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Intelligent Life, 4/24/26

You could use Intelligent Life to do a whole in-depth analysis of how the position of the nerd has changed in American culture over the past couple decades: the strip’s nerdy main characters still have the chip on their shoulders of social outcasts who push against the grain with their insular hobbies and interests, but they now spend their days discussing the massive box office takes of hegemonic superhero franchises. The strip cast also includes “Barry,” on the left here, a beefy jock who mainly serves to illustrate the humiliation of the normie in today’s nerd-ruled world as he can’t get a date and is constantly failing at work. At least he “gets it” when it comes to Fridays. Fridays, am I right? The last refuge of the regular guy who likes wings and beer? Even the ascendant hardcore geek has to acknowledge that that’s pretty cool? I genuinely don’t know what this strip is supposed to be about, honestly.

Alice, 4/24/26

One of the fun (“fun”) little subplots in Alice is that Alice has a bunch of weird aliens living under her floorboards, and one of them is romantically obsessed with her. Anyway, did you know that these guys are here because they’re supposed to be stopping all the wars? And they’re not doing a good job, because Alice is so darn alluring? Damn you, Alice, you temptress! So much blood is on your sexy, sexy hands!

Dennis the Menace, 4/24/26

I’m sorry, man, but there’s no way you can turn being a responsible pet owner into an act of menacing. I don’t care how egregious a poop pun you make about it.

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Gearhead Gertie, 4/23/26

At first glance, Gearhead Gertie seems like a comic about NASCAR, but it isn’t, not really. It’s actually about one woman’s wildly over-the-top relationship to NASCAR, which is a different thing entirely. For instance, imagine an all-too-possible future where oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are blocked or significantly curtailed indefinitely. Surely the resulting energy shock would have a big impact on NASCAR, a sport entirely dependent on gasoline. But the strip doesn’t even grapple with those implications. Instead, the only thing that matters is how high gas prices would immediately affect Gertie and her tireless quest to consume and enjoy NASCAR content. Why, what if she couldn’t afford to drive to a race? That would be comical indeed. The idea that anything could possibly change the sport itself is as foreign to Gertie as it is irrelevant to the strip that bears her name.

Andy Capp, 4/23/26

You hear a lot of online chatter about how England is a crime-ridden hellhole these days or whatever, but I dunno. Obviously Andy is responsible for a certain amount of antisocial behavior, but most of it boils down to borrowing money from acquaintances and spending it on beer instead of repaying them or his landlord, and any country where that guy is “suspect no. 1” is probably doing pretty well, actually.

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Heathcliff, 4/22/26

One thing I love about newspaper comic strips is that they’re full of visual signifiers that are multiple generations out of date at this point but just kind of stick around out of inertia, which would confuse any young people reading them if young people still read the comics. Until the medium is truly dead, everyone will have bone-in hams in their refrigerators and everyone will simply dump their garbage into a metal can, without even putting it in a plastic bag first, until it merges together in a grotesque brown slurry. Did you know that garbage slurry is viscous enough to serve as a powerful adhesive? Heathcliff does, and he’s made it his artistic medium.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 4/22/26

I’m not sure what’s sadder: that Mud only likes two restaurants in this town where he hangs out a lot, one of which just reopened for the first time in years, or that Mae Mae lived in Los Angeles, where some of the best and most interesting restaurants in the country do delivery via DoorDash, and yet has ordered nothing but pizza for the last decade.

Mary Worth, 4/22/26

[ONE WEEK LATER]

“Dad, I’m not sure how to say this, but I talked to Aaron and the boys, and, well…”

“Oh, don’t even worry, dear. I’m actually going to be moving in with my new girlfriend, Busty. There’s just the small issue of working out the complications with her visa!”