Funnies, Sundays and Otherdays

D. D. Degg Published: May 17, 2026 Updated: May 18, 2026 1 minute 6 comments

*Wizard of Id by Hart and Mastroianni – May 15, 2026*

Curls, a Stone Age character from B.C., spent the week in The Middle Ages’ Kingdom of Id. While the Wizard Of Id spent time in prehistorical B.C. (supposedly). My biggest disappointment was that it didn’t turn in to a true crossover with the week’s B.C. comic strips showing The Wizard interacting with the cavemen.

Though the John Hart Studios crew did wait until the spell was reversed to show Curls back in B.C.

Speaking of timelines…

*Hägar the Horrible by Weber and Hallgren – May 17, 2026*

I always thought Hagar was closer to Sir Rodney’s era than Captain Ahab’s.

As long as I’m nitpicking…

*Dick Tracy by Costello and Ettinger – May 15, 2026*

I was under the impression that in Dick Tracy world all stations were tuned into WGN, the Chicago Tribune’s studio whose call letters stand for “World’s Greatest Newspaper.”

*Gil Thorp by Barajas and Merrill – May 14, 2026*

Gil Thorp has moved from the basketball court, the baseball diamond, and track and field to the golf course. Though one of the clubs is way too long (artistic license?) I give kudos to Rachel Merrill the sequential panels in Thursday’s comic strip showing a golf swing. It brought to mind Play Better Golf with Jack Nicklaus.

*Play Better Golf with Jack Nicklaus by Bowden and McQueen*

Today’s Thatababy was another memory inducer. Those full strip drawings broken into panels always remind me of those occasional Sunday pages of Gasoline Alley by Frank King.

*The Saga of Brann Bjornson by Webster – May 16, 2026*

I have been enjoying the humor and stories in The Saga of Brann Bjornson since it debuted on Comics Kingdom a couple years ago and this week creator Stephen Webster increased the appearance rate from four to seven days a week as announced yesterday. But geez Stephen, increase the size of the lettering along with the frequency!

And more news from Comics Kingdom:

But we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what.

May 18 Update: Turns out they joined Discord and want you to too.

Lastly (and firstly) a Wayback Weekend entry.

Michael Maslin used his Wednesday Inkspill post to showcase the first and last New Yorker cartoons of Richard Oldden (1931-1995) quoting the cartoonist’s Lambiek Comiclopedia entry:

On 14 May 1973, Oldden and gag writer Sam Gross launched their daily newspaper comic ‘The Genius’ (1973-1977) through King Features Syndicate.”

I read that comic strip by way of The San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle. Here, to compliment Oldden’s first and last New Yorker cartoons are the first and last of his The Genius comic strip.

*The* *Genius by Oldden and Gross – May 14, 1973*

*The* *Genius by Oldden and Gross – May 7, 1977*

Comments ⁶

Paul Berge

Dick Tracy himself always seemed MAGA to me… His radio station must be affiliated with some Woke Failing Newspaper.

Eric O. Costello

I use “WFN” in the Dick Tracy strips to avoid raising needless complications; I’ve also used channel 9, WFN-TV, a few times. It’s meant as a veiled reference to action sort-of taking place in Chicago. As you correctly note, WGN stood for “World’s Greatest Newspaper,” the tagline of the Chicago Tribune, which founded the stations (but no longer owns them). In my mind, WFN stands for “World’s Finest Newspaper.” The “traffic and transit on the ones” bit is taken from WINS, the all news AM radio station in New York City (and is meant as a tipoff that it’s 9:01 — cp. the other time references in panels 1 and 3).

Eric O. Costello

I’d also note that the use of “WFN” is analogous to another long-standing practice in the Dick Tracy strip; namely, the name of the (sole? dominant?) newspaper in Tracytown. Going back, I believe, clear to Chester Gould’s day, you’ll see a newspaper called “The Daily” (sometimes, “The Daily Daily”). On occasion, you’ll even see a little camera-logo on the masthead of the paper. That last point is a tip off that what is being alluded to is the New York Daily News, which of course was the Chicago Tribune’s sister outlet in New York City for decades. It would have been simple to refer to “The Tribune” or “The Daily News,” just as it would be simple to refer to “WGN,” but for a long time, the strip has used “The Daily.” As an aside, Chicago did, for many years through the 1970s, have a broadsheet “Daily News,” which was a significant thorn in the Tribune’s side, most notably when Cecil Jensen did a serious of brilliant cartoons featuring “Colonel M’Cosmic,” a brutal satire of Robert McCormick of the Tribune.

John Hines

Anyone else want to see an Alley Oop-B.C. crossover? Anyone? Never mind, then…

Atanwat

Definitely not. 🙂

May 18,2026
Jonathan Dee Lemon

I did a few caveman crossovers in Rabbits Against Magic. Plus there was a Frank and Ernest one of a similar nature with Alley Oop and BC a few years back.

May 19,2026

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Funnies, Sundays and Otherdays

Comments 6

Paul Berge

Eric O. Costello

Eric O. Costello

John Hines

Atanwat

Jonathan Dee Lemon

Comments ⁶