Several years ago, Bill commented upon the unusual frequency of “Grim Reaper” comics, and he even held a contest (called “Deathmatch!“) to prove his point.
For this reason, I suggested scheduling the following comic collection for today, the second (now) fourth 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 shame that Bill never had a chance to read and comment upon these comics with us all.
P.S. The comments are still open: everyone is welcome to read them and all the comics that were added there (currently seven dozen), and to add new ones.
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 
Thanks very much to Mitch and Phil for their kind support in helping to compose and post this memorial (Bismarck’s comment about “Laws and Sausages” could be applied with equal force to “WordPress posts”).
P.S. Anyone interested in reviewing more of the “CIDU Grim Reaper” archive should also check the comments in “Loose Death“. Since that was the last post by Bill on the subject, it became the unofficial repository for subsequent “Deathmatch” comics.
Bill was a good one, and we are lessened by his absence.
Raising a glass to the Remarkable Bill Bickel. Of course, it’s only chamomile tea, but it’s not even 7 am yet.
And raising a cup o’ coffee to him from Florida. I submitted a humongous amount of Grim Reaper comics to the Loose Death comments, but then stopped doing so. Have seen many many since.
Personally, I think the popularity of Sir Terry’s characterization of DEATH caused this increase, either in actual numbers, or in our/my notice of them. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!
GNU CIDU Bill. Gone, but certainly not forgotten.
Every day, I give at least one thought to BB and one to Sir Terry, as well as several others in my life who have left.
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Because not everyone here is a Sir Terry aficionado . . .
GNU = https://wiki.lspace.org/GNU_Terry_Pratchett
I’ll raise my morning glass of iced tea to Bill. We miss ya, man!
@ Andréa – If you remember any particularly good “Grim Reaper” comics that have not yet appeared at CIDU, you would be more than welcome to append them here. I’ve kept my eyes open since I came up with this idea, but I haven’t seen that many recently.
NOT AN ADVERT. Just ordered my copy of Rob Wilkins’ bio of Sir Terry. If you’d like info, email me adenning2@tampabay.rr.com
(If this is a no-no, please delete this post and accept my apologia.)
@Kilby: No, I don’t have ’em anymore; they were, as all comics are, ephemeral. But thanks for the offer.
The best tribute to Bill is the continuation of this forum. Thanks to his family for allowing that and to the participants who stepped to make it happen.
“AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
“Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
“The End.”
Rhianna Pratchett (his daughter)
You helped me understand the comics, but I’ll never understand why you were taken so soon. Much love to the Bickels.
Another very good OY arrived today from Leigh Rubin:
After informing Leigh Rubin that four of his “Rubes” comics now appear in this memorial post, he confirmed that the “Grim Reaper” has been one of his favorite subjects, and nominated the following Sunday strip (5-Sep-21) as his all-time favorite:
Nice!
What, no Salmon Mousse?
So … Death brought the deadly mushrooms, Famine brought only one egg, Pestilence the Salmonella, Destruction nothing but bones? Very well done!
Yes, Bill is missed.
Per the webpage with information about him and his death when he died, he was to be (is, I presume) in the same cemetery as my dad. I had planned to stop by and visit with Bill when I made my annual visit to dad, but then along came the pandemic and I have not been there. I do hope to visit him in the future.
@ MiB – Thanks for the brilliant explanation, I missed that completely.
I don’t suppose you could put a [very small] stone on his grave marker to represent each and every one of us who still misses him and thinks of him often . . .
@ Andréa – Even if you reduce the stones to the size of gravel, that would still be a very heavy bucket.
P.S. One of the places that I took Bill to visit during his trip to Berlin in June 2017 was the palace “Sans Souci” in Potsdam, just southwest of Berlin. This was the favored “bachelor hideout” of Frederick the Great (of Prussia), who (among other things) was famous for using a sneaky trick to convince local farmers to plant potatoes.† For this reason, his grave (which was moved to the palace grounds shortly after German unification) is usually decorated with a motley collection of spuds. I have a photo of the palace from that day, but none of Bill, who politely but firmly refused to let me take any pictures of him.
