The Comics Curmudgeon

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112

Another think coming

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Herb and Jamaal, 1/20/26

Man, that’s a harrowing expression on Herb’s face. He just realized that he shouldn’t engage in thinking … and he can’t stop thinking about it! Much as he knows he should, nay, must stop thinking about it! Where’s Jamaal, Herb should not be left alone at the restaurant with his thoughts. His terrible, terrible thoughts.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 1/20/26

Oh wow, Rex’s cataract surgery has been delayed by several hours, leading to … sex? Sexual relations with his wife? Not since the great “Rex and June lying around in their underwear for a whole Sunday strip” incident of aught-eight has this strip teased something so risque. Too bad everything will just be all blurry for Rex so he won’t fully enjoy it! (Ha ha, just kidding, Rex doesn’t “enjoy” sex, because it involves sustained interaction with another human being, something he generally tries to avoid at all costs.)

Beetle Bailey, 1/20/26

Oh, wow, I know we’ve always assumed that Beetle just magically bounces back, cartoon-style, after Sarge beats him into a pile of goo, but in fact it appears that each beating is followed by several painful months of recovery in a hospital, with the abuser staring down at his victim the whole time. Grim stuff!

183

Twists and/or turns

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Mary Worth, 1/19/26

Last week, the main conflict of this Toby storyline — “Toby got a bird and Ian hated it” — was resolved as Ian submitted to Sunny’s charms. Now we can move on to the next storyli–wait, what’s this? Another bird has arrived? Bird number two? The bird drama continues, with two birds instead of one? This is an intriguing development! Will each new bird have to save Ian’s life in turn in order to be accepted into the flock?

Judge Parker, 1/19/26

Oh, hey, remember Randy’s long-lost sister Ann, who showed up in everyone’s lives again not that long ago only to eventually get sent to jail? Well, it looks like she’s once again reappeared in dramatic fashi–hold on, I’ve just read panel two, and it turns out that the fashion of her reappearance is not as dramatic as all that. Ah, well! Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Hi and Lois, 1/19/26

I’m really digging the dramatic change in Hi’s facial expressions between the two panels here. “Oh man, this is great! Wait, I’m supposed to be sober for whatever this is? Absolutely not.”

138

Menacing birds/food/social relations

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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?