by multipleciduers

Random Comments, August 2023 Edition

Same as the previous series of Random Comments threads (which have each been closed to further commenting because they’ve gotten too long), this will be accessible from a link in the left sidebar (under “triple-line” icon 1st tab).

Please remember that this is intended for public comics-related (or comics semi-related) comments only: if you want to send the editors a CIDU, or a comic for some specific folder (LOL, Oy, etc), or you want to inform us of a typo, please e-mail us at 4imageonline-co-textimage, or use the Contact Form or the Suggest-A-CIDU Form.

“Comics-semi-related” may in practice include your observations on life and language… But not politics, puh-leese!

However, starting in October 2020, we have been using a second, parallel open comments thread, for a specific area of topics: ideas for how to maintain or develop this site.   Look for the link in the left sidebar (under “triple-line” icon 1st tab).  The head post for the current Site Comments thread is HERE. 

Also: A list of the site’s most recent comments can be found in the left sidebar (under “folder” icon 2nd tab). A database of all the comments, compiled by larK, is here.

And the site’s FAQ is here.

117 Comments

  2. My self-published vanity eBook novel has a passing and inaccurate reference to a Krazy Kat Sunday page. That may be enough to justify a … (sounds of a scuffle and and door slamming)

  3. Over the last three years, my wife and I have been involve with AFS student exchange, primarily as a host family. We have hosted a girl from Liberia, and a boy from Kazakhstan; my wife herself was an exchange student to Australia back in the day, an experience that changed her life forever. We just welcomed our next exchange student, a boy from Finland. He will live with us as part of our family for the next year, attending our local High School.
    It has been a great experience for us, never having had children, to skip right to the interesting years of hosting a teenager! The students who tend to participate in the exchanges are among the best and the brightest, having had to pass a rigorous selection process; they are mini-ambassadors of their culture, and we have learned as much from them as they have (hopefully) learned from us.
    Any kind of family can be a host family, whether you have children or not, or even if you are just a single person.
    I apologize for this off-topic appeal, but as the new school year starts there are still some students hoping for placement with a family, so I thought I’d mention this passion of ours here.
    If you are interested in finding out more about hosting a student, please visit
    http://www.afsusa.org/host-family

    We now return you to your regularly scheduled puzzling comics.

  4. I think this may be the first time I’ve seen leitmotif used in a comic strip; let alone defined.

  5. @Danny Boy: As Anna Russell said, a leitmotif is nothing more than a signature tune. Some composers for animated cartoons made heavy use of leitmotifs, with the same types of thematic transformation that Wagner used. Popeye’s theme song “I’m Popeye the Sailor Man”, heard in 3/4 time in this first cartoon, generally appeared as a sprightly tune in 4/4. Speeded up and re-done in 6/8 time it heralded the appearance of the spinach.

    Cartoon and comic characters also have catch-phrases. “I yam what I yam and that’s all what I yam” and “That’s all I can stand; I can’t stand no more!” were Popeye’s. “Yabba-Dabba-Doo!” “There’s no need to fear! Underdog is here!” “I hate meeces to pieces!” “One of these days, Alice!”

    Why don’t people in real life have catch-phrases? When you burst into a room you could say “Here ! come to save the day!” Or when something annoying happens, “Don’t that just seal-coat your driveway!”

  10. P.S. In addition to the publishing arrangements, the new translations are particularly significant, because the original British English translations that I have seen (from the 70s & 80s) were so poor as to be absolutely unreadable.

  11. By accident I have discovered that Gary Larson has lost his sense of humor and any regard for the established principles behind “fair use”. As of 27-July-2023, WordPress has summarily deleted all “Far Side” content appearing in all CIDU posts from Sat-17-Dec-2022 to Sat-1-July-2023 (inclusive). Presumably FarWorks is continuing to survey the CIDU website and will issue additional DMCA requests in the future. For this reason, I suggest that “Larson” and “Far Side” should be added to the list of CIDU moderation triggers, and we should refrain from posting and discussing Larson’s work in any form.

  12. Clearly what we should have done was claimed the copyright ©2023 when we linked the material here, like United Features Syndicate did to the 1950s Nancy strips it republishes, or even more egregiously the pre-1923 Mutt & Jeffs or Barney Smith and Googles, that regularly have bogus later copyright dates claimed on them….

  14. @ mitch (13) – That’s just a transmission or copy/paste error (either by the syndicate or at GoComics). The strip originally appeared on Sat-15-Nov-2000, the copy there is complete:

    P.S. Curiously, the strip for 14-Nov-2000 appears just fine on the rerun page for September 14th, 2023, but it is completely missing on the original date.

  17. I have noticed that Teresa Burritt of Frog Applause has been posting a lot in GoComics Comments in other strips of late. In turn, Frog Applause gets many more comments from other creators than is typical. Apparently there is also a GC “GoCreator group” that she runs. It’s not clear what that is exactly, whether it’s for any creator appearing on GC, or for ones whose material is only there. She posted it about in on Rip Haywire, inviting him to join.

    I couldn’t think of a better thread for this comment.

  19. Going back, she has had what seemed a friendly-banter relation with other cartoonists, such as J C Duffy and Pab Sugenis(sp?) who did thatg Queen Victoria. But as Brian points out, this GoCreators thing is more recent, and she seems to be the originator or a strong proponent. There is quite a bit about this at the Frog Blog, and one can follow a tag thread: https://lamefrogapplause.blogspot.com/search/label/GoCreator

    In particular, the post Mystery Solved (initially about a Back in the Day by Eric Scott) mentions GoCreators and lists founding members and newest members. Elsewhere in the thread she spots where members have displayed their pins.

    Incidentally, she recently left a comment on a 2020 post of mine on a practice blog where I was trying out the image comparator tool (which you may have seen used here at CIDU), with a color and a b/w version of a Bliss/Martin cartoon. https://wpdemos.blog/2020/11/17/compare-images/comment-page-1/#comment-412 . She doesn’t seem to have tried the slider or noticed how the comparator works, and is commenting as though the post was a static half-and-half image.

  20. @ mitch – She may not have been able to see the comparator function. Safari on the iPad that I am using right now does not show it either, I just see two separate images, there is no slider shown at all.

  22. I have noticed that since Dan Thompson joined, some of the other GoCreators group have been commenting on the strips. Only a couple of days, so it’s difficult to project a long-term trend.

  23. This bears repeating in a more central location: I would like to encourage CIDU readers to try out the (formerly “Style”) Invitational. Now that it has been freed from the confines of “family newspaper censorship”, its content has become more “adult”, meaning both “political”, as well as “NSFW” (you have been warned). Nevertheless, it’s still well worth reading.

  25. Now that we have made it all the way through to October, can somebody explain what “Dub Step Ember” was supposed to refer to? I got “step ember” = “September” right away, but even after thirty days to think about it, I have no idea what the “dub” is supposed to mean.

  29. But personally, I think they are perfect for many uses; and if you need a bigger one, just tear it off to your preference.

  31. @ mitch (29) – The half size paper towels are a wonderful invention, not just because they make it easy to take a “small” piece, but also because they allow other incremental sizes (such as 1.5, to cover a dinner plate). Nevertheless, there are times when I wish that it was still possible to get a roll with full size sheets. I think all of the German brands have switched to half size, but I will have to check on that.

  32. Thanks to Boise Ed for a message that Real Life Adventures is ending. Ed says “Another one bites the dust. I wish Gary Wise and Lance Aldrich and happy retirement, but it’s sad to see another of the good comics go away. I like the way they did it, though.” There is also a news item at The Daily Cartoonist.

  33. Help needed finding a cartoon!

    Hey, can anyone locate for me a cartoon, probably by Harry Bliss but possibly not, with a couple like in the one below, but the woman is looking at her phone or laptop and reads aloud a message, which is either Happy Birthday or Seasons Greetings, from some company, maybe their insurance agent? Thanks a bunch!

