Jan 24th 2008 10:13 am We are experiencing technical difficulties
Well, I discovered one advantage of the old FrontPage system over the new WordPress. When the internet was down, I still could build pages and post them when the opportunity returned. With WordPress, I’m out of business entirely when offline, as I was this morning for several hours.
While we’re on the matter of technical difficulties, some of you still are not able to view properly the A&J comic at comics.com. If you’re still having trouble, please write United Media at customerservice@comicmembers.com and tell them.
I will, for one more day, post the strip running in today’s newspapers. Otherwise, I’m going to punt and draw cartoons. I’ve mostly been working behind the scenes and still more changes are coming, so be sure and check back soon.
Posted by jimmyjohnson / The Daily Grind
43 Responses to “We are experiencing technical difficulties”
Steve from Royal Oak on 24 Jan 2008 at 11:04 am #
That reminds me of how retail stores are today. Years ago when the power went out, the clerks could grab some paper and add up your purchases, mark up a receipt, give you your change and you were on your way. Now if the power or telephones go out, they just close the place as many purchasing require a credit card that must be authorized and who can add anymore? I suppose they could grap calculators.
Kind of fitting when you think about the series of cartoons you have drawn this week. Please get back to drawing and create some more. Thanks.
John Kelly on 24 Jan 2008 at 11:46 am #
Weren’t there cats in communes? I seem to remember lots of cats. Cats are very Cosmic Conscious.
Larry Levine on 24 Jan 2008 at 11:49 am #
Jimmy, How about adding a live cam so we can watch you drawing the strip!
Cousin Keith Johnson on 24 Jan 2008 at 12:00 pm #
So, we get to see part of Janis we haven’t seen before. Is it wrong to think a cartoon character is hot?
I also notice that the strip in for the regular public has been censored – your work, or United Media?
Jeff from Rochester MI on 24 Jan 2008 at 12:01 pm #
The strips this week have been very good. I just caught the end of the hippy era. I just barely started reading Mother Earth News before the Me Generation hit. So these strips strike a chord. By the way, is Janis (*ahem*)”cold” in the first panel?
Robert G. on 24 Jan 2008 at 12:48 pm #
I get “Arlo and Janis” in e-mail through a subscription from My Comics Page and today’s version is still tiny. I hope they fix it soon, although it actually doesn’t matter, since I stop by this site every day, anyway. It’s just the principal of the thing.
I did e-mail them about it. I suggested if they want to shrink a comic strip, they should shrink “Garfield.”
chris on 24 Jan 2008 at 1:10 pm #
Hadn’t noticed the “janis issue” in the paper this morning. Even seeing the strip here, i didn’t catch it. Now that I read someone pointing it out, it’s a wonder i didn’t catch. It must have been the rivetting dialogue that held my focus…seriously.
Greg from Robertsdale on 24 Jan 2008 at 2:00 pm #
Loving the new site, Jimmy. It’s like night and day.
I think today’s is hilarious in that all of the kids look like Gene.
There might be something there for Janis pschologically. Missing Gene maybe?
Keep up the great work.
John Kelly on 24 Jan 2008 at 2:23 pm #
Ah HA! There’s the cat. I was distracted by all the Genelings. Or was it the first panel? Heh
Ken from Framingham on 24 Jan 2008 at 2:33 pm #
Janis! If I were a cartoon-guy…
Chris on 24 Jan 2008 at 2:56 pm #
Jimmy, you can work with WordPress offline with a program like Ecto (for Windows and Mac) or MarsEdit (for Mac). They both have a free period and then a modest charge ($29). With MarsEdit you can even add pictures by just drag/dropping the image on to your editing window and it will automatically upload the image fine to the preset directory. (Assuming you are online.) But both allow you to prepare content before going online. Useful for those outages. I even have a “dummy” account in MarsEdit as a kind of journal that doesn’t get published anywhere.