P.P.S. † – According to the legend, Frederick II had a field planted with potatoes, and then stationed guards all around the field. He allegedly instructed the guards not to watch very carefully. Local farmers, who had previously been very reluctant to adopt the newfangled crop, figured that if the potatoes were worth guarding, they must be worth stealing, which ultimately led to the potato becoming perhaps the most popular German carbohydrate (besides bread).
I was thinking more the size of pea gravel, but you’re right . . . Maybe just give Bill a mental greeting from us all instead.
@Meryl – in what cemetery are your father and Bill located?
P.P.P.S. This is the photo of “Sans Souci“, taken on June 14th, 2017:
The gravesite that I mentioned in the P.S.(@23) is located immediately to the right of the dome on the right side of the picture (the dome is actually the top of a gazebo). The green plants on the terraced hillside are grape vines and fig trees (behind the gates). Bill was standing somewhere behind me.
Oh, if only you’d had a mirror!!
@ Andréa – I did indeed consider snapping a picture of him when he was not looking, but finally decided that it wouldn’t be kosher. Better to admit that I don’t have one now, rather than sharing one that I had no right to have.
C’est vrai. I didn’t mean to share, but to have for yourself.
I remember Bill posted a photo of himself here once. I think, if I recall, he was dressed as Charlie Brown for Halloween, along with other family members as other Peanuts characters.
@ jajizi -Thanks very much for mentioning that, I had completely forgotten that Halloween post.
Also of course we have an official “Bill Bickel and the history of CIDU” page, with link permanently shown in the le3ft sidebar if you view this site as a standard web page. On that page you can also find this portrait:
P.S. Now that Mitch fixed my broken link, now I can add the URL to embed the other photo here, too:
Leigh Rubin wrote back to let me know that his “intended” identifications for the “Four Hors D’Oeuvres” was slightly different from MiB’s solution; so from left to right, they are “Death,“, “War“, “Pestilence“, and “Famine“.
Oh, I get it: War is making everyone fight for the one egg. Famine brought nothing edible, just bones.
Cemetery is Beth David in Elmont, NY.
Mel Brooks has someone there also as once when dad was alive he and mom saw Mel Brooks & his son (a child at the time) walking and they all waved hello. (94yo Mom still remembers this and tells me about it when it when dad and the cemetery are mentioned.)
All of dad’s family is there – mom’s is elsewhere.
Lest we forget, I thought it might be good to “revive” this thread with a new image from time to time:
P.S. Here’s another one appropriate for the advent of Fall:
I’m thrilled this thread has been revived (so to speak) . . . I really enjoy the Grim Reaper’s comic permutations.
@ Andréa – If you enter “Grim Reaper” into the search field at GoComics, it will produce nearly 700 results. The vast majority of them should stay where they are, only a very few are worthy of inclusion in a thread like this one.
P.S. I just changed my mind about the first one in that long list:
Lookin’ ’em up would be cheating. I only want to see the ones that come up serendipitously . . . I know that isn’t a word, but I’m using it anyway.
Pratchett’s DEATH loves kittens . . .
@ Andréa – I wonder whether he/she/it likes wine:
There are days when an appearance of the Grim Reaper seems almost normal:
P.S. When he shows up at Halloween, there are effective counter measures:
Here’s today’s Grim Reaper from Leigh Rubin:
@ Andréa – Very nice! I like that one a lot.
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 to 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, a small iron-on patch featuring a seahorse 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.”
Here’s another (less tasteless) “nesting doll” comic, which Bill posted to CIDU about a week before he started the “Deathmatch” contest:
Another one of Bill’s endearing quirks was his consistent inability to understand cat comics:
So, the litter box is nailed down? What about the litter and the stuff that is put into the litter box. Oh yeah, there are ‘enclosed’ litter boxes now, aren’t there?
If only . . .
Not only does the 16th fall on a Thursday this March, it also happens to be the 2½th anniversary of CIDU Bill’s death.
So poignant . . .
@ Andréa – I assume that those are supposed to be urns (for cremated ashes), but the shape does not conform to anything I have ever seen.(at least not at German funerals). In my experience, such urns are shorter and wider (and therefore less likely to topple over).
Not quite canopic jars, either, but getting close.
I was wond’rin’ how DEATH smoothed out the ridges made by its finger bones. I have an urn containing my Mother’s ashes and several with my dogs’ ashes, none of which are that shape, but I got the general idea.
We just had a “siblings only” text thread on the subject of “It’s been years, we need to do something with Mom’s ashes”. Naturally, nothing was resolved.
My dad’s went into the Colorado River, via the Old Yuma Bridge, Yuma, AZ. My dogs’ and my Mom’s will stay with me until I die; then it won’t matter to me anymore.
@ Brian & Andréa – Germans are normally not permitted to retain possession of cremated ashes; there is (or at least was) a requirement that they be “interred” in an “appropriate” (licensed) location. This led to a certain amount of “cremation tourism”, especially near the Dutch border, because the Netherlands does not have this restriction. I know that the German laws were adjusted not that long ago, but I’m not sure how far the relaxation went.
It’s called ‘inurnment’ – the placement of cremated human remains in an urn and placement of such urn in a niche, crypts, grave, or other suitable location in the Cemetery.
Today’s “Rubes“:
OH, if only . . .
@ Andréa – Tatulli’s setup is a bit too contrived for my taste. I think it would have worked better if the car had belonged to the man, and not the Grim Reaper, who should have been carrying a lug wrench, rather than a scythe. The drawing in the third panel would have been the same (except that the car would not have needed the clumsy label), and the punchline would still be “the tow truck wins!”
I agree – it’s not one of the better ones.
I figured I see this one here today.
It’s become competitive DEATH comic posting.
@ Andréa – Being a gentleman, I took just one of the two comics, and left the other one for you. Of course, it doesn’t often happen that we see two Grim Reapers (or in this case: 2½) in one day.
Thank you, sir.
@ Andréa – I suppose I should admit that “Liō” is on my “CIDU filter list”. While I do enjoy reading the strips that show up here, I find that the enjoyment palls when I read them every day (the same is true – at least for me – with “Frazz” and “PBS”. YMMV).
Yes, my mileage does vary; I read ’em ev’ry on the off-chance (well, to me, there’s very much an on-chance) they’ll be funny. That’s why the DELETE button was invented (and I have a variety of audiences to please on my lists, so I have to keep that in mind, too).
I discovered this one just in time for the “holiday“:
What an unpleasant surprise:
In honor of today being Sunday the 16th, here’s a pair of semi-synchronous “cat” comics, first from “Mutts“, and then from “Macanudo“:
Perhaps some advice would help:
@ Mitch – That’s an excellent “OY”, potentially even worth a repeat appearance in the regular post next Saturday.
In celebration of May Day, here’s a random Grim Reaper strip that I just discovered in a CIDU post from 2014 (as archived by the Wayback Machine). Since Mother Goose & Grimm has changed syndicates, Comics Kingdom has removed it from their archives, but so far GoComics only offers 2023 strips. Therefore, this image is also from the Wayback machine:
The MG&G web site archives strips. You can use the calendar selector, or set the URL for an image.
https://www.grimmy.com/
The situation with GoComics and Comics Kingdom is interesting. It looks like CK removed the strips past 1/1/2023, but the older ones are still there.
https://v7.comicskingdom.net/comics/mother-goose-grimm/2014-06-03/?widgetId=570
@ Brian – My problem was that they have removed MG&G from the selection menu, and since I wasn’t sure about the exact spelling of the path in the URL, I wasn’t able to recreate that link. However, since wordpress cannot embed a CK image URL, that link is a good backup.
My superior time-wasting skills are evident.
Here is another take on “Swiss Death” that I actually prefer, because it avoids the Victorinox logo:
P.S. Don’t bother visiting Easterling’s website: it has been pirated by a URL vulture, much like what happened to Bill’s original CIDU URL.
P.P.S. Seems like a mild case of annual synchronicity, both comics are dated 2014.
If anything, that was the Wenger logo…
@ larK – Either way, Peters appears to have protected himself from any trademark violation claims, by inverting the colors. His drawing has a red cross on a white field, whereas both Wenger and Victorinox use a white cross on a red field (just like Switzerland, of course).
@ Andréa – I have absolutely no objections to them appearing here, but I would like to include a link to the beginning of CIDU Bill’s “Deathmatch” contest, which specifically excluded “MythTickle” comics, because “Death” is a regular character there. In addition, here’s a Grim Reaper comic that I discovered when looking up Zachary Kanin for the “Pinocchio/Figurehead” thread:
Is THIS one okay to post? Asking for a friend . . .
