“I eat again at the so-called Soul Food place, and yet again I fail to consume a soul. Am I misinterpreting the signs, or is this place lying to me? The owner pries into my writing. I tell him only truth, and he seems troubled. Perhaps his soul is troubled. I could calm it. I could devour it. His partner is nowhere to be seen. The restaurant is empty. Today I will eat soul food.” –Voshkod

“Man, the little frog dude is DEEP in thought over there. It’s just Swiss cheese, guy! Unless you’re wondering what in a deli a frog would be eating, which, yeah, that whole deal is pretty damn weird!” –A Grave Mind

“Alone at last, Hi has the self-satisfied look of a man who’s just let out a huge fart he’s been holding in a long time.” –Hibbleton

“Teaching children about the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs is actually much more useful than the dubious factoids Slylock Fox usually gives out, so kudos.” –Ettorre

“This is your hype man, Dagwood? Shorter, balder, Abe Vigoda? Kind of makes you question the concept of hype men, doesn’t it?” –Victor Von

“Leroy should try weaponized neediness at home. It just might be the catalyst that blows up the whole miserable thing.” –MKay

“To add insult to injury, since none of them died in battle, none of them are going to Valhalla, and thanks to Brother Olaf, they’re probably all going to Hell!” –Charterstone: Dune

“Come on, a plugger doesn’t stare a big plate of peas and carrots and … is that hummus? … and think ‘Mmm, I just wish I could eat more of these healthy vegan treats.’ A plugger envies a cow’s four stomachs because KFC sells bucket meals that feed four.” –Schroduck

“Note, it doesn’t say that pluggers envy cows for having four stomachs. It says they envy the stomachs themselves. Oh what bliss, to be nothing but a giant stomach! Or possibly four of them, even better.” –Peanut Gallery

“This incident is going to haunt Herb, a man whose own thoughts are so wholesome he can say them aloud whenever he chooses. It had never occurred to him that some thoughts are not fit for public dissemination. What could those thoughts be? WHAT IS ON THOSE PAGES???” –Joe Blevins

“Gotta give it to the hipsters of Rex Morgan, M.D., Mud would never eat in something as gauche as a McDonald’s. Why, I bet their employees aren’t even allowed to style their facial hair after Chester A. Arthur! Phooey!” –Tabby Lavalamp

“I like the contrast between the two garbage men in their reaction to Heathcliff’s enormous monument to trash. One considers it a literal work of art, not only a tribute to Heathcliff but also to his own noble profession, and gazes upon it in wide-eyed reverence. The other furrows his brow in annoyance as he realizes whose responsibility it is to clean this mess up.” –Vulpes

“You know what they say, ‘Keep your friends close, but keep your doddering parent who’s liable to give your inheritance away if you don’t maintain constant surveillance on their internet usage closer.’” –But What Do I Know?

“Wait, so … neither of us wants to be at this restaurant? Can we leave then?” –Navigator

“In 2027 NASCAR will celebrate 20 years of not using leaded gas. That’s after, say, 40 years of Gertie’s in-person fandom. It explains a lot.” –ValdVin

“It’s bad enough she ran out of gas, but she also ran out of tires.” –Everybody Posts, Nobody Reads

“Maybe this is Dennis’ way of telling his parents that there’s a huge pile of dog shit in the other room, and now he’s running out of the house. That’s fairly menacing.” –Nevin, on Patreon

“Given hulky guy’s big ‘snifff’ in panel two, it’s cocaine, right? ‘Hot wings and beer’ must be the elaborate euphemism the cool jocks use to keep their drugs away from the nerds.” –Lawyerbob

“The boys are fine … The hub’s fine too. By which I mean, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, or ATL, the primary hub of Delta Airlines, is impressive. Considering how many flights come through there every hour, it’s a wonder of efficiency and professionalism. It makes the passenger’s layover practically enjoyable! …Anyway, the boys asked about you, because they don’t have a father.” –Chance

“It’s cool that Hi wants to do the Harpo thing and watch this all unfold while just making dumb expressions, but can we get this man a slide whistle? A bike horn? Something? ‘We’re getting drinks with these guys, see you whenever we’re done! ‘HONK … honk.’” –A Grave Mind

“I like him because he’s literally anyone other than a member of my horrible family!” –Peanut Gallery

“Maybe you should buy multiple copies of the newspaper. That way, everyone could get their own and you wouldn’t have to do … whatever this is.” –Joe Blevins

