Post Content

Panel from Slylock Fox, 1/24/21

We haven’t checked in with Cassandra Cat’s incredibly transparent attempts to lure Slylock back to her apartment lately, have we? Mostly I wanted to show today’s panel for the delightful array of details in Cassandra’s retro-hip shag-carpeted pad: Catsmo magazine, a nice little tin of sardines open on the end table for snacking, the wall of photos of cartoon cat heroes, and, of course, a cat dancer toy, for later, when Cassandra convinces Slylock to put down the magnifying glass and send Max home.

Panel from The Lockhorns, 1/24/21

One of the great ironies of the Lockhorns’ lives is that they drive everyone else as crazy as they drive each other, but while their baffling decision to remain married means they can never avoid each other, other people are generally able to avoid them. The terrible social claustrophobia that results leads them to often bother total strangers in public with their gripes and musings. I think today is the best of these I’ve ever seen. How long has Leroy been deliberately lurking there, waiting for an actual child to pick up that book so he can go off on how his darn wife never cleans out the refrigerator, a complaint the Dr. Seuss-reading set will surely fine extremely relatable? I particularly enjoy the kid’s facial expression, which to me reads as “Sir, I know I’d get in trouble for saying this out loud, but … sir, what the fuck.”

Post Content

Crock, 1/23/21

I’ve had to acknowledge to myself that a big part of doing this blog consists of me staring at a sentence in a comic strip for a long time — like, not hours or anything, but longer than I stare at most sentences, and almost certainly longer than the writer spent thinking about it before they wrote it — and wondering, “Why did they phrase it like that?” Such is the lot of the critic, alas! Anyway, I’m kind of tickled that instead of saying “Oh yeah?” or “What do you mean?” or deploying any other fairly neutral phrase to smooth the glidepath to the punchline of this joke, Poulet in panel one says “You must be mistaken!” I’m choosing to believe that Poulet, perhaps alone amongst the Legionnaires in this Maghrebi outpost, truly believes in France’s civilizing colonial mission, and is heartbroken to learn that the occupation government’s arts budget isn’t as generous as he imagined.

Pluggers, 1/23/21

We’ve all spent lots of times arguing the “What is a plugger?” question over the years here on this blog, but I’ve always assumed that this feature’s mission is fundamentally one of in-group self-affirmation: “This is what we pluggers are like, and that’s a good thing, even though we might have our foibles!” However, with today’s installment of “You’re a plugger if you have incipient dementia,” I may have to reassess that judgement.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 1/23/21

Ha ha, it’s funny because the residents of Hootin’ Holler live surrounded by piles of their own garbage!

Post Content

With literally no ado: this week’s top comment!

“Man, I can not wait for Mark Trail to tell us about the flora and fauna of Guantanamo Bay. ‘As I enter my fifth year of captivity as an enemy combatant, let’s look again at the common iguana. I call her Shirley. She’s my wife now.’” –Voshkod

Are the runners up almost as funny? You better believe it

“Max is looking all like, ‘You can steal hats from here? I’m totally stealing this hat! Solve this, Slylock!’” –Jfp

“Oh, are you thinking of buying a new hat, Max? Maybe interested in a new look? Yeah? That’s nice. You know what else would be nice? It would be nice if you finally got a shirt, freakshow.” –made of wince

“And the model for Wendy’s time machine is this desk lamp! And all the trees I draw are modeled on these paintbrushes! The thing is, I’m chained to this desk.” –Peanut Gallery

“The buried lede here is that the Wilsons have some sort of animal infestation they are about to have dealt with. The neighbor’s kid is still running around their house, though. So either they actually can’t stop him and George is sort of right, or they’re that indifferent to his health and safety and are the real menaces. (The second seems more interesting so I am guessing the first.)” –pachoo

“I have several warrants for arrest outstanding, so I avoid intersecting with police personnel whenever possible.” –Just John

“RIP Trixie” –matt w

“Beetle Bailey’s shape shifting powers did not come without a cost, as those who lost their lives when the building behind him suddenly shrank can attest.” –Tabby Lavalamp

“Who are you talking to, Buck? Rex left the room as soon as he heard ‘no.’” –Mr. A

“Hi can’t really cook but his kids aren’t much good at making puns so nobody’s perfect.” –Artist formerly known as Ben

“Hmm, which magazine was Dagwood test-reading? Oh, there’s one called Food. Do you think it was Food?” –Rita Lake

“Menacing and non-menacing: the two genders.” –Ettore

“C’mon, give me a break! My employment situation is precarious at best and my wife’s catering business is cratering because of the pandemic, so I have to be more prudent with my discretionary spending! It’s either slash my $1,000/week grocery budget, stop eating lunch at the world’s worst diner, or save $5 a pop by reading magazines for free! You do the math!” –Doctor Moreau

“Huh. Dawg is missing. [CHECKS YESTERDAY’S STRIP] ‘Nobody can boil a hot dog like you!’ Huh.” –Pakman

“Mary listens intently as Saul remarks about ‘long lags’ in Eve’s ‘response time.’ Has he stumbled upon her plan to replace the residents of Charterstone with robots? Damn, she thinks, I knew I shouldn’t have released Eve 2.11 until I got her Unix nice values optimized. Now Mary faces a tough choice: re-direct Saul away from his suspicions with muffins and platitudes, or feed him those week-old salmon(ella) squares and get it over with?” –Hannibal’s Lectern

“Eve was no lady, Jeffy. Read the story critically.” –jenna

“I guess a GTO is a car or something, and when Doug says ‘Found it in a barn, rebuilt it with my dad,’ I understand intellectually what he’s referring to. But with his oddly proportioned hand filling up half the frame, I have a hard time keeping my brain from drifting to wondering if his hand was rebuilt following a grisly accident in the barn, perhaps, and yet no girl can compete with it? Doug, honey, I frankly think you can do better than that fugly old hand. Gross!” –Duke of Early Grey

“Crankshaft seems to have entered her ‘shop’ just to brag that he has no intention to read anything, which I kind of respect.” –Jon Bennett, on Facebook

“I’m surprised that Dustin’s Dad was so intent on making a joke about his wife that he didn’t take the time to complain about his failure son talking with his mouth full.” –nescio

“When I consider how my shots are spent,
Ere half the game, in this dark world and wide.
And that one talent which is Loss to hide
Lodg’d with me useless.
‘Doth Coach exact day-labor, light-denied,’
I foolish ask.
But Mimi to prevent that murmur soon replies,
Milford hath no need of lock-down defense.
Who best bear my incompetent yoke serve me best.
They also serve who only stand and wait.” –But What Do I Know?

Remember: If you never want to see banner ads on this site, and want to get cool comment-editing features to boot, for a mere three dollars a month you can become a Comics Curmudgeon Supporter! If you just want to give me money directly, you can put some scratch in my tip jar, or back me on Patreon! Thanks to all for your support and readership!