Classist indeed. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an explicitly neo-Nazi symbol in a kids’ cartoon before.
I seem to remember this strip on GoComics back when I could use a 2 letter search phrase and have 30 or so comics come up on one page instead of clicking all over. Werner died in 2018 & turned out very few comics in his last year. They were all pretty similar, but better than Slylock Fox. He was Danish, the strip was set in England, the spelling & a lot of the characters seemed to be American.
Yeah, this is bad. Very bad.
CaroZ, what symbol?
Oh! The SS lightning bolts on the pop-em-beads guy’s cap? Hmm, yes — but is it just characterizing him? Or is disturbing anyway, whatever the context?
He had the option of staying with a neo-Nazi in a dump of a place or with a buxom red head who clearly has some desire to see him and would seem to live a life of at least some luxury? Hmmm… and his IQ is 150? Of course, there is the fact the neo-Nazi guy didn’t give him up, so maybe Theo is smart enough to realize who will cave under pressure. Or maybe his preferences are such that the neo-Nazi is favorable in all aspects.
Wow, I hadn’t realized that he was wearing a neo-Nazi symbol.
“I wonder why?” in the 4th panel is sort of a weird response.
The SS in the middle of ULYSSES on the book cover is also (maybe) stylized as lightning bolts. Anyhow, the two letters are offset diagonally a bit.
Stretching thin for clues?
“I wonder why?” in the 4th panel is sort of a weird response
Maybe ironic or sarcastic. He thinks it is no wonder, the place is such a dump who could want to be a guest or hide out in a place like that?
I thought the solution was “bikers don’t read.” If it’s “Neo-Nazis don’t read,” that’s a little better, I guess. 😉
I don’t get the last panel. It almost sounds like he’s accusing his assistant. But I’m guessing it’s just a way to make a grand announcement.
But there’s a lot here that is confusing. The Nazi guy (if indeed he is one) let the detective enter his residence knowing the professor was hiding there? And if you’re going to insult people that you think aren’t high class enough to read Ulysses, why assume that the professor with a 150 IQ would be romantically involved with an “unclassy” buxom redhead?
And what’s with the Wow in the last panel?
WWO is the cartoonist’s name, Werner Wejp-Olsen.
He often ends the strip by quizzing his assistant about the solution.
I believe the ‘WOW’ may be the cartoonist’s initials
Not to mention that he’s saying “No Funckel or Finckel here….” It would be a stretch to believe people with those names would want to hang around the Nazi, so maybe the choice was pretty brilliant until the Professor left his highbrow literature in view. (Actually, is the Nazi hiding the Professor, or is it the Prof himself in disguise? And which is more disturbing?)
I was wondering if it was supposed to be a disguise for the Prof, so the third case would have been a bit more dramatic transformation.
“I wonder why?” in the 4th panel is sort of a weird response –
The seeker is looking at the Nazi helmet guy, and, assuming Funckel is a Jewish name, is sarcastically “wondering” why the Professor would not be there.
At first I thought these three characters were all in the same house, but then I thought that they were three different places and the middle guy – the musician – I reckoned was the Professor in disguise.
But then that goes against the suggestion, in the upside-down clue, that Joyce is a clue to where he is hiding – with the Nazi guy. So it is a CIDU for me.
Also, the copy of Joyce is not necessarily a clue to who might currently be hiding there in the “classist” solution. Helmet Guy could own it, or it could have been left by some previous tenant or friend or sent in an unwanted book club offering.
All this time, and now we realize Joyce’s Ulysses is actually just one long dog-whistle…
This cartoon really irritates the hell out of me. Aside from all of the other reasons put forth here, I have to wonder why the genius criminal mastermind, no matter how much he (understandably, to my mind) loves ULYSSES, took a copy with him everywhere while on the run. Surely he’s already read it two or three times and have good swatches of it effectively memorized?
