No idea. The Yellow Brick Road leading to A Stairway To Heaven (incomplete)? But if it is, no idea why it is supposed to be funny.
Was that staircase made with Cow Tools?
@ carlfink – I don’t think so. If it were, I would have expected a little more stile.
The guy in frame is looking at something… something concerning. Some previous traveller has presumably done a better job of staying on the path. (Think Mary Poppins).
It’s a stretch, but … could this be using the hikers’ traditional practice of adding one stone to a cairn when passing by? And here it peculiarly has gotten shaped as a staircase?
I think this is a Wizard of Oz joke, where the yellow brick road leads to a set of steps that used to be attached to a house.
And the house is gone now, because a tornado took it, and that’s what the hiker is looking at.
I’m with Catelli on this one. Clearly an unclear Wizard of Oz joke.
The road looks more orange than yellow to me. The bricks look like steps. The house taken away by the tornado was in Kansas, not Oz, so it was never on The Yellow Brick Road. Nothing about the area depicted is reminiscent of any of memorable scenes from the Wizard of Oz.
If this is a Wizard of Oz joke, it is a really bad one.
No wait… it’s clearly a financial allegory. The fact that the road isn’t quite golden is indicative of the departure from the gold standard. This departure leads to the the inevitable rapid inflation (the stairway), creating an economic collapse (the fact the stairway goes nowhere). Our intrepid traveler has abandoned the path, leading to an unknown future. which is why he is warily looking toward the sky to see what is about to be thrown his way…
I nominate ja to take over this strip…
@ larK – What has “ja” done to you recently that would lead you to mete out such punishment?
I think the fellow is merely conditioned by “The Wizard of Oz” to look up.
This comic totally makes sense if you play Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” while you read it.
Backwards, cmumdale.
It’s a little ambiguous, but the stairs appear to casting an ominous shadow, which would clearly confirms Ja’s interpretation.
I like ja’s interpretation, especially considering that the Wizard of Oz itself has been interpreted as an allegory for the gold standard.
Still, I think it is just a general joke about a path going to the sky, and the hiker who decided to go off the path looking up (presumably at previous hikers who stayed on the path).
“Still, I think it is just a general joke about a path going to the sky, and the hiker who decided to go off the path looking up (presumably at previous hikers who stayed on the path).”
That’s pretty much it. But… can’t someone sit down with John Deering and tell him he *just* isn’t funny.
I hope for the hiker that he looked right, left and front before looking up because he might fall into a river or get hit by a train or a truck.
Maybe this would be clearer if we could see the guy’s shoes. Red in the movie but silver in the book (which is WAY stranger than the movie.) That would confirm Ja’s insightful interpretation.
Never heard anyone describe the Wizard of Oz (movie or book) as “strange”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
No idea. The Yellow Brick Road leading to A Stairway To Heaven (incomplete)? But if it is, no idea why it is supposed to be funny.
Was that staircase made with Cow Tools?
@ carlfink – I don’t think so. If it were, I would have expected a little more stile.
The guy in frame is looking at something… something concerning. Some previous traveller has presumably done a better job of staying on the path. (Think Mary Poppins).
It’s a stretch, but … could this be using the hikers’ traditional practice of adding one stone to a cairn when passing by? And here it peculiarly has gotten shaped as a staircase?
I think this is a Wizard of Oz joke, where the yellow brick road leads to a set of steps that used to be attached to a house.
And the house is gone now, because a tornado took it, and that’s what the hiker is looking at.
I’m with Catelli on this one. Clearly an unclear Wizard of Oz joke.
The road looks more orange than yellow to me. The bricks look like steps. The house taken away by the tornado was in Kansas, not Oz, so it was never on The Yellow Brick Road. Nothing about the area depicted is reminiscent of any of memorable scenes from the Wizard of Oz.
If this is a Wizard of Oz joke, it is a really bad one.
No wait… it’s clearly a financial allegory. The fact that the road isn’t quite golden is indicative of the departure from the gold standard. This departure leads to the the inevitable rapid inflation (the stairway), creating an economic collapse (the fact the stairway goes nowhere). Our intrepid traveler has abandoned the path, leading to an unknown future. which is why he is warily looking toward the sky to see what is about to be thrown his way…
I nominate ja to take over this strip…
@ larK – What has “ja” done to you recently that would lead you to mete out such punishment?
I think the fellow is merely conditioned by “The Wizard of Oz” to look up.
This comic totally makes sense if you play Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” while you read it.
Backwards, cmumdale.
It’s a little ambiguous, but the stairs appear to casting an ominous shadow, which would clearly confirms Ja’s interpretation.
I like ja’s interpretation, especially considering that the Wizard of Oz itself has been interpreted as an allegory for the gold standard.
Still, I think it is just a general joke about a path going to the sky, and the hiker who decided to go off the path looking up (presumably at previous hikers who stayed on the path).
“Still, I think it is just a general joke about a path going to the sky, and the hiker who decided to go off the path looking up (presumably at previous hikers who stayed on the path).”
That’s pretty much it. But… can’t someone sit down with John Deering and tell him he *just* isn’t funny.
I hope for the hiker that he looked right, left and front before looking up because he might fall into a river or get hit by a train or a truck.
Maybe this would be clearer if we could see the guy’s shoes. Red in the movie but silver in the book (which is WAY stranger than the movie.) That would confirm Ja’s insightful interpretation.
Never heard anyone describe the Wizard of Oz (movie or book) as “strange”.