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joshreads_feedBlondie, 12/9/25
I’m pretty impressed that Alexander and Cookie have figured out how to mirror both their phones to the TV simultaneously, and even more impressed that they’ve managed to seize control of the wheeled TV stand, turn it 90 degrees from its usual position facing Dagwood, and roll it towards the viewer, yet somehow still have it visible to Blondie. I’m not impressed that Cookie thinks a circa 1985 camcorder is going to help her with her vlogging career.
Mary Worth, 12/9/25
Ah, yes, Ian has awoken to discover that the eternal struggle between man and bird has escalated yet further during his slumber! Is Toby to blame for this latest attack, since she bought Sunny an ample cage in which one might expect him to be confined at night, but then didn’t close the door? Well, maybe, but surely any animal clever enough to identify the particular bit of hoarded detritus to which Ian is most fiercely emotionally attached couldn’t be held back by some feeble latch.
Dennis the Menace, 12/9/25
Gotta say I’m intrigued by how philosophical Mr. Wilson looks here. Another birthday to celebrate, and the only people who showed up are his wife, who lives there anyway, and his most hated enemy, who is also a five-year-old child … truly, life is a funny old thing, and you never know exactly where you’re going to end up.
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joshreads_feedHi and Lois, 12/8/25
Let’s forget for a moment the incomprehensible/not funny punchline of this one and try to understand the lead-up to it. Why is Chip telling his father, who is watching exactly the same movie that he is, that there’s a parental warning on it? Shouldn’t Hi be just as capable of reading it as Chip is? Is it written in some format that only teens can read, like, uh, Minecraft font? Is there a Minecraft font? Is Minecraft still a thing that teens like, in the year 2025?
Zits, 12/8/25
Honestly, while I’m fine with the Zits parents (who were my boomer parents’ age when the strip debuted in the ’90s) staying the same age but becoming Gen Xers, I’m a little unsettled by Jeremy (who was just a few years younger than me when the strip debuted in the ’90s) staying the same age but being into things that contemporary teens are into, like Minecraft. I mean, Minecraft is still a thing that teens like, in the year 2025, right? “Watching” Minecraft? Surely the syndicated newspaper comic strip Zits wouldn’t steer me wrong about teens!
Gil Thorp, 12/8/25
In 1966, Gay Talese transformed the art of magazine writing with “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold,” a profile that turned Sinatra’s refusal to give an interview into a central part of its structure. Will Gil Thorp do the same for the newspaper comics with “Gil Thorp Has A Serious Respiratory Illness Of Some Kind”? I mean, maybe? Or maybe Gil will just sweat a lot, who knows.
B.C., 12/8/25
The characters in B.C. live with a strange mix of stone age technology and modern conveniences and attitudes. This is not a criticism! I get that this is, in fact, the central joke of the strip! However, today’s installment does make me wonder if one of the modern things they have access to is the rabies vaccine. I worry!
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joshreads_feedDennis the Menace, 12/7/25
I feel like Henry’s “He’s gone too far this time!” line actually explains a lot about this strip. Like there’s some kind of beef going on between him and Mr. Wilson that dates back years, before Dennis was even born. “That’s right,” Henry thinks, every time Dennis heads over to the neighbors. “You menace that asshole, kid. You menace him good.”
Mother Goose and Grimm, 12/7/25
I think one of the reasons that jokes about fire hydrants in comic strips with sapient dogs bug me so much is that much of the schtick of a talking-dog strip is playing around with the question of “what are the human equivalents to these objects or experiences in a dog’s everyday life?” but for whatever reason the ones that deal with fire hydrants always seem to rapidly lose their grip on whatever metaphor they’re trying to establish. But kudos to Mother Goose and Grimm for going beyond the hydrant into other realms of doggie existence, where the metaphors also don’t work. Take alcohol, for instance. Is toilet water like alcohol, for a dog? Well, no, not really. How about the kind of vaccines a dog would typically get at the vet? Are those like alcohol? No, that’s not right either, but keep at it, you’ll get there one of these days.
