“Is Dr. Jeff’s ‘again’ meant to indicate that he’s already (willfully?) forgotten what Mary’s told him, or does it display his belief that Wilbur’s life is a karmic circle of disasters that are superficially varied but basically the same thing happening to him over and over?” –Pozzo

“Somehow, it seems like Sigmund Freud would have been a more appropriate choice to quote in Mary Worth today. What’s German for ‘man, that’s completely fucked up’?” –Dmsilev

“Y’all, are we sure they’re playing chess at home? It looks more like the White Void comic strip characters love to visit. Maybe it’s some kind of timeshare?” –Victor Von

“WILBUR: ‘I just … I want to get on a plane, leave Santa Royale…’ [Literally the entire cast is gathered at the window, watching eagerly — major characters like Toby and Ian, infrequent appearances like Saul Wynter, total one-offs like Keith the beefy daughter-haver and Esmé the smoking boat seductress; everybody.] MARY [trying to subtly but desperately wave everyone away, they’re going to blow this]: ‘It’s perfectly normal, Wilbur.’” –Dan Carroll

“The replacement of the Charterstone pool party with ‘private cruise on Dr. Jeff’s yacht’ as the standard Mary Worth storyline interstitial is symptomatic of the broader pandemic-era trend towards isolation and atomization in American society. In this essay, I will…” –Vince, on BlueSky

“The entire bottom of that fish tank is encrusted with blackened filth, and the fish are visibly dirty. Marvin doesn’t do many things right, but the strip is always on-brand.” –Rosstifer

“On the plus side, Leroy’s eyes appear to operate independently, chameleon-like, or are totally blank, depending on how you squint at them. I like the second option, accompanied by a flat, robotic voice, all the better to fit the emotional tone of this strip. You can lead a horse to the greeting card section, but you can’t make him care!” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV

“Don’t feel bad, Truck. Maybe Cody will have a kid soon. Then you can be a terrible grandfather.” –MKay

“Truck’s fiancée is trying to insert a classic roots country LP into a cheap 90s era CD boombox. This marriage is over before it even began!!!” –Where’s Rocky?

“Humans be damned! We’re setting the gorge guardrails at ‘dog on hind legs’ level!” –Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women

“…and the staff at Bed, Bath and Beyond just let him sleep there, for like, days. It’s kinda scary what a grip the military has over this town.” –pugfuggly

“That’s the face of a future supervillain who is going to encase our sun in a Dyson sphere so she can have it all to herself. She’s so adorable!” –Tabby Lavalamp

“I used to know someone fairly into NASCAR, and have half-heartedly sat through a few races. I recall no reason why I should’ve been at an angle to watch. Is this what I was missing, all along, with sports I’m not into? Literal change in perspective? Should I be upside-down for basketball? Would twisting my head 180 degrees make lacrosse endurable? Is perpetual spinning the secret of the Winter Olympics? Or is Gertie, like, pretending she’s having the tires on her couch changed, or something equally soul-dead? It’s that one, isn’t it?” –A Grave Mind

“Yeah, I get that you’re an alcoholic and gambling addict, but my issue with you is that you keep your lounge chair right next to our shared fence in a direct line with our bedroom window. What’s that all about, dude?” –Weaselboy

“I’m starting to think Thirsty isn’t even actually a dysfunctional buffoon, he just pretends to be one so he has a ‘bit’ to identify himself by in the world’s most boring neighborhood.” –ectojazzmage

“Part of their annual ritual to ensure that the Sun comes up for another year.” –Liam

“Hey, look on the bright side: maybe this means the Keane Kompound is about to be obliterated in a rocket attack.” –Schroduck

“After all the other ‘Ed doing things nobody visiting NYC would’ entries, I have to acknowledge today’s strip for verisimilitude: Only a tourist would go to Washington Square Park to buy pot.” –ValdVin