Jim F on 24 Jan 2008 at 3:43 pm #
The fact that Janis has a couple of standard mammalian anatomical features (1-12-08 and 1-24-08) generated a number of comments, but the fact that Arlo apparently does not (1-14-08) didn’t. Or did his also disappear between drawing board and publisher? I’ve always been amazed that your strips seem to escape censorship by someone somewhere before they hit my morning paper, but now I wonder if some of them may have been subject to, ah, tweaks that just weren’t obvious on the reader’s end.
Scott Carpenter on 24 Jan 2008 at 4:32 pm #
If you really want to go to town, you can install a local version of WordPress on your own machine. This may be much more work than you want to get in to, but then you can have a “development” blog to work on new posts and theme changes, and your “production” blog where you move the finely crafted changes over to. It’s *very* nice to have the freedom to experiment with things in private.
Here are some Windows instructions I used a while back, which may be a little bit dated. (I also have instructions for GNU/Linux on my own web site.)
(Sorry, this was probably way over the top, but thought I’d put the idea out there.)
Linda on 24 Jan 2008 at 8:02 pm #
Great to see you updating and thanks for the full size strips. Showed my husband the site – thinks the drawing should be embroidered on the left side of a polo.
Don Robertson on 24 Jan 2008 at 8:02 pm #
Nix to the web cam idea! We do NOT want to see Mr. Johnson in his skivvies at 11:45 at night all hunched over his drawing board trying to meet his deadline.
If Ludwig had had ears on the fourth panel, everyone would have noticed him.
Jean from Dahlonega GA on 25 Jan 2008 at 4:52 am #
Now that you’ve pointed Ludwig out it’s hard to miss him. The eye is automatically drawn to him. Isn’t it funny how the mind does that?
Yeah, the “good old days” weren’t always so good.
Bill from Milw WI on 25 Jan 2008 at 9:30 am #
FYI – as of Fri, Jan 25th, emails from Comics.com STILL have the cartoon small, I did email and received the following response from them:
Thank you for contacting customer service. Our web team is looking into this problem. You should be able to see Arlo & Janis at the correct size if you visit the website and log out of your account.
Hopefully, we will have this bug fixed by tomorrow. I have also attached the missing comics to this email.
Sincerely,
Comics.com Customer Service
Peter B. Steiger on 25 Jan 2008 at 10:09 am #
What a great idea for another reality show! “So you think you can draw”… cartoonists are pitted against one another in a sketch-to-the-finish showdown, their every move broadcast to a web audience of millions who make uninformed snap judgements about the quality of the drawings, what (if anything) they wear to work, plot holes, everything.
“Who will prevail – the boy from the bayou or the Canuck gal as Johnson faces Johnston in the comic strip battle of the century?! Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY!”
Norm on 25 Jan 2008 at 10:37 am #
I’m delighted to discover that I’m not the only weirdo out there that finds Janis attractive.
With respect to newspaper censorship, more than once I have been surprised at what slides by Big Brother in Arlo and Janis. At this very moment, I’m looking at two strips pinned to my office wall which are particularly suggestive. They are dated 12/31/99 and 12/18/03.
Cats in communes… great comment! Ludwig was so easy to miss amongst all the spawn. Sleepy dogs also have a symbolic place in that environment.
Jim Lindley on 25 Jan 2008 at 11:35 am #
Steve mentioned clerks getting paper out and writing up purchases by hand. A little over a year ago we lost power in this area for 4 days (some folks longer). I went to the Sears hardware store and, while their power was also out, they had a generator powering space heaters (like I was doing in our home). Employees had flashlights and would take one customer at a time back to get their purchases, then would write up the purchases on paper. They had to only accept cash, and they took that cash back after each purchase to put it in the safe, but they were open and providing a badly needed service.
Back in ’72 when I was in high school we lost power in the grocery store where I worked about a half hour before closing. The cashiers pulled hand cranks (I kid you not!) from drawers under the registers, and while we stock boys held flashlights for customers finishing their shopping the cashiers rang up purchases almost as usual, except having to turn the crank after each entry. Can’t do that anymore because the registers are all computer operated.
