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”
Debbe 😉 Better watch out, hon. As we know, Jackie has a history of traveling long distances and perpetrating kidnappings when she feels justified. And I’m sure she’d feel justified in doing that again to get a housekeeper like you. Hell, I would, too. 🙂
One caution…if you ever stop lifting tons o’ eggs every day, make sure *you* don’t gain 28 pounds. I’d hate to think about you not being able to fit into that crochet “craft project”. (I did like that project, Jackie.) 😉
Morning all.
Suns out. 🙂
Espresso is good. 🙂
Loon and cats still asleep. 🙂
(only times cats seem to be awake are when their food bowls are empty.)
Universe stil here. 🙂 🙂
Blasted tree crew working in public space. 🙁
Have a lovely Saturday, its the last day of Spring.
And to Lady Mindy, for starting off my day with an ad for B&D devices for chicks…thanks. I think. 😉
Ghost, would it make you feel better if I told you I bought a black lace top and two nude-ish colored lace tops, the kind you wear with little or nothing. They look rather like those old fashioned curtains of lace our grandmothers used to hang on windows. You know, heavy, heavy crocheted laces with intricate patterns and large holes?
That may wake up Sand and Ghost both. A granny in draperies?
Love, Jackie
Why, yes, Jackie. Yes, that did make me feel better. I am always happy to know there are still women who know how to showcase.
^°^°^°^°^ is awake, so also is Loon. Had breakfast, then dropped her at the nail salon for beautification. She is off to a national conference in the morning. Yesterday it was clothes shopping at the mall. All part of the cost of being a spouse. 😉
Ghost, B&D devices for chicks, 50 shades of gray feathers? The Story of Cockadoodle-O?
Jackie, our local Sam’s Club got chicken houses in this spring. Guess that urban chicken thing is catching on. Don’t know how well they compete with Tractor Supply and the Co-op stores.
Bad day for fathers trying to cook out here. Had heavy rain for about an hour between 1130 and 1230. Then it started up again about 1/2 hour ago and is still going at it. This is also the weekend they have an outdoor flea market at a local state park. It is the third weekend of each month from March-November, and so far this year it has rained every Saturday when it has been held. Wonder if we have a vendor coming from Texas/Oklahoma and bringing it with them?
Until I decide whether to go kidnap Debbie and a few hens and roosters, I won’t know whether to put that chicken coop in our garden area or not. I figure I can whip one out there if I get a new house keeper or keep the old one. But the vet I took Dickens to yesterday had a big display of “some assembly needed” chicken coops in his pet supplies and the local Amish built houses feature coops, in fact there is a new expensive sort of Southern Living subdivision down the highway from me on lake and it even offers backyard coops as part of the construction packages. And has a community garden, sheep and chickens as part of their common grounds.
Our ten mile garage sale tied up traffic horribly this year but I didn’t hear the normal sirens denoting the wrecks that usually occur. They set up right out on road, creating a hazard.
Ooops, spellchex changed coop to cook up there and I have fixed it. Chicken cooks. Yep!
Love, Jackie
Mark in TTown, I got back from Utica, NY 1.5 hours ago. Beautiful 4.5 hour drive that was mostly sunny. Was just in time to smoke some meatballs for the kids’ dinner. Tomorrow promises to be rainy and with thundershowers so outdoor cooking will likely not be done then.
Jimmy, build it and they will come. Put up a new retro cartoon tomorrow! Quick.
My, they were certainly bitchy over on TDS today. Perhaps they felt they didn’t get their money’s worth from today’s offering?
Debbe 😉 Just in case you need a little more sunshine, hon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wZ_b_uUAdQ
Isn’t it funny, the more you exercise, the more you want to keep exercising? What is that phenomenon Ghost? You will know. Heart rate and breathing increase and you feel fantastic, want to keep up feeling that good.
OK, it’s late and I have gotten in several hours of exercise today.
Happy father’s day to all the dads, uncles, and positive male role models to all the men of the Village. Enjoy your day. May you each get your dream gift.
It’s an entire industry of bad gifts, aren’t they? All those
executive gifts, any stupid, goofy, brass, wood thing, they put a piece of green
felt on the bottom. “It’s a golf, desk, tie and stress organiser, dad.” ~ Jerry Seinfeld
come and get me………………………
Jimmy, that is Great! 🙂
Ghost: I thought the same thing about TDS yesterday. Oh well… some people want to find fault with everything… Can you imagine how sad their lives must be? I can’t…
Morning Village!
Mindy, thanks for the fine words to dads. I think GR6 and I may be positive male role models, just not for the current generation.
Damn Debbe! Straightforward. You could have tried the more subtle approach, a coat hanger on the doorknob; it worked fine in college. 😉
Meanwhile, on the home front. SO is safely on her way to Orlando. I stopped and bought groceries, now able to enjoy four days of solitude at the ranch. Only distraction will be Tuesday when I am having some dead timber removed before it becomes a hazard.
Yes, it was! Debbe, is that a real cry for help, honey? Please tell us if it is. We all love you.
Good Sunday morning, I got all the animals fed and their water buckets emptied of dead flies and nasty water, washed and refilled, fresh food out. Didn’t take very long. I am disgusted with my rather overpaid help who is doing no cleaning and animals are not taken care of. I am going to board the dogs while I am up in Puget Sound sailing and take Dickens the broken footed with me.
Deputy sheriff has to double on pet feeding and security now with cat flock. I can tolerate dirt (what? I live in Oklahoma, home of the Red Dirt band) but not animals not cared for. One or two cats will go board too I think.
Oh, and I am still doing my laundry.
Love, Jackie
sand 🙂
“What are you going to do now, Loon?”
“I’m going to Disney World!”
Well, Gal, I suppose they could always invest their own time, energy and talent into getting their own nationally syndicated…oh, wait.
Are you saying Loon and Sand have their own television show already? Seriously?
Mindy, I keep imagining a whole flock of chickens in those harnesses pulling Debbe along….kind of like they were sled dogs. Thanks for making me smile!
Happy Father’s Day to all the good guys out there, the ones who are dads and the others who fill that role. Mindy, you said it so well.
We got back from up north late yesterday and spent the morning with my husband’s Dad. Now for the fun of unpacking, laundry, and coping with the jungle that the yard and garden turned into. I know things grow faster when I’m not around, kind of like that old saying about watched pots and boiling.
My godson asked me what I wanted for Father’s Day. I told him that I wanted what I want every day…for him to be the very best person he can be.
He hasn’t let me down yet.
“Isn’t it funny, the more you exercise, the more you want to keep exercising? What is that phenomenon, Ghost?” – Jackie
It’s the exercise-stimulated production of dopamine, Jackie, a natural neurotransmitter responsible for “rewarding” your brain with feelings of pleasure and happiness. Unfortunately, as I learned from an addiction specialist at a illicit drug seminar I attended a while back, that’s also the mechanism by which cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs cause a “high”, with the addition and insidious effect of requiring a greater amount of product over time to produce the same dopamine load.
“…additional and insidious effect…”