  34. @ mitch (33) – Searching the entire Internet was (as expected) pointless,† and hunting in the GoComics archive did not produce anything like what you described. I don’t begrudge the effort involved (because I made a number of ancillary discoveries that may be useful for future posts), but could you narrow down the search field at least a little bit? Is this a comic that you remember seeing recently, or something older? Online, or in print? Or are there any other details that might reduce the sisyphusistic character of the assignment?

    P.S. (†) – Using the phrase “couple in bed” turned out to be borderline dangerous.

  35. Thanks for working that research!

    It was something I saw recently, but not necessarily something published recently. It may have been in some of my old saved files or old saved online depositories I have been reviewing.

    And my point was to have been pretty trivial. It came to mind because my somewhat new insurance agent left a “happy birthday” voicemail, and I was thinking of posting (here or likely Facebook, whatever) those two together with a remark like “So it actually happens!”

  36. Awwright! Here it is:

    It is Harry Bliss, and it is a couple in bed (almost the same couple?), so my memory wasn’t too far off; though the view is from a different angle.

  37. @ mitch (36) – …and it was published just before Thanksgiving (although in 2019). 🙂

    P.S. Evidence would suggest that Bliss captions have not been entered into the GoComics index, otherwise both my search @34 and my search for material for the Birthday Memorial in July would have discovered it. (That comic wouldn’t have made my short list, but I would have remembered seeing it.)

  38. I once got a robocall from my doctor’s office on my birthday, wishing me a “happy birthday” — really? it would have been much happier if I’d a been able to sleep in and not answer the phone for this crap! I called the office to complain, and they tried to convince me that I was somehow a weirdo for not appreciating the total (non) effort of a robot wishing me a “sincere” happy birthday. So I told them to go to hell, never contact me again, I would find another doctor.
    (a good doctor in the US is soo hard to find! Either there are insurance problems, or the doctor is more interested in reducing liability than actually treating you in your best interest, or they’ve outsourced reception to one of these idiot companies that make you fill in a hundred forms each and every visit that no one ever looks at again, and robo call you to wish you a %$^&ing happy birthday…)

  39. @ larK – It’s not any easier to find good general practitioners in Germany either, it’s merely easier to pay for their services. The really good doctors generally already have so many regular patients that they are reticent (if not completely unwilling) to take on new ones.

    P.S. We are currently on our third doc, all within the little suburban town in which we live. The first doc was OK, perhaps a little too chatty, but his primary problem was that he had an insufferable harridan for a receptionist, whose asocial behavior was simply unacceptable. The second doc was OK, too, but he ran a partnership operation with another doc in the same health care center: the doc you got to see depended on the day of the week (and/or time of day) that you went in, which was rather annoying. I’m not entirely satisifed with our third doc, either, but I’m not changing again unless I know that the fourth would be better.

    P.P.S. Another benefit of living here is that robocalls are effectively illegal in this country. The only ones I have ever received were placed from the UK or Switzerland.

  40. I get Happy Birthday emails for my cats, from the veterinarian office. Which is a little odd, as for the most part their birth dates are estimated / calculated. “This rescue kitten appears to be two months old.” Occasionally there is a litter birthed at home (or at a breeder’s I suppose) and then the adopters can be given an actual date. My dear Callie (who lived to age 17) had a known birthday for that sort of reason.

  41. Under other circumstances I would have turned today’s Macanudo strip into a full-fledged post:

    It’s clearly not fair to expect a foreign cartoonist to be familiar with the entire archive of every American artist, but I think many readers will instantly recognize this strip as a near repeat of a well-known strip which cannot be shown here. 🙂

  46. Although I have read and admired a few other Larkin poems, I must admit to being part of that vast majority who really just know him for, and can even recite bits of, “This Be The Verse”, which is the one they mention where he complains about his folks.

  47. Heck, I couldn’t locate one of the threads where we compared examples of this trope of a museum-goer mistaking a building fixture for a displayed art-object, or a directional sign for a display note, etc. So I’ll just drop this example here. From Life on Earth by Ham.

  48. I know that this Rhymes with Orange strip was embedded somewhere in a CIDU comment, but I can’t find it now, and my real question is different: WHY did Arcamax put the PMP headline on this strip?

