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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 6/25/23

Wait, what exactly is Snuffy buying that tool for? It’s definitely not to do any useful or productive repair work, I can guarantee that. No, the best case scenario is that he’s going to try to undercut Doc Pritchard and offer low-cost, low-skill tooth extraction services to his friends and family. The worst case scenario involves some members of the Barlow clan captured during the last clan battle, and I’d honestly rather not think about it.

Hi and Lois, 6/25/23

We may think of comics being for kids, but I’ve always felt that strips like Hi and Lois place the adults firmly in the center as the viewpoint characters and are meant to be a hopefully amusing mirror for middle-class grownups. Sometimes they’re even aspirational! Take this strip, for instance: if you’re a parent with kids in Little League who has dreamed of being officially banned from their children’s games so they have a legally binding excuse to not come anymore, today you get a glimpse of someone who actually makes that happen.

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 6/23/23

So it seems that Niki is going to turn down the college scholarship he earned by helping Rex recapture some escaped prisoners, because he’s found a new passion — auto mechanics! And indeed, this is a line of work that can be quite lucrative, though I’m a little worried that he’s cut his teeth on classic cars and is going to show up on his first day at his new job and start panicking when he sees how many computer chips are involved. Anyway, I love panel three because Kelly has just reached that point in a Big Relationship Talk where the other person starts waving their index finger in your face, which you know means things are going great.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 6/23/23

I’m sorry, there is no way on earth that Snuffy Smith is going to utter the phrase au contraire. Absolutely fucking not. It’s days like today when I really come to terms with what a crushing burden it is to be the last person alive who cares about consistent characterization in newspaper comics that are literally more than a hundred years old.

Dennis the Menace, 6/23/23

Dennis casually looking at his phone as he delivers this line is in fact quite menacing and extremely funny, and I have no choice but to respect it.

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Shoe, 6/21/23

Here’s a little free hint for comic strip writers everywhere: if you come up with a line of dialogue and you think, “Well, I can’t top that one,” that means you’ve found your punchline! You should probably think of a setup panel that leads into it, instead of just having one of your other characters say “Well, I can’t top that one” and calling it day.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 6/21/23

For some reason I think I assumed that Snuffy was a lone wolf chicken thief? But here’s Lukey, cheerfully engaging in poultry larceny with him. And in broad daylight! Please, Lukey, reconsider this life of crime, you have a family! At least I think you do? Clearly I don’t know you as well as I thought.