Hey Truck, is that Lisa's bench you're monopolizing?

September 10, 2024

Click the banner to contribute by PayPal, or here for other options. Celebrate two decades of quality comics mockery with a generous contribution! Blondie,...

It's the 2024 Comics Curmudgeon Fall Fundraiser!

September 9, 2024

Click the banner to contribute by PayPal, or here for other options. The twentieth anniversary Comics Curmudgeon Fall Fundraiser is here! Celebrate two...

Magnets, how do they work? Thorin knows!

September 9, 2024

Dustin, 9/9/24 Deckhand on an Alaskan crab boat. Choker setter for a logging crew. Apprentice roofer. C'mon, Dustin—get it over with. Dick Tracy, 9/9/24...

Sad Sunday

September 8, 2024

The Phantom, 9/8/24 Phantom was growing increasingly vexed That the proles would identify him as John X. So by making up missions and playing a role He set...

Weekend wisecracks

September 7, 2024

Gil Thorp, 9/7/24 Best. Gil Thorp. Ever. Flash Gordon, 9/7/24 Ergon, leader of the Power Men who maintain the capital's tunnels, negotiates concessions from...

Marital mirth

September 6, 2024

Luann, 9/6/24 I won't trouble you with the months-long "Brad and Toni consider having a child, then reconsider after caring for Toni's niece Shannon"...

Metapost: Early vacation-heralding COTW

September 5, 2024

FOLKS!!!! It is time for me, your faithful blogger, to take one of my occasional vacations from the comics and from this site, so you know what that means:...

Thursday quickies

September 5, 2024

Beetle Bailey, 9/5/24 Sarge is correct: his men are extremely vulnerable to the range weapons that are fated to kill them when they finally enter combat....

Jokes and japes for the aged

September 4, 2024

Beetle Bailey, Blondie, and Shoe, 9/4/24 Look, we'd all like to believe that works of art spring from the pure, isolated genius of their creator's mind, but...

Soapy Tuesday

September 3, 2024

Gil Thorp, 9/3/24 I always joke about how the population of the Milford and the greater Valley Conference catchment area at large are completely crazed over...

Don't even get me STARTED on why we don't celebrate on May 1 like everyone else

September 2, 2024

Gil Thorp, 9/2/24 Happy Labor Day, everybody! I guess it's now an annual tradition for a continuity strip character to appear as Rosie the Riveter to promote...

Don't want my furniture talking or even thinking. Sorry if that's not "politically correct"

September 1, 2024

Mary Worth, 9/1/24 Hey guys! Sorry I didn't keep you up to date on the big drama at the Santa Royale Veterinarians Convention, which is that Dr. Ed ran into...

Sammy, stand up for yourself. We're on a deadline here

August 31, 2024

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith 8/31/24 You know, I've been doing this blog for two decades now, and yet somehow until today I've never paused to ask myself...

Looks like somebody got ... [puts on sunglasses] ... burned

August 30, 2024

Gil Thorp, 8/30/24 America yearns to know: What's up with the beloved new character "Torch" in Gil Thorp? Have we figured out if "Torch" is his first name,...

Somebody else planned this convention, so no, you'll actually find it considerably more difficult

August 29, 2024

Beetle Bailey, 8/29/24 I was going to say that Beetle's whining here is unrealistic, as well as being literally, legally insubordinate, but you know what?...

There's not a MONOPOLY on violence exactly, but those IOUs are essentially legal tender

August 28, 2024

Dick Tracy, 8/28/24 I guess the woman in the final panel is supposed to be looking up at a big screen, but it really looks like she's rolling her eyes in...

Tuesday quickies

August 27, 2024

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/27/24 Ha, get it, you thought she wanted Ernie to stop smoking tobacco, a dangerous and expensive habit ... but in fact,...

Space is the place ... for love

$ · August 26, 2024

Dick Tracy, 8/26/24 Someone who's had some weird romance arcs in his time is Junior, Dick Tracy's son in the comic strip Dick Tracy. Long ago he was married...

Karaoke wedding band ... you heard it here first

$ · August 25, 2024

Pardon My Planet, 8/25/24 Ha ha, you guys, you know how Superman has heat vision, right? Well, what if -- hear me out -- what if he was out with his...

Ed's talking like a man who wants to get outflanked by an armored division at his own wedding

$ · August 24, 2024

Marvin and Hi and Lois, 8/24/24 Jeff ... Hi ... you morons. You idiots. You absolute fools. You're already looking ahead to the passage of time, to the day...

Metapost: The week is done, the comments are here

$ · August 23, 2024

Friday = comment of the week day, LET'S DO THIS: "Mary pounding at the window, desperate to hear more about this estranged cousin situation. Former best...

Libya was an ITALIAN colony, you imbecile machine

$ · August 23, 2024

Crock, 8/23/24 An interesting phenomenon in the daily comics is that often during the strip's genesis, the creators come up with an odd conceit or bit that...

It really is fun. The comics are fun!

$ · August 22, 2024

Mary Worth, 8/22/24 Oh, he's listening, Estelle -- he's just horrified that you would think that, as a vet, he'd be OK with a zoo themed wedding. He has to...

Hey, have we established whether Estelle has ever had a real job

$ · August 21, 2024

Judge Parker, 8/21/24 You know, back in the day, young Sophie was real nerd who used to spend a lot of time on laptops analyzing grim data about wars and...

Bad scenes

$ · August 20, 2024

Rex Morgan, M.D., 8/20/24 Look, I've been to plenty of comedy open mics in my time, and the thing you have to keep in mind about them is that they are...

Estelle's really yelling "ESTRANGED" to try to pique Ed's interest and it's not working

$ · August 19, 2024

Slylock Fox, 8/19/24 Slylock is not alarmed because he knows about the square cube law, which dictates that this unnaturally enlarged mosquito's body will...

The Ghost Who Metas

$ · August 18, 2024

The Phantom, 8/18/24 A fun running bit in The Phantom is that we sometimes see original Phantom creator Lee Falk going about his day in pre-war Manhattan,...

Saturday nightmares

$ · August 17, 2024

Bizarro, 8/17/24 Hey, have you heard of the concept of "burial at sea?" Well, get this, what if there's a sort of cool party guy -- you know, the kind who...

Metapost: Highway to the COTW zone

$ · August 16, 2024

It's Friday morning, and you know what that means: your comment of the week has arrived: "Folks said please and thankee! That's it! Folks only knew two...

Mmm ... slop

$ · August 16, 2024

Blondie, 8/16/24 This strip may on first read seem entirely incoherent, but I actually think it nicely captures many people's instinctive take on generative...

Thursday emotional roller coaster

$ · August 15, 2024

Dennis the Menace, 8/15/24 Spent a long time ... no, that's a lie. I spent like 30 seconds trying to figure if there was a "joke" here per se. Like, is it...

Dennis should be into Charlie XCX, he's been in his brat era since 1951

$ · August 14, 2024

Dennis the Menace, 8/14/24 Despite the fact that she's a long-running fixture in a 73-year-old comic strip, I don't think Margaret has a particularly...

Sandwiches? More like SEXWICHES, amiright [everyone gets mad at me] sorry, I will try to do better

$ · August 13, 2024

Six Chix, 8/13/24 "Hey," you're probably wondering, "What's going on with the Tuesday Chik in Six Chix, who last we saw was in a romantic and sexual...

Orwellian Monday

$ · August 12, 2024

Sam and Silo, 8/12/24 Man, for a brief and shining moment, I thought we were going to start the week with a truly exciting Sam and Silo moment. "Now what?"...

Swift resolution Sunday

$ · August 11, 2024

Six Chix, 8/11/24 Honestly, to me, this didn't seem like a very desperate measure at all! It seems like she just mentally recited a nursery rhyme and that...

Lesser soaper Saturday

$ · August 10, 2024

Dick Tracy, 8/10/24 It looks like Dick Tracy is finally getting back to the "How is B-tier villain Silver Nitrate doing in the joint?" plot they teased us...

Metapost: Time-scrambled COTW

$ · August 9, 2024

Apologies again for, in my COVID-addled haze, posting so many posts on the wrong days this week! Rest assured, however, that I followed the twisting timeline...

Whoopsie Wednesday

$ · August 8, 2024

Alice, 8/7/24 The thing is that your boy Josh came down with COVID-19 last weekend, and while I am currently on the mend it made my brain a little loopy this...

Olympic irritations

$ · August 8, 2024

Family Circus, 8/8/24 "Steve Tracy" here annoys me so much, because it feels like I'm supposed to know who he is, and despite being the Comics Curmudgeon I...

Wednesday one-panels

$ · August 7, 2024

Dennis the Menace, 8/7/24 Look, I respect the effort here -- the fundmental underlying joke is pretty good, Alice's indignant facial expression is funny, and...

Tuesday quickies

$ · August 6, 2024

Curtis, 8/6/24 Oh, you don't think Curtis is cyber-savvy? Well, have you ever seen anyone post on a social media ... in trinary numbers before? Gasoline...

Monday is for bagpipes

$ · August 5, 2024

Dennis the Menace and Hagar the Horrible, 8/5/24 Ha ha, bagpipes, amiright folks? It's, uh, it's honestly pretty slim pickings in the comics today so that's...

Sunday revelations

$ · August 4, 2024

Marvin, 8/4/24 We all find ways justify our worst life decisions to ourselves. Like, just for example, imagine you've spent 20 years of your life reading and...

More like a ... bear-ot? Still workshopping this one

$ · August 3, 2024

Mark Trail, 8/3/24 Bill, I know you're very busy with all the jobs the editor of a modern 21st century publication like Woods and Wildlife has to handle...

Metapost: Commenting, weekly

$ · August 2, 2024

Your comment of the week is HERE! BAM! "For a 'Boy, that scheduled event sure is happening' type of easy 'topical' Blondie strip, today's offering is...

Dagwood should be speed-eating and marathon-sleeping, why are they biffing this so badly

$ · August 2, 2024

Blondie, 8/2/24 It's always been very clear that Blondie takes place in one of the most whitebread towns imaginable, but I still think it's pretty funny that...

Don't think the Amish are really into orange, either

$ · August 1, 2024

Tina's Groove, 8/1/24 I'm honestly really starting to enjoy the 15-years-ago-ness of the Tina's Groove strips offered up daily by the King Features website;...

Babies/baseball

$ · July 31, 2024

Hi and Lois, 7/31/24 Trixie Flagston has, notoriously, been a baby for nearly 70 years, longer than most of us have been alive, and thought-balloons in...

I refuse to believe that anyone in Hootin' Holler actually has that much money

$ · July 30, 2024

Mary Worth, 7/30/24 A recurring question that arises in the increasingly Wilbur-focused era of Mary Worth we find ourselves in is: are we getting so much...

Monday is for dads

$ · July 29, 2024

Dustin, 7/29/24 Absolutely one of the most heartbreaking things about Dustin is that Dustin's dad is a cruel asshole who will never love his son, and Dustin...