Jul 29th 2010 05:29 am A Silver Celebration of Arlo and Janis, Day 4
You might glance at today’s Web site and think you’re being short changed. You might think, “Well, ol’ Johnson’s finally running out of gas, because there aren’t as many cartoons to look at today.” You couldn’t be more wrong. Remember yesterday’s cartoon about fantasies? Well, every cartoon on the page today is a link to the United Media Web site, where you will be able to see the remaining cartoons in a related series. Some of the series are long; some are short. I just hope your clicking finger is in good shape!
I dabbled with storylines the first 10 years or so of Arlo & Janis, but I really began to explore their possibilites in the late 90s. Not only that, I began to venture far from the strip’s original premise, as you shall see. I was having a lot of fun at this time, and I think I was producing some of the most creative and entertaining work of my career, even if it was bizarre.
On a practical note, some of the series run more than a week, and as you click through the sequence, a Sunday cartoon will pop up. Don’t be put off the trail. It’s simply, as we say in the bayou country, lagniappe.
February 16, 1998
Remember, when you click on the cartoons, you will be directed to comics.com, the comics site of United Media, which distributes Arlo & Janis. Once there, you’ll have to click on the arrow above the cartoons to advance. Once you’ve reached the end of a series, hurry back here. Don’t dawdle!
August 10, 1998
Yes, this is the beginning of a series, too, and an odd one at that. Arlo always has been a nautical buff, dreaming of tropical climes. This sequence is not representative of the familiar theme.
October 12, 1998
One of my all-time favorites. I had so much fun drawing this one. The problem with this kind of whimsy is that you immediately divide the loyalty of readers. At any given time, a large portion will be saying, “I don’t like what you’re doing now; I like the other stuff!” Still, I think experimentation is essential. I’m not going to name names, but there are a lot of older comic strips around that are totally formulaic. Sure, they have a core of fans, but they’ve been moribund for years. I do try to prevent that, although I’ll be the first to admit I’m not as creative as I was 10 years ago. I am better in other ways.
February 22, 1999
I just had to include the series where Janis has her locks shorn. This could be viewed as a six-day series, but the haircut theme slides into several weeks of strips. If you stick with it, you’ll see what I mean.
March 20, 2000
The mermaid series! What can I say about “The Beautiful Mermaid and the Simple Fisherman?” It was a delight to draw, the challenge of presenting Janis topless for two weeks notwithstanding.
May 1, 2000
They’re not all weird. This is a week-long take on road maps. The second cartoon in this series will make you long for the good ol’ days in a way I didn’t intend when I drew it.
October 13, 2000
This is barely a series at all, running only three days, but we haven’t seen much of Arlo at work. Plus, I like the denouement, and I like to use the word denouement every few years or so.
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
Jeff in Ann Arbor on 29 Jul 2010 at 6:07 am #
Too many riches to read all at once. But a comment on the “infield fly rule” series that follows the dream boat series (I couldn’t stop once I got started). At the end of the play, the ump calls, “Out, out and out!” But when the infield fly rule is invoked, he is to call the batter out immediately, even before the fielder attempts the catch.
I’m saving the rest of the series to savor later.
Meg on 29 Jul 2010 at 6:07 am #
Hang on…. I’m still clicking through 1996 from yesterday’s link. LOTS of great stuff, but my favourite are Apr 1 and Oct 1.
Daniel Griscom on 29 Jul 2010 at 6:26 am #
A thought: how about linking to the first strip in the series, rather than the second? Yes, that means people who click will see the first one twice, but that way we get to go through the whole thing continuously, rather than with the interruption of switching sites.
My fav? Janis as a mermaid.
Ruth Anne in Winter park on 29 Jul 2010 at 6:31 am #
This will probably be a slow day for comments since we’ll all be lost somewhere in an earlier time clicking away. Thanks for these delightful little side trips!
Steve from Royal Oak, MI on 29 Jul 2010 at 6:34 am #
I have seen a lot of moves with comedy bits on how the driver yells at Rita, the voice on the GPS. The series on road maps made me wonder if Arlo ever owned one. I don’t think so.
When Google earth came out, I clicked on my Grandparents house and then “drove” to the home where I grew up. That was such a fun trip.
I have said it here before, but Jimmy has a great knack for mixing in cat strips, series strips and one gag strips. Thank you for not following a formula.
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 29 Jul 2010 at 6:45 am #
JJ:
Just out of curiosity, any chance that the sailing fantasy that began on 08.10.98 was inspired in part by Twain’s “The Great Dark”?
It’s interesting that Twain’s work was published in 1898. Neat coincidence - the centennial.
Rick
mdt48302 on 29 Jul 2010 at 7:05 am #
Yeah, Puss in Boots was cool. Never worry about ripping off dead people; it’s good enough for Shakespeare and Disney.
HC on 29 Jul 2010 at 7:07 am #
Love to see Ludwig - especially when he has the lopsided ears!
maggie on 29 Jul 2010 at 7:32 am #
I Really, really loved so many of the past comics, but they almost got me in trouble. Since I look at A&J when I first get to work I was at it for awhile this morning & didn’t start doing real work for longer than normal. I guess if I hadn’t come across SO many great ones & just had to forward them to my boss I might not have gotten caught, huh? I did have to send many of them to my boss since I married him almost 18 years ago & see us in A&J.
I’d better get to work now. I hope everyone has a great day!
