Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for March 21, 2023

That really looks like it might work; however, you might rather than pinch someone, wind up strangling them…

In good hands? I wouldn’t trust Dill’s face in that last panel.

In a pinch, it might work.

I’m afraid Dill may graduate to wedgies when he gets older.

Really looks like a giant poking machine!

Better be nicer to Dill from now on.

Looks a lot like it’s made from a scrap trebuchet.

No enemies? Wait till I start using it!

Watch out for Dill, Alice!

How ‘bout a pinch-drone?

What are we going to do today, Dill? Same thing we always do: Try to Take Over the World!

I wonder when I last balanced on a curb? I must have tried it once or twice in the last ten years.

And the birth of M.A.P. (mutually assured pinching) begins.

Oh, yeah

I love that in panel one Dill and Alice have their arms out to the side because they’re walking along a narrow curb just for fun. Richard has even drawn a little piece of trash in the gutter to emphasize it’s a curb. And oh my, is Dill so dirty that bits of it are falling off of him à la Pig Pen?

I suspect Dill secretly wants to use it to expand his Sticks in Mail-slots Campaign.

He has a facial expression like Ernesto’s. That’s not good.

With youthful exuberance, Dill nevertheless enunciates an early version of the powerful strategic concept of Massive Deterrence. No enemies now, and, armed with the Long Distance Giant “Snapping Turtle” (the military nickname later given to the Long Range Pinching Machine), no enemies in the future for Dill Wedekind!