The Comics Curmudgeon

Uncanny Monday

$ · October 13, 2025

Mary Worth, 10/13/25 OK, sorry, Mary, I know you don't want to think too hard about the strange logic of Olive's powers and the implications for free will...

10/12, uh, blaze it? Do I have that right?

$ · October 12, 2025

Panel from Slylock Fox, 10/12/25 Look, by anthropomorphic animal logic, it's fine to have an anthropomorphic animal wearing a shirt but no pants or...

Absolutely not necessary to use Muffy's name in dialogue BTW. Adds nothing

$ · October 11, 2025

Shoe, 10/11/25 OK, the fact that this person she dated is named "Lance" pushes this over the edge and makes me genuinely wonder if he's supposed to be an...

Metapost: KAPOW! It's the COTW

$ · October 10, 2025

Wham, bam, thank you faithful commenters for your service! Here's this week's comment of the week: "Saul is over in panel one, pursuing his passion:...

They teach you the tip o' the helmet in firefighter school

$ · October 10, 2025

Mary Worth, 10/10/25 Mary's looking pretty frazzled in panel two, and who can blame her, what with her having just been in a freak balloon accident and then...

Elder Thursday

$ · October 9, 2025

Crankshaft, 10/9/25 Look, characters in comic strips are, ultimately, not real people, and while you can chuckle at their antics, you ultimately shouldn't...

Remember that comic that used to be about Christian cavemen? Well, I've got some interesting news

$ · October 8, 2025

B.C., 10/8/25 I find it funny that [pause to once again consult the character list in the "B.C. (comic strip)" Wikipedia article because I can't remember...

It's the greatly attractive pumpkin, Charlie Brown

$ · October 7, 2025

Mary Worth, 10/7/25 This polite jockeying about who should climb down from the balloon first is getting to "a farmer needs to get a chicken, a fox, and a bag...

Monday is gross and confusing

$ · October 6, 2025

Alice, 10/6/25 We all know of course about the various beloved characters in Alice, the normal comic strip we all read every day and fully understand: Alice,...

Even passive enjoyment leaves pluggers exhausted

$ · October 5, 2025

Dick Tracy, 10/5/25 Longtime readers of this blog know that I have a lot of favorite etymological facts. One of those favorites is that the word...

Balloons? These guys know how to party

$ · October 4, 2025

Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/4/25 Oh, man, Rex and June thought they were going to have an early night of it, but now it looks like they'll be up late spinning an...

Metapost: C to the O to the T to the W

$ · October 3, 2025

My name's the Comics Curmudgeon and I'm here to say/ It's COTW time in a major way! "Ah yes, the old story of the charismatic front man* being tempted to...

Friday is for drugs

$ · October 3, 2025

Wizard of Id, 10/3/25 It absolutely makes sense that people hear "New York" and think of New York City -- the city is a world cultural capital, is the...

We haven't even heard "Muddy Boots" yet, come on guys

$ · October 2, 2025

Gearhead Gertie, 10/2/25 I was actually visiting a friend in Durham on the day Dale Earnhardt died, a date that I will always think of as "North Carolina's...

More comics should be drawn from a ground-level POV

$ · October 1, 2025

Dennis the Menace, 10/1/25 I was thinking the other day about how Dagwood Bumstead and Hi Flagston have extremely generic jobs. Technically Dagwood is an...

Is there a less plugger sport than tennis? Cricket, maybe

$ · September 30, 2025

Hagar the Horrible, 9/30/25 Hagar is the protagonist of this strip, so we usually see things from his perspective, and I have to admit I never really tried...

Can't I enjoy my glass of wine and [squints] potato undisturbed

$ · September 29, 2025

Crock, 9/29/25 The point of this joke is of course that it's annoying when a telemarketer (perhaps one offering you a "banking credit card") interrupts you...

Sunday is for old people

$ · September 28, 2025

Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/28/25 Well, I guess Truck's not-son Cody did in fact come out ahead of beloved (?) tween neo-vaudeville novelty act "Shorty and the...

Generation gaps

$ · September 27, 2025

Judge Parker, 9/27/25 Look, we're all young and hip here [laughs nervously], but the truth is that the soap opera strips are a very traditional medium and...

Metapost: Fallin' for the COTW

$ · September 26, 2025

We're officially in autumn now, folks, so take a big swig of that pumpkin spice latte [note to intern: find more up-to-date seasonal joke here, maybe find...

Unpleasant Friday

$ · September 26, 2025

Beetle Bailey, 9/26/25 Perverts turned on by crudely drawn cartoons everywhere were devastated this week when Beetle Bailey skipped its usual "Miss Buxley...

I guess technically speaking they still have to get out of the tree first

$ · September 25, 2025

Mary Worth, 9/25/25 Wow, back in the day, you could write a long, crazy yarn about an unlikely trio hot-air-balloon-crashing into the remote woods, where...

"Dropping" is a much nicer way to put it than "crashing," let's go with that

$ · September 24, 2025

Crock, 9/24/25 In my freshman year of college, there was an outbreak of E. coli at various Jack in the Boxes that killed four children, and a friend of mine...

"Pluggers" has fallen

$ · September 23, 2025

Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/23/25 Last we saw of Truck and Cody, they had agreed to treat each other as honorary father and son and it was all very heartwarming. But...

Up up and away

$ · September 22, 2025

Mary Worth, 9/22/25 As promised/threatened, Mary has taken Olive to the Santa Royale Hot Air Balloon Festival! You know, hot air ballooning, the classic...

Odd jobs

$ · September 21, 2025

Blondie, 9/21/25 Comics Time is a damn complicated thing. Dagwood and Blondie are both relatively young parents of teenagers, which caused some of you to...

Not even going to get into how sad having Buck as your best man would be

$ · September 20, 2025

Blondie, 9/20/25 My favorite part of this Blondie strip is "40 reps of what?" Like, she knows that this is some elaborate Dagwood bullshit and she's trying...

Metapost: It is time. Time ... for the comments. Comments ......... of the week

$ · September 19, 2025

Your top comment ............... right here .......................... right now: "I have to assume the Perfesser was examined in the conference room because...

Pluggers and plugging in

$ · September 19, 2025

Pluggers, 9/19/25 Look, you know I can be a little spicy when it comes to pluggers and their culture and values, but I'm not made of stone. I don't wish ill...

Not going to try to transcribe a comical French accent, just imagine it

$ · September 18, 2025

Judge Parker, 9/18/25 I'm never exactly sure how old Sam and Abbey are supposed to be -- yes, they're the parents of two women who are both in their early to...

Too many Harwoods

$ · September 17, 2025

Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/17/25 I am really enjoying the quiet desperation of Yvonne's facial expression as she tries to convey to Rex and June how crazy-making...

More about time

$ · September 16, 2025

Mary Worth, 9/16/25 It's not exactly clear how much time in-strip is supposed to have elapsed between the current storyline and Olive's original appearance...

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...