The Comics Curmudgeon

"Rewarding financially, I mean, obviously"

$ · October 19, 2023

Shoe, 10/19/23 I've complained about this before, but Shoe has a long-established setting where the various bird characters get drunk and hit on one another,...

You think those lasers can't simply be danced through? You sweet summer child

$ · October 18, 2023

Dick Tracy, 10/18/23 Oh no! Why would you build a huge wing on the back of your mansion that has an entirely glass ceiling? Why, you're just asking for...

Tuesday is for the future

$ · October 17, 2023

Slylock Fox, 10/17/23 Ahh, an idyllic barnyard scene, featuring various animals relaxing and frolicking with one another, showing no sings of the advanced...

Gonna be hard to repurpose that thing if they hire a turtle detective or whatever

$ · October 16, 2023

Dick Tracy, 10/16/23 Dick Tracy loves gadgets, of course, but I assume he's bored and vaguely disgusted with fancy "forensics," because they allows...

Sunday quickies

$ · October 15, 2023

Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/15/23 So the exciting (?) Mud/Rene kidnapping plot is over (??), and I gotta say probably the perfect sum up to any given Rex Morgan,...

Fun wordplay, fun wordplay ... oh NO

$ · October 14, 2023

Mary Worth, 10/14/23 Uh oh! Keith may have been willing to agreed to disagree on whether or not society should be allowed to disintegrate into chaos, but my...

Metapost: Keep on truckin' COTW

$ · October 13, 2023

It's the freakin' weekend, everyone, and that means it's the freakin' comment of the freakin' week! "Personally, I wish more comics were like today's Beetle...

Does Lt. Fuzz have the same hair situation as Charlie Brown

$ · October 12, 2023

Beetle Bailey, 10/12/23 I don't know if General Halftrack's rambling comeback here is supposed to be funny (it isn't) or if it's supposed to indicate that...

Maybe she likes chaos, Keith, you ever think about that

$ · October 11, 2023

Mary Worth, 10/13/23 Look, I know Sonia here is supposed to be an angry neo-hippie and is riffing on the fact that she's arguing with her father, or "daddy,"...

Wednesday is for America going down the TUBES

$ · October 11, 2023

Mary Worth, 10/11/23 Wow, this current Mary Worth storyline is really upping the moral stakes from "Dogs: Are they good, or should we encourage them to fight...

Legacy cases

$ · October 10, 2023

Blondie, 10/10/23 I once saw an interview with John Singleton and Stephanie Allain, the producers of the movie Hustle and Flow, about a scene where the...

The Perfesser is actually a really successful author, he's just depressed for reasons unrelated to his career

$ · October 9, 2023

Mary Worth, 10/9/23 An opinion I'm coming around to more and more is that it's kind of silly to expect comics as a medium to be "realistic," as they have to...

Sexy Sunday

$ · October 8, 2023

The Phantom, 10/8/23 The Phantom is a comic strip first launched in 1936 about a lineage of white guys who've lived in Africa for hundreds of years and...

Mostly children

$ · October 7, 2023

Blondie, 10/7/23 As a rule, I try to keep my contact with young people to an absolute minimum, so maybe I'm wrong, but it's not really normal for a kid to...

Metapost: The best comment? Of MY week? It's more likely than you think

$ · October 6, 2023

Folks! It's Friday and here's your COTW! "Rex isn't shocked; he's incredulous. He thinks he can Barney Google his way out of having to appear in his...

Electrifying Friday

$ · October 6, 2023

Mary Worth, 10/6/23 Oh, root beer? You guys both love root beer? You'd describe it as your "favorite"? Well, I think we can forget DNA tests or the...

The cycle of comics life

$ · October 5, 2023

Between Friends, 10/5/23 Many years ago, when I first started this blog, it was called "I Read The Comics So You Don't Have To," and sometimes I feel I've...

Dangerous Wednesday

$ · October 4, 2023

Blondie, 10/4/23 Look, I'm not going to say that this guy is a spitting image rendition of Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men, but his...

Tuesday quickies

$ · October 3, 2023

Mary Worth, 10/3/23 "I believe otherwise and, I can paint a fuller picture for you"? This isn't an episode of Columbo, just say you got his address from...

He still likes the Mets, though, right? That seems very important to his character

$ · October 2, 2023

Mary Worth, 10/2/23 Do you think Mary aggressively pesters new Charterstone residents to accept her casserole-based hospitality because she wants them to...

Honestly hoping it's just a slightly smaller version of Keith

$ · October 1, 2023

Mary Worth, 10/1/23 OK, I had a whole thing ready to go here about how the Sunday strips represent Mary's self-aggrandizing memories/interpretations of...

Mostly criminal Saturday

$ · September 30, 2023

Hagar the Horrible, 9/30/23 I think it's very interesting that Hagar is ostentatiously drinking from a golden chalice in this strip. He and his warband have...

Metapost: Are you ready for COTW? [dance beats kick in]

$ · September 29, 2023

Get ready to party all weekend with the comment of the week! "The key to success in crime, Rene thought, is finding people dumb enough not to file kidnapping...

Even the courthouse has a patched blanket wall, sad

$ · September 29, 2023

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 9/29/23 Believe me, if there's one bit of empathy doing this blog for multiple decades has granted me, it's the understanding...

Dennis is CANCELLED (from existence itself)

$ · September 28, 2023

Dennis the Menace, 9/28/23 Look, Mr. Wilson, I know your irritating neighbor has pushed you to the brink of madness, but when a couple renews their vows,...

