Several years ago, Bill commented upon the unusual frequency of “Grim Reaper” comics, and he even held an informal submission contest to prove his point.
For this reason, I suggested scheduling the following comic collection for today, the second 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 real shame that Bill could not have had the chance to read and comment upon these comics with us all.
Michael Kilby
This Strange Brew was contributed by Andréa, originally as an Oy:
Leigh Rubin keeps on returning to the Grim Reaper theme:
Thanks to Le Vieux Lapin for this one, which is some sort of word-play on language-related terms, so what is there not to oy?
For Argyle Sweater, one bad pun deserves another. The actual Pony Express is famous, but only existed for a short time, from from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861. Pricing didn’t help (The initial price was set at $5 per 1⁄2 ounce, then $2.50, and by July 1861 to $1. Normal mail service was $0.02 then.). The service continually lost money, and closed two days after the transcontinental telegraph connected Omaha with Sacramento.
Now we’ll segue into some that miss a bit. Kilby reminds us that Segway ceased production in June, 2020. One might ponder the various reasons why the Segway, introduced in 2001 to great fanfare, was a failure (and by the end, so out of mind it might have merited a geezer alert), while now e-bikes are flying off the shelves and electric scooters are commonly seen.
Well, there are some judgement calls here; let”s see if you agree. The “just ok” is enough to qualify it as a pun or Oy; but isn’t especially good, or enough to make it a funny Oy. However, the second shot, using the idea of “settling for [smthg]”, does make it work, and earns at least a chuckle. (No comment on the squirrel’s addition.)
For those of us who’ve served as executor of someone’s estate that wasn’t tied up very well, this will bring back painful memories. Painful OYs here.
And just when we were making plans to officially retire the Synchronicity category, this pair comes along within a week of each other with the same double pun. One factor is that this one was already published here, in last week’s OY list:
Boise Ed notes “Deering has gotten odder in recent times. Let’s just say that his mind has evolved on a different path from mine.” Or, could it be just a phase?
For 60 years, I lived a few miles from CubLand, but I still don’t get this . . is he giving a raspberry? Does it have something to do with this . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xBxZGQ1dJk . . . if so, the comic is 10 days early, as he was born on 25 July, NOT 15 July.
Here’s a bonus Steve Goodman track, another live performance, the ultimate country song:
Boise Ed: “Taking the wings seems to imply accepting that you’re dead. The free Camaro leaves me with no idea at all.”
Which reminds me of something I’ve thought about: the religious concept of eternity. Christians can imagine heaven as a place, but not a real place. It sits outside the dimensions of length, width, and depth. So why shouldn’t it sit outside the realm of time, as well?
“Here’s an apocryphal story that I figure prominently in.”A CIDUer received this in some email without source info, and passed it along. The artist seems to be Mike Gruhn, who posts cartoons to Instagram and here-and-there; and has his own site, called WebDonuts. He had a feature called Caption Challenge or Caption Contest, which seems to end in 2015. A note on the WebDonuts site from 2019 indicates that Instagram would be the place to look for his current material.
The mirror is sketched oddly and had me thinking for a second it was a cleaver! But thankfully, no!
CIDU Bill had saved this one to an unused draft dated 2019/08/17 and called “Strange Family”, as a CIDU:
Comics I Don't Understand 