Jim Lindley on 25 Jan 2008 at 11:35 am #
Oh yeah, thanks for pointing out Ludwig Jimmy.
Bill Lentz on 25 Jan 2008 at 11:58 am #
PBS – I think you’ve got Post of The Day – bring it up in racs and see if it flies.
Bill
Charles on 25 Jan 2008 at 1:10 pm #
Living in Very Rural New York, we’ve lost power bad a few times. There was this really bad ice storm in the winter of ’97/’98, then that one summer when much of the northeast lost power. The stores which have been around a while and aren’t parts of major chains already had solutions for dealing with shopping without juice. Yes, pencil&paper, calculators, and for credit cards: So-called knucklebusters, where you put a credit card down, a piece of carbon paper over top, and ram a weight over it to copy the numbers. A few places around here still use those, in fact.
Every once in a while, Mother Nature humbles the hell out of civilization with things like that.
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 25 Jan 2008 at 1:19 pm #
PBS-
The cartoonists in “So You Think You Can Draw!” should get bonus points for wearing ratty bathrobes while they work!
Ken from Framingham on 25 Jan 2008 at 6:53 pm #
PONG! Lucky for me, perhaps, I was in my late teens before PONG arrived, and was unable to imprint on it. We played it for a few weeks, got bored and moved on. I never got into video games. Now at 46, I look at them the way kids look at newspapers– no connection, no idea how to operate it, noe desire to learn. As I told some young family members recently, we lost interest in PONG and decided to play whiffle ball instead.
“What system is that on?” one asked. “Yeah, who makes it?” another asked, puzzled.
“YOU make it! You take a plastic bat and a plastic ball with holes in it, and you go outside, and you hit the ball around and run the bases!”
“Ohhhh. I thought it was a game.”
Carol on 25 Jan 2008 at 7:53 pm #
Ummmmmm… I don’t like the new site. It is nothing more than the daily comic with comments and I seldom bother with comments. I guess I will read the daily on the other site since I came here specifically to read the archival comics and this just wastes my time. Oh well… can’t make everyone happy.
Don P. on 25 Jan 2008 at 9:45 pm #
Wow, it seems as if you have recieved your first negative comment on the new site.
I dont think my reply would have been as nice, but then again I am not a writer who has been subjected to what I am sure is more than his fair share of negative comment’s.
Which leads me to a question, Are comic writers subject to critic’s other than the everyday readers?
If so would you be willing to share some of your most memorable review’s?
I love the new site and keep coming back everyday to see what new things have been happening.
Looking forward to being able to look at some of the favorite comics of other visitors to this site when the archives are functonal.
Don P.
Winthrop Harbor Il.
Jim Lindley on 26 Jan 2008 at 1:27 am #
That’s encouraging Jimmy. I miss the vintage A&J. Will you have the ones you had posted on the old site in the archives?
Peter B. Steiger on 26 Jan 2008 at 11:26 am #
Ken from Framingham – your Pong anecdote reminds me of my days as a mall rat in the dawn of the electronic game era. I would blow my McPaycheck on Space Wars, then head over to Foley’s to play Breakout on the demonstration model they had set up of the Odyssey [tm] system. I would play for hours, but always back off when some other kid came up to look at it. As a result, I had an opportunity to hustle a bit – I could clear out several levels without ever losing a ball, so I’d watch a kid play for a while and say “You’re pretty good. Want to play against me?” I’d let him win a few and say “Let’s make this interesting…” Well, you know how that plays out. I’d make more quarters to blow on Space Wars and that summer I was king of the video game console.
So naturally the Odyssey2 was at the top of my Christmas wish list that year. I made it clear that I would forego all other gifts if I could just get my hands on that game console. Come December 25th there was a huge box under the tree with my name on it. I tore through that wrap like Ralphie looking for his Red Ryder gun and gaped with amazement at… a Pong system.
Sigh.
