It was good enough for Matthew Broderick

by Jimmy Johnson

December 28, 1988


It amazes me how many things have changed in the seemingly short time I’ve been drawing Arlo & Janis. By “things,” I literally mean things. In 1985, computer screens were black with green type. Or maybe orange. And if you wanted an image, you had to be creative enough to assemble it from type font, of which there was only one available. And computers had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with drawing comic strips. So much has changed. Telephones, television sets as well as television programming, music delivery, even appliances. The common denominator, of course, is the microchip, but it has touched almost everything in daily life. Not to mention, there are myriad things common now that did even exist 35 years ago. Now, you can spend the rest of the day discussing how primitive technology was when you got started. You’re welcome.


44 responses to “It was good enough for Matthew Broderick”

  1. Jerry in Fl Avatar
    Jerry in Fl

    My first job after college was in a hospital, Each floor had one copier and it was the size of a chest type freezer. If you treated it just right you could get a (one) copy before it jammed. My supervisor had a hand held calculator, He was the only guy that could afford one. Pay tv? Where do you put the quarters? Good news-the car came in and it’s beautiful. Bad news-I fell and broke a rib so it may be a while before I drive it.

  2. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Sorry to hear of your accident, Jerry. Take care and get well soon.

  3. Judy in Conroe Avatar
    Judy in Conroe

    LOVED Zork! I am not very good at arcade type games that require speed and hand-eye coordination, but I am not bad at solving puzzles. So Zork was lots of fun. One of the games, with a robot, always cracked me up. Whenever you saved, the robot would quip “Oh, now we’re going to do something dangerous!”
    Then along came the Sierra games that were so full of color and not too hard on the arcade style play. I really liked the Zelda games, too, but had to have help from my son to take out the Boss characters.

  4. Jackie Avatar
    Jackie

    I am lost in the jungle of jargon swirling through the memory mist.

    However I did correctly anticipate/guess what Arlo/Indie would find. Since the plane departed it probably is the end. Bravo Jimmy it was a good one with great art work carrying the story.