Hope you like room temperature tap water, buddy, because that's what the Mitchells have on offer

$ · January 4, 2024

Dick Tracy, 1/4/24 So the goth pasta pun lady is also a stage magician, and this guy on stage with her yelling "Oh, yeah!” is an audience volunteer, and I...

Fun with facial expressions

$ · January 3, 2024

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/3/24 Sure, we're being told that this crowd is CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!ing in big red letters, but by their faces, they don't look that...

IT IS 2024 AND THE COMICS CURMUDGEON IS STILL BLOGGING ABOUT COMICS, YOU LUCKY BASTARDS

$ · January 2, 2024

Happy 2024, everybody! How did you celebrate the recent holiday season? Mary Worth, 12/25/23 Did you, like Mary Worth, place yourself in the role of the Magi...

Last-minute Christmas laffs

$ · December 24, 2023

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 12/24/23 I guess real Snuffheads like you and me don't need reminding, but the point of the throwaway panels at the top of...

Ominous Christmas

$ · December 23, 2023

The Lockhorns, 12/23/23 Usually a crinkly smile on Leroy means that he's in the midst of being dramatically drunk, but I'm not quite sure what vibe he's...

Metapost: Not quite vacation COTW

$ · December 22, 2023

Folks, I'll be taking my traditional long winter's nap next week, but there are still a couple day's worth of comics in the hopper that you'll get enjoy this...

Holly jolly horny Christmas

$ · December 22, 2023

Gasoline Alley, 12/22/23 OK, I may have to revise my previous statement of approval for Gasoline Alley's wild, no-rules approach to the mall Santa game....

Let's get biblical

$ · December 21, 2023

Blondie, 12/21/23 Huh, well, I guess "Josh uses his dumb blog about comic strips to talk about the infancy narratives in the Bible" year had to come around...

Soapy catch-ups

$ · December 20, 2023

Dick Tracy, 12/20/23 So Dick and X. Libris's sword fight ended with X. tumbling to her death from a spiral staircase, which was in a library full of her...

Suburban faces (human and bird)

$ · December 19, 2023

Blondie, 12/19/23 Of the legacy comics characters out there, Blondie has a less expressive face than most -- I think the word I'd use to describe it most of...

Crying and pouting are fine! Go crazy, everybody!

$ · December 18, 2023

Dennis the Menace and Gasoline Alley, 12/18/23 Christmas is just a week away, and that means our beloved (?) legacy comic strip characters are starting to...

The buns are also the wrong color, what on Earth is happening

$ · December 17, 2023

Mary Worth, 12/17/23 Many years ago, something or some collection of things I said on this site convinced some readers that I was a vegetarian, which anyone...

Mostly Christmas quickies

$ · December 16, 2023

Crock, 12/16/23 The infancy story in the Gospel of Matthew is the one that mentions the Magi, and while it specifies three different gifts they brought to...

Blood bounces on ice

$ · December 15, 2023

Gil Thorp, 12/15/23 Oh, wow, I think this is the first year we've ever seen ice hockey take its rightful place in the pantheon of Mudlark sports! And it's...

Magnanimous Thursday

$ · December 14, 2023

Crock, 12/14/23 Not that I will ever give up on my long-running feud with Crock, but even I have to admit that this is a decent joke. Sure, in order for it...

Remember when they drew Mud like was seven feet tall? Let's bring that back

$ · December 13, 2023

Rex Morgan, M.D., 12/13/23 The real victim of this whole big late-plot Mirakle Method plagiarism reveal will not be Rene, who will manage to weasel out of...

Ha ha, they're going to put that poor dog in the pound

$ · December 12, 2023

Beetle Bailey, 12/12/23 One of the whole points of Beetle Bailey is that the title character is lazy. Or, I guess if we're being more charitable, despite the...

Moderately funny animals

$ · December 11, 2023

Slylock Fox, 12/11/23 I think we all (and by "we all" I mean "me and you hapless fools who somehow cannot get enough of my Slylock Fox commentary") have long...

I have a checkbook but I'm a WEIRDO

$ · December 10, 2023

Dustin, 12/10/23 A problem in comics in which nobody ages is that the viewpoint characters birth year gets later and later, even though their creators get...

I'm glad I have a home office where I can do my computer yelling in private

$ · December 9, 2023

Pluggers, 12/9/23 Sure, "pluggers lead incredibly boring lives and can't think of anything even vaguely interesting to put into a letter" is a pretty funny...

Metapost: Wintry COTW

$ · December 8, 2023

As we move deeper into December, zip up your winter jacket (or, if you live in Southern California like me, get into the cardigan section of your closet) and...

Friday quickies

$ · December 8, 2023

Mary Worth, 12/8/23 Just from the standpoint of hard-hitting social drama, I think "Young Sonia is seduced to leftism by a guy in a dumb hat" is like a...

A fire hydrant but no explicit piss joke? Will wonders never cease

$ · December 7, 2023

Marvin, 12/7/23 Man, if you're embarrassed about people (and dogs?) seeing the picture of you in the hat why are you ... wearing the hat outside where all...

You could just, like, give him a new head, right. Is that now how Frankenstein's monsters work

$ · December 6, 2023

Bizarro, 12/6/23 A fun fact is that while "Frankenstein," in the sense of a story about creature sewn together from corpses and reanimated via forbidden...

Brad stays "hot headed" and radical by wearing a dumb hat

$ · December 5, 2023

Marvin, 12/5/23 I actually really enjoy the implication of this cartoon, which is that Bitsy doesn't understand the idea that having your picture taken...

They live in California, it's not practical headwear

$ · December 4, 2023

Mary Worth, 12/4/23 Oh, wow, it turns out Sonia isn't the only disrespectful person in Kitty's life, and her smooch with Keith was actually interrupted by...

Panels and more

$ · December 3, 2023

It's Sunday, folks, the day when newspaper comics include a couple of panels that can be excised based on the vagaries of print layouts. Taken in isolation,...

Hot and cold

$ · December 2, 2023

Crock, 12/2/23 Today's Crock is just a real rollercoaster and I feel like I have to document my approximate emotional state as it unfolded: PANEL 1: Wait, a...

Metapost: Decembrist COTW!

$ · December 1, 2023

New month, old week, best comments: "The idea that Gil Thorp is the 'most beloved man’ in Milford is both baffling and sad. Doesn't this town have a...

Also, nobody thinks candy canes are "yum[my]," c'mon

$ · December 1, 2023

Rex Morgan, M.D., 12/1/23 I like how Rex and June are talking fairly seriously about Rene, a longtime criminal whose various cons have bedeviled them for...

Her cheekbones are weird, but they could be MUCH weirder

$ · November 30, 2023

Dick Tracy, 11/30/23 I have to admit that it's a little discomfiting to learn that X. Libris, a wealthy, sinister rare book collector who dresses in a severe...

Sure hope Ditto eats all the cookies before they get the jar off

$ · November 29, 2023

Dick Tracy, 11/29/23 The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I stayed on campus to do an independent study and worked part time at the...

It bugs me that "Ochoa" is almost but not quite an anagram for "coach"

$ · November 28, 2023

Gil Thorp, 11/27/23 Happy postprandial Monday, all, and welcome to The Misdirect, Chapter 4 of the Barajas Era of Gil Thorp, America's #1 newspaper comic for...

If my marriage were this miserable, I would simply not rant about it to strangers

$ · November 27, 2023

Dennis the Menace, 11/28/23 I guess the joke here is that Dennis is too stupid to know what "Uncle Sam" means, and has mistaken this metonym for America and...

Sexy Sunday

$ · November 26, 2023

Panel from Slylock Fox, 11/26/23 CASSANDRA [bursting through the studio door]: Quick, Kopy, I need a favor. Put this portrait up on your easel and act like...

They also clear-cut the yellow wood to build the mall they're driving to

$ · November 25, 2023

Rex Morgan, M.D., 11/25/23 Well, the Harwoods are going to feel pretty foolish when they learn that it wasn't Rene's high-powered lawyers that got him sprung...

Metapost: Gobble gobble COTW

$ · November 24, 2023

As you slowly digest your Thanksgiving meal, enjoy a hearty chuckle at this week's comment of the week! "I figure he'd rather stay out of jail than cause us...

Please do not tell pluggers what kids in the '90s meant by "cyber"

$ · November 24, 2023

Pluggers, 11/24/23 Pluggers remember when Black Friday was the day when President Grant's brother-in-law caused a Wall Street panic in an attempt to corner...

Be sure to remember your humble comics bloggers in the thanks you give today

$ · November 23, 2023

Mary Worth, 11/23/23 Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! How will you be spending the day? Will you be enjoying a meal in the company of a bunch of other people...

Varying degrees of thankfulness

$ · November 22, 2023

Rex Morgan, M.D., 11/22/23 Well, well, well, it looks like what's increasingly obviously Buzzy and Rene's co-grift is coming along nicely, with Rene being...

There's only four women for the six men, bad news for somebody

$ · November 21, 2023

Gil Thorp, 11/21/23 Hey, remember earlier this year, when Gil Thorp did a ripped from the headlines story about about a player who got terribly hurt during a...

Rekindling romance, horsily

$ · November 20, 2023

Mary Worth, 11/20/23 I regret to inform you that Keith and Kitty's date redo went really well, and now she's accepted Keith's invite to help him sensually...

If you think I'm updating you on the Judge Parker "plot" or whatever, forget it

$ · November 19, 2023

Judge Parker, 11/19/23 Way back in the early days of the War on Terror, "black site" was an ominous phrase used to describe grim, secretive locations in...

Giving thanks for everyone leaving me the heck alone!!!!

$ · November 18, 2023

Six Chix, 11/18/23 One of my all-time favorite activities is to bring a book to a restaurant I really like and enjoy a meal by myself. There's something...

Mmm ... buns

$ · November 17, 2023

Pluggers, 11/17/23 Look, I've said a lot of pretty mean things about Pluggers over the years, so let me say something nice: this is a very cute drawing a...

Jeepers, creepers, makin' commentary about peepers

$ · November 16, 2023

Rex Morgan, M.D., 11/16/23 Wow, did Buzzy always have such dreamy cerulean eyes? Also, did he always have such a slavish devotion to the guy who locked him...

That's <i>former</i> prison woman to you, lady

$ · November 15, 2023

Hi and Lois, 11/15/23 The sun won't blast off its outer layers, forming a planetary nebula and leaving only a tiny white dwarf behind, for another seven to...

Turkey Tuesday

$ · November 14, 2023

Blondie, 11/14/23 I confess that I find the idea of a butcher who thinks about individual animals (whose carcasses he plans to eventually sell to people who...

[checks Wikipedia] Mint City! City of Trees!

$ · November 13, 2023

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 11/13/23 You know, at first I thought this was about the eternal struggle between the modern scientific method, as...

I'd like to think that Dustin's parents were just driving around aimlessly to avoid their kids

$ · November 12, 2023

Blondie, 11/12/23 You ever notice how most of the women in Blondie have pretty normal-looking eyes but most of them men have these inky black stretched out...