This “Barney & Clyde” strip was submitted by Usual John:
I think the gag is that the strip itself does not have (and does not need) a gag, but I’m sure there are other possible explanations.
I went hunting to see if there were any other worthwhile April Fools’ strips, but was sorely disappointed. Almost all of the “standard” setups simply showed one character playing a typically lame practical joke on someone else. The best strips were those few that elevated the humor with some sort of “meta” component. Here are a few examples:
(I especially liked this “Thatababy” strip because this year, my daughter decided to rearrange the silverware drawer as an April Fools’ joke. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, because we all just assumed that she had forgotten the usual arrangement.)
Saturday, July 8th, 2023 would have been Bill Bickel’s 68th birthday; therefore: in his absence, and in his honor: Mazel tov! (מזל טוב)
Bill’s own tradition for the occasion was to create an elaborate “24-Hour Project”, with a new CIDU post timed to appear every hour throughout the day. Partly because these birthday comics are not CIDUs, but mostly because it would have been far too much effort just for a little structural nostalgia, this entire collection has been gathered into a single list (but is divided into appropriate categories).
If you have a favorite birthday comic, please feel free to add it in a comment!
The “featured image” at the top of this post shows Albert, Porky Pine, Beauregard Bugleboy, Bun Rab, Pogo, and Howland Owl doing a “Birthday Dance”, but the anonymous bug appended to the right isn’t actually singing: he appeared in a series of memorial tributes that Walt Kelly drew in the 1950s for his daughter Kathryn Barbara, who died shortly before she would have had a chance to enjoy her first birthday cake. Given that we are celebrating the birthday of a dearly beloved, but departed friend, I thought the image was very appropriate. For more information, see the Daily Cartoonist’s article about the Day of the Little Angels.
P.S.I would like to thank all of the CIDU Editors for their input, assistance, and constructive suggestions, but especially Phil, who took my rough template and laid the foundation for a much better design (and he also documented all the author and strip names in the tags).
The first Peanuts strip in this collection doesn’t fit into any category, because it has a singular “birthday” significance; it was originally published on Friday, July 8th, 1955 (the day that Bill Bickel was born):
Schulz never depicted any adults (and only very rarely mentioned any of the parents) in Peanuts.
Remembering
With a few notable exceptions, this 1971 strip predates almost everything in this collection by more than two decades.
…even if he did rip the flower right out of her own garden.(Note: other than Stahler’s “pickleball” comic from 2023, this 2018 Marmaduke is the newest item in this entire collection.)
He should be comforted to learn just how much Rat thinks of him.
Cakes & Cards
That cake must have been pretty tough to hold together like that.
Snoopy suffered a whole series of cat attacks in the 1970s, but this was one of the best.
For Bill we would need a pair of 34s, or (more likely) a 50 and an 18.
Parties
Only the Peanuts and Doonesbury strips are older than this Calvin & Hobbes strip.
Does this mean that they would rather celebrate the day he got laid?
This Peanuts strip (from 1951) is the only one in this collection that predates Bill’s birth.
Presents
Apparently Andy had already quit smoking 20 years ago, but he and Flo were still indulging in violent spouse abuse.
Bill had trouble understanding feline behavior, so this might have been a CIDU for him.
Garfield only rarely acts like a real cat, so Bill wouldn’t have any trouble here.
After all that trouble to escape, even his visit is no longer a surprise.
Color might have made this “Liō” strip easier to understand (each stack should be a different pastel shade), but Tatulli may have been going for the “dawning realization” effect.
Geezerhood
If you cannot move the ball, just change the position of the goal posts.
One of the many running gags in Garfield is that he hates birthdays.
This appeared just in time to be included here; it’s also the only comic in this memorial collection that was published within the last three years (in other words: since Bill passed away).
Technology
This category seems more tragic than funny.
Mobile telephones can generate automatic reminders, so nobody really has to bother remembering birthdays any more.
This is the only Sunday strip in this collection.
This 2007 strip predates the widespread availability of 3D printing technology.
