“I like imagining Ian looming over the much shorter Wilbur with a belly laugh, ‘Ho ho ho, a funeral for a goldfish, what wild they think of next?’ like the Jolly Puce Giant.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV

“I’m glad that we have those throwaway panels, because with them we know the exact moment the edibles kicked in.” –pugfuggly

“I like how Saul brought his dog, just to taunt Wilbur that his pet is still alive. This is the kind of cruelty Wlbur so richly deserves.” –astroboy

“School cafeterias have got so dangerous that the kids aren’t even allowed to use knives any more. Sure, it’s hard to cut your fishsticks with your finger, but at least it stops vicious hair-tousling incidents like these from escalating.” –Schroduck

“It’s not real, General Halftrack thought to himself. Remember what your therapist said. Slow, deep breaths. It’s not real. You’re not seeing your soldiers as naked garbage, boiling in their own juices, smelling of decay … no! Keep it together, soldier. Breathe in. You’re not in the camp anymore. It’s not real!” –MasterMahan

“‘Keri Thorp — the catcher — has had a terrific season.’ Come on, everybody know that sports announcers set off appositive phrases with commas!” –Weaselboy

“How would his wife know? Is he wearing a wire?” –MKay

“Amazing that Snuffy Smith first touched the third rail of comics art, the high price of comic books ($6/issue?), before comics-obsessed standby Crankshaft aka Funky Winkerbean II. You go get ’em, semi-anonymous clip art legacy comic producer!” –Bad wolf

“Is there a petition I can sign in support of the colorists’ demand for a pay raise before they’ll resume coloring Dagwood’s chair and the TV table?” –Peanut Gallery

“Hooten’ Holler has a summer reading program? Somewhere there is a traveling librarian transporting books via pack mule with a lot of initiative, if somewhat unrealistic expectations.” –TheDiva

“If ‘Cherry Bimm’ is a punning reference to the late-19th century song ‘Ciribiribin,’ then Dick Tracy is having to go further afield for character names. I miss the days when they could just spell ‘Murder’ or ‘Short’ backwards and call it a day.” –Pozzo

“You’re a plugger if you wake up in pain most mornings because you’re too cheap to shell out for a thicker mattress.” –BigTed

“If you are a comics artist looking for ways to convey horniness using only facial expressions, I recommend every panel of today’s Dick Tracy.’ –lorne

“I’m joking, of course. Obviously our isolated Neo-Pagan compound didn’t impose pandemic restrictions. Now, which outsider do you want to lure in for this year’s wicker man?” –MasterMahan

“Sure, go ahead and talk in Latin or whatever the hell that is. As if your facial hair isn’t alienating enough, Mr No Fun at Parties.” –made of wince

“Points to Helga for creatively skewering an extra box on the horns of her helmet! Fewer points to Hagar for jamming a box all the way down over his head and asphyxiating.” –matt w

“The problem for this Viking is that, outside of mediaeval craft guilds, worker organization hasn’t come up yet. Even if it did come, the general illiteracy makes punny picket signs like ‘Give us a raise or we raze!’ useless to get their point across to the general public.” –Philip

“You know who else doesn’t have to buy clothes? Children, because their mothers buy them! Check your privilege, Jeff!” –Ettorre

“What family does Declan have now? Not the one he’s marrying into, for sure: several key clauses in the pre-nup have made that quite clear.” –pugfuggly

“I doubt that there’s anything in Chunky Monkey that could choke an osprey, which can swallow a small fish whole. It’s the theobromine poisoning that will get him.” –matt w

“The beret tells us Schemeese is French, and I think it’s kind of sweet that for his execution they’ve tied him to a giant baguette.” –Peanut Gallery

“They still get a paper delivered? Is Ditto going to start a scrap metal drive for the war effort tomorrow?” –Everything Is Better With Monkeys

“I imagine a lot of Elon Musk fans aren’t familiar with the Phantom, so here’s a quick primer: he’s a white African born into wealth and privilege, who claims to be saving the world but who seems to spend a lot of time lurking in his high-tech base trying to eugenically breed his successors, and he’s going to meet a superhero in striped underpants.” –Schroduck

“That ‘SLAP!’ isn’t the sound of a newspaper being delivered. It’s a guy masturbating under their window. But Hi can still lament the changes in the world. In his day, a guy had to go down to the adult book store with the peep shows to do that. Today’s kids feel entitled to jerk off in his rhododendrons.” –Scratchy Scrotum LXIX

“Does Gertie’s flashlight actually produce light or just place a wedge-shaped ‘day filter’ over part of the panel?” –MRNA Loy, on Bluesky

“This will really give us insight into how long the lead time on your typical Phantom strip is. Will Ian Mollusk be portrayed as a super-genius? It’s over four years. Will he be portrayed as kind of a doofus? About two years. Will he be portrayed as attempting to build a new utopia on the Moon, but only for white snails with divorced snail energy? Then these strips are being written right now. Anyhow, I applaud the fact that the rocket is still drawn like they drew them in the 1950s, some things should be eternal.” –The Ghost of Jarrod

“Dithers is an alien originally from a planet made out of Dagwoods (since destroyed).” –nescio

“Are you suffering from grief and major depression? Hi, I’m Mary Worth for Marworthxli, the fifteen minute cure!” –Little Blue Bicycle

“Is that tree moving, or is Roz’s place actually a revolving restaurant? You’d think a cool feature like that would bring in a lot more customers, but I guess a great view doesn’t mean as much when everyone’s a bird.” –BigTed

“It’s funny cuz ‘top’ has more than one meaning! …Hold on. It’s not funny. Never mind.” –Weaselboy

