The Comics Curmudgeon is an American

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

devoted to humorous and critical analysis of newspaper comics. Its author, Josh Fruhlinger, is a freelance writer and editor based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Content

For each blog post, author Josh Fruhlinger selects two to eight comic strips for comment, usually focused on topics such as poor artwork, inappropriate coloring, nonsensical plots, and sexual subtext or

innuendo An innuendo is a wikt:hint, hint, wikt:insinuation, insinuation or wikt:intimation, intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called in ...

. Long-running

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

-style

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

s such as ''

Apartment 3-G ''Apartment 3-G'' is an American newspaper soap opera comic strip about a trio of career women who share an apartment in Manhattan. Created by Nicholas P. Dallis with art by Alex Kotzky, the strip began May 8, 1961, initially distributed by t ...

'', ''

Mark Trail ''Mark Trail'' is a newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on Environmentalism, environmental and ecological themes. As of 2020, King Features syndicated the strip to "near ...

'', and ''

Mary Worth ''Mary Worth'' is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight-decade run from 1938. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this soap opera-style strip influenced several that followed. It was created by writer Allen Saunders and ar ...

'' bear the brunt of Fruhlinger's humor, an emphasis that he attributes to their being " heperfect targets for the sort of metatextual detached irony that is our generation's terrible contribution to Western civilization." Fruhlinger's blog also features commentary on long-running legacy cartoons like '' Family Circus'' and '' B.C.'' Weekly "metaposts" update readers on notable events in Fruhlinger's life, such as his July 22, 2008, appearance on the game show ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'', offer critical commentary on the comic strip industry, and include a "Comment Of The Week" that highlights the best comments posted by the blog's readers. The blog's original name was "Josh Reads the Comics so You Don't Have To", which is reflected in the site

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

, joshreads.com.

Impact

The Comics Curmudgeon was among the blogs criticizing what they deemed was the declining quality of the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

family strip ''

For Better or For Worse ''For Better or For Worse'' is a Canadian comic strip by Lynn Johnston that ran originally from 1979 to 2008 chronicling the lives of the Patterson family and their friends, in the town of Milborough, a fictional suburb of Toronto, Ontario. Now ...

'', and who were noted for "harsh attacks" on creator

Lynn Johnston Lynn Johnston (born May 28, 1947) is a Canadian cartoonist and author, best known for her newspaper comic strip '' For Better or For Worse''. She was the first woman and first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award. ...

. Humorist

John Hodgman John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as his satirical trilogy '' The Areas of My Expertise'', '' More Information Than You Require'', and '' That Is ...

, in a review of comic-strip reprint collections, said the website "regularly ridicules the creaky war horses like '' Hagar the Horrible'' icand ''

'', the opaque woolgathering of '' Ziggy'', the dull crypto-evangelism of '' B.C.''" A blog contributor's July 21, 2008, post broke the news that a recent '' Blondie'' strip had been recycled almost verbatim from one published in 1952. This was followed in March 2009 with a similar report of strip recycling in '' Family Circus''. '' Hägar the Horrible''s cartoonist Chris Browne, ''

Liō ''Liō'' is a daily comic strip created by American artist Mark Tatulli and distributed by Universal Press Syndicate/Universal Uclick/Andrews McMeel Syndication since May 15, 2006. As a pantomime strip, it has an international appeal. In 2008, t ...

'' artist/writer

Mark Tatulli Mark Tatulli is an American cartoonist, writer, animator and television producer, known for his strips ''Liō'' and '' Heart of the City'' and for his work on the cable reality television series '' Trading Spaces'' and ''A Wedding Story'', for whic ...

, and '' Sally Forth'' scripter Francesco Marciuliano have commented on the blog. Bob Weber Jr., artist for '' Slylock Fox'', created merchandise for the Curmudgeon

CafePress CafePress, Inc. is an American online retailer of a wide range of consumer items, including clothing, home decor, drinkware, stationery, gifts, and user- customized on-demand items. The company was founded in San Mateo, California, but is now he ...

store with original art of the character Cassandra Cat (from the ''Fox'' strip). On December 18, 2008, the comic strip '' Archie'' began occasionally referencing the blog's recurring "Archie Joke-Generating Laugh Unit 3000" joke, in which the strip is allegedly written by a sentient computer program which continually tries (but fails) to understand genuine human interaction. On August 12, 2009, writer and illustrator Stephan Pastis mentioned The Comics Curmudgeon by name in his comic strip '' Pearls Before Swine,'' in the context of satirizing internet criticism. On May 6, 2012, the comic strip '' Crock'' introduced a character named "Freerloiter" (an apparent

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of Fruhlinger's name) who lost all of his artistic talent after a

lobotomy A lobotomy () or leucotomy is a discredited form of Neurosurgery, neurosurgical treatment for mental disorder, psychiatric disorder or neurological disorder (e.g. epilepsy, Depression in childhood and adolescence, depression) that involves sev ...

. However, Commander Crock " pulled the plug" on Freerloiter after he announced his intention to move to

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

and start a comics blog. Fruhlinger responded on his blog: "Of course, if you aren't me or part of the fairly small slice of the comics-reading public who also reads my blog, this strip would make exactly zero sense to you. Just another Sunday ''Crock'', in other words." ''Crock'' concluded publishing new strips two weeks later.

Awards

The Comics Curmudgeon was ranked 13th on '' PC Magazine's'' 100 Favorite Blogs list for 2007, and Elite Choice named it one of 2007's Top 125 Elite Blogs (judged on traffic generation, Alexa ranking and other measures of visibility). Josh Fruhlinger was named 2007's Blogger of the Year by ''

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...

'' based on his analysis of editorial cartoons. The Comics Curmudgeon has also won the 2008 Weblog Award for Best Humor Blog.

References

External links

The Comics CurmudgeonCartoon Violence blog on WonketteJuly 2, 2006 Molly McCall interview of Fruhlinger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comics Curmudgeon Websites about comics American comedy websites Internet properties established in 2004 2004 establishments in the United States