  50. Thanks, I did look thru that one and considered it, but in the end thought it didn’t have the comments I was thinking of — that specifically discussed the idea of mistaking art for decor or vice versa. But it might be that one, the comments thread goes quite long there and I may have been inattentive in scanning it.

  51. @ mitch (50) – It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, either, but that was the closest thread I could find. I think there was once a different “window is a painting” comic, but I couldn’t think of a way to hunt for that. The clue I went looking for was the New Yorker “pure trash” comic by J.B. Handelsman, and even that proved difficult to discover: the CIDU search wasn’t able to find his name, and I couldn’t guess the correct tag syntax, so I ended up having to resort to Google/ncr and “site:cidu.info“. It was not in the DuckDuckGo index.

    P.S. Digging deeper just now, I discovered another possibility, but it was just a random image in an unrelated thread:

  53. For you fans of wacky maps, such as those at XKCD, I just spent way too much time tonight at a Facebook page called Terrible Maps, which then I found to be pushing a book of that name. Still funny, even if many of the commenters in that group seemed to miss the fact that almost all the map posts were jokes.

    Maybe this post will work, maybe not.

  54. Grawlix, thanks for Terrible Maps! I didn’t know about the book. I am following that and a couple similar pages, and don’t know which one I was looking at when running into some of those angry / serious readers you mention — many of whom seem to have a nationalistic axe to grind, such as where the name Macedonia can be applied.

    I did see and enjoy that California Girls map you link, very funny! I think that is also the source for one I think I posted somewhere on CIDU recently (and will do so later if not), showing a topographic map of South America, with a chili pepper superimposed almost exactly where Chile is located.

  56. @ Mitch (54 & 55) – That map (and discussion) appeared in the OYs for Nov. 25th, but it was not easy to find; there’s something funny going on with the “OY” category and/or tag, all it produces is one of Bill’s old posts from 2018.

  60. @ Mitch (57) – The trouble appears to be specific to that Nov. 25th post. If you do a mouse-over on each of the category names, they all are attached to the correct “category” URL, except for the “OY” category link, which is attached to the OY-tag, not the OY category. This is not a critical issue, but it sure surprised me.

    P.S. @58 – I was only able to see one comic (#10). I assume that one has to have a Xitter account to see the other nine. Oh well.

  61. ” The trouble appears to be specific to that Nov. 25th post” ..

    Yes, but it’s not a mysterious problem. Someone contributing to that post must have entered an OY tag instead of an OY category.

    I guess the way X/Twitter works now may be restricted. It’s weird enough even if you do have an account. What I posted originally was supposed to be an embedding of the top tweet in his thread, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. I posted the image for that one, but don’t think it would be fair to copy more. They’re pretty much on a par with the Junk Drawer comics I see on GoComics.

    Well, here’s the number 2, a nice meta:

  63. @ Mitch (62) – YES! … and thanks for reporting the problem, because I thought it was just another new incompatibility with the specially encoded newsletter links that The Daily Cartoonist sends. Since the error also occurs when simply opening the website’s base URL, it’s clearly a configuration or certificate error on their server.

  66. The “They Can Talk” comics appear to star a variety of animals, more or less realistically drawn. Note that at the website (theycantalk.com) there are some posts linked to a site called tinyview. I think that part’s a pay site, as I got a note saying I had X amount of free views left. There’s still some good content posted freely though.

  68. Received my 2024 Bizarro wall calendar. Last year’s theme was Therapists. This year it’s Cowboys and Clowns. This January one is a Cowboys entry.

  70. Saul Steinberg (1914–1999)
    The New Yorker, 1950
    Curated to Cartunion on Facebook by Andrey Feldshteyn

  71. Saul Steinberg (1914–1999)
    The New Yorker, 1947
    Curated to Cartunion on Facebook by Andrey Feldshteyn

  72. Saul Steinberg (1914–1999)
    The New Yorker, 1947
    Curated to Cartunion on Facebook by Andrey Feldshteyn

  73. Saul Steinberg (1914–1999)
    The New Yorker, 1947
    Curated to Cartunion on Facebook by Andrey Feldshteyn

  74. Saul Steinberg (1914–1999)
    The New Yorker, 1949
    Curated to Cartunion on Facebook by Andrey Feldshteyn

  75. Saul Steinberg (1914–1999)
    The New Yorker, 1949
    Curated to Cartunion on Facebook by Andrey Feldshteyn

  79. I only read a few strips on CK. I make use of the alternate feed that that they have for newspapers to use, because there’s no limit on free strips. It will be interesting what the result is for both the main and alternate sites.

