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Rex Morgan, M.D., 3/5/16

The “uh” in Rex’s word balloon in panel two is an exquisitely placed detail. It’s the moment Rex acknowledges that he’s losing control of this conversation. He’s ostensibly interested in buying this lady’s possible deathtrap of a house, so it makes a certain sense that she’d try to figure out his finances. Asking about his kids, though? This is a personal conversation now, and Rex barely wants to have personal conversations with his wife. “Can I just drop this plate and run?” he thinks. “Just head straight out the door, leaving shattered china and lemon cake strewn everywhere behind me, and never look back?”

Family Circus, 3/5/16

I absolutely love Jeffy’s look of heavy-lidded contempt here. “Girl,” he’s thinking, “you and I both know these are mashed potatoes. Don’t get all up in my face just because I had the idea to malaprop over dinner tonight before you did. I’m the one grandmas across America are going to be hanging on their refrigerators this week, OK? Me.”

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Dennis the Menace, 3/2/16

I dunno, guys, I think we’ve got ask ourselves who the real menace here is? Is it Dennis, who after all is literally a five year old and mostly just repeats what adults say? Or is it Mrs. Wilson, who consistently welcomes a little boy into her home who she know annoys her husband, and then trash-talks her husband in front of him? “Tee hee!” she says, as she hides behind a closet door extremely unconvincingly. “George is fat! This child is saying what we’re all thinking!”

Family Circus, 3/2/16

It took me a minute to figure out that the “joke” here is that Ma Keane is asking her husband to dry the dishes in the most passive-aggressive way possible. Much funnier to me is Big Daddy Keane’s look of pure disgruntlement as Jeffy waves a towel in his face. “What? Participate in the unpaid labor that keeps the household I live in running smoothly? Me? But … but … the patriarchy!”

Pluggers, 3/2/16

You’re a plugger if the struggle between you and your spouse over your possessions ends with your rooting through you neighbor’s garbage.

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Spider-Man, 2/18/16

I’m trying to figure out if Peter is being sarcastically self-loathing in panel two or if he’s genuinely perking up. “Oh, that’s right! I was present when this storyline’s villain was defeated! I was wearing my superhero outfit, too! Thanks, TV!”

Dennis the Menace, 2/18/16

I was going to make some joke about a menacing pride in illiteracy, but honestly, is there anything less menacing than a child gathering his friends to watch the news together, with no adults present?

Family Circus, 2/18/16

NOOO DOLLY NATIONALISM IS IDOLATRY, you’re gonna have to do a lot of Hail Marys to walk this one back