The artist’s title for this one is “Far From Home”, and the mailing message was “In the future all magazines will have one issue.”
I can pretty much follow the time-travel ruminations. But there is much more backstory than anything I remember them doing. But then, I haven’t been a fan forever — perhaps someone who has can tell us how this was all anticipated long ago…?
Comics I Don't Understand 
I find the strip uninteresting, but from your comments, I’m wondering if the “backstory” might be told later, since this is a time travel story.
Pretty sure each comic is a one off, no continuity, of the sitcom kind the Simpsons used to fourth wall about themselves sometimes. As such, in today’s comic, it is the 1990s, and Girls is engaged in typical slacker worries of the day, only to find out that Cat isn’t from there (then?) at all, first big giveaway being that he has a “home”. Tune in next time when none of this will have happened!
And for what it’s worth, Girl, we are all time travelers, stuck moving relentlessly forward through time, whether we like it or not.
Yes, that old discovery, “slow time travel”.
You could get a falafel in 1895, just not in this locale.
Wikipedia: “The origin of falafel is uncertain. The dish most likely originated in Egypt. It has been speculated that its history may go back to Pharaonic Egypt. However, the earliest written references to falafel from Egyptian sources date to the 19th century, and oil was probably too expensive to use for deep frying in ancient Egypt.
“…. The dish later migrated northwards to the Levant, where chickpeas replaced the fava beans, and from there spread to other parts of the Middle East.”
The drawing in this one is just too bizarre for me to enjoy it.
I used to be a regular viewer of Cat and Girl, but at some point drifted away. I still enjoy the occasional look when it crops up here. The artwork has become more exaggerated in some aspects, like the points on Girl’s hair.
Looking at the archive, it seems as though this was part of an arc, beginning:
https://catandgirl.com/one-mans-90s-trash/
Thanks, Brian, that does look like a story arc!
The latest one (coming after the one in this post) would be:
I wasn’t able to understand the first strip until I had read it slowly three or four times; most of the problem is the disconnected and unnecessarily crowded dialog layout in the fourth panel.
I still don’t like the strip, especially because Cat comes across as an annoying hipster twit. If he’s supposed to be a time-travelling guru, I would expect him to be more tolerant of the places (and cuisines) that he visits, instead of insisting on his own particular diet. If falafel is so important to him, he should have brought it with him before he left home, where- and whenever that is. It’s like an American visiting Paris and eating nothing but McBurgers.
(about that later comic). I was alive in the 90s and don’t remember there not being any water.
Cat is a time-traveling guru for the moment. Annoying hipster other times. Mad scientist on occasion. You can’t put a cat in a box! Leave the box open and let the cat put himself in it.
Way back while in high school I belonged to “Junior Hadassah”. For those who do not know this organization Hadassah is a Jewish women’s organization which supports Israel. The junior group started as only for teen girls, but at some point changed it’s name and was co-ed.
We were at a convention of the group (after it was co-ed) and of course there were various organized activities (many with an eye towards keeping their eyes on teen boys and girls so they did not wander off in pairs).
A food new to most of us was being shown with tastes offered – yes, it was falafel. They had a little song about it to explain. After hearing the song – I have never tried it (being a picky eater, pretty sure I would not like it).
(And apparently those events did not work that well at their purpose of Jewish boys and girls meeting each other and getting together for the future – based on my Italian Catholic husband.)
@ Meryl – If the organizers were really that interested in effective matchmaking, perhaps they should have ensured that their chaperoning was a little less effective. :-)
Kilby – Hmm. Something husband knows, but no one in my family knows –
I was dating a (nice Jewish boy) in high school and he came on one of the conventions the group had. It was at an OLD hotel in New Jersey. The girls had rooms in the main building. The boys had rooms out in assorted bungalow type buildings which were apparently not that nice. The 3 guys there from our local group snuck into the main building and to the room some of we girls from our local group – including me – were sharing, and spent the night in the room with us – they did sleep on the floor. (Nothing happened and based on when I looked him up on Facebook he has a very nice looking fellow.)
Let’s face it – teens have been getting past adults for generations if not centuries. (And yes, my husband has heard the story and seen photos of Mitchell.)
[…] drowning in “history”, so maybe the recent mini-thread on time-travel — discussed here — would also fit as relevant, but it didn’t seem a strong […]