Symply Fargone on 29 Jul 2010 at 7:39 am #
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, You have made me Symply Fargone more than before….
Sili on 29 Jul 2010 at 7:49 am #
*cough*cough*
Will we get to see the ‘controversial’ Cuba series again as well? (You should go do some more research somewhere in the world and tell us about it. Just take a collection.)
Jim Fulton on 29 Jul 2010 at 7:50 am #
I remember all of these! Thanks for the memories.
Jim Fulton
Sili on 29 Jul 2010 at 8:16 am #
I love it when you play around with the fourth wall.
Lindy from Eureka, CA on 29 Jul 2010 at 8:49 am #
What a wonderful week this has been! Thank you for plethora of laughs and smiles. Just want to let everyone know that if you continue just past the end of the mermaid and the fisherman sequence on April 3 is one of my all-time favorites: the squirrel falling out of the tree.
Bill in Paducah on 29 Jul 2010 at 8:55 am #
I thought I had seen the Puss in Boots sequence before, but hadn’t. In the words of Charles Leonhard, my music philosophy professor, “Smashing. Simply Smashing!”
I am going to have to look at the rest of them at home. Kept clicking past one of the others and got the mall walking sequence. Still cracks me up.
James Pollock on 29 Jul 2010 at 9:17 am #
I started with yesterday’s link and kept going into 1999. I notice that several dates are skipped over… sometimes a day or two at a time, sometimes a whole week. Are those the cartoons that will be in the book?
LVJeff on 29 Jul 2010 at 10:12 am #
Just wanted to say: the Puss in Boots series has a great ending. And more emphatically — I love the artwork on the strip where Janis shakes up her new haircut (”Do it!”). That strip is just perfectly drawn from first to last panel.
Matthew on 29 Jul 2010 at 10:59 am #
I note that these fantasy series were in 1998 & 2000. I wonder whether you, Mr. Johnson, were feeling in a bit of a rut with the strip around its fifteenth birthday or whether there was any relation to your real (i.e., non-comic-drawing) life.
Someday, we will need a complete ARLO & JANIS just as we now have the complete CALVIN & HOBBES & PEANUTS & LI’L ABNER, &c. there are articles to be written about ARLO & JANIS.
Congratulations on your silver anniversary. I wish you (& us) another excellent quarter-century to the golden anniversary.
Floyd in Nashville on 29 Jul 2010 at 11:41 am #
Jeff - you’re absolutely correct. And in actuality, Janis’ game is NOT over, because the ump screwed it up.
Invocation of the infield fly rule is NOT automatic; it is *always* a judgment call, at the discretion of the umpire. The rules clearly state, however, that if an umpire intends to invoke the infield fly rule, he must call it *immediately* - either while the ball is still in the air (”infield fly, if fair”), or immediately upon hitting the ground (”infield fly, batter out”).
The ump’s INaction in not calling it immediately would communicate to any runners on base the consideration of the ball as fair. By not calling it, in fact, he created the very scenario the infield fly rule was adopted to correct - infielders “dropping” a simple-to-catch single-out pop-up so that runners on base would be forced to advance into an easy double- or triple-play.
In the case of Janis’ game, therefore, one of two scenarios exist:
1. Infield fly rule not was invoked - which means runners would NOT be forced to advance. Result is one out (Janis’).
2. Infield fly rule was _not_ invoked - which means the double play would still stand, but Janis would be safe on first. Result is two outs.
Either way, there’s still at least one out and two runners on base, so the game shouldn’t be over. But in any case, under any circumstances, NO WAY do you get to invoke the infield fly rule at the END of the play. “Out, out, and out”? Wrong, wrong, and wrong! KILL THE UMP!!!
Yeah. I care.
Michael on 29 Jul 2010 at 11:53 am #
Jimmy,
I hope you include mention of one of your more famous strips, the one that makes good use of one word:
peek
Jerry on 29 Jul 2010 at 1:45 pm #
Re: Gold! MY favorite was “It’s snowing!” followed by all of the white dots that I could pour out of the hole punchers. I won’t tell you about the deer heads or the cpr dummies. Those weren’t my pranks and they were not funny. Jerry in Fl
Mary in Ohio on 29 Jul 2010 at 2:48 pm #
Oh, I had forgotten about that beautiful road map series. I know exactly how Arlo feels!
Mary in Ohio on 29 Jul 2010 at 2:58 pm #
And in the Puss and Arlo series, am I the only one who thinks that, when Princess Janis asks about the boudoir, she looks exactly like Lucy leaning on Schroeder’s piano?
George P on 29 Jul 2010 at 2:59 pm #
I, too, read ahead to the infield fly comic, and I, too, came here to correct it, although I’m sure there were a lot more corrections when it originally ran.
debbie on 29 Jul 2010 at 3:43 pm #
I haven’t seen it yet: When the musaz moves Arlo: one of MY favorites!
Tom in Glendora, CA on 29 Jul 2010 at 4:17 pm #
Congratulations and Thanks for hanging in there for 25 years, Jimmy. A&J is my mostest favorite strip!
Meg on 30 Jul 2010 at 4:56 am #
I think Perrault wrote the first modern example of kitty litterature. And yes I waited until now to post this to limit the number of people who see it.
Trudy Bentley Rech on 30 Jul 2010 at 6:28 am #
I could not agree more about the great side trips…kind of like the map series! Like others, I am still clicking. For some reason, things are slow. Perhaps many are visiting the different series at once making their server work too hard!