The only fools here are ... all of us

$ · April 1, 2024

Dennis the Menace and Blondie, 4/1/24 Is there any "holiday" more vile and unpleasant than April Fool's Day, which is mostly marked by "pranks" perpetrated...

Children make the risen Christ cry

$ · March 31, 2024

Family Circus, 3/31/24 Some might think that Billy's smug expression in the second panel here is just because he thought of a good (i.e., very bad) pun for...

Josh likes exclamation points

$ · March 30, 2024

Beetle Bailey, 3/30/24 I actually really like Sarge's facial expression in this one. Having been advised that he's walking into a potentially explosive...

Friday feelings

$ · March 29, 2024

Mary Worth, 3/29/24 Whoops, it turns out Dawn doesn't so much crave maternal affection as she craves not seeing her terrible drippy ex and new girlfriend he...

Soapy Thursday

$ · March 28, 2024

Gil Thorp, 3/28/24 The Milford Mudlarks: the team whose players trust one another so much that they just keep passing the ball back and forth, indefinitely....

Troubled youth

$ · March 27, 2024

Mary Worth, 3/27/24 God bless Mary Worth for sticking to its strengths, which is putting ordinary people into compelling situations and having them say...

Tuesday twofer

$ · March 26, 2024

Beetle Bailey, 3/26/24 Does Corporal Yo assume that Sarge would just think "Oh, he finally got that leg-lengthening surgery, that explains why he's taller!...

Somehow ... mother returned

$ · March 25, 2024

Mary Worth, 3/25/24 Big news, everybody. They did it. They dragged out the Keith storyline and then the Mary and Jeff go on a date transition for so long...

Josh lays down the law

$ · March 24, 2024

Blondie, 3/24/24 OK, look, syndicated newspaper comic strip Blondie: if you start a comic where Dag gets an alert on his phone that it's time for a "ritual,"...

You DON'T want to know where he got the trenchcoat

$ · March 23, 2024

Bizarro, 3/23/24 One of my goals in this blog is to get you all to appreciate the comics as a fundamentally visual medium. You could describe a comic where...

Metapost: [To the tune of "Ease On Down The Road"] Comment of, comment of, the week

$ · March 22, 2024

Your top comment? It's here! "Hey, guy in the back, that's no way to hold a sign! You have your right hand on one end of the sign and your left hand squarely...

Friday quickies

$ · March 22, 2024

Dennis the Menace, 3/22/24 The most menaced person here is the guy in the background, who spent all day hand-painting this snazzy retro "Information" sign...

Hagar would merely plunder the wabbit's gold

$ · March 21, 2024

Gearhead Gertie, 3/21/24 Gearhead Gertie is another new strip I've been reading. It's about Gertie, an old lady who's monomaniacally hyperfocused on NASCAR...

Sad that this is the only way they could think of to visually convey the idea of "huge fan"

$ · March 20, 2024

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 3/20/24 OK, look, I guess I get that there's decades of aesthetic history built into Barney Google and Snuffy Smith and if...

Mostly soapy Tuesday

$ · March 19, 2024

Tina's Groove, 3/19/24 Tina's Groove is another new strip I'm getting into! Tina is a waitress and is friends with the other folks at the restaurant where...

I appreciate them zapping nuclear weapons. Really doing us a solid in my opinion

$ · March 18, 2024

Alice, 3/18/24 Happy Monday, everybody! I've decided to add a few more strips into my repertoire, and here's Alice. Here it is! I would describe this art as...

Doesn't say anything about pants, just sayin'

$ · March 17, 2024

Six Chix, 3/17/24 I caused a bit controversy last year when I said that I found the idea of eternal punishment morally objectionable. Still, no matter what...

Oh, the gun? I guess Bangalla doesn't have a second amendment, huh

$ · March 16, 2024

Hagar the Horrible, 3/16/24 That's Hagar's mother-in-law as the presiding judge up there, by the way, and really the only way this strip would make sense or...

Metapost: It's all about the COTW, baby

$ · March 15, 2024

Your comment of the week! Here it is! The best one! I decree it! "Yesterday we learn today is World Sleep Day, and today Dagwood is celebrating by not only...

Friday fast ones

$ · March 15, 2024

Dick Tracy, 3/15/24 "Orphans are disgusting and deserve their fate! Can you imagine if we brought one into our home?" Blondie, 3/15/24 "...he'd let Dag...

Ahh, the famously sleepy comics characters. Gang's all here

$ · March 14, 2024

Blondie, 3/14/24 Dagwood Bumstead's inhumanly vast appetite is so well known that it obscures one of his other unnatural qualities -- namely, his ability to...

Mud Mountain Murphy is also a threat to native bird species

$ · March 13, 2024

Beetle Bailey, 3/13/24 I'm not a huge fan of "Miss Buxley is the only sexually available female at Camp Swampy and the men all line up in hopes of being...

Two Tuesday quickies

$ · March 12, 2024

Gasoline Alley, 3/12/24 The big news down in Gasoline Alley is that City Hall is finally compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act! It also rejects...

Pre-Daddy Warbucks

$ · March 11, 2024

Dick Tracy, 3/11/24 OK, fine, after my uninformed joking yesterday, I am back to reading the comics so you don't have to and can inform you that (a) these...

Goodbye darkness my old friend

$ · March 10, 2024

Dustin, 3/10/24 Hey kids, let Grandpa Josh tell you about the Do-Not-Call List! Starting in the mid '00s in the United States, you could put your phone...

