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Hagar the Horrible, 11/15/26

Say what you will about the various Walker-Browne Amalgamated Humor Industries LLC strips, but Hagar the Horrible is definitely the one that’s most likely to prompt me to do research that yields fun and interesting facts. With Beetle Bailey I’m mostly checking to see if they’ve screwed up the rank insignia, and Hi and Lois gets me to occasionally check if “suburban ennui” has been added to the DSM yet, but Hagar is a treasure trove of potential anachronisms that send me down fun Wikipedia paths. For instance: did you know that chickens, native to and first domesticated in Southeast Asia, generally start out as exotic, high-status creatures when they first hit a new region, cultivated for feathers and eggs, and only later become a staple food product? This is a pattern we see repeated in multiple places: they get to the Mediterranean around the 8th century BCE, then to Denmark in Roman times, but not to Norway until the Viking Age — and crucially don’t really become a widespread food source until the 1100s or so, well after the age when Hagar takes place. This structure Hagar is stealing from is probably an outbuilding on the estate of a high-status noble, in other words, and this is a more daring raid than it looks like at first!

Dennis the Menace, 11/15/26

Dennis’s seemingly passive shtick of just hanging around observing the friction adults experience when interacting with one another is more menacing than I initially gave it credit for. This would normally be a minor dispute in a long marriage no doubt full of them. But the fact that Martha has by all appearances actively chosen to bring Dennis into the situation to silently observe things really ups the levels of passive aggression.

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Pluggers, 11/14/26

Sorry, I do not accept a Pluggers that’s about ordering pizza on your phone unless it depicts a plugger on a corded phone saying “Hello? Joe’s Pizza?” and the caption is “Pluggers remember that you used to be able to order pizza on the phone without using an app.” (The pizza the plugger is ordering will be one of the most mediocre things you can imagine, by the way, but that’s the way he likes it.)

Mary Worth, 11/14/26

Wow, just think how much better Nelly’s mood would be if her apartment overlooked the beautiful, peaceful Charterstone garden, rather than the parking lot where she’s forced to see people maybe doing hand stuff. Anyway, looks like Mary has acquired a new manual laborer! Sure, she’s a little slow and arthritic, but she won’t be paid anything, which I think makes up for it.

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Just kiddin’! No day in which you receive a hilarious comment of the week could possible be that scary:

“Q: Why is the sky in Pluggertown dingy pink, while the bushes are an angry, orangey red? A: Pluggertown is a physical part of Hell! Seems impossible, but that’s the magic of the comic page!” –Victor Von

And your runners up? Safe as can be (and hilarious):

“A group of citizens driving in a vehicle decorated with ‘My Other Car is a Tractor’ stickers pull up while the driver announces into the CB: ‘Cancel the silver alert. We found him.’” –Hibbleton

“The fourth panel is amazing. This is probably the first time in decades that Mary — basically an omniscient being if not straightforwardly omnibenevolent — was caught flat-footed by lack of information on her target. She panicked, but quickly recovered. Still, she will have to put more money in the secret police.” –Ettorre

“Goddammit, I actually have been brainstorming baby names the last couple of days. I think it should be something fire-related. Torch? Scorch? Are those names? How about Ashley?” –Joe Blevins

“I refuse to believe the Pluggerville city limit just has a simple road sign, and not an elaborate sign that says ‘Welcome to Pluggerville: Pop. 15,420’ (number frequently updated), with 20 badges for Rotary, Moose, Elk, and VFW clubs. (Which blocks another sign suddenly dropping the speed limit from 45 to 25, which is how the town gets all its civic funding.)” –BigTed

“Herb has done something that made national news, and he’s desperately waiting for something worse to happen.” –johnny lt

“This really is a SIGN OF THE TIMES: Alice is the last person left on the planet who still sends personal emails.” –Schroduck

“Alice’s friend desperately throws out setups for jokes in the hope Alice will provide a punchline. Alice steadfastly refuses. They have been going at this for hours.” –ectojazzmage

“Pretty sad that while most little boys will dream of being pilots, these two dream of one day catching a standby flight to Des Moines.” –pugfuggly

“For Mary Worth, ‘Joy’s something that’s been lacking in my life. Let me tell you why…’ is about as direct and effective as foreplay gets. Look at her face! She entered this apartment moments ago ready to annihilate the condo’s resident gossip. Now she’s halfway to climax! If Dr. Jeff only knew these magic words, she’d never let him leave the house.” –Kevyn on Video

“Does Thirsty also get a new pillow case? Or is that what the underwear is for?” –Scratchy Scrotum LXIX

“As he stared at the water bottle, the chill of autumn and the peace of the woods was ripped away, and he was back in the humidity of the Ia Drang valley, the chatter of the Viet Cong machine guns like a hundred sewing machines, the shadows of the gunships zipping overhead. Sarge was down and the LT was panicking and Gooney and Blackie had been hit and then that sudden impact on his hip, his side and leg wet, and he knew this was it, a hit to the femoral and his blood was everywhere but when he put his hand on it there was no pain, just cool water, and his canteen, the canteen he had filled to the brim that morning, had taken the round meant to kill him. ‘Could a plastic water bottle do that?’ he screamed to the uncaring autumn sky while his children tried, once again, to get him to see the VA psychiatrist.” –Voshkod

“Back in my day, the only way to get a canteen of water was to join the army and go to war. What’s that? Really? Shoot, guess I got had.” –BillieVee

“Alice cartoonist, why do you assume the recipient of Alice’s gift needs etiquette training? Maybe s/he just really doesn’t like Alice! Worth considering!” –Uncle Lumpy

“You might think this tiny man wouldn’t be very useful in combat, but judging by his gnarled hand he’s actually a powerful ancient wizard, and I’m sure such a person would be good to have on your side during the Korean War.” –Vulpes

“Since the writer of this strip can’t be arsed to even pretend to relate it to anything resembling legal drama, let me do it for you: Kat fails to get the part, divorces Ronnie, the settlement of which hinges on whether an ‘anything could happen’ shrug constitutes an implied contract.” –Charterstone: Dune

“One of the benefits of ignoring the official Mary Worth site and only reading the strip sporadically on The Comics Curmudgeon is that you get to jump from the segue into Nelly Feneley/Fenele’s backstory (on Nov. 10) to the strip where the first line is, ‘You’re right, Mary’ (on Nov. 13) and it just saves everyone (me) a lot of time skipping over the tiresome stuff in between. We all know Mary’s going to end up being right, we don’t need to see how the dots get connected, or even what the dots are at all.” –JeffMcm

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