The Comics Curmudgeon
Subscribe
Archives
Aging Saturday
$ · February 5, 2022
Mother Goose and Grimm, 2/5/22 Just in case you need more evidence of what the typical newspaper comic-reading demographic is, the joke here is that the...
Mostly disgusting Friday
$ · February 4, 2022
Dustin, 2/4/22 "I mean, why would I stress about that? That whole thing is Dustin's generation's problem, and I don't even like him! Anyway, if anyone needs...
Metapost: COTW? COTW!
$ · February 4, 2022
Like the sands through the hourglass, so goes the COTW: "I love how Harry's expression changes between the first and final panels. 'Jello shooters? I don't...
Josh has questions
$ · February 3, 2022
Funky Winkerbean, 2/3/22 Look, whatever, I’m perfectly fine with the idea of beleaguered band parents getting bombed while at their kids extracurricular...
Where are the highs, huh? Show me one high! THE TIME WE THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD DOESN'T COUNT
$ · February 2, 2022
Mary Worth, 2/2/22 No. No! No! You’re backsliding, Mary! I’m not sure what sort of brain parasite Wilbur slipped into your tea back in 2014 or so, but for a...
CGI technology isn't advanced enough to bring Walt to the screen
$ · February 1, 2022
Gasoline Alley, 2/1/22 Folks, for a long time I’ve been trying to ignore the fact that there’s a movie coming out called Gasoline Alley. As near as I can...
Monday is for introspection
$ · January 31, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/31/22 Look, have we be burned by Mary Worth before? Yes. Obviously. Repeatedly. Repeatedly in this storyline alone. But I honestly am beginning...
Sunday is for mortality
$ · January 30, 2022
Family Circus, 1/30/21 Shoutout to Big Daddy Keane’s mom for pulling a true mother-in-law power move here. “Oh, is my son annoying you? Do you want him to...
Chip is trying to hold it together and not doing a great job
$ · January 29, 2022
Hi and Lois, 1/29/22 Man, all the facial expressions in that last panel are great: Hi and Lois, desperate to salvage whatever joy they can from their planned...
Circle of live and/or death
$ · January 28, 2022
Funky Winkerbean, 1/28/22 Sad (?) news, everyone: it turns out Lisa didn’t fake her death after all. Instead, it seems that Les literally couldn’t tell the...
Metapost: End-of-month COTW
$ · January 28, 2022
Your top comment? It's right here, for you! "Nothing but wholesome tap water for our boy Dick, thank you. And no ice. Don't forget, people in hell want ice...
Plus the bird medical system! They're a better race than us
$ · January 27, 2022
Blondie, 1/27/22 Definitely my favorite character in today's Blondie is Dagwood's nameless co-worker, who's just sipping his coffee and watching Dagwood post...
Your tears will salt his next margarita
$ · January 26, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/26/22 I hate to say that Mary doesn't understand even the basic outlines of the personalities of the people she spends all her time with, but I...
Three panels of Dustin flailing wildly would've been infinitely better than this
$ · January 25, 2022
Dustin, 1/25/21 Dustin of course has a core mission of depicting the life of the shiftless, no-good kids today, as interpreted by someone who’s only heard...
Plus does Wilbur even have a "soul," honestly
$ · January 24, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/24/22 It’s definitely an interesting choice to show Wilbur’s loved ones sobbing over his death after we’ve already been shown that he’s not...
Your hate just makes Wilbur STRONGER
$ · January 23, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/23/22 Oh my GOD, the island ISN’T EVEN DESERTED, Wilbur is going to be FINE, just FINE. I don’t want to overstate things, but this is...
Walker-Browne weekend
$ · January 22, 2022
Hi and Lois, 1/22/22 You have to respect the unspoken shorthand these two best pals share. If they were mere acquaintances, Thirsty would have to do a lot...
Friday mostly quickies
$ · January 21, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/21/22 Look, would we all be happier if Wilbur were dead? Absolutely. But, things being as they are, can we at least look forward to watching...
How did he lose his shoe and not his glasses???? I hate him
$ · January 20, 2022
Marvin, 1/20/22 Today’s Marvin is a good Rorschach test for readers. Where did your mind go immediately after reading this? Are you a pedant who looked up...
The only thing more boring than art crime is art perjury
$ · January 19, 2022
Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/19/22 Well, it looks like Rex has only one chance to stave off total financial annihilation in the Case Of The Intellectual Property...
Did they try to make his eyes kind of sexy? I hate this
$ · January 18, 2022
Dick Tracy, 1/18/22 Oh, look, everybody, it’s another quick Dick Tracy Minit Mystery, starring [steadfastly refuses to do any actual research on the relative...
HE SHOULDN'T BE ALIVE
$ · January 17, 2022
Marvin, 1/17/21 Man, say what you will about Marvins where the joke is about pooping or peeing, but at least I have some grip on what’s happening in those...
Crime and punishment
$ · January 16, 2022
Panel from Slylock Fox, 1/16/22 I just want to offer my 100% unironic appreciation of everything going on in this panel. I love the weird angle we're seeing...
Mostly one-panels
$ · January 15, 2022
Mother Goose and Grimm, 1/15/22 One of the last pure pleasures of social media is when some bizarre bit of pop culture ephemera from decades past gets...
Metapost: COTW + WILBURMERCH
$ · January 14, 2022
Folks, do you want to spend seventy-two American dollars for a framed print of the strip where Wilbur Weston may have fallen off a cruise ship to his death?...
"Increase our speed! He's swimming closer!"
