A Word to the Wise

by Jimmy Johnson

I’ve never liked that prominent forelock on Arlo’s head. It looks silly, and it creates a lot of issues when drawing and coloring backgrounds. I cannot tell you why I drew him that way to start with, but I’m stuck with it now. Arlo wouldn’t be Arlo without a yellow canary sitting on his forehead.

Today's "Arlo & Janis!"

31 responses to “A Word to the Wise”

  1. dave Avatar
    dave

    I was glad to see you had an episode with the rotating Christmas tree light! If I remember right, when the tree first came out, the hanging bulbs were all blue. I also remember, in subsequent years, getting cuts and splinters from assembling the tree.

  2. DJJG7 Avatar
    DJJG7

    So you don’t care for that forelock! But it is distinctive. I hope you are happy with Janis’s hair. That’s been quite a success.

    1. JJ Avatar
      JJ

      I’ve had a lot of problems with Janis’ hair over the years, but let’s say I’m satisfied with it. I’ve tried to make it a little softer and more natural by drawing it a bit sketchier, but it always seems to return to its rigid form. Lots of hair spray. Some readers absolutely hate Janis’ hair with a visceral passion. I’ve never understood them.

      1. Ghost Avatar
        Ghost

        IIRC, Arlo once decided to change his look and got his hair cut differently. I cannot recall if the “canary” was eliminated or just minimized. In either case, a couple of days later, the classic Arlo look had returned.

        1. Ghost Avatar
          Ghost

          I believe that may have also been the time the Arlo was quietly staring at his female hair-cutter’s chestular area as she worked on him. She asked him what he was thinking, and he immediately came up with some tale about the old barber that used to cut his hair. Sure. Been there, done that, with P&PHS. And I suspect Jimmy has, too, making it a case of art imitating life.

          And in case anyone ever thought that Pulchritudinous & Pneumatic Hair Stylist was a figment of my febrile imagination, Jackie was seen photos of P&PHS and can vouch that she is everything I said she was.

  3. Bonnie from Gloucester MA Avatar
    Bonnie from Gloucester MA

    That forelock is just a very prominent cowlick. I’ve got one and they’re very pesky! Like Arlo, (and therefore you, JJ) I’m stuck with it too. Don’t even think about messing around with the hairdos. Just deal with it. ????

  4. Bonnie from Gloucester MA Avatar
    Bonnie from Gloucester MA

    Hmmmm. I posted a winking emoji and it came out as multiple question marks. Oh well! Pretend it’s a winking emoji.

  5. emb Avatar
    emb

    Grey-headed kingfisher. Peace,

  6. emb Avatar
    emb

    When we had occasion to ride [in someone else’s car] through the suburbs or a town, only some of the front yard trees had all blue lights. I [8-17 or so] liked those best. Peace,

  7. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    My parents were fans of all-blue lights on a real tree back in the ’40s. I never knew why so. Our trees always looked just fine to my young ocular orbs.

    Our tinsel was the old metallic type of apparent high density. I often wondered about the composition – surely it wasn’t made of thin strips of the soft metal, Pb, eh? Whatever the make-up, placing some across the tracks of my electric train caused a short and, if memory serves, melted the piece of tinsel. Anyone else have/observe such?

    1. JonInDenver Avatar
      JonInDenver

      In our first years of marriage we had real trees with blue and green lights. I think blue and green was in, or maybe someone gave us their old lights. Never had an aluminum tree but my wife’s family did, complete with the rotating lamp thing.
      Tinsel. My sister insisted it had to be strung one piece at a time. She was the only one in the family who had that kind of patience so she was stuck with the job. It did look beautiful so I thank her belatedly for her efforts. I do recall the tinsel melting on the train tracks but I never put it there on purpose.

  8. punsitok Avatar
    punsitok

    We had an aluminum tree with the spinning wheel thing too. And most of our lights and such were blue because my dad was red/green color blind. He never got any joy from poinsettias.

  9. TruckerRon Avatar

    My train story: During the first grade I received an electric train set for Christmas. It had 3 rails gauge) and could be easily assembled/disassembled. The first school day in January I came home to be informed that my then 3-year old brother had discovered that he could twist the track pieces and send the plastic ties flying. He, of course, had destroyed all the track before his crime was discovered. I was also told that I could not kill him, much as I wanted to! I didn’t have another train set until I was in junior high.

    https://i.etsystatic.com/6449697/r/il/841a4f/1388987800/il_570xN.1388987800_kdig.jpg

  10. TruckerRon Avatar

    Not sure what happened, but it was O gauge (letter “O”).

    1. Mark in TTown Avatar
      Mark in TTown

      yep, O or O27 gauge was standard hobby gauge in the US for a long time. I had one too, can’t remember whether it was Lionel or Marx, but I had a lot of fun playing with it. Thankfully, little brother didn’t do much destruction, but little sister was another story. Her favorite thing that aggravated me was to color in my books, which weren’t coloring books.

  11. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    On my deathbed, my “Rosebud” may perhaps be a certain Lionel model train set, straight from the Sears Roebuck and Company catalog…a symbol of a simpler time in my life.

  12. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    We had Lionel and friends had American Flyer

    Much discussion ensued about which was better.
    Of course only set up at Christmas.

  13. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    American Flyer, of course! I kept them – not always set up, even at Christmas – until I was 42 and someone made me a nice offer as I was packing for a move. ‘Twas that much less to pack.

  14. Brent Avatar
    Brent

    In Japanese comics, a lock of hair sticking up like that is called ahoge… “idiot hair”. It’s used as a shorthand to mark a character as not necessarily being foolish, but certainly having a bumbling, carefree demeanor.

    1. JJ Avatar
      JJ

      Well, there ya go…

  15. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    I remember when Arlo got glasses. I knew that wasn’t going to last long as there was NO way Jimmy was going to keep drawing them!

    Janis’ readers make the occasional appearance though.

  16. emb Avatar
    emb

    That forelock is just fine, like Dagwood’s 1-button shirt. Keep it. Here’s Ballard Street’s comment on the American mind. Peace,

    https://www.gocomics.com/ballardstreet/2018/12/21

    1. Mark in TTown Avatar
      Mark in TTown

      emb, that beats most of what is on network tv, which is the reason I haven’t subscribed to a tv service since moving to Oklahoma. I watch my own DVD’s, streaming movies and so on from my Roku, and old tv shows and interesting videos posted to YouTube. And save over $40 a month doing it.

  17. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    We’re getting ready to “cut the cord” on TV service at Jackie’s house. (Or whatever it’s called for a satellite system…”cutting the signal”?) I realized the TV hasn’t even been turned on in the almost two years I’ve been here, and she says it’s been even longer than that.

    We keep saying we’re going to watch some of the extensive collection of movies she has on DVD, but we’ve been so busy with other matters we haven’t even had time to do that.

  18. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    On the subject of model trains, I ran across this today because YouTube thought I might like it. They were right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hao-TsCw_o

  19. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Mark
    RFDTV has
    I Love Toy Trains 2:30 CT every Monday

    Many peoples collections – Lionel, AF, Marx. and others.

    and the reply remembered my name – this time.

    1. Old Bear Avatar
      Old Bear

      but not now

  20. emb Avatar
    emb

    Scroll to the bottom for today’s anagram. Peace,

    https://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2018/12/21