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Pluggers, 6/14/26

I’m beginning to suspect that some of my sense that Pluggers is increasingly all over the place on explaining plugger identity is that the strips have gradually shifted from out-group messaging (pluggers explaining to non-pluggers what pluggers are like) to in-group messaging (pluggers talking with other pluggers about the plugger experience, anticipating a good amount of background knowledge and sympathy in advance). Take this panel, for instance: I am reasonably sure that the thrust of it is “We’re all pluggers here, and as pluggers we love to garden but we know how hard it can be, right? Plants always growing in the wrong places, haha!” But from an outside perspective, what it looks like it’s saying is “Pluggers are terrible gardeners. Just awful at it. Grass growing where it shouldn’t, but their attempts to coax it into growing elsewhere fail miserably. Pathetic.”

Hagar the Horrible, 6/14/26

I realize that the main character in this strip is specifically called “the Horrible,” and not to be all like “Things are meaner and baser now than they used to be,” but I kind of feel like Hagar the Horrible used to be less explicit about “the main character in this strip, Hagar the Horrible, is a cold-blooded killer who hunts his fellow human beings both for profit and for sport.” I mean, I laughed at this, so I guess I’m part of the problem, but still!

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Pluggers, 6/7/26

Look, I know that Pluggers has lost its focus on pluggers being hard-working, blue collar real Americans and now mostly dwells on stuff like “pluggers eat a lot” and “pluggers are old and have mobility issues that significantly degrade their quality of life.” Still, I don’t think we should accept “pluggers exist on several layers of narrative and metanarrative and are slowly becoming aware of that fact.” That’s just not the sort of thing pluggers do or think about! They’re down-home regular beast-people, not characters in a damn Borges short story.

Beetle Bailey, 6/7/26

Pretty sure this is the closest Walker-Browne Amalgamated Humor Industries LLC has come to acknowledging that Beetle and Miss Buxley, as young adults in a relationship in ostensibly the modern day, are probably having sex? Things quickly go south right after that acknowledgement, though, thank goodness.

Mary Worth, 6/7/26

“I used to hate myself! But now I’ve done a lot of work and I don’t anymore. When my girlfriend left town to take care of some important family members I immediately assumed it meant she was breaking up with me, by the way! Ha ha, my head is made of wood!”

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Gil Thorp, 5/20/26

Somehow, this extremely long golf match that has pitted Gil and his ex Mimi against one another in a battle of golfing coaching acumen is still happening, but I have to say I really enjoy the sequence today. In panel one, Mimi and Anthony McKee flash thumbs-ups at each other: “Remember, you’re not going to fuck up this time, right?” “Right!” Panel two: Anthony fucks up. Panel three: “Whoopsie! Sorry I fucked up!” Only Gil can get away with this coaching technique, Mimi.

Pluggers, 5/20/26

I was going to do a “Ha ha, it’s funny…” bit here, but you know what? It’s not funny at all! Due to old age and ill health, pluggers’ mobility is in decline, and they haven’t taken measures that will allow them to live safely in their own home. Don’t be like pluggers! Stay in shape as long as you can, and be aware of your limitations before it’s too late!

Mary Worth, 5/20/26

“Anyway, thank God she’s in a normal, healthy relationship now with me, a guy who can’t distinguish between ‘my girlfriend is in another city’ and ‘my girlfriend dumped me!’”