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Dustin, 4/23/21

So the last time I tackled wordplay in a Sunday Dustin comic strip lots of people got mad at me because apparently they think hanger and anger rhyme, so maybe I shouldn’t tempt fate again, but whatever: I can tell by looking at it that this punchline is supposed to be wordplay, but I have no idea what the wordplay is supposed to be. I guess we’re meant to believe “takes it out on approval” is a well-known English phrase we all know and love, maybe? Well, it’s it’s not, but I’m sure a bunch of people are going to chime in telling me it is actually and I’m wrong. Anyway, one of the things about Dustin is that it’s about a generational war between two unlikeable characters, and you have to kind of admire how it makes you dislike whichever one is in the strip on any given day.

Marvin, 4/23/21

Get it? “Cry-Fi”? Because instead of communicating via a local wireless arean network defined by the IEEE 802.11 standards, he’s just yelling? Mercy! That’s pretty funny, of course, but let’s not let it distract us from the main thing here, which is that Marvin’s parents have locked him outside to die of exposure and starvation.

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Marvin, 5/16/21

I was going to go on a real sarcastic riff here about how great it was that comics were a rich, visual medium so that we could get literally seven near-identical frames of Marvin reacting to something happening that we can’t see. But then I realized: do you actually want to see two boring middle aged people arguing about the purchase of a smart speaker (brand unspecified)? That honestly doesn’t sound interesting at all, and while seven near-identical drawings of Marvin aren’t more interesting, at least I feel confident that no energy was needlessly wasted in their creation.

Blondie, 5/16/21

Guys, do you ever think Dagwood might have a serious problem? Like, he didn’t so much fall asleep as violently pitch forward out of his chair. Did he have a stroke or what?

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Gil Thorp, 5/12/21

Today’s a great day in Gil Thorp for groups of three Mudlarks experiencing approximately the same emotion! Panel two is easy to parse: Three boys thrilled to have won a game in a comeback. Panel three seems to affirm the idea that teen girls have more complex emotional lives than their male counterparts. Who wants to go to Ricozzi’s with Zane and Katy? The prospect fills numbers 10, 15, and 33 with a feeling of subtle dread that they can’t quite articulate.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 5/12/21

As a guy who struggles a lot with writer’s block, I have to wonder: Would staring at a giant question mark taking up most of my monitor be more or less motivating than just staring at a blank document? I’m honestly willing to try anything at this point.

Marvin, 5/12/21

“Ha ha, get it? Because the word ‘test’ has a number of slightly different meanings? Anyway, I’m probably dying.”