This is the “edgy” humor that earned me a reputation in the old days. I never saw it coming really; I was just trying to do “married” humor. By the way, the blush color on Janis’ face in the last panel was added this morning by me. When this strip ran in 1991, all daily comic strips were black and white. Readers were adept at transcribing comic strip shorthand. The little lines around her lower face indicated to all that she was blushing. Or had a five-o’clock shadow.
About those t-shirts. Developing my own line of clothing is proving to be more problematic than I imagined. The trick is to order the correct amount of shirts while juggling colors, styles and sizes. Failure would mean not just financial loss but that I might face the prospect of wearing a new A&J t-shirt every day for the rest of my life. Quel horreur! So, here’s probably what’s going to happen. There will be one style offered initially, the arloandjanis.com logo, the car art. I hope to learn a lot from sales of the car shirt. I really expect it all to proceed well, and other designs will follow quickly. I’m just hedging my bets while I learn my way around the world of haute couture. Remember, I really am doing this myself. Like an idiot.
135 responses to “Busted Blush”
No, NOT an idiot! You are learning from experience… what all of us are doing these days (ahem)…
no no, no, not an idiot… pretty brave, really. 🙂
Perhaps you thought about (and discarded the thought) going through a group like “Redbubble.com” or “Society6” ? You put the design up on the website, they handle sales, printing, shipping and send you at LEAST 25 cents I bet. Hmm I guess it is like what gocomics advertises….
Whatever you decide Jimmy. We love you and your work. 🙂
Jimmy,
I’ve sent this request before, can’t hurt to ask again.
I’d love to see a NEW car art image, replacing the Cobra with a ’70 Plymouth Superbird (Lime-Light Green). And to have it on a shirt would be a HUGE bonus!
Thanks in advance (I hope),
Jay & Jeannie from Maryland
aw, don’t worry, it’ll turn out being a lot of fun for you, at least you can figure 90% of everyone who checks in here will buy at least one
Yes, I suspect that many of us here will purchase one or many! We will do our best to bring you ‘good problems’!
But Jimmy, that is what your Massive Highly Paid and Trained Staff is for! You know, the ones that packed up my “Beaucoup…” books that arrived in a package from James Johnson from an AL PO box… heyyyyyyyyy, wait a minute…
Quite frankly, I have no idea how you do as much as you do as much as you do with the website and book sales and still turn out a great comic strip. For me, just regular “stuff of living” can be a 40-hour-a-week endeavor. The notion that you are Triple Dog Daring It by venturing into T-shirts as well is astounding. A welcome development, but still astounding. You are The Man, good sir.
My company did a community fundraiser a while back that included a fishing rodeo, for which they also sold a custom t-shirt. The first batch of shirts had a spelling error which rendered them useless for sale. The somewhat OCD coordinator was livid about the mistake, but the vendor replaced them in time for them to be sold. I told her not to worry, it was all good, because such shirts are usually donated to international charities that distribute them in impoverished countries. I told her to just picture two small boys in East Africa having just been handed a couple of the shirts, with one asking the other, “What’s a rodeo?” and the other replying, “I dunno. What’s a fish?”
“What’s an Arlo?”
“I dunno. What’s a Janis?”
The plus side of wearing a different t-shirt for the rest of your life is that you not have to do the laundry again. Sizes could be problematic. Maybe do a pre-order so that you can get an idea of the distribution. If a person wishes to lie about their size to you, then they get stuck with a tight t-shirt.
Jimmy, I have limited experience with tee shirt sales/sails for the very reasons you are encountering! People want tee shirts for events, like my Sail OK annual “regatta/festival/fleet” but you have to buy some many in each size, color, pattern that pretty soon you are talking $$$$$$ and I am not anxious to own a lifetime supply of tees in sizes I don’t fit.
Right now I have a small supply of size L and XL left from this year, which I need to flog on our group site to try and get some money for the American Cancer Society donation. We limited it to one design, one color (white) one side and a colored design. They were $16. Quality was good, I laundered mine more than once and it came out well.
