Flannel Surfing

by Jimmy Johnson

November 6, 1997


Today’s oldie is from 1997. I’m not holding this up as a particularly good example of what I’m about to discuss, but I think the mid-90s was a very good period for Arlo & Janis. While still evolving (They’re always evolving.), the art and the writing reached an optimum. It was a very creative time, one when the comic strip stretched far beyond its original concept while still remaining faithful to it. I won’t go so far as to say it was my best work, for that would be discouraging, but the period certainly remains a benchmark.


34 responses to “Flannel Surfing”

  1. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    Jimmy: We are all evolving. Sometimes events in the world help the creative process and sometimes they hinder it. I am sure that some of what has been going on helped, but after a while I suspect it can make it more difficult.

    I hate to say something is the “best” because you really still hit the mark. Just keep plugging away and later you may realize that today is some of your best work.

    1. OCLVROADRIDER Avatar
      OCLVROADRIDER

      But does it have a basket ball court in it like Disneylands?

  2. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    Jimmy your art and colors continue to get better and better. You aren’t going downhill, still climbing. Not at peak yet.

    Arlo would op for one with buttons to hem.

  3. David in Granbury Avatar
    David in Granbury

    Of course Arlo picked the nighty with buttons!

  4. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    Oddly last night I posted about making a chess pie. Recipe was supposed to be Bill Clinton’s favorite pie. I checked that it posted and fell asleep early. Got up this morning to find it gone.

    Who does that? Jimmy never deletes anything and it was no more political than saying Lyndon Johnson liked brisket

    1. Llee Avatar
      Llee

      i saw it, Jack….whether here or on FB though I cannot recall. 🙂 It sounded good!

      1. David in Granbury Avatar
        David in Granbury

        I knew I had seen it! It is on FB, I went back to check. Maybe a Chess Pie is on the menu soon for me. 🙂

  5. emb Avatar
    emb

    Believe I’ve mentioned the just-long-enough nightie Sears called a “dormitory shirt.” I didn’t come w/ panties, & unbuttoned down the front. Elaine liked it. It wore out.
    Peace,

  6. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Re 11-12-20 real-time cartoon: So, assuming “bedtime” in England is 10 PM or 11 PM, the -5 hour difference with EST, or -6 hour difference with CST, likely means that it’s sometime between 4 PM and 6 PM where Arlo is. He really is having a problem with the time change, isn’t he?
    Of course, I can’t talk. It’s not even 8:30 PM here, and it feels likes it’s nearing midnight.

  7. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Re 11-13-20 real-time cartoon: Wow, Arlo, neat “planning” session there, bro. Apparently, you will brook no discussion on that topic!
    Jackie and I have already had that discussion. Even a turkey breast is a lot of protein for just two people, so we have decided on Peppered Pork Tenderloin with Citrus Chutney for our Thanksgiving entrée. But of course, we will still have Southern-style “dressing” with that. Even though “Peppered Pork Tenderloin with Citrus Chutney and Dressing” does not roll off the tongue as facilely as “Turkey and Dressing”.
    Oh, and Lemon Icebox Pie.

    1. Ghost Avatar
      Ghost

      Condolences to those of you suffering from paraskevidekatriaphobia.

    2. Sideburns Avatar

      Marcia and I will do a turkey breast for Thanksgiving, with leftovers for later. With luck, we’ll be able to buy a turkey thigh for New Year’s Eve, with slightly different leftovers. (I like dark meat best, but you don’t see thighs for sale up here very often.)

  8. Neal H Sanders Avatar

    We’re about to cross into ‘flannel season’ here in New England. Having grown-up in flannel-free Florida, I still mourn the switch-over, even after 44 years of marriage….

  9. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
    curmudgeonly ex-professor

    Over on Go.comics, there is mention of “icebox”. As a kid, that was what we called our refrigerator. It was not a true icebox, as no one ever delivered ice to it, and it was electric with a small freezer unit at the top center of the interior. I suppose the name came from my parents who certainly did grow up with true iceboxes. Even I remember trucks coming around selling chunks of ice and the guy hauling same to the customer on his padded shoulder. I also know that my dad, during at least one summer ca. 1930, delivered ice to earn money.
    NYCity, 1940s.

    1. Blinky the Wonder Wombat Avatar
      Blinky the Wonder Wombat

      I think that “icebox” remains to this day a Southernism for refrigerator.