Here are a few laughs from maggiethecartoonist, including a couple of Garfields:
Since the latest Windows 11 update, the face recognition to automatically sign me in to my PC has been hit-and-miss, and yes, it IS worrying me! (zbicyclist)
Basic Instructions went on a pause of new comics in 2015 and GoComics ran only reruns, for several years. Earlier this year (I think) he brought it back, after trying out a few new strips and making a few alterations to the style and framing. IMO the new run is going well! ==mitch
One aspect that changed was that he aged the appearance of several characters. This image below is one GoComics uses in the corner of their page for this comic. The guy on the left is of course Scott himself, and comparing the old version lets us note that the new version has gained the glasses, the graying beard, and something of a belly under that same black tee shirt. (The person on the right is a different character in the two cases.)
Scott Metzger revisits a comic he did ten years ago. We were going to save it for next week’s OY list, but then realized it should be squeezed in for Fathers’ Day.
Some content on this page was disabled on July 27, 2023 as a result of a DMCA takedown notice from FarWorks, Inc. You can learn more about the DMCA here:
https://wordpress.com/support/copyright-and-the-dmca/
Some content on this page was disabled on February 22, 2024 as a result of a DMCA takedown notice from David Waisglass and Gordon Coulthart. You can learn more about the DMCA here:
https://wordpress.com/support/copyright-and-the-dmca/
Thanks to maggiethecartoonist for sending this in and posing the question, what exactly is a Snitch Burger supposed to be?
If you browse the Garfield archive from around this date, Jon has been regaling Garfield with tall tales from his family history, some of the strips involving this photo album or diary or scrapbook. But there is no more story about this young Mr Snitch (if that is actually his surname and not a descriptive moniker); and the idea of a carnivorous cow transmitting the snitchness into their eventual beef comes out of nowhere.
After the Dog Days of August, shouldn’t we have the Cat Days of September? Yes, this is an entirely made-up term, but it’s an excuse to post a few cat-related cartoons and see some of the various ways cats are portrayed in comics. Here’s a couple of Business Cats from LarK:
Garfield is possibly the most popular cartoon cat, so here’s one that may be a bit more timely than most, since ketchup’s been in the news lately.
This Get Fuzzy almost deserves a geezer tag, since soccer is now much more popular in the U.S. than it was a few decades ago and most of us can appreciate the action (or, at least, the theatrics of players barely touched pretending they are severely wounded).
A+? Who cares!
And what long-time cat owner hasn’t had one or two who preferred to stay hidden?
But at the other extreme we have the lively and intrusive cuties of Breaking Cat News:
No tour of various ways cats make their way into comics would be complete without one from B. Kliban.
That’s 8; we’ll leave our cartoon cats with one of their 9 lives left.
Sent in by J-L, who says “It involves Jon trying to trick Garfield into taking a pill, and how Garfield tries to frustrate Jon’s plans. My family laughed at this because recently we have been trying to feed a pill to our dog, Honey Bun. While the first few times were successful (it was easy to hide the pill in some delicious food of some sort), eventually Honey Bun got wise to our efforts and would spit out the pill, no matter how delicious the food was.” We agree, it is good to see Jon getting the better of Garfield now and then.
In another main segment of the domestic companion-animal kingdom, here is a dog who knows a lot but not everything:
This RWO was sent in by Le Vieux Lapin, who says “An LOL? An OTW? At the very least it’s a bit more off the wall than I expect from Hilary Price.”
I was a bit dithery over whether it could be considered a CIDU. But if there is somebody not familiar with Tetris it might briefly be a CIDU for them; but would not hold up for a day’s discussion.
Although I saw immediately that it was doing Tetris, I didn’t catch that the word PETRIS was reflecting that there are domestic pets in the scene. I thought for a second that the PETR- was the key part, and was using the Greek-derived stem for “rock” or “stone” — so that the falling tetris pieces would turn out made of stone, and were on their way to a destructive crash. Nice relief that they are pets and end up cozily tucked in.
The Arnold Zwicky blog has remarked on this cartoon twice, once yesterday when it was reprinted ( https://arnoldzwicky.org/2021/10/10/enduring-classics/ ) and once in 2010 when it first appeared ( https://arnoldzwicky.org/2010/04/11/another-playful-portmanteau/ ) Zwicky seems surprised that people today are still quite familiar with Tetris, and that is the main subject of yesterday’s column. [Oh wait, I should be saying “last Sunday’s blog” not “yesterday’s”; though I am writing this bit on Monday 2021-10-11.]
The first two panels are so familiar as a turnabout joke, with a variety of particular punch lines, its nice to see Horace coming up with something different.
Comics I Don't Understand 