OK, so this comic strip from December of last year isn’t exactly “rare.” It’s Arlo and Janis sitting on the sofa, for cryin’ out loud. However, there is something out of the ordinary going on here. Can you tell what it is? That’s right! In the third panel, Arlo’s dialog runs to four lines. It is an unwritten rule here (where all rules are unwritten!) that dialog in a comic strip not run for more than three lines. You’d be surprised how easy this really is. Dialog tends to be terse and to the point, and much of what I write is dialog. I believe punchy dialog actually lends authenticity; remember that, would-be comic strip artists, and writers of all stripes.
I bring up dialog, because I periodically get emails from readers who complain (always nicely!) that they have a particularly difficult time reading the text in Arlo & Janis. I don’t doubt they have problems. Newspapers so reduce all comic strips these days that they’ve become almost impossible to read, particularly for the demographic that is keeping newspapers afloat. I do wonder, though, if A&J is particularly unintelligible. I look at other strips in the newspapers, and I don’t see many of them being any easier to read. I like to think it’s because Arlo & Janis is the one they want to read. Anyway, I have two points about this subject. 1) I am aware of the problem. I have gone to a thicker lettering pen, but I think this sometimes makes me squeeze the lettering, which probably is the worst thing I could do. I have experimented with computer fonts made from my own lettering. This is promising, but I haven’t been able to develop one yet that really pleases me. Perhaps I need to expand the three-line rule to four lines. In short, I am working on it. 2) I would like your observations and suggestions on this matter. It might help.
316 responses to “A Rare Arlo & Janis”
Jackie, don’t kick what you’ve not tried. Become one with the universe. Drink deep from the great mother’s bosom. Live fully in the moment. 😉
See? I am not that different from you. 🙂
GR6, I would advise against pressure washing; could open a portal into a new internet dimension.
Ruth Anne in Winter Haven, Charlotte in NH, I just saw this film on TCM following Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill Jr. Watch it, I think you will like it. It had me tearing up at the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VljJIQuPDSE
Flushing probably wouldn’t work, either.
Probably time to dig out a fancy-schmancy MS wireless keyboard I’m not using for anything else.
Dear Sandcastler, all those horrible injuries! I feel so bad for you. And were you in the Armed Forces when these happened? Nice that you have no combat injuries, I guess, but remember that someone with a Purple Heart can enroll more easily in the VA care programs.
GR6, thought about a tablet? Virtual keyboards never get things between the keys.
No Ghost, if you tried to flush it, you’d probably need a plumber next to get it out of the pipes. Unless you broke it into very small pieces.
Mark: We watched it too – a lovely little film.
I am suspecting Sand got those injuries while employed as a noncombatant contract employee, Charlotte, but I may be wrong on that guess.
And no sooner had I posted it than I thought, well, also possible he was a civilian government employee and got injuries. That happens all the time. Ask me how I’d know that.
^°^°^°^°^ contract hirling only since late 1999. Prior to that I was a hired hand on a couple ranches.
Like security, maybe?
Ruth Anne, and in the operating scene, one important thing about books. They are not alive until somebody reads them. In between, they are in a kind of suspended animation.
I had written of daughter Marge’s birthday parachute jump, thought Sand was referring to the same thing?
I thought he was, too, Charlotte.
sand, who laid out those DZ’s…a leg butter-bar? 🙂
Debbe 😉 Anytime, hon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5jlPL1tNDY
Good morning Villagers….
OK, GR 😉 , here it is….had my Isuzu passenger side car door open, Andrew was ‘screwing’ around with the door with the front tire of the ‘dead’ GMC truck….Ian decides to put it in reverse therefore ‘pinging’ a dent in the front side frame and the door creeks now….husband is po’d.
I am constantly walking on glass around here as husband and son do not get along. Just not a good day yesterday. Oh, but his other nephew can pass out in his truck in our driveway with the lights on….that is what I woke up to yesterday morning.
Husband went out, shut lights off on truck, saw the dent in my car and then the fight started.
But ya know what guys, it’s paid for and it still runs and it’s in my name 🙂
Ya’lll have a blessed day
Debbe, keep that attitude my friend! It’s yours and it’s paid for. And keep feeling good naked too. That gives you power, darling. You’d have to promise to come alone if I kidnap you, though, except for a few chickens and the cats if you want to. I have enough drama! LOL
since I can’t do a smiley face.
Good morning all, it is 7:30 on Monday here and I need to get some blood drawn.
Love, Jackie
Since Summer officially started yesterday, this article explains why it does not have the latest sunset and earliest sunrise. I have pointed it out a few times here, but this is a good explanation.
http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/equation-of-time.html
Morning all.
JJ, must be the same brand of motion sensor we own. Why do they only come on after you don’t need light?
Jackie, no comment.
Debbe, keep the faith.
Charlotte, yes para jumping.
GR6, wind shifts and other jumpers are variables outside of normal operational parameters. Like all operations, the plan goes out the door with you; after that you do like a Marine: improvise, adapt, and overcome.
Ghost, did you know that paperclips are the larval form of coat hangers?
Mark, I like to imagine books on shelves or in stacks whispering to each other. Nothing is so lonely as a single book.
Thank you for that article, Steve!
Debbe, hugs.
For those of us who may benefit from gentle workouts, may I suggest the 30th anniversary edition of Bob Anderson’s “Stretching”? I recommended the earlier editions of this book many times while I was a bookseller, and received a great deal of positive feedback. It is available from many sources; I see the author now has a website at http://www.stretching.com/.
Denies, thanks for explaining the relationship of paperclips and hangers. I now see the lineage. 🙂
Denise in Michigan, I’ve never had a lonely book.
Sand, about the light, isn’t it the truth? Except when you are trying to sleep on a windy night and the blamed things keep coming on. Like a false alarm on a home security system.
Thanks guys for the memory jolt of Linda Ronstedt. Listening to Duets CD right now. Beautiful
Debbe 😉 Remember…
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. – Matthew 5:9 King James Version
But also…
“Illegitimi non carborundum.” – Ghost Rider 6 Version