by zbicyclist

If I Had a Hammer …

Mark H. sends in this Geezer Alert. “The vintage on “This Ole House” is 1954 and “Que Sera Sera” is 1956. It’s not clear that either Arlo or Janis was born then (I picture them as in their mid 60’s now).”

I was confused by Mark H.’s comment until I saw the next day’s comic; the link he sent in was one day off for me when I clicked on it. Here’s the comic Mark H. intended. Treat either or both comics as confusing.

by zbicyclist

When Can You Say You’ve Read the Book?

Opinion time: Is an audiobook reading?

Or, better, when can you say you’ve experienced what the author meant to say?

Book

e-Book

Condensed book (Reader’s Digest used to do these, but stopped in 1997. But there seems to be a revival.)

Graphic novel of the book (e.g. Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower have been done this way)

Audiobook

Condensed audiobook (still around)

Cliff’s Notes

Movie (there are HOW many versions of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol?)

Wikipedia plot summary

There’s a line to be drawn SOMEWHERE, but where do you personally draw it? There also hybrid experiences: A couple of months ago, I got an audiobook of David Copperfield, but then did about 1/3 of the book by reading it. This meant that while I was reading, I was often hearing the voice of the audiobook narrator in my head.

For some of us, it might not be a choice:

by zbicyclist

Saluting Margaret Wade

JMcAndrew asks: “Is there any character in comics treated more unfairly than Margaret Wade? She doesn’t do anything to deserve this.” And sends in these exhibits.


JMcAndrew: “This one where he intentionally walks in on her in the shower is all kinds of wrong.”

There is, of course, the running gag in Blondie in which Dagwood is interrupted in the bath. But that was used so often in lost any prurient effect and just the comic effect remained. And Dagwood somehow was always able to get a towel around critical parts.

by zbicyclist

Sunday Funnies – LOLs – June 8, 2025

JMcAndrew sends this in: “Wouldn’t he be able to see a picture of the person he’s been matched with and probably other identifying information like their age? Also with the prevalence of actual child predators on the internet I’m surprised that the syndicate was okay with this storyline. I know he’s an idiot but this is like when Cartman on South Park tries to meet older men and joins NAMBLA.”

by zbicyclist

Recent or Old?

The New Yorker has a feature called Laugh Lines. The challenge there is to place several cartoons in chronological order. We’re going to play a version of this with pairs of cartoons that appear in the CIDU archives. Each pair will be from the same comic, so style will be a clue. The link with the letter points to the original posting here at CIDU. The years aren’t that far apart, because they only go back to when Bill had to restart the site. I’ve added a couple at the end that aren’t from the CIDU archives and are farther apart.

Pair #1. A:

B:

Pair #2. A:

B:

Pair #3. A:

B:

#4, a triplet (not from CIDU archives)

A:

B:

C:

#5 (not from CIDU archives)

A:

B: