Unexpectedly, this was something of a minor CIDU, with comments disagreeing over which partner is actually the neatnik. (Also just a hint of Arlo speculation based on how the drawn legs bend at the knees.)
Nice to find the occasional clear-and-direct LOL from PMP!
For once we can let this stand as a LOL on its own, and not indulge a compulsion to track down the specific advice column it probably accompanied originally.
Mark H. notes “This Arlo is a Janis”.
Or maybe she’s just moving the drapes to give him a better view of the moon. Or of …
Thanks to both Darren and Phred who sent this one in, as mostly LOL but with enough of a factual background question to make it almost a CIDU. Why is it a matter for sticklers?
P.S. It turns out this comic was discussed at Comic Strip of the Day; but we ran across that after this post was already prepared.
Comics I Don't Understand 
It is even more disturbing when you realize the feet are pointing the same direction.
Thanks, Thunderheels! That was what underlay the remark in the post text about “just a hint of Arlo speculation”.
Polar Bears are Arctic animals while penguins live only in the southern hemisphere. Is it their mere presence together in one place that will blow the sticklers’ minds, or do they have some sort of announcement on their sheets of paper?
If it’s the former, it’s hardly novel as zoos often group them together due to their similar climates.
Here’s my guess: some cartoonists, possibly including Blazek, have been taken to task by sticklers for having portrayed penguins in the arctic (even Arctic Circle’s Alex Hallet who has explained the migration premise). This panel may be a little mud in the eyes of those know-it-alls.
What is interesting about the second one (other than the fact that they are both lying on their stomachs) is the order of the clothes on the floor. The bra before the dress? While that’s possible, what is in the foreground of the man’s side? Is that his underwear? How did he get that off before his pants?
Am I a stickler?
So did you find that specific advice column? (I’m curious, too.)
Uhm, wouldn’t the fact that no one’s mind was actually blown (messy stuff, that) be disturbing to a stickler?
Becky, sorry if that abbreviated remark was misleading. What appear on GoComics site as Nick and Zuzu comics panels have all along had an origin as illustrations for the advice column conducted by Carolyn Hax at the Washington Post. But they aren’t in precisely matching chronological order, so to find the particular Carolyn Hax column a particular Nick G illustration accompanied can involve extra scrolling, or a good sense of how to interpret the capsule blurbs from a listing of the columns.
Sometimes that feels worth it, if the drawing taken as a cartoon was odd or obscure. But this one felt complete in itself, so we didn’t go to the WaPo site to try.
(There is also a complicating factor, mentioned recently here by Kilby, that Hax columns lately have been reprints of old ones, and the GoComics feed of the Nick G cartoons have been updating irregularly.)
Thanks, Mitch4. It wasn’t misleading, and I wasn’t totally serious. But that’s what I thought about when I saw the Galifianakis in today’s post, and the fact that you did too was fun.
That said, it turns out fairly easy to track down. It was the column from May first of this year, which was indeed about email: a question about answering a recently-noticed previously-unread very old email, containing an apology over a dispute. It didn’t say “Gmail” brand (or “service mark” I think they call those), nor any third-party “archaeologist” of emails — but that it normal for how Nick varies the cartoon from the column content.
Here is a “gift link” to the column. (I.e. it should get you past their paywall.)
@ Mitch (8) – The information about Hax going into re-runs must have come from somewhere else, it wasn’t from me. All I reported was that Nick & Zuzu had ceased updating at GoComics. The interruption lasted from March 23rd to July 11th, inclusive.
P.S. I lost my gift subscription access to the Post several years ago, so I cannot get past the paywall, and I am not about to support their recent slew of idiotic editorial decisions by subscribing to what is rapidly becoming a rag.
I cannot get past the paywall,
I understand, but for the one-time purpose of reading that issue of the Hax column, the link I supplied is supposed to let anyone read that one item for free.
Perhaps Janis hopes that the sight of the almost-full moon will turn Arlo into a cuddly werewolf?
Speaking of Nick G and his work illustrating the Hax column, see this evening’s comics-world-news post at https://cidu.info/2024/08/25/winners-of-the-78th-annual-reuben-awards/ . Nick was the Divisional winner for Magazine / Newspaper Illustration. (He was also a nominee but not the Divisional winner for Newspaper Panels.)
The link requested that I create an account to read my free article. I went to Reader Mode on Firefox/PC, then reloaded. Not problem after that. Unlike Bullwinkle and his hat, that trick frequently works.
The link requested that I create an account to read my free article.
Sigh. Companies just don’t let it be simple.
@ Mitch (12) – When I said that I cannot get past the Post’s paywall, I didn’t mean the link above, but rather that I have no means to read any of Hax’s articles, and therefore could not know about the reruns.
And it seems also relatively new that Nick’s illustrations, when they appear at WaPo, are now sometimes in color. For instance
@ Mitch (18) – None of Nick’s color work (for which he just won a Reuben) has made it to GoComics, at least not yet. (For those who would like to flip through the panels, the ComicsRSS feed is easier to scan.)
All this comics awards talk is really putting me in the mood for a sandwich of corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut on rye, with 1000-island dressing.