$ · January 14, 2022
Dick Tracy, 1/14/22 When Apple rolled out the Apple Watch in 2015, probably a lot of comics nerds out there were like "Oh, a watch computer that helps you...
Today's Lockhorns is just a joke about Leroy liking TV, I'm not even going to bother with it
$ · January 13, 2022
Dustin and Funky Winkerbean, 2/13/22 The general vibe of the newspaper comics industry is small-c conservative -- that is, it's mostly created by older...
Pleasure cruise
$ · January 12, 2022
Pluggers, 1/12/22 At long last, we get an answer to the eternal “what is a plugger?” question, and it’s this: a plugger is anyone who isn’t afflicted with...
It's a big ocean out there, so hear me out: Don't bother looking
$ · January 11, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/11/22 I've been to Rome twice in my life, in 1999 and 2002, and by an odd coincidence both visits were at the same time as big events for the...
Step out of the shade and into the SUN OF GLORY
$ · January 10, 2022
Slylock Fox, 1/10/21 This is at least the third time this mystery has appeared in Slylock Fox: it showed up in 2013, with exactly the same art albeit with...
Deadly Sunday
$ · January 9, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/9/22 Oh, hey, so, uh, Wilbur died, everybody! Wilbur … died? I mean, maybe he didn’t die, I have a hard time believing they’re killing off...
Gross and sad
$ · January 8, 2022
Marvin, 1/8/22 I know what you’re thinking: How could Jeff possibly be this theatrically disgusted by his dog’s poop, when we know (we know because it’s...
Metapost: Back to the grind, back to the COTW
$ · January 7, 2022
Folks ... it's your very first comment of the new year! Enjoy! "Grandma holds her spoon the way Mary Worth holds a cell phone. That spoon is going to miss...
ELMO: ORIGINS
$ · January 7, 2022
Blondie, 1/7/22 If you’re a longtime reader of this blog, you know that Elmo is one of my Blondie obsessions. Who is he? Where are his parents? Why does he...
Bad news Thursday
$ · January 6, 2022
Crankshaft, 1/6/21 I didn't watch Netflix's Bridgerton, but there was a brief window in late 2020 and early 2021 when online discourse about it was...
It's time for Wilbur's "I'm the king of the world!" moment (he'll be alone, and crying)
$ · January 5, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/5/22 I think we were all ready to read the end-of-year Mary Worth lull as representing an at least temporary shift away from Wilbur’s romantic...
Vote early, vote often!
$ · January 4, 2022
Mary Worth, 1/4/22 Ha ha, yes, Wilbur, this is absolutely great, completely ignore Estelle's body language and just demand that she recite these vows you...
TRIUMPHAN22 RE22URN COMICS FOR 2022!!!!
$ · January 3, 2022
Hello everybody! Welcome back to the Comics Curmudgeon, your #1 blogging website for syndicated newspaper commentary! How was your holiday experience over...
Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good next 7 to 12 days
$ · December 24, 2021
Curtis, 12/24/21 The most recent Curtis storyline has invovled our hero chaperoning Michelle to and from the dentist in her family limo because she’s...
Alexander and Dagwood are basically identical but have different noses and now I can't stop staring at them
$ · December 23, 2021
Blondie, 12/23/21 Not to be smug, but the idea that cowboys on long-range cattle drives would kill the cows they were being paid to transport to market and...
Tender AND mild? In this economy?
$ · December 22, 2021
Dennis the Menace, 12/22/21 I’m sorry, I absolutely refuse to believe that a kid who goes to church on the regular would know what a “manger” is but also...
Terrible babies (including Wilbur)
$ · December 21, 2021
Baby Blues, 12/21/21 Video is an illusion, a series of still images run in sequence so quickly that your brain can't perceive them as individual pictures and...
Tess is in real danger of missing her one allotted smile for the month
$ · December 20, 2021
Dick Tracy, 12/20/21 I know I should be focusing on the fact that Blackjack, a member of Dick's rogue gallery, owned a collection of Dick Tracy memorabilia...
Sunday mostly panels
$ · December 19, 2021
Panel from Slylock Fox, 12/19/21 I initially assumed the solution to this mystery would be animal fact based: bears really do eat salmon and raccoons really...
Too much eye contact
$ · December 18, 2021
Mary Worth, 12/18/21 I may have said this before, but I feel like the new-model Mary Worth doesn't have quite enough nose visible when she's looking straight...
Metapost: TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO LIVE ON-STAGE COMEDY (plus COTW)
$ · December 17, 2021
Folks, if you were wondering when my beloved live show, The Internet Read Aloud, would return to the stage in Los Angeles, good news: it’s returning in three...
The ellipsis in "They're not ... available" is truly unsettling to me
$ · December 17, 2021
Daddy Daze, 12/17/21 Normally, I'm a big proponent of the "show, don't tell" maxim in a visual medium like the comics, but you know what? I have zero...
If Dennis finishes with "Get him!" he'll be my hero for life
$ · December 16, 2021
Gil Thorp, 12/16/21 Oh, boy, the basketball season storyline of Gil Thorp is already more promising than this fall’s snoozefest because it looks like it’s...
The power of learning
$ · December 15, 2021
Dick Tracy, 12/15/21 Let’s face it folks: between COVID-19, a general prejudice against nerds, and a widespread unwillingness on the public’s part to engage...
Hell is eternal menacing
$ · December 14, 2021
Hi and Lois, 12/14/21 This is (and here’s a sentence that I’m reasonably sure has never appeared in the English language to date) the most heartbreaking Hi...
Newer archives
Older archives