billr sends this in: “The guy at the top of the tower seems to be saluting. I got nothing here.”
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This comic is based on the Bob Dylan song “All Along the Watchtower” (also popularized by Jimi Hendrix). The song begins, “There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief.”
What Joshua K. said. Also the guy isn’t saluting. He’s shading his eyes, which is kind of pointless in the middle of the night, but does imply he’s watching out for something. Rubin screwed up, though. The guy on top of the tower should have been in black-and-white stripes to indicate he’s a prisoner (All along the watchtower/Prisoners kept a view).
The Dylan album that song appeared on, John Wesley Harding, is to my mind one of his more under-rated ones. It followed Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), — which are perhaps his career #2 and #1, in either order — and then his motorcycle-accident retreat, so expectations were high, and the world was not ready for this cool, interior meditation.
It looks like the ‘watchman’ is wearing two hardhats.
I’ve noticed that a lot of CIDUs lately have been single-panel features Where have you gone, Gary Larson?
I do not know the song, and to me the fellow at the top of the tower was just the guard keeping the night watch. Combined with the (traditional dressed) fool trying to get past and simultaneously having his pocket picked by the crook was the storyline of the comic.
To me the fellow in the tower had his hand up to his eye as any guard would when looking off into the distance to see what was going on.
Comics I Don't Understand 
This comic is based on the Bob Dylan song “All Along the Watchtower” (also popularized by Jimi Hendrix). The song begins, “There must be some way out of here, said the joker to the thief.”
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Ah, thanks, Joshua K. I was wondering what the pickpocket robbing the jester had to do with anything.
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What Joshua K. said. Also the guy isn’t saluting. He’s shading his eyes, which is kind of pointless in the middle of the night, but does imply he’s watching out for something. Rubin screwed up, though. The guy on top of the tower should have been in black-and-white stripes to indicate he’s a prisoner (All along the watchtower/Prisoners kept a view).
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Scratch most of my comment. It’s “princes” not “prisoners.” That’s close to 50 years of Mondegreen for me. So the guy should have crown or something.
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The Dylan album that song appeared on, John Wesley Harding, is to my mind one of his more under-rated ones. It followed Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), — which are perhaps his career #2 and #1, in either order — and then his motorcycle-accident retreat, so expectations were high, and the world was not ready for this cool, interior meditation.
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It looks like the ‘watchman’ is wearing two hardhats.
I’ve noticed that a lot of CIDUs lately have been single-panel features Where have you gone, Gary Larson?
LikeLike
I do not know the song, and to me the fellow at the top of the tower was just the guard keeping the night watch. Combined with the (traditional dressed) fool trying to get past and simultaneously having his pocket picked by the crook was the storyline of the comic.
To me the fellow in the tower had his hand up to his eye as any guard would when looking off into the distance to see what was going on.
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