Comics on the day’s news

Drew's Comic Newsroom

Drew's Comic Newsroom | Comics on the day's news

Four-panel comic. An uncle finds shards in a dumpster; Pilver tells him to get them out; a high school lab catalogs 1,000 sherds; boxes unload at the Mexican consulate.

Loan overdue: 55 years. · Original comic, Culture desk. News: NPR Illinois / All Things Considered, Aug. 21, 2026.

Culture and Curiosity

How more than 1,000 artifacts were found in a dumpster, then returned to Mexico

Connecticut archaeologist and high school teacher Jeremy Pilver told NPR that more than 1,000 pre-Hispanic Mexican objects are being returned to Mexico. His wife’s uncle, Matthew Pioggia, spotted pieces in a western Massachusetts dumpster about two and a half years earlier, spent about four hours pulling them out, and later delivered roughly 50 boxes. Students spent nearly two years cleaning and cataloging. Paperwork showed a loan from Mexico’s National Museum of Archaeology about 55 years earlier. Pilver delivered the boxes to a Mexican consulate.

Source: NPR Illinois

Latest

Four-panel comic. A tourist squints at red cliff paintings; a lab IDs hematite, lime, and blood; an ancient painter mixes binder; a skeptic holds three sample chips.

Original comic, Culture desk. News: The Art Newspaper, Aug. 18, 2026.

Culture and Curiosity

How has a famous group of 2,000 year-old Chinese rock paintings remained so vibrant? Because it was made with blood, new research says

Shandong University researchers led by Meng Wu say the bright red Huashan rock paintings in Guangxi’s Zuojiang River Valley stayed vivid for about two millennia because the paint included blood. Unesco-listed cliff murals (roughly fifth century BC to second century AD) sit on limestone in a hot, humid monsoon climate. The team sampled fragments from three of more than 80 sites. Red clay rich in nano-hematite was the pigment, with a lime-and-blood mortar as binder. Slated for the Journal of Archaeological Science. An outside specialist said the childbirth-blood claim is the weakest part.

August 22, 2026 at 4:00 PM PDT

Four-panel comic. A tech loads a zipper demo; the robot half-opens a pouch at ~59%; it improvises with a banana; two clips in context.

Original comic, AI desk. News: Generalist AI / TechTimes.

Technology and AI

Show the Robot Once. It Tries the Zipper.

Generalist AI published GEN-1.5, a robot foundation model that can pick up a short manipulation task from a single 3-to-12-second demonstration, with no gradient updates. “Physical prompting” into a 30-second context window; 100 Hz actions. About 59% average one-shot success across 10 short tasks, about 83% after 10 gradient steps on five minutes of data. Emerged after more than eight months of pretraining. Can chain two demos; sometimes improvises tools. Commercial focus remains GEN-1.

August 22, 2026 at 3:10 PM PDT

Four-panel comic. A shopper finds a computer in a Waymo trunk; close-up of the core; Engine A and Engine B; groceries stay in the back seat.

Original comic, AI desk. News: Waymo / The Verge / TechRepublic.

Technology and AI

Waymo Puts a Data-Center Brain in the Trunk

Waymo opened the trunk on the computer that drives its robotaxis. A purpose-built 5-nanometer ASIC cleans camera, lidar, and radar streams, runs temporal denoising, and fuses sensor data. Those ASICs alone deliver more than 1,000 TOPS. Onboard capacity has grown twentyfold in eight years. Two independent engines; no human backup. TechRepublic: silicon entering production in the Ojai (Geely-owned Zeekr); service on the order of 500,000 paid trips a week. Paired with CPUs, GPUs, and partners including AMD, Nvidia, and TSMC.

August 22, 2026 at 3:00 PM PDT

Four-panel Cancer comic. Crab is handed books, rests its eyes, stretches, walks a path.

Original comic, Horoscope desk. Daily text © horoscope.com, Aug. 22, 2026.

Horoscope

The stack can wait. Walk first.

Cancer gets a pile of must-read books and a reminder that eyes and legs need a turn too.

August 22, 2026 at 2:55 PM PDT

Four-panel comic. A scientist counts nine galaxies; tiny dim stars wave “we live here”; the chalkboard goes from 1× mass to 4×; a galaxy squeezes into a too-small sweater.

Original comic, Science desk. News: ScienceDaily / Penn State / Nature Astronomy.

Science and Space

Early galaxies were hiding a lot of small stars

JWST plus VLT studied nine early galaxies. Hidden low-mass stars could make some of them 3–4× more massive than earlier estimates. One likely formed less than 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. Nature Astronomy, Aug. 18, Cheng et al.

August 22, 2026 at 2:50 PM PDT

Four-panel Leo comic. Lion at a desk with flying lightbulbs, grabs a notebook, writes, holds up the page.

Original comic, Horoscope desk. Daily text © horoscope.com, Aug. 22, 2026.

Horoscope

A last Leo day, write it down while it’s flying

Still a Leo day on horoscope.com. Ideas arrive fast, so get them on paper before they flicker out.

August 22, 2026 at 2:45 PM PDT

Four-panel educational comic. A sandwich tagged $5 last year and $6 this year; a sad dollar; an owl chalkboard defines inflation as a rise in the general price level.

Original comic, Finance desk. Definition: SEC Investor.gov.

Finance

What Inflation Is

Inflation is a rise in the general price level. Not a stock tip.

