You’re five times more likely to encounter a bone-in ham in the comics than you are in real life
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Blondie, 10/18/25
God, I love how genuinely sad Dagwood looks in panel two. Sure, he loves his wife more than anything, but he also made some big promises and sweeping declarations to that sandwich when they were alone together. He’s sorry it had to hear this now, in its last moments before it slides unchewed down his gullet. He hopes it will still remember the good times they’ve had together, and the genuine affection in which he’s always held it.
Mary Worth, 10/18/25
I know that Mary and Olive billed this visit as a “mini-vacation” but I have to say “all I had time to do on my cross-country trip is briefly meet some dogs in a condo parking lot and then almost die in a hot air balloon mishap” is truly mini indeed. I guess it’s possible that Olive’s parents heard about the accident on the news, or, given that this is the year 2025, saw a clip of it in a “CRAZY HOT AIR BALLOON MISHAPS” YouTube compilation, and decided that was a little much even by their notoriously lax parenting standards, so they summoned her home early because “we think she has to start going to school or whatever soon.”
Pluggers, 10/18/25
I know pluggers are tired of being told they could learn a thing or two from young people today, but: hey, pluggers! The young people today aren’t answering their phones at all, at any time of day! You too could be that free!
34 replies to “You’re five times more likely to encounter a bone-in ham in the comics than you are in real life”
I hope Blondie isn’t going to go full Six Chix on the sexy sandwich issue.
Blondie – Ida Knoe how insect man ever landed Blondie….
MW – …and my tummy-brain is anxious for that trip to see the Titanic….
Pluggers – This is absolutely your last opportunity for extended warranty coverage for your 2006 Buick LaCrosse….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
MW:
“Mary, the nickname for our plane, painted on the side of it, is ‘Lost.’ What a funny name for a plane, huh? — go figure!”
RMMD-Augie’s book is called ‘The Last Leaf’.
MW-“And remember, Olive, don’t tell about all we’ve done.”
FC-Let’s hope Sam didn’t chew through page three.
Blondie : On one hand, Blondie’s only competition is going to disappear in 0.0003 seconds. On the other hand, she should be more concerned that Dagwood compares her to something he devours and destroys so casually, by the hundreds.
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Crankshaft : I feel like “Crankshaft brags about how his plan to repel deer works perfectly, oblivious that a bunch of deer are devouring
the Jeff&Pamhis lawn right behind him” was a better punchline to this week.Heck, the last two strips could have been switched; just put a soap-on-a-rope around Lillian’s neck yesterday! (the fact that the deer was closer to HER even adds a touch of “Crankshaft’s dumb plan to use soap to repel deer is actually having the opposite effect”).
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Frazz : Joke’s on you, Caufield. I’m a fall person because my birthday is in October, and I like Halloween.
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Pluggers : have a black phone that’s a direct hotline to the Grim Reaper (much like the Gotham Caped Crusader has a red phone to the police commissionner). They dread the day that instead of the name of one of their friends or relatives, it’s their own they’ll hear.
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Safe Havens :
1. How would you have guessed that? Why would you suspect ANYONE of secretly being a shapeshifting catperson!?
2. How long ago did you guess that? How many of those moments where you were petting Palmtop, telling her about how much you like her owner, did you do so while knowing they were the same person?
MW: Olive remains cheerful after the MISHAP, but it’s obvious that she’s totally lost her sense of humerus.
Not even the most old-fashioned, pluggerish pluggers would still use a rotary phone. Unless for nostalgic decoration, it’s probably not even plugged in.
In turn, it ringing probably means that it’s haunted, bear-man had better be intimidated.
MW:
“Poor ‘Stanley’ was so unnerved by events, Olive, that he ended up needing a balloon angioplasty!”
MW:
“Okay, a little off-topic, Mary, but did you know that the model who posed for Edward Munch’s ‘The Scream’ series of paintings had just finished a balloon ride with ‘Stanley’ ?”
Blondie: The combination of text and visual in that last panel just makes me think they weren’t talking about emotional love per se, but cunnilingus. Well, some kind of ‘lingus’, anyhow…
MW: “You know I will, Mary! Any time you hear the cackling of crows and the baying of dogs, know that I am near…”
Pluggers: I like how Bearman is clutching his belly, as if it’s 911 calling him back to say ‘yeah, probably a perforated ulcer…’
BLONDIE: Blondie’s enduring bodacious body explained: she never gets any food. Ever.
PLUGGERS: I can remember the whole middle-of-the-night-bad -news thing. Do people still do that? Why?
LUANN: I can’t be the first to think this a “Drugs are bad, m’kay?” PSA.
DtM: Guess who has the ACLU on speed dial?
MW: Since “all creatures have telepathy,” it’s time for someone to start screaming, “Do NOT get on the plane with that girl! That one, right there!”
MW- That last line ” you know I will” is a veiled threat by Moy that if we don’t stop harping on Wilbur, she’ll bring Olive back.
Bear-Plugger, you are an amateur. When the phone rings at any time I always think it’s going to be bad news! Whether I answer it or not! I’m a walking ball of anxiety! By Plugger rules this makes me a good person, right?
Blondie: Poor Blondie won’t be feeling so romantic when that three-inch layer of fresh tomato slices ends up on Dagwood’s light-blue shirt, and she has to deal with the stain. (Not to mention the metaphorical stain of living with an incorrigible glutton.)
