For the birds
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 like newspaper comics with a little gentle ribbing on the side, help us keep it going with a generous contribution. Thanks!
Shoe, 7/22/26
NO MUFFY NO HE’S REACHING FOR YOUR BEAK HE THINKS IT’S A [horrible wrenching sounds, bird-agony noises].
Crock, 7/22/26
… and maybe a thesaurus?
Say, doesn’t that bird look awfully glum for somebody in the cheer-distribution business? Sure, most of your clientele in that game will be sad sacks like Figowitz here. Maybe you even bear their burdens, like a sad clown or depressed comedian. But if you’re doling out industrial packages of cheer, who’s going to complain if you skim off a little for yourself? It’s not embezzlement, it’s self-care!
Mark Trail, 7/22/26
Happy Trail ditches his evil grifter fiancée Gail at the altar to care for the gorillas suffering from her neglect. Mark can’t just stand there; he has to do something—but there’s not a single villain in punching range.
Judge Parker, 7/22/26
Sophie didn’t mean to walk that way, just like the artist probably didn’t mean to slap down that inscription without correcting the perspective—but you go with what you got, I guess.
Hey, is this when manipulative brat adorable pixie Charlotte learns Sophie’s tragic backstory? It’s time that child learned how the world works: You can’t just shoot people for money like her Mom does, you gotta go out and inherit it!
—Uncle Lumpy
7 replies to “For the birds”
Shoe: Wait, so there are monkeys in Shoe? And there are settings other than the treetops around the newspaper and diner? Where is this island? How did they transport that huge, heavy camera there? Is the camera operator also a bird? And if TV news exists in this world, how are there still full-time print journalists who haven’t been laid off yet? I have a lot of questions, and none of them have to do with the fact that these starving animals are about to devour the reporter during a live broadcast.
Judge Parker:
“So who is this ‘Ezra Barton’ person, anyway, Sophie?”
” ‘Ezra Barton took an ax/And gave this comic forty whacks’ !”
“Wow! — I like the guy already!”
Judge Parker:
“I see they didn’t spare any expense sculpting this headstone, Sophie!”
Mark Trail:
“It could be an infection! — or, more likely, they all got their hands on one of those ‘Mary muffins’ from over at Mary Worth!”
Gah! What happened to the rest of the world?! Fear the unslakeable wrath of Ezra Barton!
The Freddie Mercury ranger/medic/guy busts out his jazz hands, because even dealing with sick gorillas can be FABULOUS.
“They call this a Urine Monkey, why is that? Oh. Think I just found out.” – Krusty The Clown