Sometimes Life on Earth will seize on some setting or prop or situation to use in several daily panels, without any clear intent to take them together as anything like a narrative sequence or theme-and-variations. All I can come up with about the examples below is that they all involve the game of chess, in one way or another.
(10/07)
Teresa Burritt, creator of the GoCreator designation & pin, has been practicing what she preached, and showed up in the GoComics comments for the “Strip Chess” one. She noted that the guy with the one red sock apparently had matching underpants. Hey wait a minute, just how nude is this guy?!
(10/08)
(10/09)
(10/10)
This would be my choice for “one of these is actually funny”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Other than a few unusually good gags that have shown up in the past two & a half years, I just don’t care for either of Ham’s features (the other one is “AAGGGHHH“). Besides the primitive artwork and PC-Paint coloration, my primary objection is that the author doesn’t appear to filter his work for quality. It seems like whatever lands in his sketchbook makes it to publication. I have no objection to revisiting a concept, but presenting all of them (including the duds) in short succession dilutes any remaining interest that the latter ones may generate.
P.S. I agree with mitch that the last one was by far the best, followed by the first, which would have been better if they were not both down to one article of clothing. I’m surprised that the syndicate let that one through, but the misleading “appendage” on the player wearing the sock is probably not what it appears to be at first, it’s just the upper part of his left leg. The two in the middle are just surrealistic, sort of like Kliban, but not as well-drawn.
P.P.S. There is of course not a single black piece on any of those chessboards, and I don’t see a second king on the “TV” panel, either.
The “theme” continues with the 10/11 panel:
The first one belongs on the Arlo Page.
I’m afraid I don’t know what “the GoCreator designation & pin” is.
Powers, we recently discussed Teresa B’s GoCreators idea in the Random Comments thread here. She “awards” it to artists/writers of comics on GoComics who make comments on other comics.
@ Powers (3) – There was also an article about “GoCreators” at the “Daily Cartoonist”.
We don’t know the exact protocols for Strip Chess, but do note that there are more pieces missing from the board (presumably captured) than articles of clothing on the floor.
@ mitch – I explained @1 why I don’t think the first one is a candidate for an Arlo Award, but the newest one (@2) seems to be even more suggestive. At first glance I thought it was timely representation of a fallen soldier in khakis, but afterwards I realized that the color is supposed to be “flesh”, and that it is a naked couple engaging in (gasp!) “intercourse”.
P.S. @ Dana (6) – To make up for the superfluity, the newest iteration (@2) has only nine pieces on the table: one knight, one bishop, two castles, and five pawns (and no kings whatsoever).
I thought the Arlo award was for obliquely inferring ‘adult’ themes, not blatantly displaying it. Or is it for getting any such things past censors/editors and usually if it’s blatant/graphic there would be no chance at all but for some reason this one made it?
Walt, that’s correct. I did say “Arlo Page”, which is a separate page where Bill put comics that may not be entirely safe for work.
I can’t see any way to interpret that first panel’s appendage as part of the player’s leg. It’s pretty blatant in my book.
In What’s New Pussycat, Woody Allen has a line as Victor Skakapopulis:
We played strip chess. She had me down to my shorts and I fainted from tension.
Not necessarily relevant, but giving credit where credit is due–Ham didn’t invent the game!
Powers, another factor is that we do not have access to the Arlo Page. It’s not a part of the CIDU site.
After re-examining that first comic, I have decided that Powers is absolutely right. There are four horizontal lines extending from the torso to the table. I mistakenly interpreted the gaps between 1&2 and 3&4 as “legs” (the left leg is then far too thin, but it matches up with the shin below the table). My mistake was assuming that the color of the gap between 2&3 was a PC-Paint “fill” error. Ooops. The legs are the gaps between 1&3 and 3&4 (the right leg partially blocks the left), and the diagonal mark completes the line 2 to form a primitive “willy” that is at least gratuitous, if not wholly offensive, depending on the reader’s personal stance toward nudity in comics.
Hmm. I could argue that the other line is his belly, but it’s certainly not very clear.
And I sorta can’t believe we’re discussing a single drawn line in a comic! That’s what this is all about, though, right?
