“My little friend is not so little anymore, Toby! In fact, she’s quite large! Enormous, in fact! Nine foot six and getting taller by the day! It’s actually quite alarming! We’re getting into I’m a Virgo territory here! Did you watch that miniseries, by the way? It was on Amazon Prime a couple of years ago! Jharrel Jerome is a treasure! Some great performances by Elijah Wood and Walton Goggins as well, which reminds me that I need to start my Justified rewatch. Oh, Margo Martindale is another treasure, especially as a voice in BoJack Horseman. Anyway, Olive is a giant, is the point I’m trying to make.” –els

“Are the pickleball gear and Leroy’s madras shirt the only items they couldn’t sell, or the only items they’re selling? Either way, it has to be a pretty good yard sale if you’re attracting aging hipsters to your suburban … patio? Driveway? Paved-over lawn? I dunno … this place is weird, man.” –BigTed

“You know what? good on Dagwood for sticking with pickleball even after he found out it was just a name.” –Banana Sam

“Apartment managing has similar ethics to Vikings, in which the greatest honor is to die in battle with weapons in hand, rather than old age. In the case of apartment managers, that usually means with tools in your hand fixing plumbing or some malfunctioning HVAC system. Marvin’s grandparents, stripped of all dignity by their economic losses, have bought in fully to the ethics, if only because being able to shame the old manager gives them a feeling of no longer being on the bottom.” –Philip

“Putting periods in ‘OK’ looks weird, so I’m not surprised that’s how Alice does it.” –nescio

“Bernice is depicted as organized and responsible, especially in comparison to Luann. Today’s strip reveals that this is because Bernice is so utterly boring that her chores are the highlight of her day.” –TheDiva

“The gag would obviously work a whole lot better if Henry was looking for a tennis partner and not a golf partner. But, suburban dads in comic strips must play golf. The sacred trope must be maintained even at the expense of the joke.” –Astroboy

“I’m picturing Evy and Ed’s view of Mary’s face, up-nostril shot and all, and it’s not pretty.” –Weaselboy

“Mary begins to pack for her trip to New York. ‘Hmmm. I’ll wear what I have on now for the plane ride. However, it might get chilly in the city, even though it’s July,’ she muses, adding a purple cowl-neck long-sleeve top to her empty suitcase. ‘That should do it!’” –Charterstoned

“And, in lighter news, the comic strip Crankshaft has ceased publication after being sued into a smoking crater by Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.” –Dmsilev

“I like how these two are talking right into their coffees, as a way of being covert, I guess? You think they’re blowing bubbles? I hope so.” –pugfuggly

“One must imagine Leroy Lockhorn … happy? I don’t know if I can do it.” –matt w

“The Lockhorns usually has a pretty minimalist approach to backgrounds, so when they suddenly decide we need to see every detail of their backyard electric switch box situation, you’d better believe I take notice.” –Schroduck

“‘A couple of the cashiers are kind of cute!’ [They share a hearty chuckle.] ‘Anyway, thoughts about how to escape this quicksand patch?’” –Voshkod

“Generative AI will not destroy all artistic jobs. For example, humans will still get to draw Max, mainly because the AI could not be bothered to.” –Ettorre

“I think you mean ‘HOW TO VIOLATE COPYRIGHT Max Mouse,’ Bob. I’m surprised the syndicate keeps letting you get away with this. If the kids want a picture of Max to stick on their fridge, they can ask their grandparents what a newspaper is.” –Tabby Lavalamp

“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