“I expect Crankshaft’s neck hurts too, since he’s adopted the ‘face away from the monument and look over your shoulder at it’ style of tourism.” –Ken

“I’m assuming the discrepancy between long sleeve/long pants and short sleeves/short pants is because the Chicken Lady is undergoing henopause.” –nescio

“Chicken Lady leaning in, eyes narrowed, hand hidden behind her back, is downright ominous! The axe is visible in the background, but it’s cold comfort. She could be concealing any number of murder weapons. Any number, I say!” –Victor Von

“‘Hi Lee, about this script … HOLY SHIT THERE’S A SKULL ON THE CABINET!!!’ ‘Of course! Like all great artists, I need a memento mori: remember you are mortal!’ ‘Well, it’s not working: you supposedly died in 1999!’” –Ettorre

“Delighted to see Garfield is a Wikipedia editor, and even more delighted to see that he immediately got into every Wikipedian’s favourite hobby — adding vexatious disambiguation notices to pages.” –Schroduck

“‘You’ll find out in the Phantom’s own good time.’ AKA, ‘Wow, this comic is extremely slow-paced.’” –Westing1992

“Gil at first was going to play dumb — ‘Prom? What prom? I booked a cruise for that weekend’ — but he was caught out by the word ‘prom’ appearing on every surface of the school.” –Lawyerbob

“Mary has obviously judged this to be a five-muffin situation.” –Pozzo

“I’m mildly … well, ‘alarmed’ isn’t quite the right word, because it’s Beetle Bailey, so let’s go with ‘bemused,’ that Killer — a Private in the Army who has presumably seen these things before and whose name, literal or not, is Killer — has to ask what it is that Zero is ‘arranging over there.’ What do you think they are, my guy? Metal bottles? Strangely unsettling musical instruments? Condoms for variously-sized Transformers? It’s that last one, isn’t it?” –els

“Herb, I don’t know if this is true … I can’t tell for sure … Maybe it’s me, but … If you’re going to blatantly stretch a one-panel gag to multiple panels, I kind of admire your decision to go for four when three would have been plenty.” –Peanut Gallery

“I woke up wondering if I could make it through the day without reading the sentence ‘your table wiping days are over.’ Oh well. There’s always tomorrow.” –Weaselboy

“Mr. Weenie World manager, did you know that Luann’s parents own an actual full service restaurant with liquor license? Kind of makes you wonder why even they won’t hire her.” –Guillermo el Chiclero

“Gen Z, which comic book time has moved Luann into, is having less sex and less interest in it, so the strip is shifting from ‘zany comic’ to more realism comic. When Batuik moved off Funky Winkerbean, creator Greg Evans took the mantle. Sucks for Brad, who will be picked to be the example for the shockingly high rates of colon cancer affecting young people.” –Philip

“I like how the grey background suggest the interior of a bunker. 2023 wasn’t too long ago, especially when you consider that that timelock isn’t going to let you out until 2028.” –pugfuggly

“What really makes this work is that Dustin’s dad is a lawyer, so he knows exactly what ‘keeping two sets of books’ means. ‘I am committing accounting fraud against my wife. I will be sentenced to no more than sixty months in prison, fined no more than one million dollars, and be forced to repay this donut.’” –matt w

“Haha … but seriously, Chip was caddying for me. He tripped, rolled off the green, and fell 200 feet off a cliff to his death.” –Old Man Shadow

“I knew that aliens built the pyramids, but the revelation that they also wrote Shakespeare is a real game changer.” –Mr. Tulkinghorn

“If you really loved Alice, you’d be using those eyestalks to inspect for termites.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV

“The most menacing part is that they’re staying at Caesar’s Palace so that Martha can feast on the eye candy that is their replica statue of David.” –Old School Allie Cat

“Heathcliff has the serene calm of someone who has made peace with being a martyr to their cause (the cause here being wearing meat-product-promoting helmets).” –TheDiva

“Leroy’s plan to dramatically self immolate by pouring a bowlful high proof alcohol over a lit barbecue, thereby ending himself in a way calculated to cause maximum inconvenience for Loretta, has been foiled. It’s not a happy relationship by any stretch, but at least they thwart each other’s more self destructive tendancies, even if it is only out of spite.” –BananaSam

“You know, Dithers could have just emailed Dagwood the documentation instead of wasting money printing it and wasting time driving to his home. But I guess what drives his bad boss routine is not so much economic motivation but the thrill of domination.” –Ettorre

“Has Hi’s hair always had that fixed position, with his ‘front’ curls on the side even when he’s looking straight at us? I can only imagine that his head is rotating wildly while he’s reciting his ‘jokes,’ and it is this that Thirsty is so upset by.” –Laurence J Sinclair

“Who the hell says ‘piping hot fries’ outside of a radio commercial? Will this guy then suggest a ‘succulent hot apple pie’ to top things off? Perhaps ‘crisp and tasty’ chips from the vending machine for a late afternoon snack? Has Ed ever seen this guy before? He’s Satan, isn’t he?” –A Grave Mind

“OK, I get the joke after thinking about it. But it looks like the joke is that Heathcliff is a sick perverted voyeur who hangs around outside doctors’ offices to watch people get thermometers inserted into them. He’s a sick freak and I hope the Garbage Ape cancels him.” –Schroduck

“There’s also a standing joke about baristas humorously slaughtering customers’ names on the cups. So, Jamaal risked about a 50% chance of yelling out, ‘Have a nice day, Lurpy!’” –MKay

“This an oral thermometer. I am a veterinarian, as indicated by the abbreviated sign outside. You are the owner of an orange cat. That is an orange cat names Heathcliff. Look, ma’am, I’ll do this all day at $120 an hour, but I really don’t think your cat has reached the Symbolic function substage of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, no matter what his fascination with flags might indicate.” –Voshkod

“Look at Chris’s expression again. It’s not the smug satisfaction that most characters get from malapropisms, or the honest confusion when Crankshaft thinks he’s using a real word. She knows exactly what she’s doing, and it disgusts her. Still, tortured wordplay is the only way she can connect with her father. I don’t know if she’s doing it for the inheritance or because she craves his acceptance, but she knows she has to go through with it.” –Nevin on Patreon

“I love how this strip doesn’t spare a single detail in this incredibly exciting tale. I mean, how exactly is Truck going to communicate with his son through that solid wood door? A buzzer? A text message? Ah, knocking: the tried and tested method. I feel like I’m really starting to get to know Truck as a character.” –pugfuggly

“There’s always something distressing about Marvin, but today I’m choosing to focus on this weird green surface that appears to be 7’x7′ and 4.5′ high and seems to exist solely to rest their child on, like some kind of reverse playpen that encourages falls.” –Conky, on BlueSky

“This is clearly a drug deal, right? Why else would a Chicken Lady with a basket full of unpurchased groceries be hunched over and handing the baggie of ‘prunes’ to a Dogbear Lady whose groceries are already bagged and paid for? ‘I think Trader Joe’s are great’ can only be a code phrase.” –Guts Dozier

“Dear, I have some bad news. Are you sitting down? I moved the landline to lowest bench in the house.” –Stop Motion Cyclops

“Truck’s only inheritance will be a small stake in a legal settlement from the AI companies that will steal his and other musicians copyrighted material, and most of that will go to paying off back rent at the hotel he is living and will die in.” –Philip

“Memo to ‘This End Up’ guy: STOP. VALIDATING. DAGWOOD. BUMSTEAD.” –matt w

“The more I look at Mr. Oversized Load, the more I worry about him. This isn’t a special occasion for him, he’s like that every day, just frozen, grinning and blank-eyed. Does Mr. Dithers pay him to guard the copier against illicit hoagie xeroxing? It doesn’t seem like much of a life, to be honest.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV