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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/26/21

I’m a big believer that most comic-strip level gags should include exactly the amount of information they need to make the joke work and no more, which is why it drives me up the wall that this strip includes the name of Loweezy’s sister. It would be bad enough that she just named her sister (whom we’ve never see in the strip) for no reason, since it creates the nagging suspicion that this sister, as opposed to some other sister, is important to make the punchline work for some reason. But then they go and name her “Zoney!” “Loweezy” is the post-apocalyptic Hootin’ Holler newspeak for “Louisa,” but what the hell is “Zoney” derived from? Arizona? Does the vague memory of distant Arizona live on in Holler-adjacent onomastics? Gah, the fact that they added this name to her word balloon means that we ended up with two exclamation points alone on their own line! GAH!!!

Blondie, 8/26/21

One has to wonder who the “I” in Dagwood’s proposed social media clickbait headline is intended to be. It’s clearly not Dagwood, who is the star of the video. In fact, one wonders who’s filming this obviously staged scene in the first place, and what sad benefits Dagwood promised them for helping launch him to TikTok stardom.

Funky Winkerbean, 8/26/21

Oh, wow, sorry I said yesterday that this Funky Winkerbean development was going to be about sex, when in fact it’s about the most obvious plot twist anyone could imagine. Don’t worry, thought: Les still had an orgasm.

Mary Worth, 8/26/21

WILBUR’S IN A PISS FIGHT WITH A CAT, EVERYONE

A PISS FIGHT

IT’S CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST

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Mary Worth, 8/24/21

Well, Libby sure didn’t ask for this war, but it seems she is determined to win it. We have every confidence that she will, of course. Mostly, I’m curious where Estelle is in all this. I think we can all agree that her defense of her cat has been somewhat half-hearted. Still, take a look at her facial expression as she goes to town on that rib:

Either she’s very pleased at the thought of two living beings fighting over her, or she’s glad that Libby will do what she can’t bring herself to do (expel Wilbur from her house, and her life, forever). I will also note that she has really filled that wine glass up to the rim, so clearly she’s expecting quite a show tonight.

Crock, 8/24/21

The sartorial choices of long-established Crock characters have at least some basis in reality: Maggot is wearing a miscolored but otherwise recognizable version of the kepi worn by members of the French Foreign Legion, while Grossie is similarly wearing a basically correct version of a niqab (a form of dress actually banned in Algeria today, but never mind that). But things get more dire when the strip needs to introduce somebody new. Like this lady, who’s coming to collect charity items: she’s a … witch? She’s wearing a witch’s hat? But she’s collecting stuff for charity, so she’s a good witch? I guess?

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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/20/21

The residents Hootin’ Holler were vaguely aware that some catastrophe had caused the collapse of the flatlanders’ Newnited States government, but in truth they had been isolated so long that it made little difference when they were cut off from the outside world altogether. But the older folks did have some poignant and unsettling moments, like when they realized that their entertainers were now doing performances based on their vague memory of an earlier generation of entertainers who were in turn imitating someone else who had been forgotten entirely.

Crankshaft, 8/20/21

As if living in a city devastated by war weren’t bad enough, imagine how awful it must feel to pick through the shattered ruins of your home, looking for prized possessions or maybe your even your loved ones, and knowing that somewhere, thousands of miles away, Crankshaft is doing wordplay about it.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 8/20/21

“Oh yeah. I’m going to have to invite Buck, aren’t I? I can’t even remember if he and I have ever met in this strip, but this is a Rex Morgan plot so I guess I have to pretend I find him tolerable or interesting.”

Mary Worth, 8/20/21

YES LIBBY

RISE UP

KILL

KILL

DESTROY