I’m not sure when this cartoon first ran, but presumably he should be hauling around a weighty tome of impenetrable postmodern litcrit theory that had just come out as The New Big-Think Thing a few weeks before. (Or for that matter, if he’s a genius, why assume his interests lie only in literature — couldn’t he be using hefty postgrad level treatises on physics or chemistry or medicine or philosophy etc. as light bedtime reading just as well?)
But no, poor old lovely James Joyce has to take it in on the chin again as a symbol of Suspiciously Difficult-Soundin’ Book-:Larnin’ stuff. I suppose I should be grateful the cartoonist didn’t just go with Shakespeare.
How do you know the biker is a Natzi sympathizer? I think you’re reading too deeply.
I don’t see how the 1st guy could ride a motorcycle with flippers instead of arms. I assumed he was Funckel, not just a host, but with this kind of drawing, who could tell?
Shrug: Well, I am (of course) a genuis (sp?), but I’ve never gotten around to reading Ulysses. I guess if I was ever going to be in hiding for a while, I might take the opportunity to read it.
I’m not going to lose any sleep if bikers who wear Nazi symbols “to get a rise outta the “straights.” and to “to freak out the “squares”” (for the LULZ in today’s parlance) get overly generalized and lumped in with Nazi sympathizers.
There’s a legitimate reason for the straights to rise and the squares to freak out at displays of Nazi symbolism and if a biker doesn’t see that or thinks the LULZ justify rising and freaking out then there is a lot wrong with their value system.
I’d get the decorative hardcover edition of Robert G. Lahita’s “Systemic Lupus Erythematosus” and instead of being blank evey page would say “It’s NEVER lupus.”
I posted the above link as context for the biker’s helmet in the comic. Everyone here seemed to jump to the conclusion that he was a neo-Nazi. I’m just pointing out he’s just pop-culture shorthand for “biker”, along with WWI-style helmets and the iron cross.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Classist indeed. And I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an explicitly neo-Nazi symbol in a kids’ cartoon before.
I seem to remember this strip on GoComics back when I could use a 2 letter search phrase and have 30 or so comics come up on one page instead of clicking all over. Werner died in 2018 & turned out very few comics in his last year. They were all pretty similar, but better than Slylock Fox. He was Danish, the strip was set in England, the spelling & a lot of the characters seemed to be American.
Yeah, this is bad. Very bad.
CaroZ, what symbol?
Oh! The SS lightning bolts on the pop-em-beads guy’s cap? Hmm, yes — but is it just characterizing him? Or is disturbing anyway, whatever the context?
He had the option of staying with a neo-Nazi in a dump of a place or with a buxom red head who clearly has some desire to see him and would seem to live a life of at least some luxury? Hmmm… and his IQ is 150? Of course, there is the fact the neo-Nazi guy didn’t give him up, so maybe Theo is smart enough to realize who will cave under pressure. Or maybe his preferences are such that the neo-Nazi is favorable in all aspects.
Wow, I hadn’t realized that he was wearing a neo-Nazi symbol.
“I wonder why?” in the 4th panel is sort of a weird response.
The SS in the middle of ULYSSES on the book cover is also (maybe) stylized as lightning bolts. Anyhow, the two letters are offset diagonally a bit.
Stretching thin for clues?
“I wonder why?” in the 4th panel is sort of a weird response
Maybe ironic or sarcastic. He thinks it is no wonder, the place is such a dump who could want to be a guest or hide out in a place like that?
I thought the solution was “bikers don’t read.” If it’s “Neo-Nazis don’t read,” that’s a little better, I guess. 😉
I don’t get the last panel. It almost sounds like he’s accusing his assistant. But I’m guessing it’s just a way to make a grand announcement.
But there’s a lot here that is confusing. The Nazi guy (if indeed he is one) let the detective enter his residence knowing the professor was hiding there? And if you’re going to insult people that you think aren’t high class enough to read Ulysses, why assume that the professor with a 150 IQ would be romantically involved with an “unclassy” buxom redhead?
And what’s with the Wow in the last panel?
WWO is the cartoonist’s name, Werner Wejp-Olsen.
He often ends the strip by quizzing his assistant about the solution.
I believe the ‘WOW’ may be the cartoonist’s initials
Not to mention that he’s saying “No Funckel or Finckel here….” It would be a stretch to believe people with those names would want to hang around the Nazi, so maybe the choice was pretty brilliant until the Professor left his highbrow literature in view. (Actually, is the Nazi hiding the Professor, or is it the Prof himself in disguise? And which is more disturbing?)
I was wondering if it was supposed to be a disguise for the Prof, so the third case would have been a bit more dramatic transformation.
“I wonder why?” in the 4th panel is sort of a weird response –
The seeker is looking at the Nazi helmet guy, and, assuming Funckel is a Jewish name, is sarcastically “wondering” why the Professor would not be there.
At first I thought these three characters were all in the same house, but then I thought that they were three different places and the middle guy – the musician – I reckoned was the Professor in disguise.
But then that goes against the suggestion, in the upside-down clue, that Joyce is a clue to where he is hiding – with the Nazi guy. So it is a CIDU for me.
Also, the copy of Joyce is not necessarily a clue to who might currently be hiding there in the “classist” solution. Helmet Guy could own it, or it could have been left by some previous tenant or friend or sent in an unwanted book club offering.
All this time, and now we realize Joyce’s Ulysses is actually just one long dog-whistle…
This cartoon really irritates the hell out of me. Aside from all of the other reasons put forth here, I have to wonder why the genius criminal mastermind, no matter how much he (understandably, to my mind) loves ULYSSES, took a copy with him everywhere while on the run. Surely he’s already read it two or three times and have good swatches of it effectively memorized?
I’m not sure when this cartoon first ran, but presumably he should be hauling around a weighty tome of impenetrable postmodern litcrit theory that had just come out as The New Big-Think Thing a few weeks before. (Or for that matter, if he’s a genius, why assume his interests lie only in literature — couldn’t he be using hefty postgrad level treatises on physics or chemistry or medicine or philosophy etc. as light bedtime reading just as well?)
But no, poor old lovely James Joyce has to take it in on the chin again as a symbol of Suspiciously Difficult-Soundin’ Book-:Larnin’ stuff. I suppose I should be grateful the cartoonist didn’t just go with Shakespeare.
How do you know the biker is a Natzi sympathizer? I think you’re reading too deeply.
https://www.quora.com/Why-does-some-motorcycle-riders-wear-Nazi-style-helmets-I-know-some-of-it-is-a-lifestyle-thing-but-Nazi-really
I don’t see how the 1st guy could ride a motorcycle with flippers instead of arms. I assumed he was Funckel, not just a host, but with this kind of drawing, who could tell?
Shrug: Well, I am (of course) a genuis (sp?), but I’ve never gotten around to reading Ulysses. I guess if I was ever going to be in hiding for a while, I might take the opportunity to read it.
“www.quora.com/Why-does-some-motorcycle-riders-wear-Nazi-style-helmets-I-know-some-of-it-is-a-lifestyle-thing-but-Nazi-really”
I’m not going to lose any sleep if bikers who wear Nazi symbols “to get a rise outta the “straights.” and to “to freak out the “squares”” (for the LULZ in today’s parlance) get overly generalized and lumped in with Nazi sympathizers.
There’s a legitimate reason for the straights to rise and the squares to freak out at displays of Nazi symbolism and if a biker doesn’t see that or thinks the LULZ justify rising and freaking out then there is a lot wrong with their value system.
I’d get the decorative hardcover edition of Robert G. Lahita’s “Systemic Lupus Erythematosus” and instead of being blank evey page would say “It’s NEVER lupus.”
I posted the above link as context for the biker’s helmet in the comic. Everyone here seemed to jump to the conclusion that he was a neo-Nazi. I’m just pointing out he’s just pop-culture shorthand for “biker”, along with WWI-style helmets and the iron cross.
Was it ever Lupus?
I guess I could have looked before I asked:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Don%27t_Want_to_Know