The Comics Curmudgeon

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...

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...