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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 7/9/20

Look, Loweezy, it’s not his fault. Hootin’ Holler is trapped in amber right on the cusp between a subsistance farming society where most trade occurs via barter and a money-based economy tied into the larger world. The very idea of currency is unimaginably exciting to Snuffy, and because this is a comic strip where time is frozen, he’s never going to get over it.

Hi and Lois, 7/9/20

Hey, everyone, remember the participation trophies millennials got and it warped their minds, somehow, according to angry paragraph-long posts I saw on Facebook? Well, they’re giving them to the next generation too, except we can’t actually afford trophies anymore, so they’re even worse. America is doomed!

Six Chix, 7/9/20

After some deliberation, I’ve decided I like this one. Do you think we’re supposed to recognize the tune he’s singing? Whatever, he’s a squirrel singing about nuts! What more do you want out of life?

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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 7/6/20

Haha, well, this is one of the grimmer scenarios Snuffy Smith has served up to us, isn’t it folks? Was the head of the local cemetery so hated that his former subordinates, now leaderless and squabbling, have to bury him in the dead of night, with no witnesses? Anyway, what I actually want in life is for every scene in any visual art that depicts a heavy reminder of life’s mortality to feature Snuffy Smith wandering through the foreground, a sack full of stolen chickens over his shoulder and a tongue lolling out of his mouth indicating his amusement at human frailties.

Mark Trail, 7/6/20

You know, back when Rusty was a mere “ward,” he never would’ve dared to express admiration for bad boy movie stars, because he knew that one wrong move and he’d be sent back to the orphanage, or just lured out to the forest with the promise of a “fishing trip” and then abandoned. But ever since Mark started letting Rusty call him “dad”, the kid thinks he can get away with anything! Hopefully Jeremy Cartwright will turn out to be a real shitheel and Rusty will realize that Mark and only Mark is a good example.

Beetle Bailey, 7/6/20

Wow, if I had to guess which character in a long-running legacy comic strip was secretly an Instagram food influencer, Sarge would … not be it? Like, we’d all think it was Dagwood, right? Definitely Dagwood. Anyway, all of the obvious variations on “Sgt. Snorkel” are as of this writing still available as usernames on Instagram, so feel free to start a gimmick account that you’ll get bored with in a week or two!

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Funky Winkerbean, 6/21/20

Imagine you’re a relatively normal person, who only has as context to assess today’s Funky Winkerbean the last couple days of strips where Les is worried that the actresses being tested for Lisa are too young and sexy. Maybe you even remember that there was an earlier, abortive stab at making this movie, where it was going to be called Lust for Lisa, and Les only agreed to sign on for this version because Mason agreed to tell the story “the right way,” and even then he was dubious. With that as background, your read on the absolutely insane dialogue from the script that we see in today’s strip would probably be that in fact the entire project is clearly going off the rails.

But you’re not a normal person! You’re a dedicated reader of the Comics Curmudgeon, and “once the chemo starts, this playground will be closed for repairs” has been permanently burned into your brain for the last 14 years, ever since the dialogue from today’s strip played out in Les and Lisa’s real, actual life.

Funky Winkerbean, 6/25/06

I’m not really sure why Les felt compelled to change “Summer’s in bed” to “Summer’s at her grandma’s”; I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to have sex when your kid is in the same house as you! But the important thing is that, yes, this dialogue we’re seeing is the story being told the right way. If only we could find an actress who can satisfy Les’s exacting specifications, which I assume are “can say this dialogue without visibly recoiling in disgust.”

Mark Trail, 6/21/20

It really makes Mark, who’s nattering on about larvae and fresh scabs while Cherry grimaces silently at him over her morning coffee, seem like husband of the year, doesn’t it?

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 6/21/20

God damn it, Snuffy Smith, I thought talk of “all these father’s day cards” was setting up the long-awaited big reveal of where Jughaid’s real father has been all this time! But nope, it’s just another joke about the notorious laziness of Hootin’ Holler’s residents.