The Comics Curmudgeon

Main Menu

Social Media

Comment of the Week

Of course Tildy's confused. Your kids should by all rights be named Carter and Mason, or Hunter and Liam, or something a little more of the time. Sure, James, John, and Michael are all classics, but we are in our Braden, Jaden, Caden era.

—Old School Allie Cat
136

Working (kind of) for the weekend

Post Content

Wizard of Id, 2/6/26

Happy Friday, everyone! What are your weekend plans? Are you thinking about getting extremely high and catapulting some toilets at somebody? Because that appears to be what Sir Rodney is up to in the Wizard of Id.

Gil Thorp, 2/6/26

Or were you thinking about going out and “tagging” a rival high school? If so, you should definitely choose Milford High as your target, as the coach to whom the principal has ominously delegated the task of doing what they must do can’t muster up any epithets stronger than “rats,” with a period, not even an exclamation point.

The Lockhorns, 2/6/26

Leroy! I think most people already know what their payment package will be when they accept an offer of employment. Not everyone is so bad at money as you. This young up-and-comer is right to look at you so warily. Honestly I assume that he’s probably already been warned about you by his other new coworkers. In conclusion, I like the Lockhorns strips about Leroy’s work life because they confirm that, much like his home life, his work life is pretty miserable.

171

Family drama

Post Content

Mary Worth, 2/5/26

“Good lord,” you’re no doubt thinking, “how is it that, more than two weeks after Ian ended his war against Sunny the parrot by pathetically surrendering, this plot is still happening?” Well, it’s to set up a long-term plot point: if Ian refused to love the bird Toby acquired a few weeks earlier just because it shat in his shoes, could she ever trust him again? Somehow, after so many years of marriage, Toby has finally noticed that her husband is an asshole, and sure, maybe it’s over something that he’s actually right about, but he’s on thin ice going forward (until Toby remembers she has neither a job nor any marketable skills).

Judge Parker, 2/5/26

Ann’s triumphant return has, predictably, devolved into wall-of-text family dysfunction, but I am kind of curious why Ann’s dialogue in the second panel makes it seem like she’s trying to de-escalate but the jagged-edged word balloon indicates that she’s yelling. Maybe she’s worried a furious Katherine is about to deliver a potful of hot coffee right to her face? Don’t worry, Ann, that would be exciting, so it definitely won’t happen.

Mother Goose and Grimm, 2/5/26

Say, just out of curiosity, did, uh, Robin Hood famously have any kind of interesting relationship with the tax assessment and collection apparatus? You know, the kind of dynamic that might provide a punchline of some sort in a strip like this? A better punchline than what we got here, maybe?

150

“Honorable” may be overstating the case

Post Content

Beetle Bailey, 2/4/26

Hey! Miss Buxley Wednesday is an honorable tradition, and it was specifically created so that elderly pervert comic strip fans could regularly get hornt up about a crude drawing of a sexy lady in a little black dress! It’s not for insulting Miss Buxley as a bad worker, and then not even showing her in the strip so people can get horny over her. This is disrespectful to Miss Buxley. I mean, doing it the other way is too, I suppose, but this way is disrespectful to the perverts too, and like it or not they keep the comics in business.

Mary Worth, 2/4/26

It’s hard to imagine a meal getting funnier after one of the participants says “Toby, I’m glad Ian finally found peace with your bird,” but then — wham! The waiter shows up with a huge salad and a big slice of pie, apparently to be eaten by two different people at the same time.

Marvin, 2/4/26

Ha ha, it’s funny because soon all of Marvin’s body parts will freeze in the bitter cold, and then eventually his unpleasant parents, who are nowhere to be seen, will be charged with criminal negligence. That’s what we in the Marvin-hating community call a “win-win”!