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”
So sorry, Steve. My sister spent the last seven and a half months of her life slowly dying, and I know how hard that is on everyone involved.
Oh, Steve, I am so sorry. I am glad she had the additional years… but she must have been ready to go. Prayers for all the family.
Steve, very sorry! A transplant can be miraculous but sometimes not as much. As for three more years… https://youtu.be/2UWx-shGM0g (One More Day, Diamond Rio)
Steve, totally understand both you and your brother as well. You wonder if the suffering was worth it? I know Mike fought so hard, yet I also know that his cancer doctors had actually given up and decided not to try, sent him home to die the first go round. He just wouldn’t die, wouldn’t believe he wouldn’t make it.
Would I want to watch that happen again? No, but his courage inspired me and many, many others. I am sure your sister-in-laws fight inspired others. And yes, how do we learn if we are not medical experiments? That is what my doctors tell me anyway, that I am an research project!
Blessings, love Jackie Monies
Steve, sorry your news was not of the better kind.
Guess what Houston is receiving from the weather gods; more rain. Now wishing I had planted 400 acres of rice.
Woke up from my nap and looked out office window. Swamp is now established in the section I can see and rain still pouring down. Alligators will be out there by tonight. Last I looked Bill was sitting on top of us spinning.
Jackie: Just heard your hometown mentioned in connection with a road being washed out by flooding. Hope it’s not too close!
Maybe I need to look at news? Phone keeps going off with weather warnings.
The NHC has stopped issuing advisories on former TS Bill, but the Radarmaschine is still showing rather impressive rotation over the OK-AR border. Sometimes wetness is a blessing and sometimes not.
Well, I managed to get off the Weather Channel and yes, we are flooding all around here. Since I never turn the thing on I managed to totally lose all television, so now I go search on internet.
I was in Tulsa all day yesterday and I had noticed the same thing the weather channel girl did who was standing out in rain looking brave, braced and wet: The Arkansas River is normally nothing but a sand bar from end to end and now it is out of banks and flooding vigorously.
If you see the flash flooding going through the Baptist College campus up in Tulsa, well that is way my yard was looking until I put up the concrete and rock walls to stop the river that went through my yard. Of course now it goes down alongside my house into back yard if it doesn’t make it into the lovely water feature I built (which is lovely actually)
House may get washed off foundation. Never buy property with a lovely “dry creek” running length of property. They are not always dry!
Love, Jackie
Jackie, I think this is close to you: http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=eufaula%2C+ok
Hang tight Jackie. Keep a tight grip, dig in the spurs, and head up until the buzzer sounds.
Steve, I’m so sorry for your family’s loss. You must be right: that was her saying “I have to go now, but I’ll see you later.” You folks are in my thoughts and prayers.
Good luck on the move, Jerry!
Perusing the comics over the last few days, I have no trouble reading any of them. I had never thought about the notion that Our Humble Author rarely went to four lines as there are a number, including the oft-mentioned Sally Forth, that use far more.
It is also interesting that the introduction of Robin likewise proved to be somewhat of a rarity; aside from the various gals that interacted with Gene Back In The Day, it actually turns out that the introduction of a named, recurring character does not happen all that often in A&J. Charles Schulz brought on Peppermint Patty because he thought it was an outstanding name and wanted to beat any other cartoonist to the punch. She worked out pretty well, but when Eudoria, Marcie and Rerun appeared, I did not think they did much for the strip… but Peanuts was already in decline by that point. Schulz had flown so high in the ’60s that it was sad to see. In contrast, A&J still tickles me to the present day. Hairstyles (and earstyles 🙂 ) may change, but the writing is still strong… and I can easily read it. 😉
“…doing leg lifts in bed”, Jackie? You’re really trying to make me live up to my “wickedly funny and politely sinful” promise with straight lines like that, aren’t you? 😉 But yes, as a matter of fact, there does reach a point when a woman’s breasts pass erotic and venture into Cartoon Land. And many of them seem to reach that point very quickly these days. Also, just as important, if not more so, is their arrangement. But as a former floral designer, you know that, don’t you? 🙂
I’ve always suspected that Giada has a hair stylist, a makeup stylist and a boob stylist.
