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Blondie, 6/22/23

Let’s put aside, for the moment, the fact we’re dealing with three famous (?) comics couples here. What are the circumstances under which you’d have any three couples together like this to talk to Blondie and Tootsie about vow-renewal catering? Like, do they just have office hours specifically for potential vow renewers to drop by and chat? Or are they all doing this together, a mass vow-renewal process? Are they friends? Or — and now, finally, we must return to the fact that we’ve got three beloved (???) comics couples on our hands — is this for copyright reasons, somehow, and what they’re actually “renewing” is the rights of their intellectual property holders to the concept of their coupledom?

Mary Worth, 6/22/23

Lyle Lovett! It’s bad enough that you’re running an illegal underground dog-fighting ring. But now you’re drunk on the job? Try to show a little pride in your terrible, cruel work!

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Mary Worth, 6/14/23

Look, I know I have to tread delicately here, because organized dog fighting is very real and very awful. But since this is Mary Worth and we know that any threatened horrific violence is never going to actually happen, I feel like we can enjoy ourselves and admit to ourselves that Mary making direct eye contact with the reader, with an expression that’s worried (but also maybe a little excited?) and announcing “it’s a highly secretive blood sport that can occur anywhere!” is very funny.

Gil Thorp, 6/14/23

Ah, the vapecrime plot has been resolved by, uh, sending all the vape teens to juvenile prison? I’m sure they’ll be fine and come out of the experience better people. Meanwhile, in more important news, the girls’ team has made the playdowns and [squints at last panel] THE PLAYOFFS WHAT THE HELL ALL THESE WOKE CHANGES TO THIS STRIP HAVE GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME

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Mary Worth, 6/11/23

Yes, blah blah, Saul breaks down sobbing because his beloved Greta has become bait for for fighting dogs (DO NOT WORRY, THERE IS ZERO CHANCE THAT A DOG IS GOING TO DIE HORRIBLY IN A MARY WORTH PLOT, GRETA WILL BE FINE), but what I want to focus on is that Mary sets this up with “I was reading the paper, and also watching the news on television.” We get it Mary, you have a diverse and varied news diet (made up of sources that were widely known before before 2001 or so).

Bizarro, 6/11/23

I know that the “oh, is there a Mrs. Potato Head?” genre of joke is tempting, but — and I’m sorry to be a killjoy — it would work a lot better if not for the fact that there is a Mrs. Potato Head, and she was introduced as part of the Potato Head extended universe in 1953, just a year after Mr. Potato Head debuted, and she appeared, voiced by Estelle Harris, most famous for playing George’s mother on Seinfeld, in three different Toy Story movies. That said, I appreciate the route this strip took with it, which is to imagine a human woman married to a literal plastic toy, whose eyes sometimes fall out when you’re in bed with it, as you would expect them to.

Family Circus, 6/11/23

Gotta go with Dolly as having the best imagination of the Keane Kids here. She’s dreaming of unleashing some ancient Pharaonic curse onto her family, and frankly I’m rooting for her.