Sent in by Mark H.
(Warning: Arlo Award material)
Well, it’s a double-entendre, so it qualifies, but not at all subtle. The next strip shows LuAnn has chosen a different title, which helps a little.
Earlier, LuAnn did tell Tara that Brad is married, but we didn’t see her disavowing any idea of flirting. Where is this leading? Do we trust Brad?
As we have asked a few times before, Does this Bliss cartoon work better in b/w or in color?
(As we probably have not asked before, Would this comparison slider presentation work better in this side-by-side format or in a vertical division?)
Our own Zbicyclist mentions the resemblance of the b/w paintings above to some works his family saw on a visit to the Fundació Joan Miró (Museum) in Barcelona, which features work by Miró as well as other 20th and 21st Century artists. This shot from the #FundacióMiró Foundation’s Instagram shows a work which was also shown in Zbicyclist’s family visit photo; the dot in the museum is either black or a very dark blue.
But then, don’t you also think “Such peacefulness”?
Perhaps a bit CIDU-LOL?
And another food-centered cartoon (older – you may have seen before):
I can forgive mispelins in comic strips, but the sloppy editing in the regular news (and the sloppy headlines) depress me.
Andréa sends in this update about Mutts:
Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts has a new look: “MUTTS might look a little different to you this week and in the future. If so, it’s because I’ve loosened up my art style, using very little preliminary pencils (in some cases none) and going straight to drawing in ink. It gives the strip more of the power and intimacy of a preliminary sketch, which I love. I’m also freehand lettering the dialogue”
Refusal with very good reason! (Awarded Arlo)
And here is the effect of his overactive pineal:
Back to Bliss!
Okay, either this is not really what I think it is, or it might be eligible for an Arlo Award.
The Bliss humans may be getting a bit more adventurous in their romantic possibilities, as RHP noted in regard to the first example below. They ask “Is this Harry Bliss comic really suggesting a kinky three-some? It was in a family newspaper (The Boston Globe) on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. I notice that it is not showing up on the artist’s website or other comics websites, so I wonder if other editors recognized it as inappropriate.”
Then about a week later, we note the following.
BillR sent this in, asking if there is candidate Arlo-award material here. Which I don’t see a basis for. But we can all wonder together what the Peanuts kids are doing there; what the closed-captions are transcribing; and above all, what’s the joke!
(Fifth batch of these.)
Okay, sometimes CIDU comes down to “I don’t understand how one cartoon can make that many mistakes”.
Carl Fink sent in this Loose Parts and says:
1) I for one read right through the joke on the first pass. I’ve been
reading numbered lists for so long, I don’t actually notice the numbers
any more.
2) Counting is not arithmetic!
And Carl also on this Off The Mark:
Painting with … antigravity pigments?
So would a real painter glue the palette to his hand and then hold it
vertically like that? Wouldn’t the paint run off it? I say “glue”
because he clearly doesn’t have a thumb on the other side, so he can’t
grip it.
Also, why is he wearing a lab coat? That doesn’t look like an artist’s
smock to me.
This Reply All Lite could probably count as Unintentional Arlo Award. Either the artist does not know a very widespread vernacular sense of Johnson, or does not think her readers would make that association and attribute it to these characters.
Pardon my objectionable sick joke! (Which may not be instantly evident, thus the semi-CIDU category.)
Boise Ed sent this in, and says “We have sometimes chatted about colorists, and this A&J blog is the best illustration of that that I have ever seen. (See the text at https://arloandjanis.com/colorful-explanation .)”
Go to that link for Jimmy Johnson’s full account. But we could stand some explication of his closing remark: “And, no, it was not intended to be dirty in the least.” Does anyone else have some surprise reconciling that claim with the Jack Spratt saying?
Sent by Powers and Andréa, as some mash of Arlo, Ewww, and LOL:
Now that we’ve re-instituted the Arlo Award, who should come along needing that classification but Arlo and Janis themselves. (But of course the Award is named for Arlo Guthrie — and we’re sticking to that story!)
But this is also a bit of a CIDU, in need of a little explication.
Thanks to Andréa for this contribution.
Yes, the Arlo Award is still an ongoing operation! (The sequestered Arlo Page site is another matter.) The Award is for a somewhat racy or suggestive comic that by virtue of double entendre or sheer bluff can get past newspaper-oriented standards-and-practices.
This LuAnn Sunday strip was sent in by some CIDU stalwarts, most asking about the Arlo Award category, but one also counting it as a CIDU since the “spicy” reading is not unambiguous. And some have taken it to the GoComics comments thread, for that matter. Thanks to Bob Ball, Findus, Unca $crooge, and Karl.
(By the way, their names are Frank and Nancy.)
Comics I Don't Understand 