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case posting in fandomsecrets| RULES: 1. One secret link per comment. 2. 750x750 px or smaller. 3. Link directly to the image. More details on how to send a secret in! Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is. Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment! |
joshreads_feedMary Worth, 12/6/25
I was going to make some comment about how Toby is confusing Sunny’s ability to mimic words with an ability to fully understand what she’s saying as she explains complex concepts to him, but then I caught sight of his face in the second panel. That’s a bird who absolutely understands what’s being said. He agrees with it in part — the part about his cage door being left open, that part’s good — but has no interest in giving Ian some space, and a lot of interest in fucking Ian’s shit up.
Hagar the Horrible, 12/6/25
Most ordinary medieval people — even relatively high-status ones like the second-in-command of a mid-sized Viking warband — lived in homes that were essentially one room, so no, I don’t find this one realistic. Hagar and Lucky are about to be torn to pieces by hungry wolves!
Pluggers, 12/6/25
You’re a plugger if you’re so cut off from contact with the world that you become unmoored from the passage of time, and also your phone doesn’t have the day and date right on the lock screen for some reason.
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joshreads_feedCold enough for ya??? Well, warm yourself in the bright glow of this week’s top comment:
“Augie should just explain to Summer that, in accordance with their namesake seasons, she is hot and boring whereas Autumn is cool and interesting.” –Violet
And of course your hilarious runners up will keep the chill away:
“I choose to believe that the “squawk” box in the last panel is also part of Ian’s dialog.” –Dmsilev
“Ok, that’s all good and well, but why is he eating outside? Turkey farts? Probably turkey farts.” –pugfuggly
“He’s depressed in advance about how much pie he’s going to lose in that beard.” –MKay
“Humpty didn’t crack open his fellow carton-mate, but he did feast on the albumeny innards of the predeceased, a crime so heinous they have no law against it.” –Rex Thrillho, on BlueSky
“Dustin has embraced his inner Crankshaft, God help us all.” –TheSodorViaduct, on BlueSky
“We see these occasional departures where the strip explores the lives of popular nursery rhyme characters. Is the titular Mother Goose telling these stories to entertain children? Or, since we’ve never seen her with any kids, does she make these stories up to ward off children? Probably the latter, right?” –Victor Von
“I’ve never seen an egg-human with such a small face before. Not clear why I find this vaguely unsettling.” –some guy vaguely unsettled by a cartoon of an egg
“That look on Augie’s face is perfect for someone who has tried over and over to explain the concept of a fictional character inspired by a real person. ‘Please don’t ask for details. You said yourself that she’s smart. I don’t want to admit that that’s one of the differences.’” –Nevin, on Patreon
“You got any six-day old food? Does your disgusting filthy restaurant have any meat that’s just been sitting around since last Thursday? I don’t want to go to work tomorrow, and a bit of violent food poisoning would do the job nicely.” –Schroduck
“Listen, when I texted you ‘semiotic theory and chill?’ this is not what I had in mind.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
“I enjoy Dick Tracy helpfully providing a balloon labeled ‘machine gun.’ They need to go the full nine here, though! ‘Dick Tracy’s Hand!’ ‘Cigarette!’ ‘Thinking Cop’s Chin!’ Oh, the possibilities!” –A Grave Mind
“I struggle to believe that cars in the Alice-verse are that expensive. I mean, they’d just be made out of vague abstract shapes like everything else in this comic.” –ectojazzmage
“Well, you’re certainly a plugger if you read your mail while standing by your mailbox, as opposed to, say, walking a few feet into the comfort of your own home where you can sit down; it’s easier to read; there’s a letter opener; etc.” –Bob Tice
“TIRED: Wilbur is bad at raising a pet
WIRED: Ian emerges menacingly from the mist to visit his wrath upon a pet” –Dan“I’d be more upset about Jeffy pulling her coat down off her neck to ogle her nape. Probably why Thel wears a turtleneck in the house.” –Hibbleton
“Look at that disaster! Wishing well? More like wishing badly!” –Ettorre
“I’m intrigued by Jeffy’s odd facial expression and posture. I can only assume he’s imitating long-dead variety show host Ed Sullivan, which would be spot-on for this strip.” –Joe Blevins
“In an attempt to stay relevant, Heathcliff has adopted Netflix’s strategy of having characters explain everything that’s happening in detail so that viewers can still keep up with the plot while being glued to their phones. Tomorrow’s caption: ‘The stench of rotting meat has attracted the Beings, and we are all in grave danger.’” –Austria
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joshreads_feedHeathcliff, 12/5/25
I really enjoy today’s Heathcliff for the way it manages to remain legible despite its one-panel nature collapsing a whole sequence of events into a single moment. Heathcliff tosses a coin into the well, makes a silent wish, garbage begins to fall from the sky in great, repulsive chunks, and a bird remarks on it: it’s all drawn as happening simultaneously, but our minds can put everything in the correct sequence.
