A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

8.5 Ball

By Jimmy Johnson

 

Ah, the good ol’ days, when you signed onto a lengthy and expensive contract with a mobile carrier and received a “free” or discounted phone upgrade. I have been made acutely aware in the course of this Web-page business that there are two distinct trends in opposite directions. Modern monitors are so much better than earlier versions that width and resolution and colors are not the limiting factors they used to be. That’s a very good thing! At the same time, one must be conscious of how the finished product will look on a mobile screen of maybe ten square inches. Now don’t take this personally, but I have a feeling my audience here is different in that more people view this site on a laptop or even a desktop than on a tablet or phone, at least proportionately. That might be interesting to know.

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57 responses to “8.5 Ball”

  1. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Desk Top
    The rotary dial just does not reproduce well.
    Though the first TV pictures were transmitted with a disc with holes in it.

  2. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Desktop with 32″ HD monitor. If on vacation and away from home, on 8″ tablet. And on a tablet I have to enlarge the page to read the comments and make the strip larger than those old Bazooka Joe comics in the gum pack used to be.

  3. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Ghost
    I think they used to be green – and link to somewhere else.

  4. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    By the way, if any of you know who Gahan Wilson is, his stepson is running a GoFundMe campaign to help him get memory care. Gahan retired from drawing in January and his family planned to move themselves to a small ranch and have he and his wife alternate between a memory care facility and the ranch. Before those plans could be completed, his wife died and the facility they were living in won’t allow him to live there alone. This is a shame, because he has drawn funny/creepy single panel cartoons for years for Playboy and other magazines.

  5. Peter Shea Avatar
    Peter Shea

    Desktop! From this Lad.

  6. DeltaC Avatar
    DeltaC

    Desktop. And I recently bought a new 70″ UHD TV, so I now use my old 50″ HD Plasma TV as my monitor.

    1. Ghost Avatar
      Ghost

      50 inch HD? Wow, and I was still impressed with Mark’s report of a 32″ HD. Why, Janis must be “life sized”…if you catch my drift. 😉

  7. Lost in A**2 Avatar
    Lost in A**2

    I usually read my daily comics on my iPhone, during breaks at work. I drive for a living, so a laptop would be inconvenient and a desktop impossible.

  8. Ruth Anne in Winter Park Avatar
    Ruth Anne in Winter Park

    Good article with more info about Gahan Wilson and his family: https://www.danspapers.com/2019/03/gahan-wilson-nancy-winters-memory-fundraiser/

  9. Nancy Kirk in AZ Avatar
    Nancy Kirk in AZ

    Laptop or iPad at home depending on where I happen to be sitting/working. IPhone if I have some time to spare while out. Yes, have to enlarge the print to read it there.

    What do you drive, Lost? Taxi, truck, hearse, ??? Inquiring minds want to know….

    Glad to see some of the nice avatars back.

    Should that have been enquiring minds?

  10. TruckerRon Avatar

    Should anyone have Sunday obligations, this weekend it the dreaded beginning of DST. As Smeagol would say, “We hates it, we do!” It robs me of a potential hour of astronomy every night!

    http://unearthedcomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Unearthed-DaylightSavings-1703-1-web.jpg

  11. Bob in Orland Park Avatar
    Bob in Orland Park

    Desktop most of the time, laptop when I sit at the kitchen table with the sweetheart.

  12. Galliglo of Ohio Avatar
    Galliglo of Ohio

    Laptop – do not have a desktop any longer. I read email, news, weather, the book of faces on my phone. But to do any shopping or appreciate A & J, have to have the bigger screen. So to read the blog or the strips is my end-of-workday treat!

    By the way, I was able to catch up with 2-1/2 days of comments tonight. A special treat!

  13. DJJG Avatar
    DJJG

    777-inch TV screen. No, just a laptop.

  14. DJJG Avatar
    DJJG

    777-inch TV screen. No, just a lil’ ol’ laptop.

  15. Bill in Paducah Avatar
    Bill in Paducah

    Primarily a 12.9 tablet, occasionally desktop at work, and I’m going to go see what it looks like on my phone!

    And;
    1. I love the columnar format to your posts JJ. Makes me feel like I’m reading something “legit.”
    2. Thanks for the Gahan Wilson info Ruth Anne and Mark.

  16. Charlotte in NH Avatar
    Charlotte in NH

    At the kitchen table all day with iPad, after supper on desktop in living room. Lost in A**2, we have been part of this g
    roup for many years! I also want to know what you are driving. I used to drive a little schoolbus.

  17. Judy in Conroe Avatar
    Judy in Conroe

    I have a laptop with a docking station that turns it into a desktop, and that’s the way I usually use it unless I am out of town. I have good intentions to check my cartoons and drop by the Village daily, but somehow it turns out to be two or three times a week. I will say that when I only have time to read one or a few cartoons, A&J is my first choice.

  18. Ken from Okemos Avatar
    Ken from Okemos

    A desktop and only a desktop. I am not certified to run a laptop anymore than I am to run the company forklift. The one time that I had to use a laptop for a vendor demo I had to be shown how to use it and its eraser mouse thingy, much to the amusement of most of the IT workers in the audience, and the envy of others.

    My phone is just a phone. It doesn’t do circus tricks like taking messages, pictures, or sending and receiving text messages.

  19. Moi Avatar
    Moi

    Mostly on iPad, sometimes on laptop, when i’m at work.

  20. Rick Avatar
    Rick

    Always on an iPad with Retina display.

  21. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Re 3-9-10 cartoon: Janis should start wearing all those pajama tops Arlo never seems to don. A woman can appear trés fetching like that under the right circumstances.

  22. Randall Harris Avatar
    Randall Harris

    Laptop

  23. Fran Avatar
    Fran

    Ipod Touch

  24. Beagle Avatar
    Beagle

    I use a desktop. Mostly for the large screen, I’m 55 and the old eyes like a big screen better.