@ Andréa – I specifically said that I had no objections, and I think you know that I trust your judgement. As long as you think Bill would have enjoyed reading it, it’s fine with me.
P.S. I almost forgot that Wednesday the 16th falls on a Tuesday this month:
@ Andréa – That Eriksson panel produced a distinct “deja vu” sensation: the antecedent turned out to be the (definitely superior) Harry Bliss comic that you posted a month ago (on the previous page of this thread).
P.S. Today’s Macanudo has a nice twist on the Grim Reaper meme:
P.P.S. This ancient “Brevity” shows just how he stays so amazingly thin:
One is skiboarding, the other skiing, which is why it didn’t ‘ring a bell’ for me. I DO like the next two, tho.
@ Andréa – The thing I really liked about the Bliss comic is that not only is his “Grim Reaper” much more threatening, Bliss has drawn him doing a typical “board grab” in the middle of his jump.
This one hits home for me . . . I’m in the process of ‘rescuing’ a friend’s orchids, and some look JUST like this . . .
http://alldogssite.com/plants_i_have_grown_13.html
@ Andréa – If that one hit home, how did you feel about the Kanin panel (@148)? But seriously: I wouldn’t waste time on orchids that have little or no green leaf material, it just isn’t worth the time or effort. Let them dry out, and use them as kindling.
I didn’t like that one at all, ’cause of the dog being killed, too.
I have all the time & effort, as I’m retired, and I see it as a challenge. You should see the Christmas cacti I’ve rescued that bloom beautifully now. They’ve become too easy . . .
Christmas cacti – http://alldogssite.com/plants_i_have_grown_1.html
PS: The first time someone said that about a dog I rescued, she lived on for nine years with us.
http://www.alldogssite.com/seniorsquad11061.html
@ Andréa – Perhaps the name of the author subconciously affected your interpretation of the drawing, but the animal in that Kanin panel is positively a cat, and definitely not a dog. However, I don’t really expect that this will make you feel any better about the comic.
P.S. My dad once invested over four figures in a pair of tendon repair operations for a older, but not yet ancient dog, with whom he just wasn’t willing to part company. We needled him about the effective “price per additional day” (of survival), but the dog actually lived for several more years, which probably reduced the final result to less than a dollar a day.
P.P.S. Along with my colleagues at work, we have been offering moral support to one of our number who has a severely ailing pet. Just like my dad, his bills are (already) over four figures (but in €uros). I was later shocked to discover that the animal in question was a 15-year-old cat, which caused me to retreat for some serious soul-searching.
P.P.P.S. We used to have an extensive collection of orchids (just phalaenopsis, nothing exotic), including one exceptional plant that never seemed to cease growing. Over the course of (about) 15 years, I had to repot it multiple times, and it not only bloomed with surprising regularity, it later spawned a number of “daughter” plants, which I was able to detach and repot to become separate, successfully blooming orchids. When the big one finally expired, I wasn’t sure whether it was old age, or simply that it had expended too much energy in cloning itself.
ANYONE can go to a store, spend $$ on some orchids (presumably healthy) and brag about being an orchid person. Same with a dog – go to the breeder, pick one out, and bob’s your uncle. However, taking in an abused neglected dog (or plant) and helping it thrive – now, THAT’S much more satisfying to me.
At one time, we had seven dogs. I spend $25,000 on four dogs in two years for surgery. The operations were successes; unfortunately, three of the patients died. These are my rescued children; I rescue for them, but I also do it for myself.
Unlike the person with the aging cat, however, I do know when I’m only extending lifespan for myself, not for the good of the animal.
how did you feel about the Kanin panel
Seeing that again reminds me of something. I follow a YouTube channel about a guy who buys and sells stuff, cars and collectibles etc. As part of that, he will occasionally clean out a dead person’s home.
The most recent one is the condo of a single guy. In the hallway, a conspicuous section of carpet is missing. Well, it’s not too big a leap to figure out why that’s probably gone. You could tell it was a sudden thing, because in the kitchen was a bread roll and some bananas he’d brought home. Also some very dried out plants. The channel guy’s wife was trying to resuscitate them.
