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Mary Worth, 1/18/26

Good news, everyone! Ian didn’t become some soft-hearted sap just because a parrot saved his life or whatever. No, he recognized that this destructive bird was also intelligent, which meant that his behavior could be molded and guided by someone clever and patient enough. That’s why Ian is showing Sunny Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds: he’s planting the “seeds” (get it?) so Sunny will eventually unleash his violent impulses on an outside world that never fully appreciated Ian’s genius, and hopefully recruit his bird friends along the way.

Dennis the Menace, 1/18/26

One of my several comics pet peeves is when strips don’t make use of the full set of space allotted them on Sundays to do something interesting and special. Margaret going to town on the ivories and Dennis standing nearby saying “She puts the no in piano” would be a perfectly serviceable daily panel. But this is a punchline that does not benefit from six panels of setup, and showing Dennis doing a passive-aggressive “Let me check my schedule” bit does not in any way add to it.

Herb and Jamaal, 1/18/26

I stand with Jamaal here. You wouldn’t question Dagwood Bumstead’s sandwich consumption, would you? What is the point of being a comics character, if you cannot devour foodstuffs in comical quantities and qualities?

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Mary Worth, 1/17/26

Minutes later, Mary would of course be relaying all this information to Toby and Ian’s homeowners insurance carrier. Why should the general Charterstone policy bear all the risk for their negligence?

Blondie, 1/17/26

Look, being Elmo’s #2 is a coveted position, and this kid is not doing well on his first day. Panel two makes it clear this was supposed to be a surprise, but the kid just blurted it out in panel one, ruining it! Sorry, buddy, there’s not going to be any more visits to the house of some weird adult who isn’t your friend’s dad and who doesn’t even have kids your age in your future!

Pluggers, 1/17/26

You can call me cruel for enjoying things like “pluggers routinely pass out on the toilet,” but even I have my limits. I don’t think “pluggers have a bad relationship with their kids” is much fun, actually. I think it’s pretty depressing!

Gil Thorp, 1/17/26

Gil Thorp has had a lot of artists over the years, both permanent and guests, and they’ve all brought something specific and interesting to the strip. The last couple weeks Jason Margos has been filling in, and what he’s brought to the strip is an extreme close-up on Coach Gerards’ weird, gross lips. Enjoy your weekend!

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Beetle Bailey, 1/14/26

I feel like if you have an elderly authority figure looking startled and somewhat confused and shouting “Take some notes!” and then immediately afterwards passing out, and his subordinates are gleeful about it because it means they don’t have to do work, that’s a little less “Ha, this is a zany situation” and a little more elder abuse. It’s sadly not that unheard of for a powerful but ailing person’s staff to basically puppet them for an extended period of time, and it’s all fun and games until, in this case, the area of the United States protected by Camp Swampy is invaded by enemy forces and no competent general officer is present to coordinate defensive operations.

Mary Worth, 1/14/26

I’m not sure how old Ian is supposed to be so I guess I won’t call this “elder abuse” per se but it’s clear that his mind has been broken by Toby and Sunny. Look at his sleepy, dopey smile as Sunny cackles evilly literally inches in front of his face! This is some real “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” shit right here, only with a parrot.

Shoe, 1/14/26

To me, one of the most depressing things about the Perfesser and Skyler’s home is that there’s exactly one place to sit in their living room, which tells us volumes about the relationship between the uncle and his barely tolerated nephew/ward. Today we see that even when they eat out together, the Perfesser insists on sitting as far away from his nephew as possible.

Luann, 1/14/26

When I started commenting on Luann again, did I know things were going to end up less than a year later with Luann getting propositioned to go fuck over by the dumpsters? No, of course not. Obviously not. Different choices would’ve been made had I known, I’ll tell you that much.