Dennis the Menace, 12/5/25
George has clearly been on edge all day, just waiting for Dennis to show up, and now cannot even relax over the course of what should be a pleasant evening. In a way, simply by doing nothing, Dennis has pulled off one of his greatest menacing episodes yet.
Family Circus, 12/5/25
I love how sad this lady looks! Like, when this child started climbing around on the couch behind her and nobody tried to stop him, she was probably worried he was going to sneeze on her or something, but then he said this and it was actually much worse.
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joshreads_feedMary Worth, 12/4/25
“Good lord, Josh,” you’re almost certainly saying, “it’s been days since the first unpleasant Ian-Sunny encounter and you haven’t kept us updated, what is going on?????” Well, Ian has beaten a tactical retreat to the shower, where he is fuming, fuming at his humiliation. This oddball is going to grandstand like never before! The stakes could not be higher!
Gearhead Gertie, 12/4/25
Gertie marital dysfunction watch: Gertie’s husband, learning about a new venue for NASCAR racing, has preemptively compromised on their next vacation, hoping to combine some of the racing action his wife loves with a relaxing beach day of the sort that you’d think would appeal to just about anybody. “No,” says Gertie. “Fuck you. That’s not how this works. You know that’s not how this works.”
Daddy Daze, 12/4/25
I can never really figure out to what extent the conversations between the Daddy Daze baby and the Daddy Daze daddy are supposed to be “real,” and I guess that question can be extended to basically anything you see happening in the strip. Still, I feel like “your pre-verbal, non-walking baby is roaming the house in the middle of the night” is a scenario where you get out of bed and put them back in their crib, rather than just going back to sleep? I dunno, I’m not a parent, maybe the conventional wisdom has changed on this.
Pluggers, 12/4/25
You’re a plugger if you get invited to the sort of social events whose cancellation you’re notified about via a formal notice delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
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case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #6913 ]joshreads_feed - What vile Scots obscenity is Ian shouting here? Sound off in the commentsgeorgie_piyo_blog_feed - ヘアメイク🎀case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #6912 ]joshreads_feed - Monday is for teensgeorgie_piyo_blog_feed - National candle day🕎georgie_piyo_blog_feed - Agejo🎀case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #6911 ]joshreads_feed - I get the sense that Henry is a lot pettier than we give him credit forcase in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #6910 ]case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #988 ]purplecat in fandomcalendar - Gen Prompt Bingo Round 29joshreads_feed - Literally, nobody wants to give pluggers the time of dayprecuretokumod in fandomcalendar - The Pretty Cure & Tokusatsu Prompt Meme 2025!case in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #6909 ]joshreads_feed - Metapost: Wintry COTWjoshreads_feed - One-panel Fridaycase in fandomsecrets - [ SECRET POST #6908 ]joshreads_feed - Gertie is going to have the first ever divorce trial broadcast on Fox Sports 1georgie_piyo_blog_feed - ディナー🌃winterfish