Finally, there’s an empty bird cage. People in comments are very worried about that bird (assuming there was one). I guess it depends on how long it took before anyone knew what happened. Then again, many people in comments think that he should give the vintage Miata that he got as part of the deal to his early teen daughter because it’s her favorite color.
@ Andréa – “…I do know when I’m only extending lifespan for myself, not for the good of the animal…”
I finally decided that I was in no position to second-guess anyone else’s ethical decisions about their own pets, especially since I don’t know anything about their history or relationships. I just hope I don’t end up having to make such a decision myself.
The only comparable case I’ve been in involved people, not pets, when my wife’s (overly cautious) Ob-Gyn recommended amniocentesis, with a two-week processing time. We were both (very) worried about the possible consequences, but we agreed not to discuss any of the options until the results came back. Luckily, all the tests were negative, and we needn’t have worried about it, but we did, anyway.
P.S. @ Andréa – I have just learned that the cat I was talking about died last Friday. :-( It turned out that it was not a gall bladder infection, but cancer.
Today’s “Retro Bliss” post led me to discover this Grim Reaper example:
P.S. This is the Buni strip that was supposed to appear here on June 16th:
Terry Pratchett’s DEATH loved kittens . . . woe betide anyone who abused one.
Before anyone asks why Andréa is worried about kittens, when that Buni strip clearly shows teddy bears, the reference is to the Kanin comic I mentioned on May 25th, and the subsequent feline discussion.
As a followup to my post about the bird, the YouTube guy gave an update that said the bird had died some months before the human, so the cage was not occupied.
Here’s today’s “Rhymes With Orange“:
That reminds me, Wednesdays frequent flyer Lio:
https://www.gocomics.com/lio/2023/06/28
Comments had some uncertainty about how the panel wall was knocked down.
Appearances may be deceiving:
In addition, here is the very last of the “Grim Reaper” comics that I had archived for this collection (I thought it seemed fitting to go out on a vanishing note):
Now that the Birthday Memorial has been posted, I wasn’t planning on adding to this one on a regular basis, but today’s Rubes was just too good to pass up:
That’s . . . kind of a CIDU for me. Who’s the ghost, why is it living with the guy, and why is it answering the door?
@ Brian (180) – For me the humor was simply the Grim Reaper knocking at the door and getting the one person in that household who was already deceased and therefore immune to his “charms”; but in retrospect, I decided that the ghost was probably the guy’s wife, who had come back to haunt him.
Today’s Rhymes With Orange has a nice twist:
P.S. I had intended to concentrate further remembrances in the “Birthday Memorial” thread, but the available material says otherwise. If we were to schedule a new Deathmatch! with the “Grim Reaper” vs. “Birthdays”, it wouldn’t be much of a contest at all. Other than Garfield’s annual whining, there just aren’t all that many (good) “birthday” comics out there.
So Death wants the Tin Man to come to life so he can kill him?
@ Brian (184) – I don’t think that’s the Tin Man (if it were, the woman with the money(†) in her hand would have been Dorothy, with a wicker basket instead of a pocketbook). The person wearing the armor is supposed to be one of those “living statue” street performers, who often appear in garb covered with silver spray paint. Part of the act is to stand motionless for a very long time, until someone puts some money in the basket, upon which the actor will assume a new pose.
P.S. (†) The colorist forgot to put green on the two bills the tourists are holding.
Yet another superb riff on the Grim Reaper meme from Rubes:
Ol’ Lio’s done it again. Some in comments think his hat is meant to suggest Baron Samedi, although he doesn’t have any of the rest of the outfit. It is a Saturday strip though.
https://www.gocomics.com/lio/2023/08/05
I was on vacation when this Rubes appeared:
I know it’s a horrible OY pun, but I still like it:
Here’s a “Rhymes with Orange” courtesy of Arnold Zwicky’s blog:
Today’s Non Sequitur requires some thought, but is quite good:
Today’s Bliss comic reminded me that we only have two more months until the “fun” (meaning agony) officially begins:
So many of my friends have died since he came on the scene (not DEATH, but he who shall not be named) and they never got to see his downfall, so this comic is too close to the bone (pardon the pun)
Here’s an old Extra Ordinary strip (#494) that I just discovered by accident:
Bill’s missed. Thanks for reposting.
Here’s to Bill! And his wonderful legacy, CIDU.
Yes – here’s to Bill! He is missed.