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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 12/2/24

I had never really thought about it, but if you had asked me before today, I would’ve told you I was pretty sure that the chickens Snuffy steals from his neighbors by stuffing them into a patchèd sack in the dead of night were still alive when he got home. Like, obviously they get killed eventually but, I dunno, I assumed it was right before the Smifs ate them. But surely if the lumps in that bag represented a live chicken, it would’ve been prompted to move around and squawk a bit by all the commotion in today’s strip, so I guess Snuffy just strangles the birds before they even leave the coop he’s stealing them from, the better to make a silent getaway. Not sure why that makes this whole scene so much grimmer, but I think you can agree that it really does.

Dennis the Menace, 12/2/24

I’m on the record as hating the running joke where Dennis slags on his mother’s cooking all the time. I thought I hated it because of its underlying gender politics, but it turns out I hate it even more because it set up today’s panel, in which Margaret is acting out an ambiguous wife/mother role as she and Dennis “play house” and Dennis experiences good cooking for the first time ever, and it’s so baffling to him he doesn’t even have a coherent vocabulary to describe it, which will change the nature of their relationship forever.

Hi and Lois, 12/2/24

Ha ha, we all know that regular guys (old) are constantly avoiding listening to their wives by watching the “big game” on TV. But what do younger guys (45 and under, a demographic into which Hi Flagston falls) do when their wife wants to “talk about her feelings or experiences that are meaningful to her” or whatever? What if I told you that they avoid all that by watching the “big game” on their [record scratch] PHONES????

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Gil Thorp, 11/13/24

Oh yeah, remember Coach Perm Gerads, who briefly seemed like he might be Gil’s new nemesis but then he got beat up by his own students? Well, this sent him on a downward spiral into madness that delivered him here, his perm now stringy and wild, promising to eat a shoe for the amusement of the sort of layabouts and yahoos who watch local TV during the middle of the day. Gil at one point was doing his own ads for this used car impresario, and if you need to know what this Valley Conference grandee thinks of the relative strengths of the Goshen and Milford squads, run the numbers on the proposed trade here: if Goshen wins, Fox promises to reduce their revenues by 50% indefinitely, which would swiftly bankrupt the dealership, and if Milford wins, Coach Gerards will livestream himself doing something humiliating, which will cost Fox nothing and also bring new subscribers to the dealership’s various social channels.

Judge Parker, 11/13/24

I would’ve thought that Problematic Age Gap Discourse was very late 2023/early 2024, but apparently we’re going to get some in Judge Parker, which is fine because I find Glen’s facial expression in panel one very amusing. Also I will note that he is supposed to be in his early 20s and has shown up for his date with his college sophomore girlfriend wearing a grey suit jacket and a white dress shirt, which may signal a Problematic Coolness Gap that the stubble simply cannot mitigate.

Gasoline Alley, 11/13/24

I feel like “Look at Saturn’s rings while you can, kids!” is a pretty ominous statement, like it clearly implies that this is the last they’ll see of them, and the final panel really doesn’t fully walk it back. What does Arty the AI know about certain Events that will happen in the next twelve months that will result in these children, and possibly the rest of our species, never seeing Saturn’s rings again? Guess we’ll find out, haha!

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 11/13/24

Finally, after nearly 80 years, “Bunky” has returned to this strip. Who knows what sort of wild, exciting gags this will provide opportunities for? [LITERALLY ONE DAY LATER] Hey, you guys heard about this pumpkin spice stuff? You heard about this?

Dennis the Menace, 11/13/24

Aw, look at Martha’s face! Even after all these years she’s tickled by George’s bullshit. I think it’s sweet!

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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 11/12/24

As we move inexorably into a post-newspaper world, we do have to ask ourselves: who are the comics, as a genre and as individual strips, for, exactly? Primarily, they are for me, so I can continue to make fun of them on this blog, so I have to thank everyone involved for doing this for me personally and, downstream from that, for you, my faithful readers. But also they are for (and I suppose there is some overlap with the previous answer) weird comic strip obsessives who love the obscure history of this medium. This is a group that Dick Tracy has been pursuing with gusto for some time; Barney Google and Snuffy Smith is the second-oldest newspaper strip running, just a few months behind Gasoline Alley, so why shouldn’t they get in on the game? Why shouldn’t they bring back Bunky, the main character of a BG&SS “topper” strip that ran from 1927 to 1948? Is a new generation ready for the antics of a “strangely erudite newborn,” or at least ready to nod sagely and say “I understood that reference?” Only one way to find out!

Daddy Daze, 11/12/24

Speaking of strangely erudite newborns, I find the Daddy Daze daddy’s little smile in the final panel profoundly sad. Look, man, you know the “ba”s don’t mean anything, right? You only imbue them with semantic content because you spend all your time with a preverbal infant and are desperately lonely and understimulated, and fantasizing that you have bested this imaginary version of your child in a battle of wits is one of the most poignant and pathetic things I’ve ever seen.

Mary Worth, 11/12/24

Speaking of poignant and pathetic things, I’ll never get tired of Dr. Jeff just kind of hinting that he’d like to marry Mary and getting immediately shot down. Mary has it good now, meaning that she is no way legally responsible for the loan and insurance payments on this ridiculous boat, and she’d frankly like to keep it that way.