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Archive: Hi and Lois

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Dads, but no grads

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Blondie, 6/15/25

The Blondie deep lore is that back in the ’20s, Blondie was a flapper girl and Dagwood was the dissolute son of a millionaire, and he was disinherited for marrying her, and that’s all of course long forgotten now and they’re just normal suburbanites, but it is a little weird that Dagwood’s boss looks suspiciously like his long-vanished father. It’s weird, right? I think it’s kind of weird. Anyway, it’s even weirder that this strip is drawing attention to it, though I’m not sure if the implication is that Dagwood sought out this abusive boss in particular to work out his daddy issues or if something much more complex and dark is going on here, a scenario in which Dagwood’s father has taken on a whole new identity that can never be acknowledged just so the two of them can spend time together.

Dustin, 6/15/25

Obviously, Ed was never going to spend Father’s Day with Dustin, whom he profoundly dislikes. But I appreciate that today’s strip reminds us that really his entire family is just a nonstop source of multilayered shame for him.

Hi and Lois, 6/15/25

Why are you subjecting Thirsty to all this, Hi? This is exactly the kind of thing he opted out of fatherhood to avoid!

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What’s the matter, Hi? Are you afraid of the possibilities

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Hi and Lois, 6/7/25

Years ago, I was doing some PT for a few weeks, and at one of my sessions there was an older guy there who was rehabbing a knee injury, and his therapist was (gently) berating him because he kept going back and playing in his softball league despite the fact that she hadn’t cleared him for it. He was agreeing with her in a kind of hangdog way — he knew it was bad for his knee, but it seemed clear to me that his softball team was a big part of his social circle and missing games meant missing an important part of his life. I felt bad for him at the time, though I might need to revise that now that I know that a big part of senior sports is getting together and pissing in groups.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 6/7/25

Oh, man, remember the shitty motel where Truck had to isolate for days due to a viral respiratory infection in the spring of 2020 that somehow turned out to not be COVID? And then he wrote a song about it that went (the good kind of) viral? Well, it turns out his bastard maybe-son is staying there now, and there’s no way he doesn’t know that whole backstory, so now I’m assuming he’s documenting this entire journey-to-find-his-father for TikTok clout.

Mother Goose and Grimm, 6/7/25

You ever think about the fact that, before he became a real boy, Pinocchio’s flesh was all wood? You ever think about how creatures that eat or peck or chew on wood would do a real number on Pinocchio, if he encountered them? You ever think about how Pinocchio wasn’t technically in the Wizard of Oz, but we could put him there, through the magic of cartooning?

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You ever heard of this new thing called “e-commerce,” Hi

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Gil Thorp, 6/3/25

I’m really coming to enjoy the on-the-nose “sound effects” that we’re getting during sports antics in Gil Thorp. Are “catch,” “swipe,” and “pass” onomatopoeiae? Well, they could be, if you kind of whisper them and hit the consonants exactly when the referenced action occurs. Anyway, the Mudlarks did it! They caught the ball! They all caught the ball, together! [whispers] CATCH

The Phantom, 6/3/25

Look, Kit, your dad is good at a lot of things. Punching? Definitely. Shooting people, with a gun? You bet. Maintaining enough muscle definition that he looks ripped even through a lycra suit, yet somehow remaining hydrated enough that he can do physical feats of derring-do? The dude practically invented it. But I’m not sure he’s the one to go to with questions about “does free will exist” or whatever. Call me an elitist if you must, but if a guy makes living in a cave and never letting anyone see his eyes so he can strike fear into the hearts of men into his whole deal, I don’t trust him on abstruse philosophical matters!

Hi and Lois, 6/3/25

I love how concerned both Hi and Lois look here. This is an extremely minor glitch in their comfortable suburban lives and yet they are straight up not having a good time! Probably there’s something deeper going on here that therapy could unpack, eventually. Anyway, it’s too bad they can’t hear Dawg’s cheerful thought balloon, because it might ease their all-pervasive anxiety, just a little, just for a moment.