Bill drafted this comic back in 2019; it seemed appropriate to post it on the first day of Hanukkah.
P.S. On various occasions Robin has used different spellings (such as “Hanukah“), whereas Bill was always careful to spell it “Chanukah” (as seen in the tags). Unfortunately, Bill’s memorable “(C)Han(n)uk(k)a(h)” spelling bracket was destroyed by Comicgeddon, but there was a nice bonus panel on the subject in a Menorah post in 2018.
Kilby writes: This Sunday Kevin & Kell strip‡ was drafted by CIDU Bill in 2019, but never posted. I’m not sure why Holbrook published this strip in February.† I would have thought that late fall or early winter would have been more appropriate, but perhaps the idea was to make the stash revelation completely unexpected.
P.S. (†) – Both the strip one week before and two weeks later are covered in snow; this one and the following Sunday strip look more like springtime.
P.P.S. (‡) – According to the remaining comments on the author’s website, there was originally a misspelling in the first panel, which was later corrected. Nice to see such artistic dedication!
Judging from the CIDU archive, Stone Soup was one of Bill’s favorite comics, and he originally scheduled this strip to appear shortly after it was published in 2019:
The problem is that he never finished writing the text to go along with it:
“There seems to be a common theme, especially in comic strips, that physical books are more …”
Would anyone like to take a shot at completing Bill’s sentence, or offer some other perspectives about reading (for enjoyment, not as work) in paper vs. electronic form?
[2023 note: Yep, it’s a fine day for repeats!]
Has anybody ever gotten more out of a $50 investment?
[2023 note — A holiday favorite, reposted for your viewing pleasure]
Kilby writes: When Bill Bickel suddenly passed away three years ago, he left a very large collection of incomplete “draft” posts in progress. Some of these were duplicate copies of comics that did get posted, and others were just empty placeholders, but a number of these drafts still contain comics that are worth posting, if for no other reason than simply for the nostalgia of remembering Bill’s dedication to the CIDU website. I don’t want to release all of these old drafts in a flood, so expect to see them only on an intermittent basis (in addition to Bill’s traditional “evergreens” that get reposted every year).
[Bill’s note from first postings on this site] This is something I made sure to rescue from the old site: after the first time I posted the 1996 sequence with Arlo’s father, somebody asked me to re-post it every year.
Unfortunately most of your comments are gone, but the 47 you posted in 2018 and 2019 are below.
[Note for 2022 — Reposting to continue Bill’s tradition. 2020 and 2021 comments also preserved.]
[Note for 2023 — Reposting, as per tradition. Past and 2022 comments preserved. Add-on comics for Veterans Day / Armistice Day will appear in another post in about an hour.]
From 2003:
From 1985:
H.T. Webster drew this in 1923.
Kilby sent it to me a few hours ago, in May of 2020, asking me to queue it up for three years in the future.
So greetings from Month Three of the Coronavirus Lockdown. I hope everybody made it through okay to the other side.
So these two guys were walking in the woods and they come across a severed head. One of them holds it up and says “Oh my God, it’s Kowalski!”
His friend says “No, he was taller than that.”
(Irv, 1951)
[2021-12-24 Repost]
Reposting CIDU Bill’s message from 2019!
Best wishes to all!
From your 2021 editors, Mitch and Winter Wallaby
Comics I Don't Understand 