  80. @ Brian (79) – Just last week I gave up on Arcamax for good and switched my last remaining KF strips to the (alternate) CK website. Arcamax was a real pain about wanting to reset new cookies every time I restarted my browser. The only significant benefit of Arcamax was that they showed the “Mutts” daily strips in the original monochrome, but last year some idiot decided to switch them to the colorized versions. Adieu!

    P.S. I’ve never liked very many KF strips, and the only ones remaining on my daily list are Macanudo and Rhymes with Orange. I will add Mutts back to the list when McDonnell returns from his sabattical.

  81. Picking up from the comments about the new CK, I was able to view strips like Sally Forth on the .com site. I don’t have an account, so I don’t know about any login issues. I was able to see multiple ones from the main site, even though this late in the month I have usually exhausted my supple of free views and might get one new each day.

    I note that the strips, when viewed from the .net feed, now have the comments available. I’m not sure that the main feed will be necessary for me.

  82. Something I discovered about the CK situation. The alternate feed still had the Tribune strips like Dick Tracy. After the revamp, the strips are still listed on the site, but when you selection one comes back as not found.

  83. The CK links lasted just 72 hours on my daily list. KF has torpedoed the alternate (“v7.”) URL, any attempt to go there redirects to the new “imporved” website, which is utterly incompatible with my old Mac. I was forced to return to Arcamax, and will have to forego the massive “advantage” of slightly tilted playing card tiles, as well as the delightfully inane sorting choice that permits “new first” and “old first”, but nothing useful like “alphabetical”. Dimwit programmers.

  84. Right. As a CK member, I would add “my order” to the wish list. Though even “alphabetical” would be a grand improvement over the current offerings : “new first” gives you comics from a week ahead (!), and “old first” starts with a half dozen ghost markers dated January 1900, followed by Krazy Kat strips from 1922.

    The other complaint that was much voiced is the “press for more comics” button, which gets you three more — after a pause. I understand that loading all of a playlist at once is inefficient and requires even bigger waits — but once past that loading phase, reading and free scrolling is nice, and of course there are more palatable versions of “on demand” loading.

    Finally, something that bothers me but I haven’t seen voiced much, is the non-optional dark background once into a list. I don’t understand the mania for “dark mode” all over the net, but it’s actually hard on my eyes.

  86. They’ve done some work as of Friday morning, March 1st. The Favorites , under newest-first, does jump-scroll down to comics with today’s date.

  87. Beta-testing is supposed to fix stupid mistakes before the product is released to the public. Just like Microsoft does with paying customers, CK is misusing its readers as unpaid beta testers.

  90. Found it! I remembered a textbook / collection of articles in the topic area called Stylistics with the authorship “Love and Payne” which of course was a delightful resonant pun. The last few times I tried to look it up there was no joy. But this time I found it!

  92. Now that I know the exact title, I was able to find it listed on Amazon.
    But man, this used copy on Amazon is drastically more expensive than the one shown above from Biblio (even with USA shipping added).
    https://a.co/d/0MIJRb3

  93. @ Mitch (90-92) – Perhaps I’m the only one who is confused, but I have not been able to figure out why you were looking for those books, nor whether a conversation in some other CIDU thread that might provide appropriate context.

  94. I thought today’s B.C., though very nice and arty, was incomprehensible as a comic with a joke, and I was getting ready to harvest it for a CIDU post. When I took a look at the GoComics comments and saw explanations (in response to a number of “Huh??” comments) that today is Good Friday, and the art work was expressing an artistic religious impulse. Okay. 

  95. I was raised Catholic, although I’ve long left religion behind. I’m also a very long-time reader of B.C. I figured out the strip intent almost immediately. Although hard to read, it does say “Good Friday” along the right edge.

