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Pickles, 11/28/25

“Ha ha, I sure hate my mother-in-law!” is of course a time-honored bit for hack humorists everywhere, so naturally it has repeatedly found its way into the comics over the years. I guess I have to respect Pickles for leaning into its setting (a household made up of old people) and doing a version that’s “Ha ha, I sure hated my mother-in-law! She’s dead now.”

Andy Capp, 11/28/25

I personally am a little miffed that we’re only hearing about this incident second-hand. Wouldn’t you love a strip where we see Andy wandering around the pub with a mangy old pigeon in his hands, thrusting it at various drunks demanding they give him enough for it so he can buy one more pint? I’d accept either a version where’s he’s maudlin and pathetic about it or one where he’s really belligerent. Neither scenario would be “funny” per se, but neither would be less funny than what we have here, so why not go for it.

Shoe, 11/28/25

No! No!! You can’t just start acknowledging that your characters are all bird people and then show them feasting on eggs! This is a nightmare!

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Andy Capp, 11/6/25

I know increasing globalization means that cities around the world are becoming more and more similar to one another in their interlocked material and aesthetic conditions, but it is unsettling to learn that even in Andy Capp’s Hartlepool, hipsters are leading a wave of gentrification as they snap up apartments in formerly industrial waterfront areas. I guess I can console myself that a Hartlepool hipster is entirely unrecognizable to any normal person as such (buzz cut, minty green suit) and that the canal is still full of drunks in an unironic way, for now.

Beetle Bailey, 11/6/25

The essential tragedy of Cookie is that he really does enjoy his job, but is constantly crestfallen when the troops react to his offerings with disdain and disgust. Well, today you can see that they’ve finally broken him. Do they think he just churns out slop day after day? Well, he’ll give them slop. Why bother trying. Why bother caring. Eat your slop, piggies!

Gearhead Gertie, 11/6/25

Sorry, I absolutely refuse to believe that Gertie would spend the off-season reading the NASCAR rule book, a tome that she long ago memorized in every detail. No, she would kick back and enjoy working through the puzzles in the 1990 original Days of Thunder Movie Family Fun Book from Exxon. A steal on eBay at only $6.99! Grab one today for the Gertie in your life!

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Andy Capp, 10/21/25

I, a guy who has run a blog about comic strips for the better part of two decades now, am, as you might imagine, a huge nerd. Nevertheless, I have significant reservations about the way that nerd culture has more or less taken over the world, dominating the entertainment industry while fans still endlessly complain that their superhero pals don’t get the respect they deserve. That’s why I’m glad to see that there’s still one outpost in the comics willing to make fun of the nerds, and it makes sense that it’s the home of America’s favorite working-class British alcoholic. (Intelligent Life also makes nerds look ridiculous, but I’m pretty sure that’s not on purpose.)

Dustin, 10/21/25

You know, I focus a lot on this blog about how Dustin is constantly persecuted by the other members of his family, but let’s not forget that, in his absence, they’ll also turn on each other, with virtually every intrafamilial interaction landing on a spectrum somewhere between “passive aggressive” and “cruel.” They’re not nice people!

Hi and Lois, 10/21/25

Oh, I guess the Flagston family is OK with the library now, because they need a third place to go when Lois and her book club friends start getting drunk and belligerent and their home is no longer safe.

Heathcliff, 10/21/25

Oh yeah? Well, I like it better when you’re standing either inside the house or outside the house, rather than the MC Escherian simultaneously-inside-and-outside thing you’ve landed on here, but you don’t see me complaining about it.