“[Minutes earlier, a text conversation…]
M – Jeff, my friend, I have a favor to ask of you.
J – sure mary whats up
M – Have you ever done a burial at sea before?
J – uh cant say i have
J – why
M – My dear friend Wilbur has been very sad lately and no longer values himself properly.
M – He isn’t taking my advice and I’m displeased by his poor attitude.
M – So after some thought, I figured this would be the best solution.
J – haha
J – wait are you serious
M – I’m always serious, Jeff.
M – This is what’s best for Wilbur.
J – holy shit
J – uh
J – okay
J – since its for you
J – bring wilbur in the morning
J – there will be less people around
M – Yes, this is a private matter. Thank you for being understanding, Jeff. See you tomorrow.
J – god help us for doing this
M – He surely will, Jeff. He surely will.” –jroggs

“‘Next assignment — come up with an idea for a comic strip about military life, that’s been running daily for over 70 years. That narrows the possibilities for originality. How about [scans Internet, hits a recipe site] pie? And with pie for a premise, what’s a punchline? [reads further on the recipe page] Ice cream! That combo is a [checks vocabulary list] knee-slapper! Now for the military part: the guys cooking and eating the pie are soldiers! Done!’ So today we have further evidence that at Walker-Browne Enterprises, even the artificial intelligence that produces the strips has a tee time. Hey, maybe this strip wasn’t its best work, but there was only three milliseconds left before robot golf!” –seismic-2

“That’s right, General, Sarge used French. I think he’s the enemy agent we’ve been looking for. Get the MPs over here quickly because … j’accuse. What? No, I said ‘I accuse.’ I accuse Sarge. [Cookie hung up the phone, humming ‘La Marseillaise’ quietly.]” –Voshkod

“Exxxxxcellent. Wilbur is wearing his best suit, which means he’s probably wearing his slippery, black, leather-soled dress shoes instead of the boat shoes worn by experienced sailors. If he doesn’t slip overboard first, Dr. Jeff will certainly toss him into the briny deep just for leaving scuff marks on the deck.” –Charterstoned

“Hi, I’m Chip and this is my temporary girlfriend, Chippina.” –Tabby Lavalamp

“Wilbur, like myself, is an enthusiast of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream. He’s also somehow found a supermarket that carries it in half gallon containers and not just the usual pints. I’ve simultaneously identified with and experienced jealousy for Wilbur Weston this morning. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go back to sleep forever.” –Kevyn on Video

“I hope the duck cop in this town realizes how more effective superhero cosplayers are than Sherlock Holmes cosplayers when it comes to stopping crime. Not everything has to be a damn riddle.” –Flipper

“Wilbur, maybe you should try a new dating site … Have you heard of Plenty of Fish? Aw, no, stop weeping … it was too soon, I can see that now. How about Christian Mingle? You’d just have to avoid their logo … Okay, okay, I’m out. I’ll be back with some muffins, just take a shower or something. This place smells like a fish died in it, and I don’t think that’s even the reason why!” –BigTed

“Very good that the punchline(?) is that Dagwood’s son clearly got bored and left the couch after the first one of these and just left his father to sink into his standard depressive huddle. Great stuff.” –Veronica

“So Dagwood’s dream was to take existing IPs and put a different spin on them? That’s a little too on the nose coming from the writer of a legacy comic.” –Tabby Lavalamp

“Can I ask how Marvin’s dad’s office is meant to work, if no-one knows what he does? Let’s say someone has some copy to be edited, or whatever. Do they just sit fuming at their desk wishing they had a copy editor? Is there some elaborate email redirect situation to disguise his identity? A Potemkin editorial office staffed by a scarecrow? Whatever it is, this doesn’t seem compliant with ISO 9001 standards for quality management.” –Schroduck

“‘After decades in your role, we’ve decided to promote you to copy editor’ is in and of itself pretty depressing, until you realize that if he’s not allowed to tell anyone, they’re definitely stiffing him on a raise.” –Dan

“The victim stares in wonder and awe, for the robber is masked. The caped crusader is masked. The cat is masked. The dog alone is not masked. He’s a dog, he doesn’t give a shit, he just likes beating up on cats.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV

“What’s the deal with the new kid trying to bully us? Why is he not succeeding? I mean we’re obvious dinguses and you just gave a list of reasons why you should be the school’s social pariah just the other day, so this should be like shooting fish in a barrel. What is that dude’s problem?!” –2+2=7

“Glad to see Paul and Abe work with Bob at Bob’s Barf Salon. Maybe they will be able to open up their own barf salons one day.” –KMD

“Blondie can’t fool us. This is a reprint of a strip from 1982 with VHS replaced by YouTube. In another 15 years it’ll be redone again with TikTok or Instagram, to tickle the nostalgia receptors of an as yet undiscovered fanbase.” –ValdVin

“I don’t want Meta forcing us to go through a bizarrely exaggerated series of mouth shapes of the kind animators use to sync mouth motion with speech. But iiiiiiit’s tOOOOOOOOOO layeeeeeeT.” –Peanut Gallery

“I’m really pulling for the end of this story to be that Stellan and Wilma have died like three hundred times from Wilbur’s neglect but up until now Dawn’s been there to replace the dead fish and stop her dad from spiraling into [waves arms] all this.” –Hazard Hostile, on BlueSky

“That horrible moment when you realise the second person on a list of people who need you alive is a fish, and the first was an exaggeration.” –Applemask

“Ever wonder why we have periodic E. coli outbreaks? Ever wonder why veggies are always the culprit? Turns out, there’s a weirdly corporate and possibly supernatural explanation!” –Victor Von

“‘We need to clean his potty chair. Can you go do it?’ I’m not sure where this conversation is taking place but I’m not surprised it’s as far away from Marvin as possible.” –Hibbleton