In honor of what would have been CIDU Bill‘s 70th birthday, here are a pair of comics that he would never have understood:
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P.S. When I first discovered this strip, I thought that the “60” in the first frame might be a wonderful, serendipitous coincidence, but alas, my math was off by a decade.
In honor of what would have been my grandfather’s eleventy-first birthday, here are some hobbit comics:
Besides the popular candy collection event, today is “Reformation Day” (in honor of Luther’s 95 theses), and here at CIDU it just happens to be Meryl A.’s birthday. Since she hasn’t been able to reschedule her day of honor, we will just have to wish her a very “Happy Birthday!” today.
Halloween is supposed to be a nice, innocent holiday, but some folks misinterpret it:
Then there are others who go really overboard:
Some kids are more scary than others:
Although very dated, this costume is still scary, too:
Scott Adams was certainly not the first author to draw a comic featuring an Etch-A-Sketch, but this classic Dilbert strip (correction: from 1995) remains the standard against which all other attempts must be measured:
This Rose is Rose strip was published nine years earlier (in 1986), but to her credit, at least Rose can tell the difference between the devices:
As computer technology progressed, more recent comics were able to use tablets (instead of laptops), which made the misidentification more believable:
Here’s a handy guide to distinguish between the two:
Of all the strips showing kids using an Etch-A-Sketch as a “real” computer, this Jump Start is my favorite:
Not everyone is so pleased by the idea of image impermanence:
The Off the Mark at the top already appeared at CIDU (on May Day 2023) but Parisi also drew two other comics that are notable for incorporating pseudo-authentic Etch-A-Sketch artwork into the drawing. The first one is truly superb, especially for including the masterful meta-pun on “line”:
This final Off the Mark comic has a fatal flaw (morbid pun intended). The “sketchy” artwork is actually its best feature, but it would have been even better with a pair of round knobs on the monitor. The tragic defect is that the author did not bother to properly credit (or apologize to) André Cassagnes, who was still alive when this comic was published in 2008 (he died just five years later).
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P.S. Today (23-Sep-2024) would have been the inventor’s 98th birthday.
Rather than repeat the elaborate memorial post for CIDU Bill’s birthday, this year I thought we could let one comic say it all:
Abraham Lincoln was one of H.T. Webster‘s personal heroes, and today would have been his 215th birthday. Whenever an appropriate weekday series was scheduled for February 12th, Webster occasionally took the opportunity to draw a birthday tribute. This example (taken from “The Best of H.T. Webster“, page 253) originally appeared in 1919 (on what would have been Lincoln’s 110th birthday):
This video from the Smithsonian Magazine shows a couple of alternate designs that were proposed for the Lincoln Memorial, along with five surprising facts:
1) Lincoln was an accomplished wrestler; and …
2) … is the only President to hold a patent for his own invention;
3) … stored papers in his top hat;
4) … attended seances in the White House; and
5) … established the Secret Service.
I sincerely hope that this strip was meant as a satiric skewering of all the Taylor Swift hoopla, and not as an even semi-serious attempt to get on the bandwagon with everyone else.
P.S. When I first read the strip, I thought Liniers was in the market for the latest and greatest (overpriced) mobile phone, but when I zoomed in on the fourth panel, I discovered that the last word was “plane”. (I really like hand lettering, but now I wonder who does it for the translated version of the strip.)
2021-12-16 Reposting one of the Beethoven’s Birthday posts from last year (when it was his 250th). There were two parts last year, with Part 1 collecting the Peanuts strips over the years dealing with the birthday — we’re not restoring that one right now, but it is in the archive if you need to look it up.
New comments are absolutely welcome!
A bonus posting for Beethoven’s birthday (baptismal record).
Part 1, yesterday, dipped into the history of the Peanuts strip taking note, in various ways in different years, of the occasion. But they weren’t the only ones in the world of cartooning to take note!
But Peanuts does cast a long shadow:
Sent by Andréa.
From Kilby, an on-point musical panel:
The funnies can reference Beethoven without centering on his birthday, of course, as these selections contributed by Olivier illustrate:
Which musical works get into the comics?