    While I don’t think the later generations are as religious as Hart, they still do these overtly Christian strips for some holidays. I suspect more as a tribute and because it’s sort of expected and would likely get a lot of complaints if they didn’t. That being said, last year did not have a “Good Friday” theme strip, just an Easter one.

    Speaking of Easter, one of the things I have appreciated about the season was the appearance of Brach’s Classic Jelly Bird Eggs in the store. When I got them this year, I discovered to my dismay that they have removed the black ones. I realize that some people dislike those, but they’ve been that way since I was a kid. How can they be “classic” now? I had to get a bag of all-black ones as well. Feh, I say. Feh.

  96. @ Brian (95) – Even with the label, the strip is still far too esoteric for my understanding, but nevertheless I rather prefer it to Hart’s own hammerheaded propaganda:

    P.S. One minor thing I miss about living over here is ability to get virtually any sort of holiday candy that is not chocolate. Jelly beans are not completely unknown in Germany, but good “normal” ones are very hard to find (the“Jelly Belly” brand is available, but I now find them tiresome).

  97. Even on desktop, I didn’t notice the words. I saw people in comments talking about it. People viewing on phones had a lot more trouble figuring out what was happening.

    And yeah, I don’t want jelly beans that taste like popcorn or other weird things. The good old fruit-flavored AND BLACK ones that I had as a kid. Although root beer probably would be pretty decent.

  99. In my neck of the woods, the black jelly bean eggs seem to be among the last to sell out at Easter. There always seem to be bags of them, along with Peeps and other leftovers marked down to half price afterwards.

  102. I took a quick look into the linguistics article, and like the idea that the unusual dialogue can be called non-Gricean 🙂

  104. I was at the store Tuesday, and they had regular ones half-price, but I didn’t see any black ones. I’ll check the other store tomorrow when I go.

  105. A title for the Spanish edition of Zits at Comics Kingdom; though this header panel apparently only is used on Sundays. BTW, the content seems to match in the Sunday comics but not the Mon-Sat strips. 

  106. [Off topic — science current events — death of Peter Higgs]

    I’ve recently started reading Matt Strassler’s book https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/182761740-waves-in-an-impossible-sea, and have subscribed to his newsletter.

    On Sunday’s “Weekend Edition” a different physicist talked with the host about Peter Higgs, and was very good about rejecting the “god particle” nonsense the host was repeating. The physicist (who knew Higgs personally) pointed out that the term was a journalism creation and that Higgs, along with almost all physicists, disliked it. First off because Higgs, “like almost all the rest of us [physical scientists]” was an atheist.

    Strassler makes the same point, but also another one, that I was happy to note I expected him to bring up — because his book, and things he said on Sean Carroll’s podcast, made it clear his approach is to take Quantum *Field* Theory as fundamental — another point. This is, that the detection of the Higgs Boson at the LHC was very important inasmuch as it provided actual observational verification of the theory. But the particle is very short-lived and is not really what does the job of giving other particles (and raw spacetime) their mass — that is done by the Higgs *Field* — and the Higgs Boson, like most other kinds of particles in this outlook on the theory, is just an offshoot in the quantum field, a little like a standing wave.

    https://profmattstrassler.com/2024/04/15/update-to-the-higgs-faq/

  107. I’ve mentioned from time to time of the random comics that figure into my Face Book feed. This time it’s Perry Bible Fellowship dropping in.

    If you haven’t heard, apparently the PFB website had been hacked. The thrust of the FB post was that the artists had regained control of his site.

    https://pbfcomics.com/comics/hacked/

  109. The Daily Cartoonist recently reported that another new “Mutts” strip has appeared amidst McDonnell’s sabbatical re-runs. I took the opportunity to track down all four of the new “Guard Dog” (a.k.a. “Sparky”) strips:

  112. Have others here noticed work by this guy Yuval Robichek floating around various Internet places? Some of it seems like it could be comics, but that isn’t where it’s posted or how it’s treated.

    Here is his web site.

    …

    pah, can’t get it to paste

    It’s yuvalrob.com

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