Macanudo has been extremely dependable since I started following it several years ago: whimsical, sometimes poignant, but often surreal (and occasionally CIDU). Like Rubes, this makes it all the more noticeable when a strip just doesn’t work, like this one:

…
The slapstick “flattening” might have worked if the strip had ended at the third panel (shifting “Are you OK?” into the second dialog balloon), but including the partner’s desperation and anguish in the fourth panel transforms the remnant of humor into a simple tragedy, leaving nothing to laugh at or feel good about. Thankfully, the hiatus was just for one day.