Tag / Bill Bickel

by Kilby

CIDU Bill LXX

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.

by zbicyclist

Be Kind

Due to one editor being on vacation this week, we’re going to imitate the comics by repeating some classics. This one is from June 2018, by Bill

be kind

B.A.: Okay, so… a comic about the future that uses what’s already a Geezer reference (Blockbuster/VHS tapes). But I still don’t understand what the joke’s supposed to be.

Though the Cow pinch-hitting for the Squirrel does give us a passable “Oy”.

by Kilby

Bonus: Tenacious persistence

GiP submitted this B.C. strip, which doesn’t really fit into any category. It’s not funny enough for an LOL, and not puzzling enough for a CIDU: all the gag says is that Thor is hard-headed: he’s willing to endure any adversity to catch his fish, including unnecessarily repetitive waves in the first two panels, and ridiculously improbable starfish slapstick in the third panel. Even the destruction of his boat did not deter him.

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I wonder what Clumsy Carp would have thought about this.

P.S. Despite all its weaknesses, here’s a B.C. re-run from exactly two years ago:

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Why the re-run? Discovering this strip in the submissions archive reminded me of a comment that Bill Bickel wrote in May, 2020, and attached to “Dynamo” (01-Jan-2023): “So greetings from Month Three of the Coronavirus Lockdown. I hope everybody made it through okay to the other side.“

Alas: no.

by CIDU Bill

The Sultan Gets Swatted [OT]

Kilby writes: I have no idea where Bill found this image, but he saved it in a miscellaneous draft back in 2019, and I figured that it would be appropriate to post it on the 100th anniversary of the event:

ruth

Bill was a dedicated baseball fan; he later said that he would have been interested in seeing an amateur game during his visit to Berlin in 2017, but in retrospect it would have been very difficult to find one (then or now).

P.S. In recent baseball news, The Daily Cartoonist posted a nice (if slightly repetitive) collection of cartoons commemorating the death of Willie Mays.

by CIDU Bill

Ben and His Marks

ben marks

Kilby writes: This is another one of CIDU Bill’s old drafts from 2019. The reference was so obscure that it might have been suitable for the authors to include their running gag with “Horace”, except that there would not have been enough space for that in a daily strip. (For those interested in background information, most of the sources that I was able to find listed the name as “Benjamin Marks“).

by Kilby

Robin Bickel Redux

Even though Hanukkah is already over, Robin still has a number of Zak’s cards left over, and she wanted me to remind CIDU readers that she is not “re-using” the recipient list(s) from past years. So, if you would like a (belated) card for this year, you need to supply your (postal) address in a new e-mail, sent to “robinbickel (at) gmail.com“. Please put “CIDU” in the subject line.

Anyone who would like to may also send Robin a holiday card.
Mail them to 43 Peace Rd, Randolph, NJ 07869.