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.
Flannel Surfing
By Jimmy Johnson
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34 responses to “Flannel Surfing”
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.
Someone was creative and had deeper pockets than I:
https://www.ksl.com/article/50046402/love-for-disney-sheltering-in-place-give-birth-to-roller-coaster-in-california-backyard
But does it have a basket ball court in it like Disneylands?
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.
Of course Arlo picked the nighty with buttons!
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
i saw it, Jack….whether here or on FB though I cannot recall. 🙂 It sounded good!
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. 🙂
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,
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.
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.
Condolences to those of you suffering from paraskevidekatriaphobia.
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.)
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….
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.
I think that “icebox” remains to this day a Southernism for refrigerator.
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.
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.
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.
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….
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.
Chess pies.
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.
That’s why you don’t rob the bank you frequent!
“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,
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!
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
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.
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.
It would be great to be able to edit to fix typos…
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.
Apparently this British family never read Animal Farm…
https://www.ksl.com/article/50049333/have-you-seen-this-renegade-pony-leads-a-barnyard-uprising
Despite never watching game shows, I agree with Arlo and Janis today. Lovely tribute Jimmy and appropriately worded.
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