Thanks to Powers, who wrote:
Extra synchronic because they appear kitty-corner from each other in my Sunday paper.
And then there was Rubes from the very next day (Monday 20 June), which seemed to combine the two and made me wonder what was going on.
And just for a kicker, Monday’s Ziggy continued the theme:
Editorial comment on “kitty-corner”: this Anglicism, also spelled “catercorner” and various other variations, apparently comes from the dots on a four in dice or cards being, well, kitty-corner from each other, plus the French word “quatre” for four, at one point also spelled “catre”. Given that the Brits have “centre” and the like, the mystery to me is why it’s not “catre-corner”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Wow, is it like the anniversary of the Flintstones or something?
I thought there might have been some sort of relevant (60th) anniversary that had triggered the multiple references, but June 1962 falls right in the middle of the original series’ run.
P.S. Leigh Rubin has produced several “dual” panels in recent months, revisiting a topic with an alternative take, sometimes just a week (or in this case just a day) later.
P.P.S. (Re: “numérologie“) – I remember a panel (possibly by Kliban?) that showed a little French boy pointing to bubbles rising in the middle of a pond and exclaiming, “4! 5!“
I remember a panel (possibly by Kliban?) that showed a little French boy pointing to bubbles rising in the middle of a pond and exclaiming, “4! 5!“
a Kliban cat?
Oh, okay — the “4! 5!“ could sound to Anglophone ears like “Cat sank!”
… But what I came here to ask was, Are you saying that the common element is just “Some allusion to The Flintstones”? And I don’t see it in the first one, the B.C.?
Deety, you may be missing that the 4th comic, the Ziggy, was sort of tossed in by submitter Powers as “just for a kicker” — thus it is, as you suggest, only in general on the Flintstones theme. But the first three have a narrower point of coincidence — the unique mechanics of the Flintstones vehicles, propelled with a roller (longitudinally extended cylinder) instead of modern wheels (more nearly flat cylinders or toroids). And that also addresses the other part of your question — that’s what puts the first comic in line with the commonality, even without showing or mentioning Flintstones characters.
And by the way, those of you responding to the Editorial Comment should note that the CIDU editorial team has added two new co-editors, whose monikers you will be seeing on upcoming posts (and also anonymously working on the list-like OY and LOL posts); and in e-correspondence with you when you send in comics to the submission address. Please make PHSIIICIDU and ZBICYCLIST welcome — both of whom you probably already know from commenting!
Is the CIDU part just “why so much Flintstones?” The comics themselves seem pretty straightforward.
Folly, I thought of the first one (B.C.) as the CIDU. On its own, for what the “lawsuit” remark is getting at. And in context, what you suggest, how it fits with the Flintstones theme. (Kind of the same answer goes for both..)
Ah, the lawsuit would be copyright/trademark infringement of the flintstones-mobile. (more in-universe trademark infringement I would think on the part of the BC character)
As to the kitty-corner comments, my Mother always said “catty-cornered” with the “ed” on the end. Haven’t heard it, or any form of it, for many years. Thanks for the memory!
Catercorner come up on a trivia quiz for me, meaning the long diagonal.
I’ve always wondered how the Flinstonemobile’s steering was supposed to work.
The Flintstones have been appropriated for a Boston area window manufacturer commercial that plays fairly often, so I find it a little amusing Fred’s randomly shown up in comics recently as well.
I mentioned in the past that the kitty/catty/cater-corner saying is a one found on the NY Times dialect quiz.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html