Tag / Jef Mallett

by zbicyclist

Sunday Funnies – LOLs – June 1, 2025

He’s gonna need a bigger raft.

JMcAndrew sends this in: “Firstly writing a memo asking for a tooth check is still pretty insane. Wouldn’t this be called an oral or dental exam and be performed by an actual dentist?

Also this isn’t what I expected a toot check to be. This could have been a much more interesting comic if they had the platoon taking turns farting in his face. [probably wouldn’t have made it past the comics editors then -ed.]

Maybe this is why the US army has a mandatory retirement age of 64 for senior officers?”

Ah, but those of us who worked in any bureaucrazy are well aware of something apparently nonsensical coming down from above. Is that really what they meant? Should we just do it as requested, or kick it back up for clarification? How many times can you question the bureaucrazy without getting labelled as a troublemaker?

by zbicyclist

Poorly drawn, or efficient?

They don’t draw them like this anymore. This is a Rex Morgan from 1955.

Or this Buz Sawyer from 1977:

Jef Mallet has some thoughts on the subject (July 10, 2021):

Stephan Pastis and I have been friends quite a while — both Frazz and Pearls Before Swine were in development at the same syndicate at the same time and launched one right after the other in 2001. Stephan occasionally teases me in his strip, mostly via Jef the Cyclist, and once in a great while I tease him back.

Pearls has been a great success. It’s well earned, and I’ve never been jealous of that success. But I have, occasionally, wondered why I was putting all that effort into posing, composing, positioning and shading my characters when, apparently, it’s not really all that necessary. Perhaps an experiment was in order.

So there you go. If nobody notices today, I can forgo the detail work. On the other hand, I’ve already learned from the experiment that it doesn’t save me that much time. It just saves me time spent shading, which then gets poured into other busy work. In other words, I have a problem, but it’s my problem and I might as well make the most of it.

Without shading:

Previous day:

and this recent one — which shows he kept shading (and brings us back into CIDU territory):

Terry Beatty’s 2025 Rex Morgan has a lot less detail than the 1955 version, but still a lot more detail than, say, Pearls Before Swine, as befits a strip that’s still a continuing story rather than a gag strip.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs – April 13, 2025

We haven’t actually seen a star fall in since we invented telescopes, but I have a list of ones I’m really hoping are next.

The opposite of gravity is levity, so of course it’s okay to laugh at black holes.

Is it possible cartoonist Randal Monroe has been watching Philomena Cunk’s mockumentaries?

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies, LOLs – February 23, 2025

Chemgal sent this in as an OY, but we’d already posted it as a LOL. They’re probably right, but it was already here. :)

This reminds me of those ads for PCs in the 1980s, when the first CGA monitors became practical. The ads would proudly show a pie chart, illustrating that the monitor would display colors and could draw a nearly perfect circle. The humor of those ads for me is (1) how many users would ever make a pie chart, and (2) pie charts are seldom the best way to show data.

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – December 28th, 2024

More website ineptitude from GoComics. Make up your own ending. The complete caption (found same day in other places) is at the bottom of this post.

Mark H. and Boise Ed send in another Frazz as a double OY from December 26 (important to understanding the pun): “The first oy is subtle, and depends on your understanding of the English.”

Full caption from the Jim Benton Cartoon:

” I think I’ve fallen in love with you.

Unless that’s not cupid and I’ve just been

shot by a little naked guy.”

It’s an odd choice to have that cartoon appear on December 25, Christmas Day.

by Kilby

Pick a Holiday, ANY Holiday!

This year they all fall so close to one another, it’s hard to keep track.

Or perhaps not:

…
I really doubt that any mohel would be willing to perform 1/8th of a bris.

by Kilby

Caffeine Redux

Some comics feature both tea and coffee, usually preferring the latter, but this comic from a 1902 issue of “Punch” is notable for its impartiality:

…
The passenger’s statement (“Look here, Steward, if this is Coffee, I want Tea; but if this is Tea, then I wish for Coffee”) has been (incorrectly) attributed to a number of people (such as Abraham Lincoln), but it remains unclear who said it first, or whether it was merely composed as a fictional anecdote.

Herman is confronted with an alternative solution:

Buni seems to depict the usual attitude of coffee drinkers towards tea.

Ditto Adam@Home:

Horace has made it clear (multiple times) that he definitely prefers coffee:

…

It’s hard to say which one it easier to prepare (if you care about doing it well):

Sometimes it doesn’t matter, when it’s just for the caffeine:

Each drink has its own particular traditions.

by Kilby

The shortest day of the year…

… will occur tomorrow (well, at least up here in the northern hemisphere):

…
Most countries in the temperate zones have one 23-hour day every year’s calendar, but it falls in Spring, not in Winter.

…
As opposed to both of the “Born Loser” strips, Frazz is referring here to net sunlight, rather than total duration.

P.S. Jef Mallett lives in Michigan, and must be very familiar with how short the days get in northern latitudes. On the other hand, Berlin is located ten degrees farther north than Detroit, so Mallett doesn’t have that much to complain about.

Of course, the shortest day of the year is followed immediately by the longest night: