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Mother Goose and Grimm, 5/1/21

Hey there! Did it ever occur to you, in your (I assume) decades of reading the syndicated newspaper comic strip Mother Goose and Grimm, that the title characters (a goose and a dog who talk and live typical suburban human lifestyles) are named after the mythical Mother Goose of storytelling lore and the Brothers Grimm, who collected European folktales, respectively? Probably not, because it’s almost never been relevant to the action or jokes … unti today! Ha ha, it’s been a wild ride with this strip over the past 36 years, but it was all worth it to deliver this delightful storybook-themed punchline. Anyway, it will stop production forever after this week, RIP Mother Goose and Grimm.

Family Circus, 5/1/21

Ma Keane’s little smile is truly chilling to me. “Finally,” she’s thinking, “it knows what it is … and what it isn’t.”

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 4/25/21

Two things amused me very much about today’s Rex Morgan. The first is how Rex immediately moves to ensure that Kyle Vidpa, a man who creates graphic novels for children, doesn’t have to interact with his daughter, who read and loved Kyle’s graphic novels. “Honey, adults simply don’t like spending time with kids under any circumstances. That’s been my experience, anyway, and I assume it’s the same for everyone.”

The other thing I like is that the narration box is like “We’re going to give Jordan and Michelle some privacy,” which is then followed by a panel of them full-on making out. “Oops, we were going to check back later but it seems we left the camera on by mistake. Surely it couldn’t hurt to linger on them just a little while. Ha ha, just kidding. But what if…?”

Family Circus, 4/25/21

Billy has a hard time thinking of anyone who he loves … who’s alive. Only the damned souls who linger between our plane and the next, and who whisper things in his ear, are worthy of his affection, and that’s why he does their awful bidding!

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Family Circus, 4/15/21

Many years ago, I was going through customs at Boston Airport, and one of the customs inspectors had an extremely cute beagle on a leash wearing a vest that said “I’M PROTECTING AMERICA’S AGRICULTURE!” This dog was sniffing around everyone’s bags, and he came up to a family with a little boy who had a soft-sided lunch box that was open, and the dog stuck his head into it to sniff around a bit. The boy squealed indignantly “That dog licked my lunch box!” and the dog’s handler replied, in a clipped and measured tone that I will never forget, “That dog’s mouth is cleaner than yours.”

Anyway, I immediately thought about this when I saw Barfy’s aggrieved face here. “Can you believe this shit?” he’s definitely thinking. “Have you seen the things this child has done with those hands? I came over here to eat food that had fallen on the floor, not to be slandered like this.”

The Lockhorns, 4/15/21

Speaking of Jeffy’s bullshit, you could definitely see a panel where one of the Keane kids, grinning in bed like a dope, declares, “I can’t wait to see how last night’s dream turned out!”, right? Amazing how that kind of sappy line can be instantly changed to a cutting Lockhorns put-down just by changing the speaker.

Pluggers, 4/15/21

This year’s tax filing deadline was extended to May 17, so I guess you’re a plugger if you have your tax day comic all ready to go for April 15 and you’re not gonna let big government tell you to change it! Also, it seems that you’re a plugger if you do your taxes by dutifully researching potential deductions you can legally take (this is how everyone else does their taxes, too).