Diamond Lil seems to do a pun every day. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t from time to time pick out some striking ones to recognize.
This OY-Ewww was suggested by Maggiethecartoonist, who points out that the apparent Ewww element is based on a misunderstanding of what happens in what the Romans termed a vomitorium.
Nice, the way the at-first-hidden generalized your makes the whole thing work.
We had marked “Unintended Arlo” but really now, how can that not be meant?
From BillR, who gets the awkward part but not the “whole milk” reference. Yes, ofc we know what whole milk is, but what calls for that label here?
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!
Today’s CIDU appears not in this post, which is visible at the “front page” , but at a separate “Arlo Page” that is not accessed unintentionally — though all you need do is follow that link. That’s because it’s arguably (barely) NSFW, as the drawing of the comic includes a (tasteful) nude. It’s this Monday’s Lay Lines by Carol Lay.
And also, frankly, because we just wanted to try out this mechanism for placing the theoretically provocative comic on a Page within this same CIDU site, as we cannot place it on the external Arlo Page site that CIDU Bill used for that purpose.
If you drop in over there, and read Bill’s intro to the Arlo Page idea and the different Arlo Award concept, that may answer questions you had about the distinction. As implied there, “Arlo Award” is a label applied to a comic entered on this site, in the main flow of Posts, and not a sign that it is hidden from unintentional eyes, like “Arlo Page” items.
While we’re at it, Bill’s intro on the aforementioned external Arlo Page site also has this to say about Arlo Award: The Arlo Award goes to a cartoonist who sneaks something blatantly inappropriate past the syndicate’s censors. Obviously this doesn’t apply to Internet-only or self-published comics. But nowadays there is little that literally qualifies as subject to potential censorship in that same sense, so we are modifying the definition:
An Arlo Award label (tag or category, don’t fuss) can go to “A comic with somehow ‘racy’ or provocative content, which successfully disguises that aspect, particularly through double entendre. And regardless of the actual publication history and whether or not there was actual censorship potential.”
(Comments are open here and at the referenced page. This might be the better place for discussion of the above Arlo policies / definitions and attempted solutions, while comments on the page with the actual cartoon might be a better place to discuss what’s going on in that comic.)
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.)
Comics I Don't Understand 