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Gil Thorp, 5/12/26

The Vegas sportsbooks have had a rough last few years. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association that states could set up their own regimes of regulated sports betting, and many did, leading to a flurry of betting apps available on every phone; then in early 2025, Kalshi, a “prediction market” that let users bet on any upcoming events and that claimed to be a futures market and thus regulated by the federal government, decided that betting on sporting events was just another kind of predicting and because they were under federal jurisdiction, they could offer sports betting everywhere, even in states that banned it. Still, I don’t know if “betting on high school golf” is what’s going to bail Vegas out on this one, though maybe they signed some kind of deal with the Valley Conference back when they were doing prison football, which you have to admit is more exciting.

Mother Goose and Grimm, 5/12/26

I’m not a big fan of the way that mermaids in Mother Goose and Grimm are depicted as just kind of floating around even when they’re not in the water. I’m also not a big fan of the really numb facial expression on this undersea king’s face; like, he’s not outraged or horrified, he just spent a minute looking at an old acquaintance — not a friend, really, but someone he knew enough to talk to, knew about his family — all dead and fried and sitting in a cardboard box and eventually he thought, you know what, I can’t bring myself to eat this one. But that’s a lot grimmer to think about, so I’m going to mostly complain about the floating thing instead. Are we expected to believe this is some sort of underwater fast food restaurant, despite the presence of a normal human guy behind the counter? C’mon.

Curtis, 5/12/26

Hmm, I don’t know, Curtis, I actually think that learning how to recognize when your boss is using company resources to indulge his own obsessions to the detriment of the health and safety of the organization and its employees is a pretty useful skill in the professional world! But then, so is gaslighting, so I do honestly see both sides here.

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 4/28/26

Lonnie may be a failed salesman, but he still has an advanced grasp on economics. He knows that what has value isn’t his knowledge of Mae Mae/Lorna’s identity, but his ability to take actions revealing that identity, and he’ll be assessing the various bids he’s soliciting to determine the most lucrative way to exercise that ability.

Mother Goose and Grimm, 4/28/26

What I love most about this strip is the composition. A more literal and pedestrian artist would’ve worked to not cover the Prince’s face with Snow White’s word balloon in the second panel. But in doing so, they create dramatic ambiguity as to the Prince’s reaction to Snow White’s confession. Is he shocked by her callous attitude towards the friends who took her in when she was in danger? Does he respect her ability to make hard but necessary choices in the face of fiscal crisis? Leaving this to our own imagination heightens the reading experience. Truly we’re getting a comics master class here.

Dennis the Menace, 4/28/26

Now, you’re probably thinking that Dennis pointing out the inherent unfairness of gendered divisions of labor isn’t menacing at all. But once you take in Mr. Wilson’s corpse-like vibes and realize that “retired” was a last-minute editorial substitution for “died,” everything falls into place.

Mary Worth, 4/28/26

“The vague affection that all of us ghouls at this cursèd condo complex vaguely expressed towards you? That’s not real love. We’re not capable of real love. We’re not capable of feeling anything at all.”

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Hagar the Horrible, 4/27/26

Big news, everyone! A new named character has been added to Hagar the Horrible, and he’s a servant/butler type named “Charles” with weird swoopy hair and a suit jacket but also a short unhemmed tunic/skirt situation going on. Probably we won’t ever see him again, but, I dunno, they gave him a name! Maybe we will! Who knows!

The Phantom, 4/27/26

Big news, everyone: There’s a new Phantom story starting that’s launching with a bang — a grey alien wearing a suit is flying in a private jet from Washington, D.C. to Guantanamo Bay — and while probably it won’t ever really live up to that opening image, you have to admit it’s the most incredible opening image any of the soap opera strips have given us in quite a while.

Mother Goose and Grimm, 4/27/26

Big news, everyone, and it’s not good: Grimm, the beloved title character from the syndicated newspaper comic strip Mother Goose and Grimm, hungers for human flesh.