I’m continuing today with Sundays from the spring of 2015. More than anything, I see myself as a gag writer. I set up a punchline and usually it is best delivered with a rat-a-tat-tat tempo. Add to this, I have never been a top-tier illustrator. Because of these realities, the expansive Sunday format has never been my best showcase, although, by tradition, Sunday is when cartoonists get to stretch themselves and show out. I do take comfort when I look back, though. Some of them aren’t so bad!
Barefoot Whine
By Jimmy Johnson
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28 responses to “Barefoot Whine”
Your Sundays have been some of your best, like the long-time favorite about a peek. Or the rains that wash out the seeds Janis has planted and leave them blooming on the hillsides. In fact, I would like to see that one again while you are on the flower strips, please.
Thanks, Mark. I guess a better way to put it would be, writing and drawing for the Sundays do not come as naturally as with dailies.
We did a lot of things as kids that we would’t do today, although walking in the grass as a kid was actually more difficult then than it would be now. Back in the day, we had to dodge thistles, dog doo doo and gravel from the driveway. As a runner (now walker), I need to wear my orthotics today as one foot is longer than the other due to a fallen arch.
Jimmy as stated many times, your artistic skills have improved dramatically over the years.
What is in the grass that makes Arlo so displeased in panels 2-5? Why did he change his mind about the fun of being barefooted?
Most likely cockleburs. Or a fire ant bed.
Ah, yes – sandspurs! One of my less glorious decisions while living in FL (in the ’70s) was to play pick-up games of volleyball in someone’s “grassy” back yard for most of an afternoon. It took a LONG time to get rid of all those tiny spines ensconced in the soles of my feet.
Back to the cartoon: didn’t the young Arlo also experience sand spurs, in which case he should have expected them currently?
I’m guessing that the ol’ boy ran into sandspurs — the scourge of the southern grasslands.
That’s what I was talking about. What you are calling sandspurs we always called cockleburs. I didn’t know they were two different things.
Debbe: I just posted this on yesterday and wanted to be sure you saw it so am repeating here:
Debbe, my niece was killed in an accident when she was 23. I remember my SIL saying you get past it, but you don’t get over it. We grieve with you. Love from Nancy K.
I’d add that Arlo hasn’t run around barefoot for hours at a time since he was in fact a kid. His feet aren’t up to the challenge anymore.
I check a score of comics on Gocomics & 3 on Comics Kingdom. Often, the multipanel Sunday comic is nothing more than a single panel gag preceded by superfluous drawing[s] or some other way stretched into 2-4 panels, or 1 or more panels with a page or column width drawing above which is just an expanded, fancified title reserved for Sunday. Basically, packaging.
Peace,
emb, those throwaway panels on the Sundays are just that, designed to be deleted without loss to the main strip in papers that don’t run the full Sunday comic.
You’re much to modest!
Seeing this retro made me think, “why doesn’t Arlo ever wear shorts?” Out for a picnic on a sunny day is a perfect time for shorts!
I started through the archives, and made it to July 17, 2000 before I discovered why… there were a couple of other shorts episodes before that, but not the “real” Arlo. One was Nov 24, 1996, The Arlo Age Award announcement and the other was Arlo as a grown-up Charlie Brown on May 27, 2000.
I’m still working through the archives, but the July 17, 2000 comic may be the answer to my question.
https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2000/07/17
In further research, it looks like the year 2000 may have been a turning point. Too many instances of shorts to continue to keep track. Still, don’t think they are common for Arlo, but I guess the new millenium made it socially acceptable for grown men to wear shorts. (My interest was piqued originally since cargo shorts are currently my attire of choice when the weather is above freezing…) The only other times before July 17, 2000 that Arlo was bare-legged were at the beach, in his swim trunks… not properly shorts.
He runs barefoot like a kid at the beginning of barefoot season 😀
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