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Curtis, 7/9/23

As part of my mission to say nice things about comics when I enjoy them, I really enjoyed this Curtis! Basically I spent the whole strip thinking “Is he visualizing an eye roll or is he just thinking the words ‘eye roll’?” only to get the payoff in the next to last panel. A fun little game played with the conventions of comics and the nature of cognition itself (can we even say for sure if thinking involves words rather than concepts?). Kudos for Curtis!

Mary Worth, 7/9/23

You know who doesn’t get any kudos is me, because while I showed you vigilante Mary yesterday, I failed to show you Friday’s strip, which made it clear that she’s enjoying on one of her own blueberry muffins during her stakeout. Thank goodness for the Sunday strips, which recapitulate such important information for occasional readers! Anyway, what do you think happened to that half-eaten muffin between panels 5 and 7? Did Mary carefully place it on the napkin she had previously unfolded on the passenger seat, or, in her haste to grab her binoculars, did she let it tumble to the floor at her feet? (The floor mats in her car are of course immaculate, so even in the latter case she’ll be free to pick it up and continue her noshing at her leisure.)

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Mary Worth, 5/5/23

Since Dr. Ed’s big problem was that he felt terribly overworked, I feel like we’re really glossing over what’s actually turned his life around: not his girlfriend doing unpaid and unskilled labor around the office, but rather the fact that he’s managed to hire another vet to do actual vet stuff, replacing his emotionally fragile nephew who couldn’t deal with all the euthanasia. Do you think the new guy’s Ed’s nephew too? How many nephews does this guy have?

Curtis, 5/5/23

Wow, this is a hell of a way for Greg to tell Curtis that he has a sister!

Daddy Daze, 5/5/23

YES, I KNEW IT, THE DADDY DAZY DADDY CAN’T ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT THE DADDY DAZY BABY IS SAYING, FINALLY, HE ADMITS IT

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Gil Thorp, 1/6/23

It saddens me that Marty Moon, Gil’s oldest frenemy, feels like he needs to introduce himself here. Presumably he’s doing it not for Gil’s sake but in the hopes that the local news will broadcast his question and won’t edit out him saying the name of his podcast. Gotta #hustle to build that #brand, Marty! Anyway, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out if Gil is doing some kind of wordplay on “Behind the Playbook” in that last panel, like he’s really saying “under my behind” or something, and have come to the conclusion that he’s actually trying to get this very question into Marty’s head, knowing the Marty’s going to be muttering “did Thorp just call me an ass?” to himself as he edits the podcast and wonders how much longer he can resist the siren song of drink.

Curtis, 1/6/23

Update on this year’s Kwanzaa tale: Joe D. Cawfee, who was born with a head featuring rabbit traits and wished he wasn’t different, had his wish granted by his magic fish, but in an ironic way, whoops! Also, his magic fish dropped dead in the process of granting the wish. Also the Curtis creative team would like to emphasize that you should not interpret this story as implying that the only way to solve conflict is to eliminate differences of all kinds, OK? The Curtis creative team is not going to explain why this guy is named “Joe D. Cawfee” either.

Beetle Bailey, 1/6/23

Remember how in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 the U.S. military and intelligence services went all out to recruit people who could speak Arabic and Persian? Well, we’re a new geopolitcial phase now, and we need everyone who’s ever said that they’re “fluent in sarcasm” in their Twitter bio or Tinder profile to step up and protect our nation from the current threats.

Mother Goose and Grimm, 1/6/23

Ha, get it, because she’s … a carnivorous animal of some kind? Do carnivores date birds, in the Mother Goose and Grimm universe, where most, though not all, of the characters are animals? I was about to apologize for not knowing the world-building rules of the Mother Goose and Grimm universe despite having read the strip for years but you know what? I’m not actually sorry about it! I’m not sorry at all.