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Mary Worth, 9/24/20

Well, Tommy’s given his life over the Christ and he doesn’t do crimes anymore — no more meth dealing, and not even any more pharmacy fraud. But is dining and dashing really a sin? In Matthew 12, Jesus endorses taking grain from other people’s fields if you’re hungry, even if it’s the sabbath! Hope you can run fast, Brandy.

Blondie, 9/24/20

“Oh, by the way, honey, you’re on speaker, even though I’m talking into the handset. Almost like our universe is built out of a limited set of clip art that can’t be added to or modified even for a visual that’s central to the gag we’re trying to do. Anyway, please cook something nice for my asshole boss.”

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Dick Tracy, 9/23/20

You might remember that legitimate biologist/Dracula cosplayer Professor Stokes bragged of “collecting over a third of Faith’s blood volume in record time” (consensually, I guess?) and promised to “add her sisters’ blood to my collection as well.” I guess based on the names Hope and Charity these are the aforementioned sisters, and it’s pretty strong evidence of the uselessness of the scions of wealthy families that mere days after their sister was found exsanguinated in an alley somewhere, they’re busy squabbling over whether to buy cool cars or invest in mutual funds from extremely dubious-sounding brokerages, rather than getting the hell out of town before they too are tapped and drained like a keg at a frat party.

Mary Worth, 9/23/20

I regret to inform you that rather than the Saul romance plot we were promised, we’re getting some kind of Brandy-Tommy business. I do find it pretty funny that Iris’s attitude towards Brandy appears to be “I’m so very grateful you’re around to cater to the emotional needs of my ne’er-do-well son, because I’ve got a very busy schedule of sex with my much younger boyfriend lined up. See ya never!”

Mark Trail, 9/23/20

Oh, man, I hope the rest of the week is taken up by escalating authority figures — the mayor, the president, the Secretary-General of the UN, God himself — grabbing the phone and trying to browbeat Mark into getting on a plane, coming to New York, and receiving a tasteful engraved paperweight in front of a politely clapping audience of his peers. “Your dog’s gonna die whether you’re there or not, Mark!” says God. “Believe me, I know.”

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Hello everyone! I’m back and very grateful to Uncle Lumpy for his guest-blogging prowess … and extremely grateful for everyone who donated to the Comics Curmudgeon fundraiser! Individual thank-yous are, per usual, coming your way in the next week or so. And now, tanned, rested, and ready to take on … Dick Tracy? Sure, why not.

Dick Tracy, 9/14/20

Brenda Starr and Little Orphan Annie, two iconic long-running continuity strips, sadly came to an end in the last decade, but that hasn’t stopped Dick Tracy from still plugging along (because America likes violent cops more than it likes newspapers or orphans!) and gathering up its syndicate’s intellectual property into a Tribune Content Agency Cinematic Universe. Now Brenda is going to teach Annie and Dick’s half-alien granddaughter Honeymoon to write a journalistically rigorous feature article on … vampires? Sure, why not. I’m honestly surprised that the head of the University of Neo-Chicago’s Department of Ghouls and Draculas they’re interviewing isn’t named “Professor Stakes,” as that’s the sort of on-the-nose nomenclature this feature specializes in.

Crankshaft, 9/14/20

It’s a difficult environment out there for indie booksellers — especially when they have to compete against nice old ladies who operate unlicensed bookstores over their garage, flouting the ADA and any number of fire safety codes and just daring the city’s toothless permitting apparatus to shut them down.

The Lockhorns, 9/14/20

A lot about The Lockhorns, especially the fact that they spend most of their time in a semi-featureless void space, can be explained if you imagine that they’re kept captive in some kind of containment field, possibly floating in a sphere high above the earth, and the rest of the world watches a livestream of their dysfunctional antics for entertainment and/or as a cautionary example. In this alternate universe, journalists like Jake Tapper (?) comment on major milestones in their lives, and presumably everyone’s focus on them brings us together as a nation.

Mary Worth, 9/14/20

I was pretty dubious about Saul Helps A Tween Heal, but I am cautiously optimistic about Saul Woos A Giantess!

Funky Winkerbean, 9/14/20

Honey, just because you’re saying it louder doesn’t make it true