Several years ago, Bill commented upon the unusual frequency of “Grim Reaper” comics, and he even held an informal submission contest to prove his point.
For this reason, I suggested scheduling the following comic collection for today, the second anniversary of Bill’s extremely untimely passing, in memory of a dear friend whom we all miss terribly, and who (I believe) would have understood this rather unorthodox memorial presentation in the humorous and good-natured fashion in which it is sincerely intended.
It’s simply a real shame that Bill could not have had the chance to read and comment upon these comics with us all.
Michael Kilby
This Strange Brew was contributed by Andréa, originally as an Oy:
Leigh Rubin keeps on returning to the Grim Reaper theme:
Comics I Don't Understand 
Bliss is such a good artist. He and Steve Martin have a second book out; I enjoyed their first one. However, I think this new one is Martin’s bio, and I don’t like him well enough to be bothered.
And then there is this animation . . . DEATH Fails . . .
@ Andréa – Thanks for your continuing contributions to this memorial post. In honor of the fact that Wednesday the 16th actually falls on a Wednesday this month, here’s one from the archives:
Ohhhh, that’s sad . . .
On YT, there are several interesting/amusing ‘DEATH’ animated videos; I’ve not posted them all, as they’re easy to find.
@ Andréa – Thanks for that, I would rather not overload the post with YouTube stuff, as it really slows down the loading time on older browsers.
That’s why I only sent the one in what appears to be a series of videos by Dji, which lead to others, of course.
Today’s “Rhymes with Orange” made me smile:
Wednesday the 16th falls on a Friday this month:
Oh, I like that one a lot . . .
Merry Christmas!
Bill placed an unintentional memorial to himself in the text he wrote to frame the “dynamo” cartoon drawn by H.T. Webster in 1923.
Wednesday the 16th falls on a Monday this month:
Well I don’t get “Wednesday the 16th falls on a Monday”. Except that today is Monday the 16th. Tax Day is 15 April, not January.
September 16th, 2020 was a Wednesday, the phrase is a reference to Churchill La Femme‘s monthly pronouncements about Friday the 13th. I decided tp use this one for January because that was the month in which it originally ran, I have a better Grim Tax Reaper comic for April 15th.
I saw the two below and thought for a second there was another Peanuts tribute day
Ditto . . . both the seeing and the thinking.
(I know that Jesus “walked on water”, but Death?? Never heard of that myth.)
@ Andréa – There is a slightly irreverent “kiddy” joke in German:
Q: Why did Jesus walk on the water?
A: Because he never got a “seahorse” patch.
P.S. In Germany, the patch is univerally awarded as proof that a kid has passed the final test for the “basic swimming” course.
P.P.S. @ Andréa – Looking at that comic again, and especially with regard to its January date, I am now sure that the surface is ice, rather than water, so that he is using the blade of the scythe as a gigantic skate.
Well, duh on me. But technically, he is still “walking on water”, just in a different form.
@ Andréa – I had considered adding today’s “Rubes” to my list for a future Wednesday the 16th, but I figured that “somebody” would post it here first. 😉
Just call me ‘somebody’ . . .
I’m happy to say MY plants don’t see me like this, but I know several people for whom this is true . . .
For example . . .
http://www.alldogssite.com/howlidaycards221d.html
http://www.alldogssite.com/howlidaycards221e.html
http://www.alldogssite.com/howlidaycards221f.html
Addendeum to ‘How my plants see me- . . .
Edit: Here’s the one Andrea meant to link/embed:
Happy Valentine’s Day!
That Grim Valentine was the only one I had scheduled for February, but this Rubes just happened to show up on the 16th:
“Cleats” is another of the strips in out-of-sync reruns, so a Sunday ran today. A costume Death today, but amusing to me anyway.
It’s twofer Sunday . . .
@ Brian – I never knew that Hinds had done another strip. Even before I saw the name, I instantly recognized (right from the first panel) that this strip was drawn by the same artist as Tank McNamara.
“Cleats” has been in reruns now for some time. There’s a guy that comments there regularly that’s hoping hard for an animated version, which seems exceedingly unlikely to me. He’s constantly casting the voices for it. And speculating about which characters pair up as adults.
@ Brian – An animated version of a dicontinued strip with (very) limited readership; featuring a large collection of difficult to cast pre-teens? There’s nothing wrong with chasing (pipe) dreams, but I wouldn’t bet even a nickel on that one, no matter how long the odds were.
I wouldn’t worry about casting the pre-teen roles with actual pre-teens if we’re talking animated series or movie. There are talented adult voice actors who can handle those roles well. Ask Nancy Cartwright. (Not the famous philosopher of science.)
@ Mitch – Even if you use 20-somethings (or 60-somethings) to voice the roles, it’s still a tough job to come up with distinctive, recognizable voices for a large group of kids in that age range. However, I doubt that anyone will ever lose any sleep worrying about it.
Most of his suggestions are the typical voice actors that do kids for animated shows. As there is a limited cast, I haven’t tracked to see if he suggests the same ones repeatedly for a character or different ones.
Since 2000, we’ve had five Hyundais . . . it’s the only car make I’ll buy . . .
Since 1999, I’ve had one Bronco.
Today’s Non Sequitur:
Now – THAT is funny!
Someone pointed out to me that Hyundais are very “popular” with car thieves and carjackers . . . I started to wonder if not only was the pun in 1 & Done [above] intended, but also a commentary on the incidents of Hyundai theft. As Beau says, ‘Just a thought.’
It’s certain Hyundais that don’t have the ignition lock. One problem is that thieves will break into ones that aren’t vulnerable only to find out that they steal them.
This “nesting dolls” comic is in honor of Bill’s “Deathmatch” contest:
P.S. The dolls were one of the members of “Team Pinocchio”, which the Grim Reapers eventually defeated (21 to 7, the contest was called because of Covid).
P.P.S. Another reason to post this here is that the “Ewww” category has been put out to pasture, because everyone was a little tired of smelling the cow pats.
Moderator note, I had a follow-up correction to my comment above that looks to have not made it.
Sorry, Brian, nothing from you held in either list
Huh. I was sure I had posted something like “that they can’t steal them.”