Hinches sends this in: “I think it has to do with the doughnuts being the crime scene, The white circles were drawn by the cop with the white marker in his hand around the alleged dropped donuts. The look on his face seems to suggest after drawing the circles, either he or both of the cops explaining what happened ate the evidence. However, why is the ground under the white circles so dark? Does that have some meaning?”
Mitch4 sends this in: “Somewhat disappointing that at the end he seems to give up at disguising the names when he just outright names the presidential libraries.”
I’m missing whatever’s hidden in “I’m just saying I’m going to forbid encampment anyways ’til this is done.” The phrasing seems Taylor-made for having some president hiding.
Mitch4 sends this in: “A spelling-based pun, with the extra step that a ringing telephone doesn’t actually emit the word “RING”.”
Yes, it’s still hot here in Editorland. But the big problem is smoke, and the Air Quality Index (AQI) not the heat index (although it’s still hot). I cancelled a bike ride I was supposed to lead yesterday when the AQI got over 200 — very unhealthy — and the visibility was limited by smoke. But I had no idea how much worse it was going to get.
At 2:39 p.m. it looked as though the scale was near a maximum. It looks like it maxes out at 600 from the scale shown. I’d never seen it anywhere near this high.
But as it turns out, it could get even higher:
Luckily, I could shut all the windows, turn on the air purifier and AC, and chill out. Otherwise, I’d need to hunt up my leftover N95 masks.
The cartoonists at the New Yorker were quick to post on this issue:
Straightforward, if not funny:
But what about those papers that might print 4-panel Nancy as a 2×2?
or some other orientation?
In earlier days, Bushmiller would sometimes do a 3 panel, but in the examples I looked at the third panel was double-width, so it would still fit within a 2×2 orientation. But perhaps the number of papers who might be affected is approaching 0.
Marrose sent this in. Yes, we ran it a few weeks ago.
Mark H. sends this in: “If there’s actually a wall at all.”
In honor of CIDU Bill (Bill Bickel — and definitely not Idiot Bill Bickel) here’s a bit of a tribute:
Usual John sends this in: “I can’t help thinking of Idiot Bill Bickel, and the name Bilden Bickworm makes me think that may not be just coincidence. FYI for those who have not been following CIDU for years: Idiot Bill Bickel was (and presumably still is) a real estate agent who had the same name as CIDU Bill (the original moderator of this website) and inexplicably sometimes gave people CIDU Bill’s email address instead of his own.”
(This was posted as a LOL some months ago; it seems appropriate to repeat it here)
Found on the internet, with some speculation about its origin. One theory is that it was Ernie Bushmiller’s cheat sheet, so he could be consistent in his expression of various emotions. Another person speculated that he could use this for some early version of cut-and-paste, in particular to save time with that hairdo. Perhaps it was in some guide for young cartoonists to help them learn to express emotions, and Nancy was just a familiar face to use.
The CoPilot AI engine covers most of these bases:
“Bushmiller developed this chart as a reference sheet cataloging facial expressions for Nancy, his iconic character known for her deadpan humor and minimalist design. Each numbered face corresponds to an emotion or reaction, helping Bushmiller (and later artists) maintain consistency in Nancy’s look while conveying a wide range of feelings.
The chart circulated among cartoonists and illustrators as an example of how to express emotion economically — a hallmark of Bushmiller’s style.
It likely dates from the mid‑20th century, when Bushmiller was refining Nancy’s visual language for syndication.”
Nancy has had several different authors:
Ernie Bushmiller (1938–1982)
Al Plastino (1982–1984)
Mark Lasky (1982–1983)
Jerry Scott (1983–1995)
Guy and Brad Gilchrist (1995–2018)
Olivia Jaimes (2018–2025)
Caroline Cash (2026–)
Larry Whittington began Fritzi Ritz in 1922 and turned the strip over to Bushmiller in 1925, but Nancy didn’t appear in that strip until 1933. The strip was renamed Nancy in 1938.
This brings up the controversial issue of when to let a comic strip die. At one end, we have Bill Waterson (Calvin and Hobbes), who ended the strip and avoided licensing. Just after we have Gary Larson, who ended The Far Side, but has mined his old material for licensing purposes and attempted to keep others from using it. This included asking CIDU to remove Far Side strips from our archives. We did this, but a glance across the internet shows many Far Side groups continually popping up like weeds in my lawn.
Then there are strips that have been transitioned to family members: Hagar the Horrible, for example, or Family circus, or Luann, now with Greg and Karen Evans listed as authors.
In the middle, I guess, are strips that are popular in reruns: Peanuts, and for that matter Classic Nancy, which recycles Ernie’s material.
At the far end of this spectrum are strips like Nancy, which shows several sets of authors over time, each with their own take on the characters (Fritzi is now bisexual) and with variation in drawing styles.
And on a very slightly related note, perhaps Dave Coverly should have her cycle through all 54 of them.
