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Marvin, 6/3/24

The very first “real job” I ever had, after I quit grad school, way back in the long past and yet futuristic sounding year of 1999, was as a copy editor for a series of tech-focused websites, none of which exist any longer. This happened more or less accidentally — the recruiter at the agency I was temping for at the time mentioned that one of the sites this company put out was called “Lie-nux World,” and one my grad school buddies had been a Linux nerd so I knew enough to correct her pronunciation, and her eyes lit up — and that was the launching point for the non-comedy-writing aspects of my subsequent career, which, to be straight with you all, represent a significant majority of my lifetime earnings to date. Anyway, though I haven’t formally held the “copy editor” title in years, I still identify very strongly with the role, as working in it got me up to speed with tech publishing and editorial processes in general. That’s why I can say without hesitation or exaggeration that, thanks to the publication of this Marvin strip where we learn what Marvin’s terrible father does for a living, this is worst day of my entire life.

Hi and Lois, 6/3/24

I like how you can tell by everybody’s facial expression that nobody finds this cute. “Oh, she wants to interrupt our precious TV time just to experience a moment of human affection? Well, too bad! She can cry herself to sleep like the rest of us!”

Alice, 6/3/24

Alice has been kidnapped by aliens and has chased after her parrot but I gotta say this is the most not OK she’s ever been. The ducks aren’t talking about you, babe! Their intellects are cool and unsympathetic, but they do not assess your appearance against human standards!

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Mary Worth, 6/2/24

I know I’ve been harping for a while on “why is Wilbur so obsessed with his dead fish and not talking about his alive fish?” Earlier this week he claimed that, since Stellan was named after Estelle, his fishy demise truly brought home the fact that Wilbur and Estelle would never get back together, but I think today makes the real story clear: while Stellan was happy to listen to Wilbur natter on for hours about his pathetic love life, Willa would respond by simply facing the back of the tank in obvious and appropriate contempt. And you know what? Good for her.

Blondie, 6/2/24

I was going to go on a rant here about how legacy strips need to stop putting Boomer nostalgia into the mouths of comics characters who cannot be older than 50 or so, but then I saw the “Bratman and Robin” panel and my disgust at its laziness immediately purged all other irritations from my mind. “Robin” is just an actual robin, sitting on a giant bottle of mustard? No attempt at a pun or wordplay or anything? Get outta here with that shit, man.

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Gasoline Alley, 6/1/24

Uh oh, looks like the electricity is out all over Gasoline Alley! I guess electricity has decided, in the wake of the rejection of the proposed “Electric Acres” renaming, that it isn’t wanted there any more. And who can blame it? Tough luck, Walt! Enjoy drinking your precious gasoline, in the dark!

Blondie, 6/1/24

I’ve always found the ways shoes are drawn in Blondie weird and off-putting, but I don’t think I ever actually tried to imagine the way the feet underneath them look. Well, thanks to today’s strip, now I have, and I wish I hadn’t. I don’t care for it.

Dennis the Menace, 6/1/24

Hey, Dennis, buddy, if you don’t have a good bit of menace in the chamber, you shouldn’t force it. You don’t have to be “always on”! You could just get the garbage bags and bide your time till the next opportunity arises.