“I hate that ‘Bean’s End’ is the catalog Crankshaft orders gardening supplies from when there are real-life and quite famous catalogs for L.L.Bean and Land’s End, neither of which are gardening companies. Puns are nominally your whole thing! Nobody made you give up cancer, that was your choice!” –Dan

“Golf on the radio! Could anything be more boring? What about golf on video streaming, but the camera only records the journalist?” –Ettorre

“Look, I get it, it’s golf, the lingo is what it is, but when a guy whose last name is Moon and who dresses like Don Johnson Goes to Margaritaville uses the phrase ‘nine holes of stroke play,’ I feel like maybe it’s time to put down the comics page and take in a rousing morning’s church service. Confessional, here I come!” –els

“Because those are petroglyphs and they predate written language by thousands of years, Leroy, you doorknob. No wonder your marriage is a shambles!” –Tabby Lavalamp

“So that’s why Sharon has been so busy — she’s serving aboard the Starship Enterprise as a science officer.” –Johnny lt

“Knowing that Dustdad’s bitter, misanthropic attitude stems from his feelings of being lost and adrift in a world that’s moving too fast for him makes me … happy that he’s suffering, really. I hope every day a new app comes out that he doesn’t know how to use. I hope every child that crosses his path runs up to him, yells ‘six-seven’ and runs away laughing while he loudly demands to know what that means. I hope the teller at the bank asks him for the security password he set for his account and he doesn’t remember it.” –TheDiva

“Being asked to prove his humanity with a CAPTCHA is an existential crisis for a man who spent decades avoided the least bit of self-reflection.” –Philip

“Granted it has been a long time since I’ve sent in an actual paper tax return, but should it fit so nicely in a little envelope like that? Or maybe CatMan simply writes ‘I do not recognize the authority of your False Corporatist Government’ on a sheet of paper along with a scanned copy of his signed social security card.” –pugfuggly

“Lonnie sells office Dieffenbachia houseplants. ‘Look how big and healthy it is! We can’t seem to get them to die. I’m afraid we won’t be ordering any replacements this season, sorry.’” –Ukulele Ike

“Jesus, Thirsty, just file an extension. It’s a signature, a Social Security Number, and you’ll have until October 15. You can sober up by October.” –Doc Wonmug

“Henry is concentrating so hard because if he can get a tax refund, he’ll finally be able to afford a vacuum cleaner so Alice doesn’t have to sweep the house with a cartoon witch’s broomstick any more.” –Schroduck

“Every year the baseball season begins a little earlier. It’s been a long time indeed since it began in mid-April. How long? Well, it was back when the creators of Blondie were paying attention to outside reality. That’s how long.” –Rube

“Wait, so this guy is a young man? He doesn’t look like it, he looks the same approximate age as Dagwood, or maybe even older. If he is young, why is he hanging out with Dagwood, who holds young people in contempt? Anyway don’t let this man’s ambiguous age distract you from his desire to fuck a baseball player, or possibly a baseball.” –Vulpes

“We all gas on the Bumsteads’ weird living room arrangement — Blondie’s tiny chair, turned 90 degrees away from Dagwood etc. — but if my choices were whatever weird gastronomic reality TV perversion Dagwood’s been ‘binging’ lately or a green–blue shimmering void, I’d choose the void too.” –Charterstone: Dune

“Oh look, Andy Capp finally passed the Bechdel Test after all these years.” –Gordogato

I cannot begin to express how high my anxiety level would be if I received a call or voicemail or even a text that began with the words ‘Hello, [INSERT NAME HERE], this is Mary Worth…’ Sweating bullets about why my name is not in bold but ‘hello’ and her name are.” –Drew, on Bluesky

“Me seeing a maladjusted character spying on Gil Thorp from a distance and judging him and building elaborate scenarios about him to distract himself from the problems of his life: ‘So relatable!’” –Ettore Costa, on Bluesky

“I’ve always loved that social interaction where someone is trying to stir up curiosity — in this case the cryptic mention of ‘my side business’ — hoping to draw the other party in. In this case, Sharon realizes immediately just how little Mary Worth meant by ‘How are you?’” –Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women

“‘It’s about your father’ is usually a lead-in to him being dead, which will be such a letdown to Sharon when it instead turns out he’s squandering her inheritance. Maybe Sharon can persuade Mary to kill him.” –Scratchy Scrotum LXIX

“Weirdly enough, I really understand Bernice’s anxiety here: an out-of-the-blue text with just ‘you available?’ is either a request to witness a passport application or an invitation to an orgy, nothing in between.” –pugfuggly