My son in law is customer service/installation/whatever for large manufacturer of the machines that print the shirts all over world.
He has thousands of customers but offers me no help!
Apparently tee shirt printing is a lot like the color printing I knew back when we began printing color screenings, kind of like comics.
We could have used more XXXL and XXL and Mediums apparently!
Love, Jackie
I’ll be in for at least a couple to wear in public and ‘Ol What’s Her Name will want one to use as a nightshirt. Can’t wait.
Not an idiot!
Can’t wait for the T-shirt. The Youth at my church are selling t-shirts for a money raiser for summer camp next year. One design, 5 color t’s, and sizes S-XXL. We are pre-ordering, though.
Maybe not so much to do a pre-order as a survey as to what size people want!
I’ll take an XXL, please…
I think the car art design is perfect. Well, assuming the Rodin is out of the question.
If this hasn’t already been asked, what are the possibilities of a signed shirt?
And a XXXL please! Some is still the bra size but unfortunately, a lot of extraneous body padding got added.
Haven’t yet read the comments above, or those late yesterday.
OF due 1126-1146 CDT. Peace, emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Debbe: “I say that the crowing helps stimulate egg production.”
That’s what the song says: “They’re layin’ eggs now / Just like they useter / Ever since that rooster / Got in our yard.” The tune, actually, comes from the last movement of a LVB clarinet trio [often arr. for other instruments]. He, of course, may have picked it up from country folk or a beer hall in Bonn, or if later, in the Wien woods.
Posted at the end of yesterday’s posts because I forgot that’s where I was. Age.
Jackie, per your earlier comment, perhaps the reason this blog has been relatively troll-free is that there are so many strong, mature personalities represented here that those type persons are hesitant to engage with us. Or, if not that, perhaps we just come across as too staid and dull to interest them. 🙂
I’m pretty sure today’s “modest Janis” cartoon has been reprinted either here on the blog or on the old web site, as I distinctly recall reading it at a later date and thinking “Wow, she sure got over that!”
Over on Wooden Boat, which I do not monitor, they have a section called the Bilge which is populated by those wanting to cause unrest and uprisings, say outrageous things. Even the rats won’t go there!
I do however read the forum there and there is one guy in particular, who is a real person we know, who acts like a troll and is most disliked. He deliberately does trollish things to make people mad and were it my forum (or a lot of others’ forum) he would be banned. We all keep saying “Don’t feed the troll, don’t feed the troll.”
This is really hard to do because they are manipulators of great skill and they just keep biting until someone responds, then they go deeper in their eating!
Love, Jackie
Hey I went to a lot of work getting 3 different designs ok’d. I will just do my part to make phase one a success, and hope it is a big success. I am doing life style changes so instead of a 3XL I can use a 2XL, and hopefully by the time phase 2 gets here with more styles it will be just a Large. Will love the Cobra with A&J on the shirt if that is all you ever turn out, looking forward to it.
Regarding today’s real-time strip: “The past is never where you think you left it.” ~ Katherine Anne Porter
Funny how much difference one wrong letter makes: http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/
Jimmy, your African t-shirt story beat my African t-shirt story. 🙂
Who thinks the kid in the blue shirt has ever actually seen the LA Dodgers play?
http://ximaniyoxeeb.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/somali-kids.jpg
I’m excited about the shirts, really I am, but I am lovein’ your French!
OF, no prediction. These rangers are good scientists. When they don’t know, like any good scientists or teachers [or pastors], they say so. Peace, emb
http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
Wow, tshirts are coming.
Marketing thoughts:
Tshirt model wearing the A&J shirt with the infamous pokies showing. GR6 would double his order.
Street vendor them during Mardi Gras, tax deductible travel expenses.
Or, sell ’em here to the faithful.
I should make it clear that I do NOT read the Bilge on the Wooden Boat Forum! Never, rats abandon them in shame.
I read the normal forum about designs, building and boating events, which is seldom more scandalous than the magazine, which is pretty conservative. So, having a troll on the main forum is scandalous enough!