Tag / Mutts

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – January 6th, 2024

Have you kept count for how many times this joke has come up this week?

Woops! Turns out this is now the third appearance of this “kerning pun” (as jjmcgaffey called it) on CIDU in one path or another. 

This fun Rubes from a few years ago was brought to our attention by Professor Jerry Coyne (a big supporter of ducks) on his Why Evolution is True web site (blog, but he doesn’t like it called that).

As reported by The Daily Cartoonist (but nowhere visible at mutts.com), Patrick McDonnell has announced that he will be taking a six-month sabbatical to work on other projects, and that (almost all of) the strips from now to June will be re-runs (note the absence of any year in the copyright line on this one).

by zbicyclist

NY^3: New Year’s Themed Comics on New Year’s Day from The New Yorker

It’s New Year’s Day, 2024, so why not post some New Year’s cartoons from another NY, The New Yorker? Wait. Wasn’t that yesterday’s theme? But this is a theme so nice, we’re using it twice.

1931 (i.e. first issue of 1931): some wake-up bells to start your year

1930

1932: not a cheerful New Year’s

1933: Roosevelt’s been elected, but not inaugurated. The man here is not hopeful.

1933

Similar theme from 1934:

To all our readers, commenters, editors, and cartoonists who make this possible, best wishes for a wonderful 2023 2024!

Reflect and think? Or maybe just do some things appropriate to the season. Change out that furnace filter that should be changed every 3 months. Is your toothbrush getting too long in the tooth? Check your IRA balances if you’ll need to make RMDs. Check the refrigerator for stuff that expired in 2022. Make some Hoppin’ John with those black-eyed peas in the back of the pantry. Feel free to comment on your own ways to mark (or ignore) the day.

Or, perhaps like Mooch, you’re perfect and can just take a nap.

Let’s end with an OY:

by multipleciduers

Gifts from the Four Wise(?) Men

Your editors are greeting today’s holiday with some favorite comics, some Christmassy, some not. Enjoy!

Here’s one for the great CIDU cat-admiration tradition!

Seems like the reindeer might take a lichen to an in-flight snack, also.

by Kilby

Soapbox Humor


I’ve been following Mutts for decades; I really enjoy the artwork and its gentle and simple nature. Unfortunately, McDonnell frequently uses the strip to promote various “worthy” causes and ideologies. Although perhaps admirable, the campaign propaganda frequently damages the humor beyond repair.†

The Mutts strip shown here is one of (very) many in which McDonnell protests against the abusive habit of keeping dogs chained up, but it is notable for the excellent pun in the final panel. One minor detail that I find puzzling is the expression on Guard Dog’s face: I think that he should be smiling, or perhaps wincing.

P.S. † – One of the worst examples was a sequence in which the Fatty Snax Deli suddenly went “vegan”. I don’t think it has shown up again in the strip even once since that arc appeared.

by Kilby

Meta Mutts

McDonnell usually has a theme for each entire week of daily Mutts strips; last week he produced a very nice collection of “meta” and “fourth wall” gags:

As an unusual bonus, the Sunday strip also fits in with the overall topic of the daily strips:

P.S. I decided to fetch the monochrome originals from Mutts.com, in particular because I felt that the Thursday and Friday strips do not work as well in color.

P.P.S. I was very disappointed when Arcamax switched Mutts to the colorized daily strips, and neither Arcamax nor Comics Kingdom bothers to include the title panel for the Sunday strips, which is often a real loss.

by multipleciduers

Labor-day-published gallery

These are just whatever was at least pretty good, was dated today, and was in some way about the Labor Day holiday or tradition. … A quick survey of which cartoons were willing to be about the holiday and which preferred to go on their own way.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, May 28th, 2023

From maggiethecartoonist:

Suggested by a reader who is fond of both Mutts and meta-comic jokes:

Thanks to Maggiethecartoonist for this GibbleGuts:

And Maggiethecartoonist also provides these two more Garfield entries — with brief comments for each!

“Farms must be fun.”

‘I cleaned out all the comic folders, and my computer still looks like a meatball!’

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, October 23rd, 2022

As we have asked a few times before, Does this Bliss cartoon work better in b/w or in color?


(As we probably have not asked before, Would this comparison slider presentation work better in this side-by-side format or in a vertical division?)

Our own Zbicyclist mentions the resemblance of the b/w paintings above to some works his family saw on a visit to the Fundació Joan Miró (Museum) in Barcelona, which features work by Miró as well as other 20th and 21st Century artists. This shot from the #FundacióMiró Foundation’s Instagram shows a work which was also shown in Zbicyclist’s family visit photo; the dot in the museum is either black or a very dark blue.

But then, don’t you also think “Such peacefulness”?

Perhaps a bit CIDU-LOL?

And another food-centered cartoon (older – you may have seen before):

I can forgive mispelins in comic strips, but the sloppy editing in the regular news (and the sloppy headlines) depress me.

Andréa sends in this update about Mutts:

Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts has a new look: “MUTTS might look a little different to you this week and in the future. If so, it’s because I’ve loosened up my art style, using very little preliminary pencils (in some cases none) and going straight to drawing in ink. It gives the strip more of the power and intimacy of a preliminary sketch, which I love. I’m also freehand lettering the dialogue”

Refusal with very good reason! (Awarded Arlo)

And here is the effect of his overactive pineal:

Back to Bliss!

by EditorM

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, August 7th, 2022

This should fulfill the category tag of “Momentary CIDU”. It presents something genuinely puzzling, but solvable quickly enough that it wouldn’t work as a daily standalone CIDU post.

A delectable one from Mutts’ finicky cat.

I couldn’t resist tossing this in the list … for the sake of quoting these classic lyrics:
Ahh you've gone to the finest school, all right Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get JUICED in it
Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street
But you find out now you're gonna have to get USED to it

Here is the Dark-LOL advertised in the Category links:

This reminds me of a joke by Steven Wright: “I wish, when I was first born, the first thing I said was “Quote” so the last thing I said before I died would be “Unquote.””

Chemgal sends in this pair from Strange Planet:

Is the phrasing that somebody “is assisting the police in their inquiries” used everywhere? I first learned the phrase back when I worked for the Journals Division and a certain scholarly Association worked with us to draft a press release and statement to go in the journal they sponsored and edited but we published. The readership / membership had to be told that there would be an interim Acting Editor for an issue or more, as the Editor’s stay in the UK was being extended as he was needed there “to assist the authorities in their inquiries into the circumstances of the death of his wife”! [mitch]

We just had “The Grill is On” as an OY yesterday, so we’ll pick another song to wake you up this morning. [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1fImXAeS-s if the embed doesn’t show up correctly; your new editor is still learning a few things ]