I tried to be enthusiastic; I played all the different games (mostly solo, since my older brother had moved out) for a week or two before I was back at the mall playing Space Wars when I had money, and Foley’s playing with this newfangled thing called the Commodore PET when I didn’t. Before long I was on the PET whether I had money or not, but that’s another story.
Phil in Sugar Land, TX on 26 Jan 2008 at 11:35 am #
Arlo’s theory about Pong is interesting. I agree with Ken above. Video games bore me to tears.
I wonder if my father thought the same thing about the hippies and the desire to move back to the natural life. He grew up with the ‘natural life’ in Missouri in the early decades of the 20th century and had no illusions about it. If I’d have known what I know now, I would have taken more time to find out what he thought and why.
This generation’s edition of the hippies are kids who think they’d like to be professional video game players or video game designers. The hippies have more of less disappeared (or moved into California State government) and the video gamers will likewise fade into the gloaming.
There are a few movers and shakers with every generation and the real trick is to find out who they are and where they’re going.
Anonymous on 26 Jan 2008 at 2:44 pm #
Hi Jimmy,
You seem to be waxing philosophic about the Baby Boomer Generation this past week. I particularly enjoyed your comment that Pong caused the revolution to falter. I was reminded of a quote by Paul Krassner in the 1960’s-70’s, “Nobody wants the Revolution to happen until they get a really good stereo.”
I wanted to mention for your amusement a very peculiar comment about the Generation that I once read by a sociologist type whose name I don’t remember. She was remarking about the reasons the 60’s generation was so rambunctious. She listed the obvious reasons such as they were the first generation exposed to television, or that they were the first generation living under the threat of nuclear war, or that they were an extremely pampered generation with the first explicitly “youth culture.”
Then she added her analysis; she attributed their mores to MAD MAGAZINE. She stated that MAD, for the first time in history brought satire to the level of children. Previously, she explained, satire was the province of adults only and children’s literature was pretty wholesome, and even comic books were not satiric; mostly more adventure oriented. Now by MAD, the cultural icons were held to parody and ridicule.
As a prototypical Baby Boomer (1950) I can clearly remember asking my staid uncle for a quarter in 1958 to buy my first MAD. Nearly all my memories of the 1960 national elections were of articles in MAD. For example, one parody of the election was based on the Gilbert and Sullivan play, “The Pirates of Penzance.” The original lyric that comes to mind was “He polished up the handle so carefully, now he is the leader of the Queen’s Navy. …” In the MAD version, it was sung about John Kennedy, “He tousled his hair so carefully, that now he is the leader of the whole country…”
I have thought for a long time that this was such a unique viewpoint about the Baby Boomer Generation that I felt compelled to write you in response to your cartoon about Pong.
Jim from Boston on 26 Jan 2008 at 4:58 pm #
Hi Jimmy,
I didn’t mean to post my letter (#31) anonymously. In fact, I’d like to say Hi to my neighbor Ken from Framingham (letter # 25 above). I’ve read Arlo and Janis for years. In fact we have a son Gene’s age and we went together through the college passage. We even have a cat too.
I like this site and will visit frequently.
Carol on 26 Jan 2008 at 5:11 pm #
Hi Jimmy:
As I stated… I don’t bother with comments… so I have seen no note on what is coming. I stated an opinion that coming here was a waste of my time and reading a bunch of small font small talk is what I consider a waste of my time and energy aside from making the eyes hurt. I still consider comments a waste of time and will not be returning to read this one again. Have fun with your toon.
Ken from Framingham on 26 Jan 2008 at 7:00 pm #
That’s fascinating about MAD magazine inciting a generation. We always had MAD, so I’m too close to say what effect it had on me, or what I would have been like without it. Interesting thought.
Jeff on 27 Jan 2008 at 1:15 am #
I have posted before that I could not see the image at the top of the page. I have another computer and I checked your blog using that one. And I saw the image. I then had the idea, it was my “ad blocking” software on my desktop. I have never initiated this feature on my Samsung Q1 UPMC so I just turned off the Ad Blocking on my desktop. I can now see the image.
