Author / zbicyclist

by zbicyclist

Fourth Wall

Mitch4 sends this in: “Some kind of META, or 4th Wall … The META aspect is that it acknowledges being a comic. The allusion to the Silly Putty tradition of pulling off a layer of ink from the funny papers (and maybe applying it elsewhere, like a rubber stamp), here goes farther and shows us the removal of a layer of his physical body, leaving a skeleton. The artist’s hand reaching in to do this is reminiscent of Escher’s meta practices.”.

Boise Ed sends this in, and wonders: “Is it my imagination, or are cartoonists in general doing a lot more fourth-wall gags recently? This example is more blatant than most, though.”

Not a strong vote of confidence from the cartoonist.

I don’t know the revenue model at Comics Kingdom, but I see Wannabe has 309 followers (those who have make it one of their favorites). A lot of the comics with larger numbers are strips that have been around forever, either with new authors (Blondie, 13.8k; Family Circus 10.6k; Hagar the Horrible 13k) or simply classic reruns (Buz Sawyer 1.6k; Beetle Bailey classics 12.7k)

Newer strips tend to have much lower numbers. (Macanudo, 3k; Todd the Dinosaur 2k; TBD 900).

That’s not a comprehensive list,

Saving you the trouble of looking it up: “Estradiol is a form of estrogen, a female sex hormone that regulates many processes in the body. Estradiol is used to treat menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal changes, and to prevent osteoporosis (bone loss) in menopausal women. Estradiol is also used to treat low estrogen levels in women with ovarian failure. It is also indicated to treat certain types of breast cancer and prostate cancer.”

That last panel is intended to be intentionally confusing, so doesn’t count as a CIDU.

Boise Ed sends this in: “Here’s a different approach to the fourth-wall mania.”

by zbicyclist

Nana!

Mitch4 sends this in as a momentary CIDU: “Does his exclamation of “Nana! Nana! Nana! …” convey anything besides greeting his grandmother? Maybe. Somehow the musical theme from the 1960s TV series of Batman has developed a conventionalized way of humming/singing it, and of writing that, using the syllables “Nanananana..””

This is definitely not what’s being alluded to by Whamond, but this reminds me of a baseball chant. Here’s longtime White Sox organist Nancy Faust with “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Good-bye”, sung by the stadium crowd to taunt an opposing pitcher as they are being yanked from the game.

And the original:

by zbicyclist

Egging Them On

Yes, we don’t really do synchronicities any more, but these two were right next to each other in my GoComics feed.

It’s also interesting because the Wizard of Id comic seems outdated: eggs are one of the few items that have come down in price since early 2025, since the flocks that were decimated by bird flu have recovered. A Google image search doesn’t return any earlier version, so I don’t think it’s a rerun.

Above graph is from U.S. Egg Prices (1980-2026)

by zbicyclist

Remembering P. C. Vey

P. C. Vey died recently. The biography on his website notes ” He sold his first cartoon to The New Yorker in 1993 and has been a regular contributor since. His work has been published in Harvard Business Review, Barron’s, National Lampoon, Playboy, AARP Bulletin, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.”

But he also did quite a bit of work for Mad Magazine (list here). A curious omission. I am reminded of the ex-priests from my seminary days, some of whose obituaries fail to mention their decades as Catholic priests, an omission that seem clearly intentional from the other information included in their obituary. But Mad is certainly better known for fine comic humor than, say, Barron’s, and, in my opinion, nothing to ignore. But perhaps there’s more to this omission than I know.

This one would certainly have fit into Barron’s:

Tom Toro and Asher Perlman, fellow New Yorker cartoonists, posted some favorites as a tribute:

This one’s in the current issue of The New Yorker:

by zbicyclist

Aslant

Jack Applin sends this in: “Aslant? In what way is Edda aslant? (aslant: in a slanting direction : obliquely) She is absolutely upright. This being 9 Chickweed Lane, the answer involves sex. Panels 5 and 6 focus on her middle region, as does his eyeline. She hasn’t cocked her hip. Are her lady parts somehow aslant, and revealed by her short dress? Also–her mother?”

by zbicyclist

Dino

Targuman sends this in: “I’ve got nothing. I can’t understand it as a pun, visually it doesn’t make sense, it’s a dinosaur, but it’s breathing fire like a dragon? Anyone? Or is this just a humorous drawing that he put a title on?”

CIDU eschews politics and religion, but I’m not sure this is really religion. If the explanation offends someone’s religious beliefs, your editor apologizes. If there’s a follow-up of Mohammed as a dinosaur, for sure we’re not posting that!

Even for Lug Nuts, which tends to the surreal, this one is odd. Any guesses?

Another Lug Nuts example: it depends more on unusual images, and isn’t a typical gag strip: