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Mark Trail, 6/19/26

Oh wow, I think this gorilla sanctuary storyline is adding yet more layers of moral complexity. If you ran a failing gorilla sanctuary and needed a cash infusion to keep these noble creatures well cared for, how far would you go to do it? Would you scam a guy online for money? Would you have sex with him if he showed up in person? Would you marry him, if he asked, which Mark’s dad did, by the way? Would you give the gorillas to a more successful sanctuary? No to that last one? You’ll do the sex/marriage thing, instead? Interesting. Interesting.

Marvin, 6/19/26

There’s lots of philosophical yammering these days about whether AI chatbots are intelligent or sentient or however you want to describe it. From my perspective, there’s only one way I’ll admit that a machine-mind could be a being like me with inalienable rights: if it loathes Marvin, the main character in the comic strip Marvin, as much as I do.

Shoe, 6/19/26

“A bird? A bird that can talk and play guitar? Like a bird with feathers, the kind that flies in the fucking sky? Thank God you warned us. Deploy the police. Call in the army. We’ve got to stop this monster before it’s too late for the good people of Kansas City.”

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 5/13/26

Oh, did you think that maybe Lonnie’s blackmail scheme might generate sustained dramatic tension of some kind? Well, sorry, Mae Mae got bored with this plot even faster than I did and has decided to just short-circuit the whole thing. I do enjoy the fact that she doesn’t seem to have a phone of her own and has to borrow the short order cook’s. Just a few days ago this guy was worried about not having enough customers to keep him employed, but when Mae Mae posts this video to his TikTok account, he’s going to be catapulted into the upper tier of “Lorninfuencers” (he will still have work as a short order cook, Lorninfluencing is not a lucrative job).

Marvin, 5/13/26

Marvin can never decide if its title character is a preverbal infant who shits himself or a child who talks and goes to school and also shits himself. I guess today’s strip is really leaning into the first take on the character, as he’s just sitting there thought ballooning while his grandfather ignores him. His grandfather is probably thinking about a big tasty plate of liver and onions, honestly. Maybe he’ll wander over to the diner and get some, forgetting Marvin on the park bench to die of exposure! Wouldn’t that be swell?

Hi and Lois, 5/13/26

No, Trixie! You’ve chased away the sun, giver of life! You’ve destroyed us all!

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Marvin, 4/18/26

OK, I kind of … well, like is a strong word, but I appreciate what Marvin is going for here. At first you’re like, “Ha ha, of course you can’t turn on the TV! You’re a dog!” But then you find out that the actual reason is that he could use the remote to turn the TV on or off, but he doesn’t know where it is because [comical BOI-OI-OING noise] he hid it. Both the using and (to an admittedly lesser extent) the hiding of this object are not particularly dog-like, so the twist is … well, funny is a strong word, but at least it’s mildly interesting. I guess it’s best if we don’t get into the antagonistic relationship he has with the humans in the house that would’ve led to him hiding it in the first place.

Herb and Jamaal, 4/18/26

French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously came up with the thought experiment that we call “Pascal’s wager,” which is basically that you might as well believe in God because if you do but he doesn’t exist, you suffer no harm from your belief, but if he does exist and you don’t believe in him, you won’t make it into heaven. This really wowed the rubes in the 17th century but it’s absolutely baby brain stuff today, where you can open the comics pages and see some guy talking about how he literally believes in the concept of heaven as understood by most contemporary Christians, but he doesn’t go to church, possibly because his irreligiosity combined with his good deeds makes him even more likely to get into paradise, in his opinion. Wild stuff! And he’s telling this to a clergyman who definitely has some opinions about faith and works and their respective relationship to salvation! Can’t decide if Rev. Croom’s big grin is because he’s about to open up a can of theological whoop-ass or because he’s like “This is great, can’t wait to tell the fellas in the PastorChat Discord about this one.”