Tweedle Dumbfounding Edition (May 6)

Worst:
Even Billy seems bored by this lame joke.

Runners-up: Argyle Sweater, Candorville, For Better or For Worse, Frank and Ernest, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Rhymes with Orange, Sally Forth, Speed Bump

Best:
Get Fuzzy is great on so many levels. Great dialog, great art, great characters.

Runners-up: Agnes, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Lio, Pearls Before Swine

Poorly Political Edition (Apr. 29)

Several weeks ago, Scott Stantis published some bold strips condemning torture. Here, Mike Peters' demonstrates the wrong way to approach torture. Comparing a bath to waterboarding trivializes the impact of torture. If you're going to send the wrong message, at least make it funny.

Runners-up: Baldo, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, Hagar the Horrible, Pickles, Red and Rover

Best:

Runners-up: Baby Blues, Big Nate, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Frank and Ernest, Frazz, Pooch Cafe, Speed Bump, Watch Your Head, Zits

Comics Note:
The bargain that Dolly has made isn't that different than that made by a housewife. In return for the validation of having a boyfriend, she is doing his work for him. A housewife, in return for the validation and support of a husband, does his work for him. Hopefully Thel will sit Dolly down tonight and read the Feminine Mystique to her, but I wouldn't count on it.

Metanote: For the first time in a month I am caught up. If you're lazy and intermittently committed, I would recommend not starting a blog that needs to be updated every day. Hopefully I will do a better job of keeping up, although I have a vacation in June that will set me back about a week and a half.

Family Dynamics Edition (Apr. 23)

Worst:
A beautiful woman marries a clown, this could be fertile ground for a therapist in a few years. This play on words hurts my brain.

Runners-up: Baldo, Blondie, Curtis, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best:
Gotta love the detailed knowledge of Star Wars minutiae. It's interesting that you can watch a movie dozens of times without thinking about questions like this.

Runners-up: Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Frazz, Get Fuzzy

Earth Day Edition (Apr. 22)

Worst:
Learning Place? Schoolhouse Earth? This could have been better if the kids were pictured near a big rock, and the caption read "This is my favorite place to learn, Schoolhouse Rock." Then it would be mildly humorous in addition to the intended goal of sickeningly sweet.

Runners-up: Argyle Sweater, Dilbert, Frank and Ernest, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible (everyone looks horrified by the giant except Honi who looks on adoringly, there's a story here...), Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover

Best:
Lots of Earth Day cartoons, some good, some bad, some bizarre. I liked this one best, as it was fairly clever. Scott Stantis does a good job using setting in his strip.

Runners-up: Big Nate, Get Fuzzy, Zits

My Eyes Edition (Apr. 16)

Worst:
This is unspeakably awful.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Frank and Ernest, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Mutts, Prickly City, Rhymes with Orange, Speed Bump

Best:
As someone who works with kids for a living, I enjoyed this interplay between Frazz and the students.

Runners-up: Daddy's Home, Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, Piranha Club, Pooch Cafe

Is Cul de Sac the Second Best Strip in the Post? Edition (Apr. 20)

Worst:
Sigh.

Runners-up: Argyle Sweater, Baldo, Blondie, Foxtrot, Garfield, Prickly City, Zits

Best:
The characters and writing of Cul de Sac compare favorably to any other strip. Alice and Petey are never dull. I think the Post should add Cul de Sac to its every day line-up.

Runners-up: Agnes, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Dilbert, Frazz, Get Fuzzy, Mutts, Opus, Sherman's Lagoon, Single and Looking

Torturous Edition (Apr. 6)

Worst:
I think this might be the worst strip so far this year. All it is is horrible puns of celebrity names combined with bad art.

Runners-up: Blondie, Daddy's Home, Garfield, Zits

Best:
When the characters are good, the jokes flow naturally. Love the visual of Bucky with the ice cream carton.

Runners-up: Agnes, Beetle Bailey, Candorville, Cul de Sac, Foxtrot, Frazz, Hagar the Horrible, Lio, Mutts, Pearls Before Swine, Single and Looking, Speed Bump

Make it Stop Edition (Apr. 18)

Worst:
We had a lot of bad puns today but this one might have been the worst. Frank and Ernest gave it a good run though, and the spousal abuse in Hagar the Horrible made this quite a good day for worst strip candidates.