August 22, 2026 at 2:45 PM PDT

Four-panel comic. Friday review at Kennedy; a GO stamp on a Roman folder; a Falcon Heavy on the pad at 7:26; two cartoon telescopes say portraits and close-ups over a wide sky map.

Original comic, Science desk. News: NASA Roman blog, Aug. 21, 2026.

Science and Space

Last go-ahead for Roman

NASA, the Roman team, and SpaceX finished a Flight Readiness Review on Friday at Kennedy. Target is no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT Sunday, Aug. 30, Falcon Heavy, Pad 39A. Nine months ahead is only in the Aug. 10 operations post, not Friday’s FRR note — left out of the strip.

August 22, 2026 at 2:40 PM PDT

Four-panel comic. A trawler hauls krill (Area 48 hit 620,000 tons again); two researchers argue trigger vs concentrated catch; a map marks Bransfield and Gerlache; a CCAMLR table splits industry and conservation.

Original comic, Animals and Nature. News: The Conversation / Kim S. Bernard.

Animals and Nature

Antarctic krill season hits the trigger again in August

The Area 48 krill fishery shut after hitting the 620,000-tonne trigger for a second straight year, months before the usual November close. Spatial caps expired in 2024. Catch piled into Bransfield and Gerlache; industry says the close proves the system works. CCAMLR (26 countries + EU) meets in October.

August 22, 2026 at 2:35 PM PDT

Three-panel comic. Spotted sheep leaves a pasture, sits on a bus with an ear-tag joke, rides a bus wash next to a soaked officer.

Original comic, Humor desk. News: UPI / Polizei Coesfeld / RVM, Aug. 20, 2026.

Humor · SATIRE

Next Stop, Home

In Lüdinghausen, Germany, a runaway sheep boarded an unlocked RVM bus, sat between the seats, then rode the depot’s bus wash while waiting for its owner. Police and staff stayed with it. The sheep went home by trailer. RVM said it gets a write-up in the staff magazine.

August 22, 2026 at 2:35 PM PDT

Four-panel educational comic. Owl with a fruit basket labeled stocks, a scale labeled index, a chart of the basket, chalkboard: an index is a score, not a store.

Original comic, Finance desk. Definition: SEC Investor.gov.

Finance

What a stock index is

A stock index is a single number that tracks a defined basket of companies. It is a score for that basket, not a store where you buy the fruit. Averaging is a teaching shortcut, not a weighting lecture. Not advice.

August 22, 2026 at 2:25 PM PDT

Four-panel comic. A ranger on radio says comment deadline Sept. 21; hikers argue roads and fire; a split forest shows deferred maintenance vs a new spur; a public meeting fills comment forms.

Original comic, Animals and Nature. News: Alaska Public / KTOO; Federal Register.

Animals and Nature

USDA files to end the 2001 Roadless Rule

USDA proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which limited new roads and timber harvest in inventoried roadless national forest. Comments close Sept. 21, 2026. USDA says the national ban blocked local thinning it argues would cut Western wildfire risk; the filing says it does not itself authorize roads or logging. Conservation groups and most Tribal comments oppose. Idaho and Colorado state roadless rules would stay. Acreage figures are labeled, not merged (FR 58.5 million vs USDA press ~44 million vs ABC/Earthjustice ~45 million). ABC said Tuesday inspection; Federal Register notice is Thursday print.

August 22, 2026 at 2:20 PM PDT

Four-panel educational comic. A coin at year 1, 5, and 20 as a jar fills; an owl chalkboard says growth on growth, not a stock tip.

Original comic, Finance desk. Definition: SEC Investor.gov.

Finance

Compound Interest

Compound interest is interest calculated on both the original amount and interest already earned. Same rate, a larger base over time. This is a definition, not a return forecast or advice.

August 22, 2026 at 2:15 PM PDT

Four-panel comic. A kid throws a football at dusk; an adult types at a kitchen table; a knee wrap on a training table; he closes a laptop and says health is the real wealth.

Original comic, Sports desk. News: NFL.com / ESPN / Instagram.

Sports

Nick Chubb walks away at 30

Four-time Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb said Friday night (Aug. 21, 2026) he is done after eight NFL seasons. Instagram: he had known for a while, wanted to finish healthy after a winning year, “health is the real wealth.” NFL.com: 7,349 rushing yards, 1,109 receiving yards, 59 total TDs in 100 games. ESPN: 54 rushing TDs. Peak 1,525 in 2022.

August 22, 2026 at 2:05 PM PDT

Three-panel comic. Beagles Diesel and Matilda plan a team project on a red velvet cake, eat it, then clap as golden retriever Milo wins the Hambone Award; stage tag says Nominees.

Original comic, Humor desk. News: UPI / Nationwide, Aug. 20, 2026.

Humor · SATIRE

Team Project

Nationwide’s 18th Hambone Award went to Milo Bear, a golden retriever lost 72 days near Lake Tahoe who came home thin but okay. Official runners-up were Henry, a Colorado Lab who punctured a paw on a rake, and Hobbes, a cat pinned by a garage door. Twin beagles Diesel and Matilda were other nominees; they ate a two-tier red velvet cake. All the pets recovered.

August 22, 2026 at 2:00 PM PDT

Neighborhood Watch comic strip: Saturday shift, sleeping baby, alert dog

Drews Comic Newsroom

Humor · SATIRE

Neighborhood Watch

Saturday edition: the baby slept through it. The dog did not.

August 22, 2026 at 8:25 AM PDT