  10. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    We had a true icebox that we put big blocks of ice into. It sat outside under a shed. The ice came from the ice house in town thirteen miles away so we picked it up.

    The first refrigerator we had was after WWII and was same model style as CEX discribed above. My grandmother was still using it when I went off to college in 1960s.

  11. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    My mom and grandmother called the fridge an icebox all my life. Since grandmother was born in 1906 I know she dealt with the real thing. Mom, however, was born in 1929 and her dad worked for Alabama Power, so I think she just picked up the word from her mother.

  12. Kerry Avatar
    Kerry

    Because Jimmy has continued to work to improve his technique. Ludwig has ears!!! Is something I no longer have to say because these days Ludwig usually does.

    1. curmudgeonly ex-professor Avatar
      curmudgeonly ex-professor

      And yet, I find that the single line style of ear is more expressive. Perhaps that seems so because the single line can be moved much more obviously to different positions than can triangular ears.
      Whatever floats your boat….

  13. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    Just baked two Southern hess pies, both with PET .milk, one chocolate, one classic with vinegar.

    Recycled leftover roast beef into lavish .mushroom gravy smothered open face sandwixhes on garlic buttered sourdough. Arlo would like the food here.

    Tomorrow I am baking cathead biscuits with bacon and scrambled eggs with white peppered gravy.

  14. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    Chess pies.

  15. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Re 11-15-20 real-time cartoon: I had the same thought the first time I walked up to a teller’s window at our local bank branch, wearing a mask and armed (although not obviously so). Except I self-expressed it more like, ”Who’d a-thunkit?” But in actuality, they all know and love me at the bank, mask or no mask. It’s more like Norm walking into Cheers, so I’d be like the world’s quickest identified bank robber.

    1. Bryan Avatar
      Bryan

      That’s why you don’t rob the bank you frequent!

  16. emb Avatar
    emb

    “Arlo would like the food here.” So would I, but too much of it would be bad for me. An essay on the menu someplace will have to wait, possibly for “The collected works of the late emb.”
    Peace,

  17. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    When I was calling on one of my florist shop customers long ago in one of the many nearby small towns the bank was robbed. I was parked next door during robbery and wondered if I had seen robber?

    On TV the local sheriff said, “Short middle age woman, overweight in sweatsuit and minivan. It could have been half the women in Oklahoma including my wife.”

    And me!

  18. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Off of all topics:

    Several years ago, a brief discussion took place in this hallowed realm about outstanding space movies. I was the only one who thought that “Gravity” was sheer dreck, and I offered “2001: A Space Odyssey” as one of the best.

    In that light, I thought that long-time readers of this blog might enjoy this: https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/50-best-space-movies-of-all-time/ss-BB1b2jho?li=BBnb7Kz

    1. David in Granbury Avatar
      David in Granbury

      Some interesting choices there! To rehash about 2001, if you’ve read the book, then the movie is decent. If you haven’t read the book, then most of the movie is incomprehensible. We enjoyed the #1 pick, but I wouldn’t have put it at the top. I was surprised that “The Thing” based on John W. Campbell’s novella, “Who Goes There?” wasn’t on the list. It’s also surprising that so many of the Star Wars movie WERE one the list. They made a lot of money, but that doesn’t necessarily make them great movies.

      1. Blinky the Wonder Wombat Avatar
        Blinky the Wonder Wombat

        Star Wars: not great cinema, but the first three were certainly entertaining and they led to film techniques we take for granted these days. I still remember the awesomeness of the opening scroll of the first movie.

  19. David in Granbury Avatar
    David in Granbury

    It would be great to be able to edit to fix typos…

  20. Don from Oklahoma Avatar
    Don from Oklahoma

    We went on Boy Scout campout this past weekend. We had our Thanksgiving feast. I cooked fried turkey, Dutch oven ham cooked in crushed pineapple and honey. Mashed potatoes, corn on the cob. Dutch oven pumpkin pie and apple cobbler. We invited the camp host over for dinner then had a flag retirement ceremony afterwards. He is about 83 and lives alone, I think he had a great night.

  21. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    Despite never watching game shows, I agree with Arlo and Janis today. Lovely tribute Jimmy and appropriately worded.

  22. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Heh.
    “Astronauts really just took Baby Yoda with them up to space.
    “Baby Yoda became an honorary astronaut over the weekend.

    “A plush toy version of the creature — which stole people’s hearts in Disney+’s Star Wars series “The Mandalorian” — can be seen in a live stream from inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.” – CNN