Boise Ed sends this in: “I’m guessing that this — FBI collared shirt, straitjacket, ramen noodles. –pertains to some slasher movie.
“GoComics has apparently removed commenting from this strip. I also note that since their remodeling, one cannot get a dated URL by going to yesterday’s and then back to today’s; one has to go to yesterday’s, copy that URL, and then manually change the date. Humpf.”
OK, so due to her first marriage she’s put the groom (from marriage #1?) into the side of the cake. But why take these feelings out on groom #2 on their wedding day?
Lopes has an idea here, a link to either Native American burial grounds or elephant graveyards. But somehow I’m bothered by the elements. Stone tombstones floating? Who puts up the tombstones? Why would a ship pass through this unsafe area? Are whales Christian?
Elephant graveyards are said to be a myth, although when I visited Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania the guide showed us one. It was suspiciously close to a road, so I suspect this may have been where they would haul dead elephants, or maybe the result of poaching for ivory. Guides are, of course, always looking for a good story to tell the tourists.
Dead whales usually sink to the bottom, where they can become whale falls, an ecosystem supported by the dead whales. Since they are whale falls, does this mean whales tend to die in autumn?
But while we’re on the topic of graveyards, this non-CIDU was farther down in my comics feed:
Mark H. sends this in: “I think he meant Achilles tendon. I don’t think “Achilles heel” is a medical term…”
JMcAndrew sends this in: “I think Dennis is only supposed to be at the most 5 or 6 years old. He seems kind of young to be having sex talk with, also what did his father say to him that confused him like this?”
JMcAndrew sends this in: “I don’t ever eat them myself but is this an actual problem that people who do eat sardines encounter? Sardines have tiny bones so I don’t think people are using them for sandwiches either.”
Your editor remembers his father-in-law, of Norwegian ancestry, eating sardines on toast regularly. He lived to be 95 years old, so perhaps the calcium from all those sardine bones kept his bones strong. But I don’t recall problems with the sardines sliding out.
This also leads to a consideration of what can go well in a peanut butter sandwich. Jellies and jams for sure. Marmalade and honey are close relatives. Raisins are also a sweet touch. Peanut butter and dill pickle chips, or peanut butter and sauerkraut are good for a savory change of pace. I’ve never tried a peanut butter and sardine sandwich. Any other nominees?
Dirk the Daring sends this in: “I have no idea why Garfield (in black and white?) would care about a Disneyland anywhere, let alone Abu Dhabi. I have no idea whatsoever what this is about. What am I missing?”
Danny Boy sends this in: “Not entirely true of *this* Danny”.
They don’t draw them like this anymore. This is a Rex Morgan from 1955.
Or this Buz Sawyer from 1977:
Jef Mallet has some thoughts on the subject (July 10, 2021):
Stephan Pastis and I have been friends quite a while — both Frazz and Pearls Before Swine were in development at the same syndicate at the same time and launched one right after the other in 2001. Stephan occasionally teases me in his strip, mostly via Jef the Cyclist, and once in a great while I tease him back.
Pearls has been a great success. It’s well earned, and I’ve never been jealous of that success. But I have, occasionally, wondered why I was putting all that effort into posing, composing, positioning and shading my characters when, apparently, it’s not really all that necessary. Perhaps an experiment was in order.
So there you go. If nobody notices today, I can forgo the detail work. On the other hand, I’ve already learned from the experiment that it doesn’t save me that much time. It just saves me time spent shading, which then gets poured into other busy work. In other words, I have a problem, but it’s my problem and I might as well make the most of it.
Without shading:
Previous day:
and this recent one — which shows he kept shading (and brings us back into CIDU territory):
Terry Beatty’s 2025 Rex Morgan has a lot less detail than the 1955 version, but still a lot more detail than, say, Pearls Before Swine, as befits a strip that’s still a continuing story rather than a gag strip.
Boise Ed sends this in as a “CIDU, sort of”: “Why is this funny? It sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately, the drawing makes them way too thick for Oreos. They look more like ice-cream sandwiches. Yum.”
There do seem to be such a thing as giant Oreos, and a suggested use is ice cream sandwiches.
Comics I Don't Understand 