The Comics Curmudgeon

This is the most unwell plugger I've ever seen, which is honestly saying something

$ · September 15, 2025

Pluggers, 9/15/25 A friend of mine in Baltimore, widely known for always looking younger than she was, when asked for her secret said, "Never make a noise...

She can also swim, I guess, but that seems pretty normal

$ · September 14, 2025

Mary Worth, 9/14/25 So, adding to the list of Olive's Known Powers: she can predict the movements of air conditioning units, she can "see” people "in front"...

Life is very long when you're Blondie

$ · September 13, 2025

Blondie, 9/13/25 Blondie began in 1930, in a world now mostly alien to us, but it was originally a story about urban hipsters: a young woman who the artists...

Metapost: Slightly early comment of the week

$ · September 12, 2025

Sorry folks, things to do, places to be, comment of the week to post: "Well, I must admit, I have never seen 'yikes' used in a cartoon that conveys so...

I guess you really have to ... hand it to them [everyone starts yelling at me]

$ · September 12, 2025

Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/12/25 Say what you will about Rex Morgan, M.D., but it is straight-up killing it in the "characters make interestingly exaggerated hand...

Tales out of school

$ · September 11, 2025

Luann, 9/11/25 Many years ago, when I was a TA in grad school, I had a very precocious undergraduate student who used to come to office hours to hang out and...

The fish skeleton I just accept. There's always a fish skeleton in these

$ · September 10, 2025

Slylock Fox, 9/10/25 This is one of the most baffling Six Differences cartoons I've seen in quite a while. Why does the horse have a butt wound? Why does he...

She's flying AWAY from New York, she should be singing "California" by Phantom Planet

$ · September 9, 2025

Mary Worth, 9/9/25 Mary Worth's use of bold font is ... let's say, unconventional, but I do think that Olive's word balloon in the second panel being...

A real force of alcoholic nature

$ · September 8, 2025

The Lockhorns, 9/8/25 Now, one of Loretta's running gripes with Leroy is that he doesn't make enough money for her tastes, so we can be certain that her shoe...

Does he think she can buy her own plane tickets or what

$ · September 7, 2025

Mary Worth, 9/7/25 I myself am not a parent and don't presume to fully understand how they have to balance between fiercely protecting their children and...

Saturday is for death

$ · September 6, 2025

Beetle Bailey, 9/6/25 Hmm, Sarge managed to knock himself unconscious after landing on his tailbone, presumably from some shockwave that went up his spine,...

Metapost: Slightly delayed COTW

$ · September 5, 2025

Sorry, a little late in the day I know, but here ... is your comment ... of the week! "Poor Charlie Brown. Once, he was a global icon, the Everyman...

RIP Norway, 872-950 AD

$ · September 5, 2025

Hagar the Horrible, 9/5/25 Real Hagar heads know that Hagar is illiterate, and while Lucky Eddie also was at one point, he later learned to read and write. I...

Wednesday quickies

$ · September 4, 2025

Family Circus, 9/4/25 Ha ha, look at Jeffy's face! He knows it's not good! But he doesn't have the gumption to be mad about it, just sad! Hagar the Horrible,...

What about women's driving ability, relative to men? Some delightful material there, I'm sure!

$ · September 3, 2025

Mother Goose and Grimm, 9/3/25 Hopefully by now you are all well acquainted with my beef with how comic strips depict the relationship between dogs and fire...

Measured criticism for Tuesday

$ · September 2, 2025

Beetle Bailey, 9/2/25 Now, I'm not a big shot syndicated newspaper comics artist, but I think that if you have a joke where a general tells a subordinate...

Some cyber-gripes

$ · September 1, 2025

Crock, 9/1/25 Even if you hate Crock with a passion, you don't read it every day for 20+ years without learning a little something about its character...

Egyptomania

$ · August 31, 2025

Mary Worth, 8/31/25 Yes, Olive, you "saw" that she was struggling in the water, with your "eyes," as she was immediately in "front" of you as you stood on...

Ancient-ish times

$ · August 30, 2025

Hagar the Horrible, 8/30/25 Look, despite the fun ("fun") I have here detailing all the anachronisms in Hagar the Horrible, I do in fact get that the...

Metapost: Summer's end COTW

$ · August 29, 2025

Forget the equinox: We all know September and the school year herald the end of summer as we know it. So enjoy this last pre-fall comment of the week:...

Hell is for (and created by) children

$ · August 29, 2025

Dennis the Menace, 8/29/25 We take the eternal struggle between Dennis and Mr. Wilson so much for granted that it rarely occurs to us to ask what Dennis gets...

Troubling biology

$ · August 28, 2025

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/28/25 Imagine: You've just finished putting together the script for a perfectly serviceable Barney Google and Snuffy Smith...

Belated change belatedly acknowledged

$ · August 27, 2025

B.C., 8/27/25 A fun thing that happened in B.C. about halfway through the decade or so when I was ignoring it is that the Cute Chick and the Fat Broad got...

Tuesday quickies

$ · August 26, 2025

Six Chix, 8/26/25 Look, in the Tuesday Chixiverse, people have sex with sandwiches and pizza, so I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss out of hand anything...

Real sad situations

$ · August 25, 2025

Beetle Bailey, 8/25/25 Comedy is, in large part, the art of subverting your audience's expectations in ways they find pleasing. So you could see how it might...

Sunday is for teens and/or birds

$ · August 24, 2025

Shoe, 8/24/25 You of course all know that one of my favorite things to grapple with in every Shoe strip that's even vaguely bird-related is "Did the Shoe...

Gloomy Saturday

$ · August 23, 2025

The Lockhorns, 8/23/25 Look, I don't know how they can make it any more obvious that the Lockhorns are millennials. Today's panel deploys one of the most...

Metapost: Foreshortened COTW

$ · August 22, 2025

Slightly shorter list of comments of the week for a somewhat shorter week on my part, but this week's top comment still delivers the laffs! "Really liking...

Violence (on-screen, on-course, etc.)

$ · August 22, 2025

Luann, 8/22/25 In the current Luann plot, Tiffany has dragged Les to a spa to get a mani-pedi and other treatments, and has been annoyed that he still wants...

Thursday updates

$ · August 21, 2025

Mary Worth, 8/21/25 Mary Worth Update: Olive rushed into the surf and saved her drowning classmate, is one way to describe what happened, although another...

Casual cruelty

$ · August 20, 2025

Blondie, 8/20/25 Blondie generally has its finger on the pulse of what old people are doing on the computer, which is why I'm a little disappointed to see...

Marital discord (implied in Andy's case)

$ · August 19, 2025

Gil Thorp, 8/19/25 When Gil says he's "trying not to take it personally" that his ex wife is now "play[ing] for the other side," you probably think he's...

Triumphant return comics: Sadness, murder, etc.

$ · August 18, 2025

Folks! I am back from my vacation, I am tanned, rested, and ready, and I am diving back into that most beloved of all artistic mediums: the daily comics! Big...

World of Animals VIII

August 17, 2025

"Welcome to World of Animals, an occasional feature; I'm your beloved host Carl, now AI-enhanced! (Although I'm not entirely sure it's my best look.) Anyway,...

Get along, little Chrysomallon squamiferum, and never you roam …

August 16, 2025

So ends the Comics Curmudgeon Summer Fundraiser. For more than 20 years, through economic crises, the collapse of print journalism, a global pandemic, and...

Full disclosure

August 15, 2025

Click the banner to contribute by PayPal, or here for other options. Omigosh you guys it's the very last day of the Comics Curmudgeon Summer Fundraiser!...

Hither and yon (mostly yon)

August 14, 2025

Click the banner to contribute by PayPal, or here for other options. The Comics Curmudgeon Summer Fundraiser is in full swing! Swing along, with a generous...

Mostly cussin'

August 13, 2025

Click the banner to contribute by PayPal, or here for other options. The Comics Curmudgeon Summer Fundraiser offers so many ways to contribute, it boggles...

Short 'n' snippy

August 12, 2025

Click the banner to contribute by PayPal, or here for other options. It's the Comics Curmudgeon Summer Fundraiser, celebrating more than two decades of high-...

It's the 2025 Comics Curmudgeon Summer Fundraiser!

August 11, 2025

Click the banner to contribute by PayPal, or here for other options. It's the Summer Fundraiser for the Comics Curmudgeon, now in its third decade of...

But then how do they calculate the vig?

August 11, 2025

Dick Tracy, 8/11/25 Sam, Lizz, and Lee are searching the apartment of loan shark Sphyrna, murdered by tech whiz Theresa Lakoyle with her glowing gun....

Inside ball

August 10, 2025

Phantom, 8/10/25 One of Phantom's many charms is its meticulous attention to aviation history. That doomed B-17F Flying Fortress is the Miss Nonalee II,...

Water sports

August 9, 2025

Marvin, 8/9/25 Sincere thanks to the editors who demanded that Marvin's creative team add the garden hose, change the punchline, and recolor the runoff....

Metapost: COTW before the storm (the storm being me going on vacation)

$ · August 8, 2025

Hi all! Your comment of the week in a moment, but first, a programming note: I'll be on vacation for the next week and change and will leave you in the hands...

Beach troubles

$ · August 8, 2025

Family Circus, 8/8/25 The whole gimmick of "NOT ME" is that the Keane Kids say "not me!" when confronted with naughty things that they have, in fact, done....

Gertie is possibly already drunk. Trouble brewing

$ · August 7, 2025

Andy Capp, 8/7/25 You would think that Andy sustaining an injury at "punk rock night" would send me down my usual rabbit-hole of "in what year does Andy Capp...

Wednesday quickies

$ · August 6, 2025

Blondie, 8/6/25 Look, obviously Mr. Dithers is an asshole, but also Dagwood is talking to his wife on speaker while standing like six inches away from...

Can they do telegraphy? I'd like to see the variant they'd do with telegraphy

$ · August 5, 2025

Herb and Jamaal, 8/5/25 "I guess this would be considered illegal..." Hmm, what's he reading about? Sounds juicy "...if they didn't call it a law." Ah, I get...

Weirdly's logo-portrait is pretty cute honestly

$ · August 4, 2025

Slylock Fox, 8/4/25 You might remember a few years back when supposed genius entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes started a company called Theranos that could run...

Curtis will be sorry when Barry achieves samsara and he has nobody to harass

$ · August 3, 2025

Rex Morgan, M.D., 8/3/25 Cody may not be a blood relative to Truck, but they do have stuff in common: they're both musicians, and they're both aficionados of...