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The Lockhorns, 3/4/21

Man, I genuinely want to know what Leroy is up to on social media. Like, I started writing that sentence as a bit, but now I’m imagining all sorts of possibilities. Is he posting an ill-informed comment on his favorite sports blog? Letting loose a terrible political opinion on Twitter? Going through the entire Instagram feed of a statuesque blonde he met at a party and liking each of her selfies one by one? Uploading a compilation of Loretta’s funniest nags to TikTok? You can tell by his facial expression that he’s extremely pleased with himself, so you know it’s pretty bad.

Crankshaft, 3/4/21

Ha ha, turns out “church organist drops dead mid-service” wasn’t just a funny joke I made earlier this week but a real plot development in a newspaper comic strip, an artistic medium for children (?). Anyway, say what you will about Crankshaft, but unlike certain Funkyverse strips, it’s not sentimental about the dead, you know? That lady’s body isn’t even cold and they’re already browbeating Lillian into being her replacement!

Funky Winkerbean, 3/4/21

LADY NONE OF THESE REFERENCES ARE PARTICULARLY OBSCURE, PLUS HE’S SAYING THE ACTUAL TITLES AND EVERYTHING

LIKE WHAT DO YOU THINK “GETTING” A REFERENCE MEANS

KNOCK IT OFF

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The Lockhorns, 2/20/21

I sincerely enjoy the presence of non-Lockhorn characters in the Lockhorns, who often seem to have somehow been drawn into Leroy and Loretta’s social orbit, where they never remain for long for obvious reasons. Take the dude standing next to Leroy here: that is a perfectly rendered facial expression for someone who’s just gone on his first outing with someone he thinks might be a new friend and has had a good time watching a movie, only to be hit with “You know who I hate? My wife.”

Shoe, 2/20/21

For all I snipe at the strip, you gotta give props to Shoe for having a consistent aesthetic tone, and that tone can best be described as “bone-deep weariness.” “Thank you, Cosmo,” Trish says out loud in response to this backhanded compliment, but what her eyes and posture say, very clearly, is “I’ve lived a thousand lifetimes and yearn so, so strongly for death.”

Beetle Bailey, 2/20/21

Honestly can’t decide if the proper response to this one is “Finally, the media reputation the narcoleptic community has yearned for” or “Beetle Bailey: Asexual Icon.”

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The Lockhorns, 2/13/21

Based on their relatively modest tract home and Leroy’s rail commute and his Jets and Mets fandom, I’ve long assumed that the Lockhorns was an inhabitant of Long Island. However, today’s panel makes me think that perhaps they actually live in the part of New Jersey just across the river from Manhattan, as the Garden State is one of the few that have statewide elections in odd-numbered years; they could also live in New York City itself, which is gearing up for a mayoral campaign this year, although their suburban lifestyle woud only make this likely if they lived on Staten Island or maybe in outermost Queens. Anyway, the best thing going on here is that Loretta has made the mailman stand in the doorway while she assesses her mail in terms of what it means for her marriage, and his numb, resigned facial expression tells us that this is definitely not the first time this has happened.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 2/13/21

“What do you think the answer to that question is?” is a stereotypical bit of therapist-speak because much of the point of talk therapy is to get the patient to really self-reflect and understand their own mind and emotional state. I feel like when you’re a nutritionist, though, your job is really to just deliver straightforward information about what patients should and shouldn’t do? Just tell him not to eat an entire 1,600 calorie fast food meal in one sitting, lady! That’s what he’s paying you for!