by Kilby

Would you like to look at my etchings?

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.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, September 22nd, 2024

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Yes, yes! One of these guys sold me a “This is not a shirt” tee shirt.

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Unless it was one of these guys! Number five looks very sus!

Boise Ed sent this one in, noting “The robotic lawn mower is just doing what it is supposed to do, right?”

Your editor, drawing from unfortunate personal experiences, sees allusions to the problems caused when one dog is on leash, but another dog is not, or maybe just barking dogs in general. So we’re marking this CIAU (Comic I almost understand)

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – September 21st, 2024

Recently surfaced by Dan Piraro for use in his Naked Cartoonist premium essay series.

And his Bizarro partner Wayno on his weekly blog posts sometimes chooses a panel and shows the changes he made to turn it into the strip version. In this case, the strip had to become a column.

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For both versions, I had a mental-block kind of a problem, as the order of names in the caption does not agree with the placement of the characters in the drawing if taken left-to-right. No, there’s no reason they need to agree, so this is not a criticism, just a note on the mental twitch that left me studying them in puzzlement for a good minute. Anyone else?

by zbicyclist

Many Questions, but not a CIDU

Panel 1 says “Dik Browne”, but both he and son Chris are deceased. Who’s doing the strip now? And with Nancy running with guest artists, is that person one of the guest artists, or someone who wishes they were one of the guest artists? (Note Nancy and Fritzi in panel 4)

I did find this on Comics Beat, in Chris’s obituary: “Following the retirement and death of its creator, Dik’s sons Chris and Chance Browne – plus illustrator and cartoonist Gary Hallgren who has drawn the series since 2015 – took over the reins. Chris’ thirty-plus year tenure on the character (his brother Chance works mainly on the continuation of their father’s other series Hi and Lois but assisted with edits) – from 1989 to 2023 – makes him the strip’s longest serving cartoonist (his father retired in 1988, accumulating 16 years of material).”

On Facebook, a commenter dug deep into his comic archive to find this similar gag from Ernie Bushmiller:

by Kilby

Once again: In memory of CIDU Bill Bickel

Several years ago, Bill commented upon the unusual frequency of “Grim Reaper” comics, and he even held a contest (called “Deathmatch!“) to prove his point.

For this reason, I suggested scheduling the following comic collection for today, the second (now) fourth anniversary of Bill’s extremely untimely passing, in memory of a dear friend whom we all miss terribly, and who (I believe) would have understood this rather unorthodox memorial presentation in the humorous and good-natured fashion in which it is sincerely intended.

It’s simply a shame that Bill never had a chance to read and comment upon these comics with us all.

P.S. The comments are still open: everyone is welcome to read them and all the comics that were added there (currently seven dozen), and to add new ones.

This Strange Brew was contributed by Andréa, originally as an Oy:

Leigh Rubin keeps on returning to the Grim Reaper theme:

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, September 15th, 2024

Grawlix has shared as a CIHS (Comic I Haven’t Seen) this instance, called “What’s New?”, from the strip Poorly Drawn Lines by Reza Farazmand. Grawlix sees them from time to time on Facebook, but the strip also has a website; and warns that “It does contain NSFW language from time to time, unfortunately.” Oh, and we have been unable to establish connections with musician Badly Drawn Boy.

But, another county heard from…

Not quite a CIHS, but truth to tell I’ve been looking at it rather inattentively for a while. This one made me stop, and wonder about the apparent mésalliance. Well, a little rewinding, and checking the “About” blurb, informs us that Little Pig #3’s Girlfriend is Wolfette, and is sister to the actual Big Bad Wolf — who in this retelling is still pretty bad.

Useful among the online comments — “Relationship Status: It’s Complicated”

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – September 14th, 2024

Okay, they can have one now and then!

Two driving comics that arrived in my email inbox on the same 06 September delivery. (The Zack Hill was one in a series about Jan’s assignment to anger management school.)

For a while this felt like it should go somewhere in the “All we needed was the first panel” family of picky categorizations. But then it turns out I would have entirely missed the extra pun, were it not for the final panel telling us exactly what we were missing!