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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 6/23/25

Now, look, you know that Spark Plug is a horse and I know that Spark Plug is a horse, but if you didn’t know that Spark Plug is a horse, nothing about this strip would tell you that, right? Like, call me out of touch, but I’m reasonably sure that “brown-eyed baby” isn’t universally known code for a horse. Lots of human babies have brown eyes! Imagine if you were someone who didn’t know the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith lore, and for some reason today was the first time you decided to read this strip. You’d be baffled! “It sounds like this Barney Google fella does have a baby,” you’d say, “and it has brown eyes and a funny name! Why would he give his baby to these people to babysit, one of whom didn’t even remember the baby existed at all?”

Gil Thorp, 6/23/25

Sorry to trouble you, Gil, but we can’t have someone obsessed with late 19th/early 20th century spiritualism chaperone the prom. Can you imagine? Why, by the end of the evening he’ll be leading them in seances and such, when they should by rights be out in their cars, fingerbanging each other and/or being fingerbanged!

The Phantom, 6/23/25

Speaking of narration from the dead, I’m always a fan of when The Phantom reminds us that everything we see in the strip is a story dreamed up by writer Lee Falk (1911-1999). Sorry, General Chuma! You have been summoned into existence merely to be tormented for our amusement by a pencil-mustached, pipe-smoking sadist.

Garfield, 6/23/25

Remember Garfield, the cartoon cat who famously hates Mondays? You’ve heard him telling jokes about hating Mondays before, of course. But what if he typed those jokes, into a computer? That’d be pretty wild, huh?

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Rex Morgan, M.D., 6/22/25

“Would it help to know that after your relationship ended in failure, she still thought about you all the time, obsessively, even though she never tried to communicate with you, or tell you about your son? Think carefully about the answer to that one, New Dad, it’ll probably tell me a lot about your whole deal!”

Crankshaft, 6/22/25

Ha ha, it’s funny because Crankshaft is in constant pain and has a hard time thinking about anything else! Now, usually when I do the “Ha ha, it’s funny because” bit, I’m doing it specifically about something that’s not funny, but this one is funny to me, actually. Crankshaft’s not a great guy! I wish him ill!

Pluggers, 6/22/25

Ideas? Thinking? Originality? Not on a plugger’s watch.

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Crock, 6/21/25

Not sure if we’re seeing a singular mind at work here or if this is the product you’d expect to get from someone who’d been writing a comic for 20 years by 1997 and had arrived at a specific creative/cultural milieu as a result, but insulting someone by referring to their leadership style as “real barf” is extremely funny to me. Since this blog is like 20-25% hatred of Crock by volume, I think you know that I’m being very sincere here. “Real barf”: real funny.

The Lockhorns, 6/21/25

I do praise The Lockhorns a lot, so perhaps it’s lost its oomph when I do it now, but I also think this meh joke is elevated by the way Leroy is holding that bowl of burnt (?) coal slaw aloft, like Hamlet contemplating Yorick’s skull.

Blondie, 6/21/25

Hmm, what’s that, Dagwood? You were in the middle of preparing a midnight snack, but then you just dozed off face-first into the sandwich you were making, capturing in one sad moment your terribly disordered relationship to both food and sleep? And yet you claim to be perfectly happy in the situation, thus encapsulating the vibe your character has been giving off on the comics pages for decades now? Interesting. Interesting.