Virginia (Yes, Virginia, you are a TBB) was not there today, but I probably didn’t need the distraction of her “arrangement”. The humidity was awful. My warm-up is 60 minutes on the treadmill, and even under the best of conditions, the first 30 minutes suck, and I want to quit at least three or four times. But after that, the soreness from the day before wears off; the endorphins kick in; and I get my rhythm going. At that point, I could easily go another hour or more.
Since he was four years old, I’ve tried to instill into my godson the idea that his motto in life should be “Never Give Up”. Can I do any less? “Ne jamais abandonner.”
Ghost, while the flood alarms have been going off I went back to bed, put a bunch of Josh Gorban CDs on, meditated, did deep breathing exercises and meditation. And more leg lifts. I have gotten quite flexible in comparison to where I was, almost immobile. There’s lots of ammo for you, my friend.
Does Josh Gorban make me look like an elderly lady? I had honestly never heard him and discovered him whiled looking for males singing opera. I am a huge fan of male opera singers, women are ok but I love opera with great male voices. Let me tell you, opera is hard to come by in Eufaula, OK!
Years ago when I traveled as a salesman I stayed in cheap motels with no exercise rooms. I bought a book about exercising in close quarters, written for college dorm girls, and a second written by an exercise authority after his brother was paralyzed in a diving accident, for disabled people, lots of exercises done on beds. Don’t go there!
Then here came another divine providence intervention, I walked by a display in bookstore and a book called “Feel Good Naked” jumped off shelf into my hands. Literally.
http://www.FeelGoodNaked.com/book/about.html Author is Laure Redmond
Totally common sense, great advice for life styles and self image. Since I never watch Oprah I did not know it was reviewed there as an Oprah book selection. Laure also appears on Dr. Laura show, another thing I do not listen to. But this woman is right on about women and their body images.
Mark can probably find better links and Ruth Anne as a librarian probably knows book. Ghost will probably start giving them out as Christmas gifts and birthday presents.
Love Jackie
Geez, Jackie don’t make me have to pull out my collection of “traveling salesperson” jokes!
“Feel Good Naked”? I actually don’t ever remember feeling bad naked. Quite the contrary. The gift idea may have some merit, however. 😉
As a reminder that reporters often aren’t very precise about what they report, and that even what you see in a video may not be what it appears, the recent reports/video of a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner pulling a high performance climb following takeoff were almost universally described as “near vertical”. It was a 30-degree angle of climb. While impressive for an (unloaded) airliner, that’s not exactly vertical.
Or perhaps they just don’t teach geometry in school any longer.
Remarkably Ghost, most of the women (make that ALL of the women) I know are totally horrified at the idea of being naked, even with their own husbands. Granted you probably know more women who are willing to shed clothes than live in small town Oklahoma because they are women you meet at places like your gym.
But body issues are a huge deal with women, especially older ones. Well, no, that is not true at all, make that the majority of the women I run into around here, young, old, teens, younger. We are a demographic area of obesity and lack of exercise. When I lived in Houston and Dallas we all dieted, exercised, tried to stay fit.
The first week I was in Oklahoma I was jogging in neighborhood and six people stopped within minutes to ask what was wrong, why was I running?
Tulsa is one of few places here you see people who obviously do exercise and stay fit and even they got named in an article I read recently about most unfit, unhealthy places in America.
Love Jackie
Taking a short beak. Thank you Denise. Steve, I was very sorry to see the news about your sister-in-law. When the doctors began talking about doing surgery on my brain I reflected on the likely alternatives and decoded it was a no-brainer. 🙂 Years from now wires in the brain will be considered primitive, but it has certainly helped me and was worth it if I die tomorrow.
decided
Debbe 😉 Sounds like more Hippie Chick music to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0PjECSyJ7w
I’ve tried to send a response to Jackie’s last post several times, but it keeps getting rejected. Not moderated but “The requested URL was rejected”. Anyone have a clue what that means?
Just how wicked was rhar resonate and where were you linking?