As seen above, the Fifth Symphony has long been a source for drinking jokes because of that peculiar fluid volume measure, one fifth (of a gallon, ICYMI). The opening three-and-one is pretty ubiquitous, though probably by now it is pure geezer to connect that with V-for-Victory.
And of course the symphonies can be referenced by number without going into anything about content. Nicknames help — plenty of “The Erotica Symphony”, not too many from “Pastoral”. The Ninth as a whole comes up sometimes, but the Ode To Joy on its own is a beloved perennial for jokes, adaptations, parodies, Flash Mobs, what you will.
I did see a reference (in a Peanuts?) to “Beethoven’s Seven Concertos” which was a rather interesting take, I thought, to make them a group despite the different solo instruments. But it turns out this was probably an allusion to a book, The Seven Concertos of Beethoven by Antony Hopkins (not the actor Anthony) whose choice of that title is less surprising after seeing he also wrote The Nine Symphonies of Beethoven.
The Sonatas come up some, particularly the Moonlight — though did you notice yesterday in the 1957 Peanuts there was even a bit of the score and a reference to the very early F Minor Sonata? This 1952 Peanuts features an excerpt from what may be the Hammerklavier:
and the NYT A&D article by April Dembosky which gave me that strip also gives some context:
In a strip from 1953 Schroeder embarks on an intensive workout. He does push-ups, jumps rope, lifts weights, touches his toes, does sit-ups (“Puff, Puff”), boxes, runs (“Pant, Pant”) and finally eats (“Chomp! Chomp!”). In the last two panels he walks to his piano with determination and begins playing furiously, sweat springing from his brow.
I was wondering at the absence of the quartets, but then this image of a Thong Quartet came in:
The perhaps surprising high-frequency champ seems to me to be that wonderful Bagatelle “Für Elise”! (And this first example even elevates its significance. Despite being really lovely, it is after all, a mere bagatelle.)
And how about second-order references — cartoons about other treatments of Beethoven in popular culture? I was expecting, and saw a good many, references to the use of “Für Elise” as a ringtone. But I was quite unprepared for the allusions to a movie (and sequels!) called Beethoven and featuring a dog who bears that name!
Contributed by Olivier (who may be able to clarify if that apparently nonstandard French is a particular identified variant or just what a kid might spell.)
Some interest in his general history and biography:
And it’s good to see, in cartoon format, a genuine educational interest in serious history and biographical fact!
(Several uncredited individual images above contributed by Olivier.)
How confusing! It seems the prompt “If Beethoven were alive today, he’d probably be a jazz fan” and the picture would be coming from a fan of both LvB and Miles Davis. But then the take-it-back line about being old seems to be a put-down of both Beethoven and jazz as a genre.
But it should be no surprise that jazz musicians are fans of Beethoven. There are at least two albums of jazz variations on one movement of Beethoven’s, the Allegretto from Symphony No. 7.
Possible Part 3 tomorrow? : Let’s see what contemporary cartoon series had to say on the big 250th birthday date!
Nope, nothing of note! But feel free to comment with relevant comics that were overlooked!
A bonus posting for Beethoven’s (probable) birthday.
In 1953 and 1954 the characters’ appearance were still forming. Schroeder was into his fandom, but Lucy was not intervening yet.
By 1957, Schroeder was sharing his enjoyment with Lucy, but she was not on board.
A 1958 series starts here with non-birthday Beethoven content and on the 16th shows Lucy trying to share in the joy.
And Lucy is an enthusiast by 1959, with this series starting way back on the 09th of December, and almost replicating her naming gaffe before erupting in a fine Lucy-rant and then pushing ahead without concern for the possibility of error:
In 1970 it was a very round anniversary of LvB’s birth, the 200th! Schroeder and Lucy of course noted the occasion. (With colorized reruns from 2017.)
The current series, started on 09 December 2020 , is of course NOT reflecting the 250th anniversary, since these are not new cartoons. But they are echoing, colorized, a sequence from 1973, which concluded with this unfathomable remark – makes you wonder if there was some sort of wrong-headed Wagner-based controversy going on:
Tomorrow: Other Beethoven-centered cartoons, not from Peanuts and mostly not even birthday-themed.
(Credits for portrait at top: By Joseph Willibrord Mähler – http://www.beethovenseroica.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=839673)
Comics I Don't Understand 