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Pluggers, 10/6/26

One of the interesting things about one-panel comics is that they often have to condense a series of actions into a single image-caption pair. So, for instance, in today’s Pluggers, we simultaneously see the moment at which this plugger gets the bright idea that he could perform dental surgery on himself and the horrible aftermath, where his mouth has somehow been moved unnaturally and definitely painfully almost all the way to his ear.

Mother Goose and Grimm, 10/6/26

As ever, I have questions on the legal, ethical, and moral position of Grimm on the spectrum between “sapient being with rights recognized by the state” and “pet,” but I think the strip treats him as a pet more often than not. With that in mind, I think the doctor would be well within his rights to refuse to admit him into the exam room, if only to stop him from making terrible puns.

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Hi and Lois, 9/19/26

I genuinely love Hi’s distressed facial expression and clenched fists of impotent rage in the second panel here. Damn it, she’s spent too much on this dress … but she’s right! Surely they will be invited to a wedding, some day, and now is the time to prepare! With their rich social life and wide group of family and friends (not depicted in-strip, mostly they just hang out with Thirsty and Irma and occasionally chat with their old neighbor guy, but whatever, let’s assume it exists), this was a smart move to meet an inevitable need. If only it weren’t so darn expensive!

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 9/19/26

I was trying to figure out what Loweezy’s grotesque facial expression in panel two was supposed to signify. I think she’s squinting, to read the fine print on this coupon? It’s too bad Doc Pritchart isn’t an optometrist in addition to being a physician and a dentist, as the availability of corrective lenses would really improve the quality of life of those Hootin’ Holler residents who manage to live past 40.

Pluggers, 9/19/26

The Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse entered the public domain more than two years ago, Tribune Content Agency, LLC! You don’t have to apologize to Disney for anything! Don’t be a coward! You do have to apologize to us for the off-putting expression on this she-plugger’s face, though, that’s just common decency.

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Judge Parker, 9/18/26

For many years now, Judge Parker fans have wondered: whither Sophie Spencer-Driver? The girl who was once a climate-data– and geopolitical-conflict-obsessed tween has spent most of her late teens and early twenties vaguely wandering from thing to thing, ending up in Norway to work for her boyfriend’s charitable foundation only to return home having learned nothing, either about herself and what she wants to do with her one wild and precious life or about what sort of scammy tax dodge or worse her now ex-boyfriend (she also returned home without a boyfriend) was running out of Norway as a “charitable foundation.” So now, it looks like she’s turning to the rich faildaughter’s last resort: clerking for a judge who’s a friend of the family as an inside track into the law. Of course, what with the declining fortunes of the whole Spencer-Driver-Parker nexus, she’s not so much “clerking” for a “judge” as she is “printing out the schedule” for a “judicial hearing officer” because he doesn’t know how to “use the calendar on his phone,” but we do what we must.

Rex Morgan, M.D., 9/18/26

Ah, whew, good news, everyone! The Morgan boys aren’t stupid after all — or, if they are, they’re the kind of stupid that doesn’t show up on standardized tests, so it probably doesn’t count.

Pluggers, 9/18/26

Pluggers have the stench of death about them, folks, you read it here first