Sunday
$ · April 13, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 4/13/25 Oh, a thing I forgot to tell you about that happened in Rex Morgan, M.D., is that Summer managed to track down other people her...
Death, doom, etc.
$ · April 12, 2025
Mary Worth, 4/12/25 Welp, looks like Dawn's about to die in agony after drinking a powerful drain cleaner ... and that's the tea, sis! Ha ha, get it, because...
Metapost: The comments ... they call out to you for the reading
$ · April 11, 2025
This week: The comment of the week: Right here: Right now: "What sells this is the final panel. Remember, Dustin's equally-terrible-but-in-a-different-way...
Watch where you're pointing that thing, narration box
$ · April 11, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 4/11/25 WHO IS THIS MAN, AND WHY IS HE IN THE CROWD? I dunno. Probably he's the person who was responsible for the stalker guy dying...
Ladies like big chins like that, right? The ones that look like butts? That turns them on?
$ · April 10, 2025
Dick Tracy, 4/10/25 So the guy in the suit is lead detective in the case of the almost-stolen corpse, and I guess he figured out who the corpse used to be...
What kind of hippie accepts a title of nobility
$ · April 9, 2025
Suburban Fairy Tales, 4/9/25 I made a fairly embarrassing error in my post about Suburban Fairy Tales a couple days ago, in which I implied that the second...
I read the comics to protect you from terrible truths
$ · April 8, 2025
Rex Morgan, M.D., 4/8/25 Way back in the mists of time when I first started this blog, it was called I Read The Comics So You Don't Have To, and I still...
Suburban ennui
$ · April 7, 2025
Hi and Lois, 4/7/25 Ah hell yeah, Hi and Lois is at it again, with "it" being a mostly punchline-free strip about the formless but omnipresent disquiet in...
When you get peeled in a dream, you get peeled in real life
$ · April 6, 2025
The Phantom, 4/6/25 One thing I respect about the Phantom is that, for a strip that started out with a fairly dubious colonialist attitude, it now makes a...
Don't really like that Snuffy and Granny Creeps are just kind of friends now. Seems wrong
$ · April 5, 2025
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 4/5/25 Wow, I had always assumed that Hootin' Holler was cut off from outside civilization to the extent that it's blessedly...
Metapost: It's Friday, time for the [bursts into song] comment of the WEEEEEEK
$ · April 5, 2025
That's right! Enjoy your COTW, right here, right now! "No, I don't mean your face is familiar from the radio, you nitwit. I recognize you as the man who...
Friday is for Pop(s)
$ · April 4, 2025
Beetle Bailey, 4/4/25 That's right, Zero! Article 17 of the Third Geneva Convention establishes that POWs are only required to give their name, rank, and...
Daddy-daughter Thursday
$ · April 3, 2025
Mary Worth, 4/3/25 The thing about Belle is that frankly nobody is operating on her level, at least not yet, and that makes her extremely dangerous. Look at...
Yeah, I'm using brand names and generics interchangeably. Deal with it
$ · April 2, 2025
Shoe, 4/2/25 You know, I was going to joke here about how the snuggie's brief moment as a cultural sensation came and went in 2009, which I regret to inform...
Time makes fools of us all
$ · April 1, 2025
Blondie and Hi and Lois, 4/1/25 I know I'm "old" and "out of touch," but I always thought April Fool's Day was about cruel pranks. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe...
Read to the end of this post for a surprise! (The surprise is butts)
$ · March 31, 2025
Luann, 3/31/25 So last week's "Brad and Toni are trying to have a baby and it's making their sex life miserable” riff ended with the two of them (on TJ's...
Metapost: Safe and sound COTW
$ · March 30, 2025
[NOTE TO NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS This one got stuck in the newsletter machine for some reason? I had to resend it. Sorry it's late but enjoy the COTW!] Your...
Maybe he's just very sleepy. From all the stalking
$ · March 30, 2025
Panel from Slylock Fox, 3/30/25 This is at least the second time that Slylock Fox has proposed the old "one person divides, the other chooses" solution to...
One-ish panel Saturday
$ · March 29, 2025
Six Chix, 3/29/25 Look, man, everyone claims to love mermaids in theory, but a chimeric monster that's half mammal, half fish was not meant to swim in the...
Housewives ... cooking steak? This I gotta see
$ · March 28, 2025
Blondie, 3/28/25 There is, as is often the case with Blondie, a Lot Going On Here, but let's not sleep on the TV announcer appearing to react to Dagwood's...
Spring has sprung
$ · March 27, 2025
Family Circus, 3/27/25 I'm not entirely sure what this is even supposed to mean, but I guess it has to do with the fact that Big Daddy Keane can do math...
Meditations on aging, plus [extremely heavy sigh] Wilbursex
$ · March 26, 2025
Gil Thorp, 3/26/25 A thing about getting old that is absolutely a cliche but also 100% true AND also something that you can't really understand until you...
Time keeps on slipping
$ · March 25, 2025
Marvin, 3/25/25 "Wow," many of my longtime readers have no doubt concluded, "So Josh makes money by flying into a rage whenever the comic strip Marvin does...
Jokes, drugs, etc.
$ · March 24, 2025
Mother Goose and Grimm, 3/24/25 One of my favorite terms of art from the world of standup comedy is "street joke." A street joke is a joke a comic tells on...
Metapost: WOOO COTW WOOOO
$ · March 23, 2025
YEAH BOY IT'S TIME FOR THE COMMENT OF THE WEEK! WHEEEEEE "When you walk around on a video call, how often do you keep the phone camera carefully framed to...
Gloomy Sunday
$ · March 23, 2025
Hi and Lois, 3/23/25 Look, you know I'm a genuine fan of Hi and Lois's new melancholy, punchline-free vibe, but I'm sorry, "spring is here, time to ramp up...
To be fair to Lois, the lawn appears to be strewn with debris
$ · March 22, 2025
Hi and Lois, 3/22/25 "Wow, my wife/mother sure is a BALLBUSTING HARPY" is one of my least favorite genres of domestic comic strip, but I gotta say, Hi and...
Friday consternation
$ · March 21, 2025
Garfield, 3/21/25 Not sure if the implication here is that flies go into some kind of suspended animation over the winter upon being frozen then reawaken in...
Romantic troubles
$ · March 20, 2025
The Phantom, 3/20/25 The Phantom, it is my task to occasionally remind you, is actually a 22-generation long chain of fathers and sons who each take the role...
Are there tongues involved? Guess we'll never know, thanks to the clipboard
$ · March 19, 2025
Luann, 3/19/25 Looks like Luann's 40th anniversary celebration is going to roll on all week, or maybe for the rest of the month, who even knows at this...
Blasts from the past and/or eternal persent
$ · March 18, 2025
Crock, 3/18/25 I kind of admire the thought process that went into constructing the current installment of "The Men Of Outpost 5 Read Letters From One Of The...
Monday is for lovers
$ · March 17, 2025
Slylock Fox, 3/17/25 Yeah, we get it, Slylock is engaged in a long-running and very sexy game of cat and mouse fox with Cassandra, of which this is merely...
Suffering by comparison
$ · March 16, 2025
Mother Goose and Grimm, 3/16/25 One of the most famous and beloved Far Side panels involves a group of vultures sitting in a circle on the ground, and one of...
The drool-blob is genuinely upsetting
$ · March 15, 2025
Blondie, 3/15/25 You gotta imagine that, when you're talking to Dagwood Bumstead, there's always a danger that he's going to stare off into the distance,...
Metapost: The comments, they're a comin'
$ · March 14, 2025
Start your Friday off right with this week's comment of the week! "Nothing says 'I'm interested in what you're saying' quite like 'Oh yeah? How's that...
Irrational Friday
$ · March 14, 2025
Six Chix, 3/14/25 Happy Pi Day, everybody! Today, 3/14, is used as a tongue-in-cheek opportunity to celebrate pi, the mathematical constant that is the ratio...
Doom, gloom, Wilbur Weston, etc.
$ · March 13, 2025
Herb and Jamaal, 3/13/25 Ha, no, see, Herb's mother-in-law, "doomscrolling" just means when you keep going through your social media feeds on your phone,...
Professional mistakes
$ · March 12, 2025
The Lockhorns, 3/12/25 Why do you think Loretta is in the room with Leroy as he gets his physical? Is it just so she can do little bits like this? If I were...
Do birds even have souls?
$ · March 11, 2025
Mary Worth, 3/11/25 I have to admit that I've never fully understood the arrangement Wilbur and Mary have where Mary subs for him as "Ask Wendy" when he's...
For the birds, who are against each other
$ · March 10, 2025
Shoe, 3/10/25 Man, it would be concerning if you were a bird parent from a species that primarily ate fish and your son didn't want to eat fish, especially...
Sunday simmering resentment
$ · March 9, 2025
Mary Worth, 3/9/25 "The past only exists by how you remember it,” Mary long ago told an emotionally scarred young woman, haunted by the man who stood her up...
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...
Older archives