Thanks to your interest and my cajoling, the numbers for A&J have been great the past few days at GoComics.com, and they weren’t all that bad before. Thank you for your support. You’ve been very kind, but I will admit to some ambivalence about my part. In the past, I’d have thought of such direct involvement by me as stuffing the ballot box. There was a time, in the early days of online participation, when I’d refrain from encouraging my readers to vote in any newspaper comics poll that might come to the collective attention. Perhaps that was extreme, but I always wanted the work to speak for itself. Ultimately, the quality of one’s work also reigns supreme in the digital world, but self promotion has a larger role. There are far fewer traveling salesmen with fat expense accounts beseeching harried newspaper editors on behalf of syndicated cartoonists such as myself. It might not seem like it when I come here and plead for attention, but this self promotion doesn’t come easily for me. I think maybe I really am an old dog. I’m going to finish this thought tomorrow, and then, I swear, we’ll be off this topic for a while.
28 responses to “Pumpkin Spies”
In the above archival ‘toon, Janis showed her EQ was superior to Arlo’s. Nice. Now where’s the like button…
I’ve shared the strips many many times so my friends can all say “How the hell did he see me?”
In fact, I have a scheduler running on my computer that checks your RSS feed every 15 minutes and, if it changes, announces “There’s a new Arlo & Janis page” and pulls the page into my browser. I never miss one.
I also save my favorites to my “electronic refrigerator”. It’s a web page I have (not public – Copyright ya know) that lets me view ALL my favorites since the mid 90s. Most seem to be Ludwig strips.
I’ve therefore seen the Share button and used it. I didn’t realize the Like button actually did anything. I’m glad you pointed it out and have no problem “Like”ing my favorite comic.
John
White [fresh water] pelicans, about as close up as this webcam can get from atop the cliff. Miss. R., SE of Twin Cities.
https://explore.org/livecams/falcons/falcon-nest-cam
Peace,
Yes, I share them. Everyone is curious about where Ghost and I met. We say in a comic strip which is hard to explain. Ghost says an online dating service would be easier to explain.
You can also share the Village to Facebook and Twitter as well as the A and J Facebook page. I have gotten a lot of new readers for Jimmy that way.
Jimmy it is called guerilla marketing not self promotion. It is totally OK to do.
https://www.facebook.com/444459465596678/photos/a.1616687835040496.1073741826.444459465596678/1721712627871349/?type=3
Jackie, my sister was on jury duty earlier this week. (One day or one trial.) She was part of a jury pool, and her name was drawn. One of the standard questions for the voir dire was whether you had any children or grandchildren, so that they could weed out any with child care issues, and Marcia raised her hand. She told the judge that she had no children, but several grandchildren and explained that several children that she sees at conventions had “adopted” her. The judge asked what kind of conventions, and she responded, “Science Fiction, Dr. Who and Japanese Animation.” That judge was quite intrigued by the idea, and may be looking into attending some for all I know.
I share A&J with my wife and family all the time. Her standard response is “When do we get our royalties?”
Now that she is a published author, that response is much more painful.
Since you’re learning so much about gocomics.com, Jimmy, I thought you’d be interested to know I’ve subscribed for nearly two decades — because of you. I was introduced to Arlo & Janis in the late 80s/early 90s through my newspaper in Lansing, Michigan. When we moved away our new small town in Virginia did not carry the strip and I searched the web to get my fix. The predecessor to GoComics had it, and I also discovered other comics I’d missed seeing (what would I do without “Ballard Street”?!). For the past few years I’ve supported the site as a Pro, which has benefits your comic-loving friends might like, such as the customized My Comics page. I set my page up so A&J is the last strip to appear — because I’m saving the best for last. Thank you.
What a Fargone idea, a like button, Symply a kewl tweak!
You can “add” your Facebook friends to Arlo and Janis on Facebook. You do it and have to click on each friend to add. If they do not want to be part of group they can drop out easily.
But I have added hundreds of my friends who I think would enjoy A and J to the Facebook group. Many have become fans I know. I also try to get them to visit the blog and Village by linking to it.
Each little bit helps Jimmy.
Won’t see these in this life, and we don’t really know about the next. Maybe Elaine has already been there. Hope the Taliban never gets close.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=History+Mati+Si+Cliff+Monasteries&FORM=RESTAB
Peace,
NASA is still analyzing data from Cassini, and will be for years. You can learn a lot clicking through this site. [Actually, Earth is flat and this is all a hoax, masterminded by evil climate scientists and atheistic evolutionary biologists.]
