I've become quite a fan of this funny strip about an older couple who have a dog, a cat, and (I think) a divorced daughter with a young son who has boomeranged home. After 20 years Brian Crane has his humor, pacing and characters down pat; the strip won the 2013 Reuben Award. It's a delicate balancing act to portray Earl and Opal as Crane does, always lightly bickering and getting on each others' nerves, but with an obvious hidden core of solid affection that I think has only come out explicitly once or twice. The strip is never mean, always funny (sometimes hilariously so), never sentimental, and never contrived. I can't think of another more deserving candidate for the Reuben except for Cul de Sac, which won the previous year. ( )