Does he think the pigs are, like, collectivized or something

$ · March 9, 2024

Shoe, 3/9/24 The bird-people of Shoe generally have two emotional registers: horrified and very depressed. So I'm pleased that Shoe has discovered a third...

Metapost: Friday time = COTW time

$ · March 8, 2024

It's the freakin' weekend, baby, and that means it's time for the comment of the week! "It looks like they're paying Grawlix Theft Auto.” --taig Your runners...

TWO! TWO FULL PANELS OF THORPSMOOCH!

$ · March 8, 2024

Gil Thorp, 3/8/24 Gil Thorp may be a somewhat manic strip at times, but never say it doesn't play a long narrative game. Remember the comely bartendress Gil...

Sweet gamer chair, Alexander

$ · March 7, 2024

Gasoline Alley, 3/7/24 Man, here's a story of our modern world for ya: You head down to City Hall, because they're trying to rename your town, because of...

Mmm ... horse

$ · March 5, 2024

Blondie, 3/6/24 Personally, I think the best way to celebrate National Dentists' Day would be to simply to go to the dentist for your twice annual cleaning!...

Aging, dying, etc.

$ · March 5, 2024

Beetle Bailey, 3/5/23 "Oh, posh," you're probably thinking, "Surely a tech whiz like Spc. Chip Gizmo would simply use a password manager to keep track of all...

Sexually unpleasant Monday

$ · March 4, 2024

Mary Worth, 3/4/24 Oh, so, uh, it seems like the Keith-Kitty-Sonia family fraud reunion plot has ... ended? With Keith's tiny mind unburdened by his terrible...

Stop talking about MATH, Slylock, your buddy is in DANGER

$ · March 3, 2024

Dustin, 3/3/24 Much as I enjoy Dustin's "Ooh, a text" betraying his desperate need for even the most tenuous human contact, I have to call foul on this...

Troubling Saturday

$ · March 2, 2024

Rex Morgan, M.D., 3/2/24 My faithful readers are all familiar with Rex Morgan, M.D., the soap opera comic strip where nothing ever happens. But what if...

Metapost: Horn-tooting COTW

$ · March 1, 2024

Hi folks! Your COTW in a moment but first ... Dropout, the streaming service from the College Humor folks, has a great geek-culture panel game show called...

Three "anyways"es

$ · March 1, 2024

Curtis, 3/1/24 The weird thing about arrested-in-time strips like Curtis is that we, who have been reading this strip for decades, have internalized the...

Leap into comics!

$ · February 29, 2024

Mary Worth, 2/29/24 Yes, blah blah blah, Toby and Mary are still going on and on about Keith's virtues (as a singer and a [squints] farrier?) and unorthodox...

Comical suffering

$ · February 28, 2024

Judge Parker, 2/28/24 Judge Parker Senior's wayward daughter Ann, having escaped her captor when he decided that Judge Parker Senior was too scary, has...

Thorp-off

$ · February 27, 2024

Gil Thorp, 2/27/24 Under new writer Henry Barajas, Gil Thorp has introduced a more diverse cast, kept old characters around, and even rescued Gil's children...

Love to sit, and read about sitting

$ · February 26, 2024

Rex Morgan, M.D., 2/26/24 Every once in a while, the Rex Morgan, M.D., creative team remembers the "M.D." part of the strip title and realizes they're...

Gloomy Sunday

$ · February 25, 2024

Pluggers and Gasoline Alley, 2/25/24 Old people! Do you enjoy the Sunday comics as one of your last pleasures in life? Well, the whimsical "funny pages" are...

The old, the young, the beautiful

$ · February 24, 2024

Family Circus, 2/24/24 The Family Circus was originally drawn by Bil Keane, with the characters all being thinly veiled versions of him and his real family,...

Metapost: C [clap] O [clap] T [clap] W [clapclapclap]

$ · February 23, 2024

Woo! It's the week's top comment! Woo! "Beasley, you imbecile. That's not an award. The cup with '#1' on it is given out to all the mail carriers, on account...

Friday fast takes

$ · February 23, 2024

Gasoline Alley, 2/23/24 In 1918, when this strip began, most American cities, even small ones, had electric streetcar networks. These were only beginning to...

A criminal AND a judge? Bad news

$ · February 22, 2024

Beetle Bailey, 2/22/24 Beetle Bailey has always added new characters to cash in on the latest fads, and a fun fact is that "Rocket '88'," considered by some...

And what about those car warranty calls, amiright folks

$ · February 21, 2024

Blondie, 2/21/24 I am coming around to the opinion that the primary value of the syndicated newspaper comic strip Blondie is to provide anthropological...

Keith loses his cool

$ · February 20, 2024

Mary Worth, 2/20/24 OK, I'll officially be back on this storyline's side again if instead of manfully failing to mention those inconvenient paternity test...

Josh has advice

$ · February 19, 2024

Dennis the Menace, 2/19/24 Let me tell you, as a guy who writes jokes for a living, that no matter how bad you think the jokes on this website are, there...

Sunday short takes

$ · February 18, 2024

Family Circus, 2/18/24 "Oh, hey, does my toddler have a bunch of friends who I don't know, who somehow got into the house without me having noticed? Sure,...

Saturday is for the terrible children

$ · February 17, 2024

Hi and Lois, 2/17/24 In a happier family, Hi would relay this story with a rueful smile on his face, acknowledging that it was a disappointing game while...