Mary Worth: You know, a “mishap,” like the Titanic or the Hindenburg. (You can’t call it a “disaster” unless your balloon literally exploded when it fell from the sky.)
Pluggers: This plugger should be scared — someone who sounds like his grandchild is in an emergency situation and needs to be wired lots of money immediately!
MW: The “Leave Room for Jesus” people are not going to bother Mary and Olive. Have Augie and Summer from RMMD been giving those two hugging lessons?
Pluggers ought to know their AT&T rotary phone has a ringer adjustment so they needn’t be bothered after 9pm. Or before.
RMMD: Summer’s polish-needing is getting a bit obvious.
FC: “…and filled with worms.”
@Maltmash3r: Moy really has us damned if we do, damned if we don’t, doesn’t she?
@MKay:
On Luann: Nah, it’s a ‘Look how foolish AI true believers are!’ PSA, done in the Evansii’s signature nonsensical, petty, catty, style.
Oh, and to the person who speculated whether Tiffany is naked in that bubble, you *know* that’s how Evans Sr. is picturing it, and now with Ann Effiel there too (with Steffi coming up to be revealed as ‘Queen Unpopular’ next week) he’s surely mashing their paper doll forms together and making kissy noises in his mind.
RMMD: Is anyone else starting to think this ‘novel’ doesn’t actually exist?
GT So this is what our so-brilliant-he’s-in-demand-by-the-pros coach comes up with, some kind of fakeout where’s-the-ball trick play. Funny, I didn’t think that was something you’d find at an NFL game, it feels one step removed from finding a loophole in the rulebook and bringing out a punt-kicker mule. Maybe pro football is more interesting than I thought!
RMMD The poor nurse tries to help Summer out of the conversational hole she’s digging herself into, but it’s not working: how’s your guy with a perfectly fine job? – you mean the soon-to-be-published author? – so he has a book deal! – noooo – well, you’ve read the draft, right? – ummm….
JP This is just sad. He’s presumably so drunk he can’t stumble to the door to say goodbye to his granddaughter. I guess Charlotte *is* better off even with Neddy, yikes.
HeartotCity We’ve ragged this already for (1) the unenforceable age policy that somehow everyone will know if a kid behind a mask is 11 or 12 and (2) all they need is signatures, not even signatures verified from the HOA neighbourhood. Having caught up and seen yesterday’s, I’ll add that it’s girl scout Fall Product season, they wouldn’t sell future cookies, they’d get you down for candies, nuts, and trail mix now!
Pluggers TL/DR:
Pluggers have rotary dial landline phones in 2025.
@The Quiet Man: RMMD Oh, it ‘exists’! He has a perfectly good view of his Great, Earth-Shattering Novel, but it’s in his *mind*, see, it’s not worth writing it out until he gets one of those short-sighted book publishers to *listen* to his pitch, acknowledge his brilliance, and sign a deal
MW – Let’s not forget the mean-girl rescue. There was time for that too!
@The Rambling Otter: Hey, we have a rotary phone! Granted, it’s not hooked up and it’s decorative and it’s red so we (I) can pretend it’s a batphone, but still.
RMMD – By chance, Summer stumbles across the manuscript (written by an English teacher).
“All work, and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.”
“All work, and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
“All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.”
Augie was driven mad by whether he was dealing either with a list or a parenthetical. Summer spends her weekends pushing gruel into his catatonic mouth up at the sanitarium.
Blondie – “Honey, do you only have eyes for me?” “Yes, dear; if it weren’t for you, The Cartoonist would just leave the whole upper half of my face blank, because I’d have nothing worth looking at.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“Where ya going, boss?”
“To a masquerade party”
“And who are you going as?”
“As myself!”
“But I’ve hired 52 models to go as my girlfriends!”
@Peanut Gallery: Shoulda waited 45 spots for this one.
The bone-in ham is one of my “favourite” comic strip tropes, but it took me a while to recognize that thing that looks like an oversized lint roller as a ham. Come on, Blondie artists, food porn is your thing, take some pride in it!
@Burford’s Car Beauty: So do I, but as decoration as well.
Pluggers’ pockets are perfectly in line with the pattern on their shirts.
@Peanut Gallery: Know what I love about your rendering? Unlike the original, it doesn’t confront me with the possibility that Don Abundio is younger than me!
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: Um why? Sure he is always surrounded by beautiful women who purr over him, but really, at the end of the day, like any old dog he goes home and consoles himself with a 34.5.
Don’t worry, plugger, I guarantee it’s a robocall. Anyone you know who will be the ones sharing the bad news is right now furiously trying to text “Grandma’s in the hospital” to your rotary phone.
Mary Worth: Dear lord, was the “Olive is a Benevolent Psychic Teen” the MW team’s attempt at a Halloween story? All we get for spooky season is “I sure love dogs!” followed by a balloon crash?
I guess Mary and Olive turned into mannequins in the final panel, though. That’s kind of scary.
Balloon accidents…cause shortening of bilateral upper extremities…and awkward neck displacement. Got it. See, you can learn something from Mary Worth, suck it all you haters.
@21 Burford’s Car Beauty and @27 The Rambling Otter: Have some fun. Buy another phone and a ring down box. The phones can call each other, including ringing.