Author / Kilby

by Kilby

Coffeeholic Cartoonists, Unite!

Coffee is consumed compulsively by many people all over the world, but cartoonists (who are notorious for keeping odd hours) seem to be especially susceptible to the allure of the drink’s stimulating properties. Given the excessive amount of publicity that many syndicated cartoonists produce for free, it’s remarkable that none of them has managed to land an advertising contract.

Garfield drank his first cup of coffee two weeks before he discovered lasagna.

Similarly, Horace (or perhaps Samson?) has a serious addiction:

…
P.S. Stahler’s “Moderately Confused” panel was the original inspiration for this entire post; Shannon Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man is not just the title, but also the main character of his entire feature.

Here’s a B.C. strip that Brian in StL submitted and was posted two years ago. Brian commented back then that: “It’s not entirely clear to me what’s going on. In a way, the first panels look like the preliminary sketches a cartoonist does. So is the coffee affecting him? Or is Jane now able to ‘focus’ since she‘s had coffee?“

Opinions differ on optimum methods of preparation:

Scientists have been researching the heath effects of coffee for decades; this editorial cartoon by Pat Oliphant was published in 1981:

…
P.S. I was amused by the similarity in viscosity.

Here’s another Dark Side of the Horse (it won’t be the last):

…
P.S. Spoiler alert: Foreshadowing!

by Kilby

Dog Tuba

Boise Ed submitted this Bizarro as a CIDU, commenting: “The left man can barely hear the tuba, so the right man must be playing it very softly (which is hard to do). ‘Dog tuba’ reads like it’s the dog’s tuba, but he obviously doesn’t like the sound of it, even at that very soft volume. Beyond that, I’m stumped here.“

…
P.S. I think it’s clear that this is a play on “dog whistle“, but for CIDU purposes, let’s assume that Wayno was merely referring to the physical device, and not to the political context. Even with that hint, it’s not entirely clear why or even whether this is funny.

by Kilby

Artwork Failure

Brian in StL suggested this Baby Blues strip two years ago as a partial CIDU, commenting: “The joke is obvious, but what I and everyone in comments noticed is that the front passenger seat is open, so why does he need to ride on the roof? I guess it might be a better question of how the cartoonist could have done the strip to make more sense. Possibly a pile of packages on the seat, bumped out of the back by the tree?“

…
P.S. I agree with Brian, the artwork makes absolutely no sense at all. An alternative option (besides “packages”) would be to put one of the kids in the front seat, so that half of the back seat could be folded down to provide room for the tree (that is exactly what I do every year when my son and I go out to the local “cut your own tree” lot). However, Brian’s solution would probably have been easier to draw convincingly.

by Kilby

Bonus: Tenacious persistence

GiP submitted this B.C. strip, which doesn’t really fit into any category. It’s not funny enough for an LOL, and not puzzling enough for a CIDU: all the gag says is that Thor is hard-headed: he’s willing to endure any adversity to catch his fish, including unnecessarily repetitive waves in the first two panels, and ridiculously improbable starfish slapstick in the third panel. Even the destruction of his boat did not deter him.

…
I wonder what Clumsy Carp would have thought about this.

P.S. Despite all its weaknesses, here’s a B.C. re-run from exactly two years ago:

…
Why the re-run? Discovering this strip in the submissions archive reminded me of a comment that Bill Bickel wrote in May, 2020, and attached to “Dynamo” (01-Jan-2023): “So greetings from Month Three of the Coronavirus Lockdown. I hope everybody made it through okay to the other side.“

Alas: no.

by Kilby

Hound Dogs

Mark. H. suggested this Mother Goose & Grimm a partial CIDU, commenting: “Grimmy tries to encourage the dog singing the song. But the song is not about the singer – it’s about the one the singer is singing to (‘You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog…‘). The singer might very well have caught a rabbit himself, but that wouldn’t change the song.“

…
Is it really just as simple as Grimmy mistaking the subject? Should I have added this to the Sunday Funnies, instead?

by Kilby

After Thanksgiving is before Thanksgiving

This cartoon by John Jonik was first published in the New Yorker exactly 41 years ago today, but I discovered it too late to add it to the Thanksgiving collection for 2023.

…
The headline above is modeled after a quote by Sepp Herberger, coach of the German national football soccer team: “After the game is always before the [next] game.” Of course, discussing football (of either variety) can sometimes be even more explosive than discussing politics.

Mark H. submitted this XKCD (#2858) last year; although it did get embedded in comments (such as in the No-Politics Zone), it’s still worth a repeat in a post:

…
P.S. The “mouseover” or “title” text reads: “An occasional source of mild Thanksgiving tension in my family is that my mother is a die-hard fan of The Core (2003), and various family members sometimes have differing levels of enthusiasm for her annual tradition of watching it.“

P.P.S. The link to the HuffPost article in the second panel still works (I already typed it in, so that you don’t have to).

…
In Germany, it’s called “Erntedankfest” (literally: “harvest thanks festival”), and is celebrated on the first Sunday in October, but it is primarily an event for the liturgical calendar (both Catholic and Protestant), and is not (generally) celebrated by families at home.

…
Several decades ago, my grandmother just happened to include a leftover bowl of (homemade) mac&cheese on the Thanksgiving dinner table, which resulted in some amused needling from my dad and uncle. However, both my sister and my aunt vigorously defended it, so that for many years thereafter, (fresh) mac&cheese became a standard component of my grandmother’s Thanksgiving menu.

…
The final panel reminded me of the last scene in the song “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses.

No cranberries? Frank and Ernest have suggestions:

by Kilby

Draconian Taxonomics

Tim Harrod submitted this Wizard of Id as a CIDU promptly on the day that it was published, exactly eight months ago today. As Tim put it: “Just a straight-up, no-analysis-possible I Do Not Get It“:

…
I can’t give a definite answer to Rodney’s question, either, but it probably depends on which cultural tradition the Dragon came from.

P.S. One reason that I did not like the Disney movie “Raya and the Last Dragon” is that the dragons were furry (rather than scaly).

by Kilby

Peanuts Redux

The first “Peanuts Day” retrospective ten weeks ago seemed to be reasonably popular, so here is another collection of Peanuts references and parodies, in honor of what would have been Charles M. Schulz’s 102nd birthday.

Back when it was originally published, Aaron submitted this Tom Falco comic, which was part of the 100th birthday tribute:

…
It’s pretty clear that Jason needs what Lucy is selling.

Nomen est omen:

…
This “Cleats” strip was published early in the 2004 season, back when Kevin Brown was still a popular new acquisition for the Yankees, months before he became the notorious losing pitcher in game 7 of the ACLS (which at one point the Yankees had led 3:0). Kevin Brown retired just 16 months later, before the start of the 2006 season; I think Charlie Brown would have understood how he felt.

…
Only one of those three characters on the wall is actually missing.

Mark Parisi frequently references Peanuts in “Off the Mark“. To his credit, he produces extremely accurate renditions of all the characters:

Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it:

Various cartoonists seem to enjoy letting Charlie Brown have his moments of retroactive glory:

Snoopy finally gets his due as well:

If Charlie Brown had only known what was really happening:

And finally: