Tag / Jim Benton

by zbicyclist

Fourth Wall

Mitch4 sends this in: “Some kind of META, or 4th Wall … The META aspect is that it acknowledges being a comic. The allusion to the Silly Putty tradition of pulling off a layer of ink from the funny papers (and maybe applying it elsewhere, like a rubber stamp), here goes farther and shows us the removal of a layer of his physical body, leaving a skeleton. The artist’s hand reaching in to do this is reminiscent of Escher’s meta practices.”.

Boise Ed sends this in, and wonders: “Is it my imagination, or are cartoonists in general doing a lot more fourth-wall gags recently? This example is more blatant than most, though.”

Not a strong vote of confidence from the cartoonist.

I don’t know the revenue model at Comics Kingdom, but I see Wannabe has 309 followers (those who have make it one of their favorites). A lot of the comics with larger numbers are strips that have been around forever, either with new authors (Blondie, 13.8k; Family Circus 10.6k; Hagar the Horrible 13k) or simply classic reruns (Buz Sawyer 1.6k; Beetle Bailey classics 12.7k)

Newer strips tend to have much lower numbers. (Macanudo, 3k; Todd the Dinosaur 2k; TBD 900).

That’s not a comprehensive list,

Saving you the trouble of looking it up: “Estradiol is a form of estrogen, a female sex hormone that regulates many processes in the body. Estradiol is used to treat menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal changes, and to prevent osteoporosis (bone loss) in menopausal women. Estradiol is also used to treat low estrogen levels in women with ovarian failure. It is also indicated to treat certain types of breast cancer and prostate cancer.”

That last panel is intended to be intentionally confusing, so doesn’t count as a CIDU.

Boise Ed sends this in: “Here’s a different approach to the fourth-wall mania.”

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs September 26, 2026

Bob Ball says this one “appears to lack gravitas”.

Mouseover text: “It does come at the cost of some launchpad expansions and increased fuel requirements, but all that comes out of the facilities budget.”

Mitch4 sends this in: “Well, they don’t even try to handle the “intolerance” part, but even so it was a pretty clever pun.”

Mitch4 sends this in: “Because of whose picture is on which denomination.”

B.C. sometimes has Christian themes, and this one is NOT non-denominational, but we’re posting it anyway.

And while we’re on the subject of George Washington:

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs – February 8, 2026

Not so much an LOL, as food for thought.

Usual John sends part of this series: “In this series, Spud is performing for the Maclellans at breakfast.”

Spud, a neighborhood friend of Wallace, is breaking out of his usual shyness.

by zbicyclist

Halloween CIDUs

… and some non-CIDUs

The joke is clear, if hackneyed by now, but what would the kids tip? A 20% trick?

This execution of the same joke is a bit clearer, since it’s the kid asking for money.

Not so much a CIDU as “way too much work”. Post individual clue solutions in the comments. FYI, complete solution is here.

This one tripped me up, because I assumed a Pumpkin Spice Latte only had the spices used in pumpkin pie. This used to be true: introduced in 2003, Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte contained only the spices, and no pumpkin. That made sense. Who thinks steak sauce has steak in it? or shrimp sauce has shrimp in it? Or awlspice has an awl in it? But, in response to complaints, in 2015 they reformulated to add some pumpkin puree. That was really unnecessary, because a bit of pumpkin puree adds little taste. But this does mean Blazek’s joke actually works.

Not a CIDU, but definitely an Ewww.

Not a CIDU, either, but cute.

And one last nod to Peanuts:

And, finally, an OY

There’s this synchronicity, sent in by Nebulous:

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies, LOLs – March 2, 2025

Background: Amazon, controlled by bald billionaire Jeff Bezos, now owns the Bond movie franchise.

This reminds me of this video from Dr. Glaucomflecken:

[Yes, he is actually a doctor licensed in the US, and has some serious YouTube videos related to his specialty (ophthalmology), but he has a bigger audience for his comedy.]