The Comics Curmudgeon

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154

Mostly one-panel menaces

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Heathcliff, 6/16/25

This is, of course, a hilarious joke about rectal thermometers, and I laud the strip for being subtle enough to not use the words “rectal” or “butthole” or anything like that. However, just to make sure you get the point, Heathcliff’s butt, hanging out the window for his protection, has been depicted in a subtle but still vividly shapely manner, with gentle curves letting us know that yes, the punchline of this panel is specifically about Heathcliff’s ass.

Herb and Jamaal, 6/16/25

Look, Jamaal, I’ve been frank and open about the fact that I too struggle with difficulty remembering the names of acquaintances, even when I remember so many stories about them and details of their lives that it would be extremely embarrassing to ask them, once again, what their name is. So I appreciate you trying out this little “life hack” here, but I don’t think it’s practical. Think of all the social interactions required just to ensure you both end up at the same coffee shop at the same time! Surely his name’s going to come up at some point in that process. So, I like your creativity, but let’s keep brainstorming on this.

Dennis the Menace, 6/16/25

Oh NO but your mom ISN’T HERE RIGHT NOW so he’s gonna DRIVE RIGHT INTO A WALL and you guys AREN’T EVEN IN CHILD SEATS, this is gonna be a BLOODBATH

150

Dads, but no grads

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Blondie, 6/15/25

The Blondie deep lore is that back in the ’20s, Blondie was a flapper girl and Dagwood was the dissolute son of a millionaire, and he was disinherited for marrying her, and that’s all of course long forgotten now and they’re just normal suburbanites, but it is a little weird that Dagwood’s boss looks suspiciously like his long-vanished father. It’s weird, right? I think it’s kind of weird. Anyway, it’s even weirder that this strip is drawing attention to it, though I’m not sure if the implication is that Dagwood sought out this abusive boss in particular to work out his daddy issues or if something much more complex and dark is going on here, a scenario in which Dagwood’s father has taken on a whole new identity that can never be acknowledged just so the two of them can spend time together.

Dustin, 6/15/25

Obviously, Ed was never going to spend Father’s Day with Dustin, whom he profoundly dislikes. But I appreciate that today’s strip reminds us that really his entire family is just a nonstop source of multilayered shame for him.

Hi and Lois, 6/15/25

Why are you subjecting Thirsty to all this, Hi? This is exactly the kind of thing he opted out of fatherhood to avoid!

122

Good strips Saturday

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The Lockhorns, 6/14/25

Once, not long after we moved to Los Angeles, we were driving with friends through a historic neighborhood in Pasadena, full of Craftsman-style homes with neat, well-tended lawns, and we turned a corner and suddenly saw an utterly horrifying looking creature — Google Image Search would later confirm that it was a coyote with some kind of condition that had caused all of its hair to fall out — taking a big dump smack in the middle of one of said lawns, in broad daylight. It made eye contact with us and had the exact same expression on its face that Leroy has here, which is why I have to dub this Lockhorns one of the greatest ever made.

Mary Worth, 6/14/25

How are Wilbur and Dawn handling the fallout from the Belle Situation? Well, they’re sitting in pitch darkness, binging on fast food, and telling each other stories about all the terrible relationships they’ve had with dangerous, abusive people. This is … healthy behavior on their part, maybe? Healthier than usual? Less unhealthy?

Crock, 6/14/25

It’s crazy to call Crock an “innovator,” but this strip is from 1997, before most people had ever used the internet, and yet it manages to perfectly capture the experience of being online: you log on, and you get hit in the face with a bunch of water. Pretty sure all comic strips about the web in the subsequent 28 years have been downhill from this.