Why does Dagwood go to the barber all the time when his hair is always the same length

$ · September 27, 2023

Crock, 9/27/23 It might seem incongruent to think of colonizers as sentimental, but many have a certain image of the colonized as a backwards but noble...

The dogs are in on it too, this is worse than we thought

$ · September 26, 2023

Hagar the Horrible, 9/26/23 That big sweatball coming off of Lucky Eddie in the first panel tells the whole story here. "Ha ha, I'm a guy who's crazy about...

Soapy Monday

$ · September 25, 2023

Gasoline Alley, 9/25/23 Oh, man, were you wondering what happened in the story of the lost little boy who was about to be taken away from his talking bear...

Did he have those custom made, or did he paint them, or what

$ · September 24, 2023

Pardon My Planet, 9/24/23 Man, I have to say that I wildly misinterpreted this comic at first, thinking this dude was doing some kind of corporate...

Saturday quickies

$ · September 23, 2023

Pluggers, 9/23/23 Not sure if the joke here is supposed to be "pluggers are bad at using tools" or "pluggers plan in advance for possible accidents," but...

Metapost: COTY? No, COTW

$ · September 22, 2023

This week's top comment won't get a major award at a banquet, but it's still worthy of praise! "Naturally there's a whole back room set up, complete with...

Bird facts Friday

$ · September 22, 2023

Shoe, 9/22/23 Perfesser Cosmo Fishhawk is, according to the (alarmingly detailed) table in the Shoe Wikipedia page, an osprey, and ospreys, according to the...

I'm not married to it being human, I guess

$ · September 21, 2023

Blondie, 9/21/23 Way back in 2006 -- which, I take no pleasure in reporting, was a full 17 years ago -- there was a weird rash of syndicated newspaper comic...

RETVRN to Worthian tradition, reject Wilburian modernity

$ · September 20, 2023

Mary Worth, 9/20/23 You know, if you're a Worth-head come lately, you might think of Mary Worth as a strip primarily about a core rotating cast of characters...

Tuesday quickies

$ · September 19, 2023

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 9/19/23 Sadly, due to the free availability of firearms and ongoing unchecked clan warefare, PTSD is endemic among the...

The alien on the right is EXTREMELY high

$ · September 18, 2023

Slylock Fox, 9/18/23 I love how the narrator (reflecting official Forest Kingdom Regime propaganda) just has Slylock "overhearing" this conversation, like...

He's got meaty forearms and a way with packing tape

$ · September 17, 2023

Crock, 9/17/23 I'm going to choose to believe that this strip is one where the Crock creative team retained a flicker of memory that this strip is in fact...

Saturday shoutouts

$ · September 16, 2023

Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/16/23 Shoutout to Rex Morgan, which, when its armed kidnapping plot rapidly devolved into discussions about the easiest way to transfer...

Metapost: Friday COTWy baby

$ · September 15, 2023

I don't really know what that post title is supposed to mean either, except that it's time for your comment of the week! "Loretta forgot the number one rule...

Enter the CYBER-SENIOR

$ · September 15, 2023

Mary Worth, 9/15/23 Ahh, it's Friday, so that means that this eternal plot has got to be wrapping up and we'll finally be moving on to someth-- oh no. Oh no....

They actually aren't funny, Elmo. Your mom is, once again, correct

$ · September 14, 2023

Dustin, 9/14/23 Apologies (?) for not showing you yesterday's Dustin, which consisted of Dustin asking his dad to guess the global gross domestic product,...

Am I jaded or as out of touch as the <i>Blondie</i> brain trust? Or BOTH

$ · September 13, 2023

Shoe, 9/13/23 A comic strip is such a condensed bit of storytelling that I generally think it should do one joke and and do it well. Today's Shoe, for...

Once you're on the plane, all bets are off

$ · September 12, 2023

Dick Tracy, 9/12/23 Sprocket Nitrate has managed to extract herself from the crumbling criminal enterprise in which she was entangled and has laid her hands...

Henry wears a pocket square to church, he's a real class act

$ · September 11, 2023

Hi and Lois, 9/11/23 Sometimes it can be easy to forget that we live in an age of technological wonders. For instance, if you have a leak in your house, you...

Sunday madness

$ · September 10, 2023

Shoe, 9/10/23 I don't play poker so I don't know if it's normal for three friends to be randomly assigned a total stranger as a fourth player for a game in a...

Shazam is also there, we're mixing cinematic universes

$ · September 9, 2023

Blondie, 9/9/23 Are you guys still playing Wordle? I am, and sorry if that isn't cool anymore, I guess I just like having fun, but the reason I'm aware that...

Metapost: Y'all know what time it is (it's COTW time)

$ · September 8, 2023

Your top comment of the week is here ... right now! "Nosy the Riveter" --Windier E. Megatons, on Bluesky And your hilarious runners up! "Nice of the Judge to...

High and low

$ · September 8, 2023

Rex Morgan, M.D, 9/8/23 The thing about Rene is that he's just physically incapable of not doing crimes. Like, did he develop a self-improvement philosophy...

Children, animals, etc.

$ · September 7, 2023

Gasoline Alley, 9/7/23 Hey, remember the human baby who was abandoned in the woods and rescued by a talking bear? Well, the bear viciously bared his teeth...

Blondie and Dagwood are just shocked that Elmo interacts with other adults

$ · September 6, 2023

Six Chix, 9/6/23 One of the sad paradoxes of aging is that pets can be a great source of comfort and happiness for older people, but many rightfully worry...