Post Content

Click the banner to contribute by PayPal or credit card, or see below for other options.

It’s the 2026 Comics Curmudgeon Summer Fundraiser! If you enjoy (mostly) affectionate mockery of newspaper comics, this is the place—and now is the time. Help keep newspaper comics fun and relevant—even in the absence of actual newspapers—with your generous contribution!

Support the Comics Curmudgeon in the way that best suits your preferences and lifestyle:

• Subscribers enjoy an ad-free online experience, improved comment editor, and option to revise or retract comments. Become a Website Subscriber.
• Busy professionals can get The Comics Curmudgeon emailed to them every day, so they never miss a post. Sign on as a Newsletter Subscriber, and lighten up your workday.
• Patrons support all of Josh Fruhlinger’s efforts—and enjoy all the benefits of Subscribers—when they support Josh’s Patreon page.
• PayPal contributors can click the banner up top to make a one-time contribution from their PayPal or credit-card accounts.


• Traditionalists send checks by mail, the old-fashioned way. Just ask me to send you Josh’s address, where you can mail cash, checks, NASCAR merchandise, and more.
• People in a hurry can use Zelle* or Venmo to make that generous contribution right now—why wait?
• Every reader can boost the site’s revenues by turning off their ad-blocker for joshreads.com and occasionally clicking an ad that looks interesting. Every bit helps!

Contributions in any form are always completely confidential and deeply appreciated.

Thank you, generous reader!

–Uncle Lumpy

* The Zelle account is in the name of Josh’s wife, Amber Eisenmann. It’s totally legit: somebody on the Internet called “Uncle Lumpy” told you so!

Post Content

Rhymes with Orange, 7/20/26

Lady lets herself be intimidated by inanimate objects. Gonna be a long day.

Six Chix, 7/20/26

Unhealthy, infected, diseased, rotting, morbid, disgusting meat. How to say you’re vegan without saying you’re vegan.

Dustin, 7/20/26

The animosity between Ed Kudlick and his son Dustin is well-established, but doesn’t it seem lately that their barbs are getting sharper? I mean, today’s exchange is basically, “You’re lazy and doomed to failure!” / “You’re stupid and can’t speak English!” It won’t be long before these breakfast chats devolve into cursing and flinging coffee and cereal.

Phantom, 7/20/26

The Phantom’s very first nemeses—the pirates of the Singh Brotherhood—were in it for the loot. But the motivations of the current crop are harder to parse:

• Leopold Braga, Admiral in the navy of landlocked Rhodia, says he serves its ruling junta by serving Ignis Vindicta, but how? Is there some bribe, contract, alliance, or other alignment of interests between the parties, and if so to what end?
• Chatu “The Python”, Wambesi terrorist, used his native Bangalla as a safe haven to carry out attacks in Rhodia. So why does Rhodia, through Vindicta and Braga, want him on the team?
• Eric Sahara started out a billionaire playboy, then took up recreational lone-wolf terrorism as “The Nomad”, taking over Chatu’s gang when he thought the Phantom had killed its leader. Why? Don’t know!
• Elon Musk Ian Mollusk Ignis Vindicta (tr. “Fire of Vengeance”) is a wealthy motormouth nutjob who wants to rule the world from space. He surrendered all control of his Nomad/Chatu project to an AI programmed on his own bullshit, and constantly brags about how he has no influence over what it does. Why? Got me.

Beyond “bad guys do bad things,” these villains are united only in their hatred of the Phantom, which kinda seems like a side quest, and hasn’t worked out well for any of them in the past.

—Uncle Lumpy

Post Content

Family Circus, 7/19/26

Dolly, thou shalt not mock this sign of God’s displeasure, neither by crude sophistry nor by mooning His works.

Slylock Fox (panel), 7/19/26

“Is Reeky lying” isn’t much of a mystery: he obviously never cleans house, just look at the place. Also, he’s Reeky Rat, for Pete’s sake—”lying” tops his to-do list next to “squalor” and “pointless low-stakes crimes.”

But consider the original offense. What makes this note a “horrible” hate crime? Speciesism would be my first guess. With so many species around—seven or eight in this panel alone—some friction seems inevitable. But rat‑on‑rabbit speciesism seems backwards here: after all, it’s Rachel who’s canonically the snooty, upwardly mobile one. Class hatred seems more plausible, since Reeky clearly has none and maybe covets it? But on closer examination, it’s not Rachel but her kit who is the injured party here. So maybe the note is just a crude “Yo Mama” joke calling out Rachel’s embarrassingly prolific sexual behavior?

Mary Worth, 7/19/26

I know you share my disappointment that we won’t be seeing Tommy spiral hilariously back into the pit of drug-addicted despair. But we can take solace in recapping one of Wilbur’s many humiliations, can’t we? Looks like Mary’s on board!

—Uncle Lumpy