Archive: Barney Google & Snuffy Smith

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Gearhead Gertie, 4/4/24

I really enjoy the fact that about half of Gearhead Gertie strips are like “here’s a recent NASCAR story or controversy, spelled out in detail for idiots like me who don’t follow NASCAR,” and the other half of them are like “Gertie encounters someone who doesn’t sufficiently enjoy or respect NASCAR and that person just immediately goes to the top of her shit list, and she spends the rest of the week seething about it.”

Beetle Bailey, 4/4/24

My Great-Uncle Stan developed alopecia when he was in the Army, and family lore was that he got a big settlement from the military due to some hush-hush reasons involving some kind of experimental weapons program. I don’t know if that’s really true, but I remember him fondly as an extremely jovial guy who lived in a fun retirement community near Palm Springs that in retrospect was definitely the site of multiple swingers parties every night, so it’s nice to see him getting some representation in Beetle Bailey.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 4/4/24

Ha ha, yes, this honestly is good advice to give to a child growing up in a town full of notorious violent criminals!

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Beetle Bailey, 3/26/24

Does Corporal Yo assume that Sarge would just think “Oh, he finally got that leg-lengthening surgery, that explains why he’s taller! I’m not going to lower my eyes down any further as I think I have all the information I need.” Or did he assume Sarge would think “Hmm, those boots are definitely not compliant with Army Regulation 670-1.” Because he’d be right about that one, actually.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 3/26/24

Look, I’m not saying we need a campaign to fight anti-vaxxer attitudes with an appeal to deranged sovereign citizen legal theories; but I am saying is that if we wanted to launch such a campaign, I think the Snuffy Smith comic strip would be a great venue for it.

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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 3/20/24

OK, look, I guess I get that there’s decades of aesthetic history built into Barney Google and Snuffy Smith and if you’re drawing it you feel like you have to respect tradition and depict Sparkplug and [sigh] Sparkplug’s Grandson Li’l Sparky as having feet that essentially look like potatoes. But these are animal characters that can also think and talk and make terrible, terrible wordplay, so if you’re introducing a new one, like [even heavier sigh] Spark Pug, it’s OK to draw him with hands, or hand-like paws. It’s fine! Nobody would really notice! What they will notice, on the other hand, is an autograph book and pencil that nobody in the panel could conceivably carry or use, just kind of propped up on nothing. Trust me, they’ll notice that, and they won’t care for it.

Mary Worth, 3/20/24

Yes, it’s true, you read about crazy events happening in the news, and realize that terrible things happen to people! But sometimes all it takes is a long walk in a carefully manicured garden with high admission prices in an idyllic setting in an expensive community to make you realize that it’ll all work out and that nothing bad will happen to you.