“Mary’s polyester pull-on comfort slacks will not long withstand Muffin flexing those pointy claws. Let the pilling ensue!” –Charterstoned

“Is … is getting beaten down by comic strip amazons a remarkably niche fetish? Because if so, Bogdan, God bless his concussed little soul, is in hog heaven right now.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV

“He had a girlfriend, now he doesn’t, and he’s upset about it. He had 200 large, now he doesn’t, and YOU should be upset about it.” –Anonymous

“I am going to be disturbed all day by the second panel’s revelation that Thirsty’s nose is a spherical lump that’s barely attached to his face. I don’t know if he has a ‘good side,’ but this view sure ain’t it.” –nescio

“Gil Thorp is engaged in reckless foreshadowing next to a bus that’s been subjected to reckless foreshortening.” –Shoe Substitutes

“After a long talk with a lawyer who was up for a challenge, Thirsty Thurston became TSquare Industries. It enjoyed corporate existence for about a year before hostile takeover by Conagra Brands, who quickly broke the corporation apart in various sales. The brains were kept by Conagra for use in scarecrows, the heart went to Rio Tinto Mining, and the ineffable courage to Amazon Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. The liver was bought at a steep discount by Brown-Forman to be used as a filter at the Jack Daniel’s distillery.” –Voshkod

“Aren’t travel mugs the ones with lids and insulation that you take, you know, traveling? Those are mugs that have destinations on them, simple souvenirs. Thus his featureless cup is all too appropriate, as clearly he has journeyed to the Void. The Nothing is freedom in the end, guy.” –A Grave Mind

“Whoa, Los Angeles AND Las Vegas? No wonder she’s got wanderlust. Why, one day they may even dare to travel the rest of the I-15 to buy the travel mugs of that exotic Shangri-la, Salt Lake City.” –Schroduck

“That isn’t a headline on the man’s newspaper. They’re tally marks, one for each morning he’s dissociated through his wife’s existential crises.” –Lauralot

“Shoe is asking us to contemplate how and if bathrooms work in a treetop-based society, and frankly, I won’t stand for it! The only way to purge this question from my mind is to give us a viable answer! Most birds can’t really control when and where they poop, so I assume the avian beings in this strip fly around for a while when they think ‘nature’s call’ is upon them. Maybe they have an elaborate timekeeping system based on their most recent meal, or maybe it’s just a feeling deep inside them? Either is fine. So yeah, I don’t like it, but that’s the storyline I need from you, ghost of Jeff MacNelly. Thanks!” –Victor Von

“Come to think of it, I do make use of A.I. with some frequency, but in my case, it stands for ‘Avian Idiosyncrasy!’” –Bob Tice

“[sigh] Of course the laptops in the Crankiverse are Pineapples. God damn it, they’re all got PinePods and PinePhones, don’t they? Either that or this is a brand of, I dunno, ‘Individual Computer’ where the best-known commercial is a guy with frosted tips exclaiming, ‘Dude, you’re getting a Dole!’ (I hate that joke too, everybody.)” –els

“The young woman looks up from her tablet, then back down, then smiles. Target confirmed. Jughead feels bad about luring Archie here, and worse about using such inane patter to stall for time, but he really needs the money, and Archie only needs one kidney anyway.” –Abram Beazer

“I find today’s strip pretty funny, although not for the intended reason (and to be quite honest I’m not completely sure there is an intended reason it’s funny). Hi’s just so sad about the death of elevator music. ‘It used to be they would pump in least-common-denominator trash whether you wanted it or not, and you had to listen to it for the duration of the ride! Now we all carry amazing futuristic devices that let us hear exactly the kind of music we want to hear instead! It fucking sucks!’” –Vulpes

“Even the cat is anxious to see the expression on her face when she learns her sole inheritance will be an antique ascot collection.” –Dennis Jimenez

“At last, Mary’s plan is revealed. Here we thought it was about the immorality of online dating, or penetrating Harv’s delusions about his fake girlfriend, or getting back the money since it’s just unfair some people could give away $200,000 and get nothing for it. But no, it was the daughter all along. An adult woman having a busy life in another city doesn’t have all the time in the world for her widowed father? That won’t do. Doesn’t she realize he’s lonely? Time for them to reconnect.” –Amelie Wikström

“Hi and Lois, the comic strip about bipolar disorder, is definitely in a ‘depression’ phase lately, huh.” –a.