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Shoe, 4/29/23

Sure, we make fun of legacy strips where the punchline is “Ha ha, technology, amiright?” a lot, but they do serve a valuable purpose, in that they show us what the artists think young people look like. In the case of the Shoe team, I guess it’s … beatniks? Kids today, playing the bongos and going to poetry readings and always texting on their damn phones?

Dick Tracy and Hi and Lois, 4/29/23

Shout out to these two strips for showing us the whole spectrum of male homosociality, from the horny (“Good lord, I’d like to bang that chick, but failing that I’d like to purchase the product she’s advertising”) to the wholesome (“We’re just whackin’ balls back and forth over the fence! It’s Saturday and the weather’s great, and we’re a little drunk”).

Gil Thorp, 4/29/23

No we didn’t see it because you didn’t draw it, do you not know how comics work

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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 4/27/23

OK, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, I’m all for mixing things up once in a while, but I’m going to have to ask you to stop trying to make Barney Google and Snuffy Smith Present … Sparkplug’s Grandson Li’l Sparky happen as, like, a parallel continuity that implies that the animals of Hootin’ Holler are all sapient and can talk to one another but also coexist with the human characters. Like, don’t get me attached to Clara the chicken, beloved by her peers as a great cook, when we all know that sooner than later she’s going to end up in Snuffy’s burlap sack and then Loweezy’s fryer, begging for her life in words her captors cannot understand.

Dustin, 4/27/23

Great facial expression on Neka in the final panel here. That’s exactly what you’d look like if you visited a friend’s home for the first time and immediately learned that her family relationships are a twisted, passive-aggressive web of mutual loathing.

Hi and Lois, 4/27/23

The appearance of Chip as a sort of one-man Greek chorus here is very funny to me. On the one hand, it’s a little out of place because I’m pretty sure we almost never see Chip interacting with his younger siblings in any way, but on the other, do you know who’d be really, really impressed by innovation like this? Stoned teenagers, that’s who.

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The Lockhorns, 4/24/23

Happy Monday, everyone, and it’s a truly happy Monday indeed when the day’s Lockhorns panel features Leroy openly weeping, or at so least so overwrought with emotion that he’s hiding his face in his hand. Like, this deadpan zinger from Loretta would be funny in any circumstance where he takes his fantasy league a little too seriously, but it’s very funny if he’s actually crying about it. Is he so upset because his emotional life is very empty and he’s way, way overinvested in fantasy baseball, the only fun part of his day? Or has he made some ill-advised side bets and lost a lot of money?

Hi and Lois, 4/24/23

Look, I’m not going out of my way to rain on anybody’s date night fun, but I’ve been reading this strip for years and I’m pretty sure I never knew that Lois’s mother (also Beetle Bailey’s mother, for the record) lived in the same town as the Flagstons, or at least close enough that she could be called upon for last-minute baby-sitting duty, so honestly that means it’s been quite a while since they hung out and maybe they should invite her to dinner.

Pluggers, 4/24/23

ME ON THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023: Being a little forgetful about names is a normal thing for a person to experience. I’m not opening myself up to shame or ridicule by talking about it on my blog for everyone to read.

ME ON MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2023: Oh no. Oh NO.