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3128/nasa-team-finds-noxious-ice-cloud-on-saturns-moon-titan/
Peace,
This is not on the topic of today’s retro strip or Jimmy’s comments.
In the past, I wrote about the declining numbers of bees and other insects in this area, along with an utter absence of ladybugs.
Here’s a link to a story that’s even more disturbing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/10/18/this-is-very-alarming-flying-insects-vanish-from-nature-preserves/?utm_term=.52a058c57e7b
A fairly common feature of habitats ‘up North.’ You may have to click to close an ad. For scale, those yellow trees in the floating bog are tamaracks [larches], deciduous conifers whose needles go yellow in autumn and fall off. My guess is the tallest are maybe 20′ high.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/4346343-monster-floating-bog-lingers-moves-around-northern-minnesota-lake
Brainerd is a city comparable to Bemidji in population, 98 mi. SSE, nearest big town to Deerwood, where elder son pastors the UMC. Deerwood is one of 3 adjacent towns [Deerwood/Crosby, Ironton] that were iron-mining towns 19th-20th c. Mines are all done, but it makes for some interesting scenery. Distinct from the Mesabi Iron Range in NE MN. Bacteria deposited the Fe 1-2 BYA, unless you prefer the notion that they are simply part of the dry land that appeared on Day 3.
One of the reasons Bemidji is blessed culturally is that the nearest comparable and larger cities are so distant: Brainerd is the closest; farther are Grand Forks and Fargo, ND, and Duluth, MN. Farther still: Mpls/St. Paul, MN, and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Peace,
emb
There are days I would really like to have a place like those to get away from people.
Jimmy, in some ways I think it’s better not to have a “like” button here. Without one, we not only say what we like, but why we like it. And that stimulates discussion and gives you more insight into what this group of your readers things about your work. Even though we are a biased and self-selected sample. Now a back button that would let us delete our errors, would be nice.
thinks about your work. See, that’s why we need a back arrow. Some of us on a keyboard are on a par with Charlie Brown writing his penpal.
Jimmy, i signed up as a Premium member and just finished making my custom comics page. Found some I hadn’t seen in so long I’d forgotten about them. Like this one:
http://www.gocomics.com/monty/2017/10/13
Hello, all. My comments here have been light for the past several days, and by “light” I of course mean “pretty much nonexistent”. No, I did not bail on Jackie (I’m fairly sure she would have made mention of it if I had), I merely had to return to my official state of residence to complete the dental work that had been started the day she got “the call” about her mammogram results, and I rushed back to Oklahoma. I understand from her that interesting things are afoot in the Village, and I hope to catch up on happenings over the weekend.
Meanwhile, I’ll pass on an observation from my trip in “True Grit”, the Totally Awesome Truck. (“True Grit laugh at your puny speed bumps! True Grit smash!”) Anyway, the most appropriate personalized tag I saw was BZZZZZT…on a Telsa. I’ll not comment on the personalized tag SELFLUV.
Also have to add one of the “burn” comments I recently heard which are especially common this time of year between states that are football rivals…
Q: Why does their state’s license plate read “Oklahoma is OK”?
A: Because they can’t spell “Mediocre”.
Will someone explain the points of 9CL for Oc 19th & 20th?
Woke up at 3 a.m. and Ghost is still on his side of bed. I am very grateful for that. He is more awesome than the truck.
Same floating bog, but this has a flyover video.
http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/news/4346343-monster-floating-bog-lingers-moves-around-northern-minnesota-lake
Peace,
Guenons. There may be scrumptious insect larvae or pupae in that down tree, but they seem not to want to venture in.
https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-animal-lookout-camera
9CL’s theme seems to be paucity of ideas. Turning pp. with toes?
Peace,
cxp…I think she’s playing so emphatically that it is dangerous to be near. Thus, the helmet on 19th and today’s turning pages with toes to put distance between?
Neat links, folks. THe flyover of the bog was cool but it took me a minute to realize the trees and sizes until I noticed the house near it. THe house looked so small! But it isn’t and so the trees….ok I babble.
lovely sunrise today. weather change, perhaps?
Well your post yesterday made me finally register over there at the Go. I’ve been an avid fan of A&J for many years, because of course JJ you could be drawing my husband and me. I have found through reading your blog and the GoComics’ fan comments that there are lots of people like us! I’m so happy to know we are not alone and that there are many many happy couples living life day to day and still interested in each other. So now that I am registered I can hit all those blue buttons and also maybe say something once in awhile.
Anyway, First Post and Hi! A&J family!