Some repeat comics from past Veterans Days, with a couple of additions. It’s a good day to remember.
This one Bill marked “UDIC Frazz Veterans Day” . It was posted as https://cidu.info/2018/11/09/udic/
These two we noticed on sequential days in Maria’s Day. Since that strip is on a reruns cycle at GoComics, the actual dates of the recent appearance were 31 August and 01 September, but apparently the original publication was on 10 and 11 November of some year.
JMcAndrew ponders:
Does the military train soldiers with live grenades? How did they survive this? I’m starting to think that this comic isn’t very well thought out.
Which of course brings to mind the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch:
I’m betting I’m not the only one among us who has irritated their spouse by counting “One, two, five!” on occasion.
The ever-prolific JMcAndrew asks, “What is that supposed to be that he broke?”
As someone who has used mainframe computers since the early 1970s, I recognize it as a 9-track tape drive, probably an IBM 3420. In other words, it’s supposed to be a computer, from the era when “spinning tapes” meant “computer”.
He adds that the comic is from 1984, at which point the 3420 with its open reels was still state of the art. That’s actually the year the 3480 was introduced, which used a square cartridge instead. As a 3480 looks like a dishwasher with a tape slot, much like a VCR, and you can’t see the tape spin, 3480s and their children never caught on as a way to say “Look! A computer!” in movies and TV.
JMcAndrew surfaced these Beetle Bailey comics with somewhat the same girlie calendar.
“I’ve seen hundreds of Miss Buxley being sexually harassed comics. I’m still surprised that the syndicate let Mort Walker put fully naked woman in the strip.”
Of course, a calendar is pretty useless for telling you if this is Wednesday or Thursday. But he’s just looking for an excuse.
The others JMcAndrew sent in show that same calendar post, but with strategic additions:
It’s curious that the number of days in a week vary across the calendars.
This type of calendar used to be a common site; it seemed every gas station had one hung up. I can’t remember the last time I saw one hung up.
And here’s today’s vocabulary lesson:
JMcAndrew wonders: “Are they watching a cooking show where they make Jello?”
JMcAndrew sends in this old Beetle Bailey: “I collect vintage advertising and I am very aware of the crimes against humanity committed with aspic Jello salads.”
He also sent in a bit of vintage Jello advertising:
You may wonder about that fish. Fish in Jello? But some years ago your editor worked for a US pet food company, and we wanted to see what pet foods were sold in other countries that we might sell here. One we had shipped in from Australia was “Pilchards in Aspic”, essentially small herrings in a gelatin matrix, sold as a cat food. We passed on this one.
from Wikipedia: “By the 1950s, salads became so popular that Jell-O responded with savory and vegetable flavors such as celery, Italian, mixed vegetable, and seasoned tomato. These flavors have since been discontinued.”
We’ve de-emphasized synchronicities, but Dirk the Daring sends this one in that’s too odd not to post.
These are the same joke showing up as vintage Comics Kingdom on the same day, but the original Barney Google and Snuffy Smith is from November 15, 1938, and the original Beetle Bailey is from October 9, 1956, leading Dirk to note “Given the coincidence, it makes me wonder just how often this joke has been used in the last 100 years.”
JMcAndrew sends in a few old Beetle Baileys, noting “Mort Walker was a weird guy.”
Putting some spring in his step?
Why would Sarge have done that? Or was this Beetle’s practical joke?
JMcAndrew: “At some point I’m going to write a thesis on all the homoeroticism in Beetle Bailey. This happens too often to be a coincidence. Here’s a sample.”
JMcAndrew: “I’ve been on somewhat of a Beetle Bailey kick lately but it really is a fascinating comic. This one is some nightmarish body horror on the level of David Cronenberg.”
And then there’s Sarge’s famous gourmand appetite:
JMcAndrew: “A 4000-gallon pot would have a diameter of 96 inches (8 feet) and a height of 140 inches (approximately 11.67 feet).” Would that cook properly?
No tour of Beetle Bailey would be complete without one in which Beetle slacks off:
JMcAndrew commented: “Apparently Beetle Bailey has been murdered and his body has been stuffed inside this filing cabinet. How else could he get inside of it and close the drawer?”
A few oldies to start us off.
JMcAndrew sends in this pair, which get a Geezer Alert. “Shouldn’t she check to see what the contents of the disk are before she gets upset? I like that she’s holding it by the corner because she assumes it’s filthy and Arlo’s very reasonable confusion here. The antiquated technology only makes it funnier 30 years later.”
If only she could. Gene’s not really wrong about compatibility, though. Our first PC was a Kaypro CPM machine, and its floppies weren’t readable by any other machine.
Boise Ed sends this one in: “Hah! I’d love to see this one in the real world.”
JMcAndrew sends this one in: “Confused about what the creators of this comic think “casual dress” is supposed to be. Is Lieutenant Flap wearing a dashiki? Do they think that Black people wear dashiki as “casual dress”? General Halftrack appears to be wearing a collared shirt and bow tie which is certainly not “casual dress”. I don’t know what is going on with Lieutenant Fuzz. Sarge might be wearing boxer shorts. His shirt just says “Go Sox” but doesn’t say which specific sports team with “Sox” in its name. I’m honestly more disturbed by his grotesque deformed feet than any of these outfits. Also why does Sarge have a different number of toes than Lieutenant Flap?”
Your editor admires the use of “Go Sox” while Sarge is wearing neither red socks nor white socks. No need to offend readers in Boston or Chicago.
JMcAndrew sends this in: “I’m almost afraid to ask what Ditto was doing that resulted in most of the film roll not being viable.”
This definitely gets a Geezer tag. These days, letting a child borrow your phone for a while to take pictures of whatever, and then review them is as common as cell phones.
Mitch4 sends this in: “NOT synchronicity, but comix history. The 17 July 1956 Beetle (which appeared in the Comics Kingdom vintage feed for today, 30 January 2025) establishes Otto as Sarge’s dog and perhaps his pet, while today’s Beetle contests whether they can have pets and denies that that’s what Otto is.
Catptivity!
Gotta love the bugeyes on this guy!
“What did the polite convict say after accidentally bumping the touring Governor visiting the facility?”
Comics I Don't Understand 