Category / (Not a Cidu)

by Kilby

Hägar the Enabler

Carl Fink submitted this Hägar the Horrible strip, commenting: “I think this is way too obvious to actually be an Arlo. Is there a category for ‘The Funnies just showed a young couple having sex in front of their neighbors, only slightly off panel’?“

There are a series of fine distinctions related to CIDU Bill’s “Arlo” designation. Carl is absolutely correct in recognizing that this comic does not qualify for an “Arlo Award“, because there isn’t any hidden wordplay, and nothing has been secretly smuggled past the syndicate’s censors; the hot action is right there (to the left of the second panel), for all of us (not) to see.

Whether or not this is “Arlo material” is a matter of subjective opinion. There is nothing objectively offensive about two pairs of underwear, and especially not with such frumpy ones as shown here. I don’t think that even Bill would have thrown this comic into his “Arlo Page” purgatory, and he was especially careful about not wanting to offend even the most sensitive of CIDU readers.

Nevertheless, this example is surprisingly risqué for a syndicated comic, and all the more so for one published by King Features, which in my experience has always been the most “sanitized” of all the syndicates. It also shows that someone else (presumably Gary Hallgren, for lack of any official information) has taken over the writing duties for “Hägar”. I cannot imagine that Dik or Chris Browne would ever have produced a comic like this one (even if their name still appears on it).

If this strip (pun intended) didn’t trigger the KF-censors, then it’s probably because the editor decided that the “sex” is indefinite and unprovable: concerned parents could theoretically explain to their curious kids that the new couple have just changed into their pajamas (to go to Hägar’s bed). The duplicity is psychotic, but that’s the way Americans behave about this subject: remember the “wardrobe malfunction“?

by Kilby

Hunting Vermin

Usual John submitted this Working Cats strip as a CIDU, commenting: “This is a strip about Brooklyn bodega cats, and these are the two central characters. Sula, the older and wiser cat, acts as a mentor to Taki, the kitten. But I don’t get what Sula is doing in the last panel.”

Even though I can explain exactly what is happening in this strip, I wanted to post this as a Comic I Haven’t Seen. Maritsa Patrinos has appeared at CIDU before, but only for her work on “Six Chix” (Fridays, since 2019).

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I think my very first impression may have been the same thing that John thought: that Sula has assumed the same position that she was in when Taki mistakenly attacked Sula as “vermin”. However, what is actually happening is that Sula is calling attention to the real vermin: Taki’s tail. The weakness is that all the symbols surrounding Taki’s head distract from the marks meant to highlight her tail.

P.S. This strip is the first time that I have ever seen the term “vermin” used as a singular noun; I’ve always thought of it as inherently plural.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, October 20th, 2024

Boise Ed submitted this Cornered panel, commenting: “What a great put-down!“

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P.S. A German flasher would hope she says: “That’s gross!“
P.P.S. To which he would then reply: “Dankeschön!“

F.Y.I.: Is everyone is already prepared for the upcoming holiday(s)?

How to tell a fruit from a vegetable:

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Your attitude towards caramelizing may depend on whether you’re the one who does the dishes. Similarly with dishes such as tahdig, “a beautiful, pan-fried Persian rice that is fluffy and buttery on the inside with a perfectly golden crust, which is the layer at the bottom of the pot.” — if you make it right. The first few times might not produce “a perfectly golden crust”.

And we couldn’t leave without a couple of nods to autumn.

The character in the leaf pile is Wallace’s mom:

This one’s from 1962, when leaf burning was still a tradition:

by Kilby

Passing Exactly the Same Gasses

I think that these comics are closer to EWWWs, but DollarBill submitted them as synchronous OYs, commenting “same day, same theme, juxtaposition next to each other in my GoComics daily feed“. The latter is not surprising, given that the titles are alphabetically adjacent to each other:

Blazek’s comic was a brief CIDU for me, but it wasn’t that hard to figure out. If there ever was a feature that GoComics should have renamed for just one day, this was it:

Dan Collins wasn’t taking any chances with misunderstandings: the label on the bubble seems gratuitous and unnecessarily crude, but without it, the color might not have been enough to identify the contents, since he did not indicate the precise location of the source.

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P.S. No matter how it was generated, a bubble that large would have a good chance of capsizing that boat. Aerated water has a much lower density, and cannot support the same weight as normal water, so the vessel sinks. This is a factor with depth charges used against submarines. Even if the explosion itself does not cause a leak, the reduced buoyancy may cause the submarine to fall to a depth where the water pressure is too high, fatally damaging the hull (as happened in the Ocean Gate disaster last year).

by Kilby

Lead Times

Mark H. submitted these three Arlo & Janis strips, commenting: “I don’t know what comic lead times are now (I seem to remember 2-3 weeks), but these comics appeared only eight days [!] after Kris Kristofferson‘s passing. It would be best if the three comics so far this week (Mon – Wed) were posted together.“

P.S. I checked “ArloAndJanis.com“, but all of Jimmy Johnson’s recent posts are just about the relaunch, he hasn’t said anything about lead times or accelerating these strips.

by Kilby

Counting Fingers

Mark H. submitted this Hägar strip for discussion:

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Mark comments: “This is one of the only comics I have seen where the four-fingered cartoon hands were used as part of the joke. But what if he had needed a nine-iron?“

P.S. For the purposes of this discussion, we will ignore the fact that the group appears to be playing a Three Club Challenge, so that asking for a particular iron would be pointless: each player is carrying exactly one wood, one iron, and a putter in his bag. Lucky Eddie has never had a reputation for brilliance.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, October 13th, 2024

Yes, when you say “things can’t get any worse”, it only shows your failure of imagination.

Part of the reason for posting this is that if you subscribe to GoComics, the Sunday lagniappe panel is not included. I don’t understand the reason for this. It’s there in what the syndicate gets. I’m a paying customer. Jef posts it on Facebook, so he clearly wants it out there. Why not show it to me?

Haven’t we always suspected this?

by phsiii

Point of order

BillR offers:

Came across this guy, Cameron Spires, who calls his strip Goat to Self. Most of his are borderline NSFW, or over the line, somewhat surrealistic, or just vague. Can’t figure this one out at all.

This editor posits that the key is that the dolphin (porpoise? beluga?) in the last panel is the defense lawyer, and the objection is to forcing self-incrimination. Mind you, I’m not sure that’s up to the defense lawyer — I think the witness has to invoke that themselves.