Runners-up: Baby Blues (complaining about a lifestyle choice is unfair), Baldo (reader submitted comics=mailing it in), Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Daddy's Home, Dennis the Menace, Frank and Ernest, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best:
The incongruity of the old comic lines is rather enjoyable.

Runners-up: Agnes, Big Nate, Candorville (Darrin Bell demonstrates the proper way to do a technology joke), Dilbert, Mutts, Piranha Club, Pooch Cafe, Watch Your Head

I Don't Get it Edition (Apr. 10)

Worst:
I absolutely do not get this. Is there some ad campaign for V8 that involves people getting bonked on the head? Even if there is, the set-up is very awkward. I don't think I've ever heard someone say that someone else bonked them on the head.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Curtis, Garfield, Rhymes with Orange, Speed Bump

Best:
I want to be a professional imaginer. I like how Agnes' Grandmother just rolls with the punches.

Runners-up: Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Frazz, Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, Piranha Club (I'm really enjoying this escape attempt series in spite of myself), Sally Forth, Watch Your Head (Cory Thomas does a nice job of shading in some back story)

Misplaced Homage Edition (Apr. 7)

Worst:
The rise of Snoopy is, in my opinion, one of the faults of the later Peanuts. The early strips generate their power from pathos. As the strip becomes more unrealistic, it loses a lot of this power. Therefore, I am firmly not a member of the cult of Snoopy. I still think Peanuts is one of the greatest strips of all time though.

Runners-up: Dennis the Menace, For Better or For Worse, Garfield, Mother Goose and Grimm, Speed Bump

Best:
Tony Cochran has a great ear for comedic dialogue.

Runners-up: Frazz, Get Fuzzy, Piranha Club, Sherman's Lagoon

Black & White Edition (Mar. 23)

Worst:
This was an easy choice for two reasons. First, Dolly's pun is as bad as a pun can be. Second, I can not envision any scenario that would cause someone to be upset because the moon change phases. Unless Grandma is some sort of reverse werewolf, which could be a great spin-off strip.

Runners-up: Daddy's Home, Dennis the Menace, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Mutts, Rhymes with Orange, Tank McNamara

Best:
This was a more difficult choice; I almost went with Agnes. What sold me on this at the end was Rob. Without him, it's just a bizarre interaction between Satchel and Bucky.

Runners-up: Agnes, Baby Blues (I'm not sure that love comes before lust, love the music in the lust panel though), Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Cul de Sac, Pearls Before Swine

Comics Note: Garry Trudeau is going on vacation, so Doonesbury will disappear from my lists for a while. While Doonesbury will be missed, it's always nice to get a chance to try out some new strips. Last time, we got Agnes and Watch Your Head out of the deal. Daddy's Home is off to a slow start, leading off its run with a typical poor joke. The Matt Groening homage offers some promise though.

Devil in the Details Edition (Mar. 13)

Worst:
This one is just weird and no makes no particular sense.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Big Nate, For Better or For Worse, Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best:
Much of the greatness of Get Fuzzy is in the details. I love that Rob has a consistent wardrobe. In many strips, the characters wear the same outfit every day. Rob has a series of outfits that he wears on a rotating basis, just like a real person. It's a small thing, but it's a nice touch.

Runners-up: Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Frazz, Pooch Cafe, Sherman's Lagoon,

Sigh Edition (Mar. 12)

Worst:
Another bad pun.

Runners-up: Baby Blues, Beetle Bailey, Curtis, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm

Best:
Lio's dad must be the most put-upon dad in the comics.

Runners-up: Agnes, Dilbert, Doonesbury, Get Fuzzy, Pooch Cafe, Prickly City,

Sexist Edition (Mar. 6)

Worst:

This bothered me on a number of levels, not least because I spent many hours reading Baby-Sitter's Club books growing up. I just find the idea kind of sexist that a guy can't read and enjoy books about a group of girls, especially when they are well written, at least on the scale of elementary school lit. Also, Billy would need to be a pretty precocious seven year old to reading Baby Sitter's Club books, and the general demonstrated intelligence of the family, it seems unlikely that any of them would be called precocious.

Runners-up: Close to Home, Curtis, Dennis the Menace, Garfield, Watch Your Head

Best:

One of the better jokes I've read in a while. The set-up is not awkward, and the punchline is clever. It's a pleasant change of pace from most joke strips.

Runners-up: Agnes, Baldo, Beetle Bailey, Big Nate, Blondie, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Candorville, Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, Mutts, Non Sequiter, Pooch Cafe, Sherman's Lagoon

Metanote: So you might have noticed that I've fallen a little behind. Part of my philosophy of life is that there are many excuses but very few good excuses. I will say that I have been working a lot of overtime at work, but ultimately, I could have kept up if I had been more dedicated, so ultimately all I can do is apologize to any readers I might have and say that I'll try to do better. I should be able to catch up over the next day.

Unspeakable Evil Edition (Feb. 28)

Worst: It's a Nazi snowman. Honestly, that was my first thought when I saw this. Why didn't some editor see this and think they might need to pull it? Am I overly conscious of historical overtones?

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey(Why does the gourmet food on the cover look like a hamburger with a sprig of parsley on it?), Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Close to Home (welcome to 1984, suburbia edition), For Better or For Worse, Frank and Ernest, Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover

Best:

This is a fun strip.

Runners-up: Candorville, Get Fuzzy, Non Sequiter, Prickly City (confronting the waterboarding issue head on is very ballsy), Single and Looking

Repeat (Feb. 27)

Worst: I don't get it. Is that supposed to be Larry King? I don't know if he is a relevant enough figure to be recognizable in snowman form. Aren't these supposed to be suggested by kids? Do they even know who Larry King is?

Runners-up: Curtis (we get it already, Gunk can't take off his coat), Frank and Ernest, Garfield (terrible pacing), Speed Bump

Best: Lots of good questions here. Just another clever strip.

Runners-up: Candorville, Lio, Pooch Cafe, Single and Looking, Watch Your Head

Three for the Price of One (Feb. 25)

Worst: In addition to the same complaints as yesterday, this strip adds a level of family values crap. I hate the whole family values thing because of the hypocrisy of it. All these people pretend to be so righteous and that they have all the answers. Instead of focusing on strengthening families, they waste their energy on a few relatively trivial issues. I am all for values, but I prefer to focus on living up to them, instead of telling other people how they are not.

Runners-up: Frank and Ernest, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible (What the heck is a viking doing in a desert? What would there be in a desert to pillage? Why would they travel so far from home?), Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover

Best:

Love Satchel's misplaced empathy.

Runners-up: Big Nate, Doonesbury, Single and Looking, Watch Your Head

Underappreciated (Feb. 24)

Worst:This is such a weird illustration. The joke was bad when it debuted on Sunday. It's not getting better with age.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Curtis, Dilbert, Mother Goose and Grimm, Rhymes with Orange, Speed Bump

Best:

Candorville is an under appreciated strip I think. Darrin Bell has created main characters with interesting relationships and unique personalities. He handles topical strips better than anyone, able to make a point without sacrificing humor, unlike most political strips. The art matches up with all but the best strips (Get Fuzzy, Lio and Watch Your Head are better, a few others might be just as good). Candorville should maybe be a top five strip.

Runners-up: Garfield (three best runners-up in four days, Jim Davis is on quite a roll), Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, Prickly City, Single and Looking

Comics of the Day

Worst: The split dialogue thing never helps a strip. The stupid joke doesn't help either.

Runners-up: Blondie, Dilbert, Frank and Ernest, Hagar the Horrible, Non Sequiter, Zits

Best:

Not the best Get Fuzzy ever, but it's cute, and nothing else was particularly inspired. This is Get Fuzzy's fifth win in the past week. Darby Conley's on quite a muffin.

Runners-up: Candorville, Pooch Cafe

Comics of the Day

Worst: At first, I didn't get this at all. Looking at it again, I think it's a pun of fore and four. Since Jeffy is not four yet, he doesn't have a fore head, only a three head. Yeah, it's that dumb.

Runners-up: Baldo, Close to Home, Dilbert, Mother Goose and Grimm, Non Sequiter, Piranha Club, Rhymes with Orange, Speed Bump, Zits

Best:The best of a weak field today.

Runners-up: Curtis, Doonesbury