I do not know what feature you are using to post your image, but Norton Anti Virus determined that it was an ad and blocked it. I have never had this happen to any other logo that I know of.
Steve from Royal Oak on 27 Jan 2008 at 10:57 am #
What did Abe Lincoln say: “You can’t please all the people all the time?” I think that it is wonderful that a busy cartoonist would take the time to create this site. All of us that come to the site have been touched by your unique view of the world, which we come to find out is not so unique after all. I really think that this site will make you a better cartoonist as the feedback could be the muse that creates more strips.
As a Marketing major from Purdue University (believe me that does not make me any smarter) it is what we call “Market Research”. You have a successful product but you are not quite sure why. The research gives you a few clues and the product becomes even better.
Thank you and keep up the good, no great, work.
LVJeff on 27 Jan 2008 at 11:52 am #
Wow. Suddenly I feel like the youngest guy here. with all these people talking about how they can’t get into video games like the “kids” can. Some of us play video games regularly and lead fun, active lives. I don’t any signs of it fading either — in fact, it’s more being accepted as “common” entertainment along with movies and TV. I know more than a few people in the industry as well, and they’re smart, active, and make quite a good living at game designing.
Which is not to say that it’s not OK to rib Pong and its legacy a bit. It’s OK to have a sense of humor about it
Anonymous on 27 Jan 2008 at 4:29 pm #
To Carol:
Pbhht! I think that is how you spell it. Stop wasting our time. And stop replying to comments you do not read.
Bill on 27 Jan 2008 at 6:00 pm #
Also born in 1950, and grew up reading Mad Magazine. After missing an issue or two at the news stand, I wanted to send in some money for a subscription. I asked my dad for a check (I think it was for $2.00!) and he decided he’d read the mag before letting me subscribe. he mailed a check the next day.
a couple of years later he and I were at a Cub Scouts father & son banquet, and the featured speaker got up and started going on about an article from Pravda, the Soviet Union propaganda organ cum newpaper, which purported to describe the Boy Scouts as a fascist organization. I couldn’t believe my ears. He’d stolen the article from that month’s Mad! I looked at my dad, and I could see that he knew it, too.
I think a lot of my current attitude does come from having read Mad in my youth.
Pong didn’t do much for me, but I spent more quarters than I could afford playing at a Tank machine as a freshman at college.
(Also from Boston, these days…)
Jim from Boston on 28 Jan 2008 at 9:09 am #
To Ken from Framingham and Bill (also from Boston these days),
Howdy neighbors,
Thanks for your comments about MAD MAGAZINE. I originally posted my letter to Jimmy Johnson himself, and he replied that he distinctly remembered the Gilbert and Sullivan parody to which I referred from 1960 and he invited me to post my letter to this Blog.
Charles Jones on 28 Jan 2008 at 3:50 pm #
How can I get to see Sunday’s comic and the one’s I missed when you were having technical glitches? I liked the old format where if I was gone for a few days, I could go back for up to a month to catch up on what I missed. Please, Mr Johnson, give me access to your recent stuff.
Kim in California on 30 Jan 2008 at 10:43 pm #
Robert,
I get the feeling you’re not too hot for Garfield? I am guessing you are not a “cat person?” Just a guess, like I said. My Mom likes cats, they have two, but she always tells me about, “That ornery cat!” when she reads the strip, and what she’d do if he were hers. I say, “Mom, it’s just a cartoon!” Garfield is every cat in the world, all wrapped up in one, and I love it! Mom secretly likes it, too, or she wouldn’t keep reading it!
Mr. Johnson,
I really like your new website, nice job, and the ones with Ludwig are still my favorite. Has anyone ever asked you, do you have a cat? If so, would you tell us about him/her? Also, pay attention to the negativity you find on this site. Maybe you read more than you allow posted, but it’s your cartoon and your site, so do it your way, there are plenty of us out here who enjoy it!
Thanks!
Kim in California on 08 Mar 2008 at 12:43 pm #
I meant to say, pay NO attention to the negativity, didn’t I ever catch that before and correct myself? Sorry about that!