Category / Bill Bickel

by CIDU Bill

Last Lines [OT]

Since we’ve been talking about endings and finales lately… Any candidates for “final line of a film that people know even if they’ve never seen the film”?

I’m pretty sure “It’s people!” ranks highest on the “People know the final line” > “People who know the movie” ratio.

Probably “Forget it, Jake…” is fairly high as well.

Your thoughts? As you can tell, I’m leaving off the names of the films because we are, after all, discussing their final lines, and you can’t get much more spoilerish than that.

by CIDU Bill

Choose Your Own Finale

retail final

Retail closes its doors tomorrow. I suppose it’s possible that tomorrow’s strip will give us a Calvin/Far Side-level perfect finale, but…

This weekend’s question: How would you end an existing strip? Somebody (Doug Bratton?) drew a “final B.C. strip” in which Jesus is born. Fifty years ago, Mad published a “final Beetle Bailey strip” in which he finally took off his cap and we saw “Get out of Viet Nam” written on his forehead.

I imagine Funky Winkerbean will end with a truck carrying toxic waste exploding, and the entire population of Westview suffering long, painful deaths.

Arlo and Janis retire from whatever the hell they do and move to the shore to be with the kids just in time for Mary Lou to give birth to a baby boy.  Or… Arlo runs off with Lois. It can go either way.

Well, you’re in charge: give our comic strip friends the endings they deserve.

 

by CIDU Bill

Revisiting the FAQ

  • We mostly discuss individual daily comics here. Comments such as “I hate this comic strip and its artist should never be allowed to work in this business again” are not productive. The CIDU page is a place for people who love comics, and the artists deserve respect.
  • I think of this place as my virtual living room, and you all my guests. My guests are welcome to disagree with one another, and with me, but I expect civility.
  • Thread drift is fine, but we steer clear of politics: this is a safe zone.
  • Everybody’s first comment gets sent to Moderation. Once your comment is approved, which should happen fairly quickly, your subsequent comments will sail right through. Except when they don’t, since sometimes the Moderation program flags comments for no apparent reason. In fact, it sometimes randomly picks on a particular person, flagging every one of his or her messages until… it randomly stops doing so.
  • We have a number of categories here other than CIDUs, including the Ewww Files, LOL, and the Arlo Page, for comics you don’t want to explain to your kids. By the way, the Arlo Page is named after Arlo Guthrie. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
  • The Arlo Award, on the other hand, goes to the writer of a syndicated newspaper comic strip who manages to sneak something totally unacceptable past the syndicate’s censors. Obviously this doesn’t apply to Internet-only or self-published comics.
  • The site is updated with a new CIDU every weekday at 12:02am Eastern Time — except for an indefinite period following both “spring forward” and “fall back,” when WordPress is still trying to figure out the time change. Then the comic could go live either an hour earlier or an hour later, pretty much randomly. Don’t ask.
  • Saturday morning is reserved for the Ewww Files or other special categories, and Sunday is the aforementioned LOL collection. Other posts might be scattered throughout the day, but the 12:02am update is a constant.
  • I also run the website for Crime, Justice & America magazine, and I link to any articles I think might appeal to the people visiting CIDU. These always include “CJA” and/or “Crimeweek” in the subject line (except when I forget). Likewise there are the occasional off-topic posts, cleverly labeled “[OT]”
  • We don’t encourage artists to explain their own comics, because they’ve already had their chance to make us understand. Also, it’s more fun this way.
  • Finally, if you have anything to send me, please e-mail it to me at cidubill at gmx.com. Even if you know my personal address, please use this address for submissions: it’s less likely to get lost in the shuffle. When you’re submitting a comic, please (if possible) give me a link to it, and attach it — because sometimes attachments don’t survive the trip, and sometimes links don’t work. I don’t ignore anything, but I’m not as good at keeping current with my e-mail as I might be. This site is my “fourth job,” after all. If you send me something and you don’t want your full name used, sign the e-mail with your first name, or the nickname you commonly use here. Or if you want to be absolutely sure, just add “Call me Bob.” Please don’t expect me to remember from a previous time, because I’m lucky if I remember my own kids’ names.
  • I’m almost certain I’ve left something out here.