As mitch said @12, the Arlo Page is a separate wordpress website that CIDU Bill used to “hide” potentially offensive content (and Bill had a fairly low trigger level for making that determination). The website is still functional (try the link), but the Editors do not have access, and we don’t even know whether Bill’s family still has the passwords. One caveat: the links back to the “main site” from the Arlo Page are still encoded with the original CIDU URL, so they now land at some southeast Asian gambling site.
P.S. The “Arlo Award” is a much narrower concept, reserved for comics that managed to sneak a sufficiently “lewd” reference past the syndicate’s censors. Strictly speaking, webcomics do not qualify, since they generally do not have any control from a syndicate.
P.P.S. @ Phil (14) – Actually two lines, sort of an elongated “>” – but yes, that’s the focus of the discussion.
By the way, speaking of Teresa Burritt, and her commenting appearances, she has a comment at the Daily Cartoonist, yesterday’s CSOD: https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2023/10/10/csotd-aaec-in-sf-2-marketing-and-mattering/
The last one was pretty funny. “Strip chess” is almost anti-humor. It’s a badly-done take on a joke so common it’s practically a standard trope.
Kilby@13, That was good, but now can you explain why his little weewee is coming out of his belly?
The 10/9 strip is the only one with an 8×8 board set up in the right direction.
The strip chess player made an interesting tactical decision in removing his undershorts before his sock.
Maybe it would have been funny if the last sock were on his appendage rather than on his foot.
Also, is there a point to playing strip chess when it’s two men? (Even if … you know what.)
@ Chak (19) – The anatomical inadequacies underscore my comment @1: “… primitive artwork …”
P.S. Downpuppy (20) – Well, the beginner’s board looks OK, too.
A couple of other variants:
Alan Turing is said to have invented a game that combines chess and middle-distance running. It goes like this: You make your move, then you run around the house, and the other player has to make his or her move before you return to your seat. There don’t seem to be any reports of this having actually been played.
Chess boxing alternates rounds of boxing with a chess game. I must admit I watched a card. The boxing was very amateurish and the chess was maybe 800 level.
I agree that that last one is actually funny.
And yes, I’ve heard about chess boxing. NPR had a story about it a few years ago. Weird. I found it hard to believe that anyone who participates in a sport whose goal is to give the other guy a concussion would have the brains to play a decent game of chess.
Kilby – what a disappointment if it is just the top of his leg. We have been watching a TV show “Minx” on HBO Max about a woman who starts a magazine for women with nude men in it in the 1970s. With this cartoon I thought that this theme was catching on.
(And strangely it was Robert who found this show and puts it on for us to watch every week.)
For the record, here is another one, appearing on GoComics today, 10/12:
Still no black pieces, by coloration/shading — but here, as in several of the earlier ones, the knights show an orientation (of the horse’s head) and thus which player they belong to.
OTOH, with this current chapter we have lost the black squares from the board!
@ mitch (28) – Not to mention the chairs and the lower halves of the players.
P.S. I have the feeling that these drawings are “sketched” digitally, probably just using a mouse, rather than a tablet & stylus.
There is also a game called “Alcoholic chess”. The pawns are little bottles of wine; the pieces are larger and larger bottles of spirits. The queen is pint of top-shelf whiskey. Whenever you capture a pawn or piece, you have to drink the contents immediately before the game can continue. I heard that a game was actually played, and early on in the game, one player made a brilliant sacrifice of his queen which led to victory as the opponent became incapable of making sensible moves.
I have looked at it several times and still can’t see it as part of a leg.
Today we have yet another (perhaps the last?) “chess” installment from Ham. I’m not posting it here for completeness, nor because it’s a good joke (it isn’t any better than the ones above), but simply and exclusively as a memorial to CIDU Bill’s inability to understand “cat” comics:
P.S. To be fair, the board has been checkered and is now in the proper orientation, but the pieces are still all white, and the layout has absolutely nothing to do with a “checkmate” situation, even if it were possible to identify a second king.
@ Brian (31) – That is because you are seeing it as the artist intended it. To get the false interpretation, you have to ignore the short diagonal line that is the lower boundary of his “willie”†, and treat its upper edge as the lower edge of his left leg. Like I said @13: “Ooops!”
P.S. † – As Lt. Blackadder responded when Lt. George asked him to consider “a willing suspension of disbelief” to disrobe for a portrait: “Well, nobody’s going to be looking at my willie’s suspension!“
After skipping Saturday, the strip returns to the chess theme on Sunday, 10/15: