Category / CIDU-by-parts

by Kilby

Astronomical Golfing Errors

Jack Applin submitted this B.C. strip as a CIDU, noting that “Grog hit the ball to … Saturn? Let’s ignore the [80 minute] light speed delay [one way!]. What is that film around the planet and rings? Atmosphere? But Saturn is a GAS GIANT — all that we see is atmosphere inside the rings!“

The obvious astronomical destination would have been a black hole, but that would have been impossible to convey to readers, and the closest known black hole is 1500 light years away.

My guess is that Mason chose Saturn because it is the only planet that could possibly be recognized in comic strip resolution. Most papers that still print daily comics do so in monochrome, which could seriously deteriorate the carefully shaded images in the first three panels.

P.S. Just a week later, a very similar gag appeared in The Wizard of Id:

Both strips have a long history of using golf gags, but a little more temporal separation between these two might have been advisable.

by Kilby

Getting progressively older

This Baby Blues strip was published back in early May (when the tulips really were in bloom), then MyActualRealName submitted it as a CIDU in early June, so it seems perfectly appropriate to post it here in early August:

M.A.R.N. commented: “Isn’t Hammie like six, and will have seen her like this about her tulips, and when toothpaste is on sale, many times?”

Perhaps, but I think the authors just didn’t have any other option, since the resident “baby” (Wren) is only about two years old, and thus far too young to deliver Hammie’s the reaction in the third panel. In addition, since the characters have been getting older (but only very slowly), it might be difficult to preserve exact consistency to their “current” ages. I don’t follow “Baby Blues”, so I can’t judge how well the continuity has been handled in the past.

by Kilby

The difference between the men and the boys…

Tim Harrod submitted this “Wizard of ID” strip, noting that “…the writer seems to think that Moses was a wizard“. I sure hope that the theology in B.C. isn’t starting to leak over into the Kingdom of Id.

I think the joke in the final panel is clear, but I don’t understand the gag in the second “throwaway” panel, unless it’s a topical reference to some scene in a movie. The part I liked best was the snide adjective in the fifth panel: “adult” appears to be referring to the juvenile wizards in Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books, who all use dinky little wands instead of “manly” staves. On the other hand, the Wizard’s traditional implement has always been one of those wands, as we saw in the “I’m stumped” post just last month:

by Kilby

A Nasal Asynchron-Ewwwcity

There’s nothing very mysterious about this Wallace the Brave strip (it does help to be familiar with Spud’s somewhat odd personality):


However, that strip reminded of a “Win, Lose, Drew” comic from mid-December:


I seriously doubt that Drew Litton was referring to a specific player, but most of his comics do refer to current sports events. Were there an unusual number of overly “picky” offsides penalties this year? Or was there some other football incident to which this comic is referring?

by Kilby

What’s in a Name?


This Ink Pen rerun from February 2010 just happened to appear on New Year’s Day 2024. I can recognize the cartoon sources for all of the names mentioned by Hamhock, but I can identify only one of Ralston’s examples (the last one: “Goolagong“). I assume that most of the rest would yield relatively quickly to a concerted Internet search, but that’s not what I want to know. Is this a “geezer” and/or “millennial” issue? How many of those twelve names in the first three panels are obvious to the rest of you?