A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Punch Line

By Jimmy Johnson


Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"
Today, I’ve chosen another really old A&J for you, from 1987. I talk a lot here about the evolution of my drawing and sometimes about the evolution of the writing, but I don’t think enough is made of how much the personality of the characters has evolved over time. Arlo and Janis both have become familiar, knowable individuals. In the early days, as in this cartoon, nothing defined the players beyond an air of whimsy that always has existed within the strip and married-couple banter, hopefully from a fresh perspective—mine—but still married-couple banter. The development of the characters is, of course, a reflection of growth in drawing and in writing, yet it’s more: while a sum of the whole, it almost is a separate metamorphosis, the satisfying outcome of the cartoonist’s craft.

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252 responses to “Punch Line”

  1. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Must keep the gubbermint bean-counters happy, mustn’t we?

    And we’re supposed to somehow take that bean-counting seriously when a half Chinese/half Scandinavian individual is classified as “Latina”?

  2.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Now under tropical storm warning.

  3. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Good morning Villagers…

    Anonymous…..you’re good, will you take on a 61 year old woman with no weapons, but can kick butt when needs to, as long as GR can go too 🙂

    Lost electricity about an hour ago….panic set in, called electric company to report outage…then called my hen house for report…it was 79 degrees and the power was on, then I called the other hen house, it was 82 degrees and power was OFF….call The Boss and he was already pulling into the parking lot at #1. He asked how I knew, did I get a call? No, I just called the hen house numbers to get a status report and told him I had called electric company…I wonder if he thinks I’m nuts at 4:30 in the morning….

    And Sandcastler, I only eat off of one plate…I just admire the integrity of women who willfully join the military to serve our country.

    GR 😉 if you do find Mr. Peabody’s WABAC machine, I’m the one in the orange string bikini 🙂

    gotta go…..

  4. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    Miss Charlotte….cooler, no, today, no, it’s the stinking humidity that kills me. Ian got sick yesterday…told him he needs to eat, so I guess I’ll go make him a sandwich plus a P&J for breakfast….

    oh, and the generator did kick on at #1…do I hear an Amen?

    and I glad you enjoyed the pics, Denise….just wanted to give ya’ll some idea what an operation like this poultry house sort of looks like. But remember, it’s a 30 year old building, but a lot of similarities between the pics and the antiquated machinery we deal with.

  5. Jackie monies Avatar
    Jackie monies

    Just looked at radar and 90% chance of rain today with probable flash flooding in flood prone areas. Oh goodie just what we need

    New flood wall in front of house works beautifully but now backyard is getting awfully soggy! And van may get stuck in mud since car port is now a courtyard and back is too muddy to do anything with.

    Arkansas River was out of banks and flooding in Tulsa and Muskogee and muddy, flowing fast. Canadian River out of Texas feeds our lake and the South Canadian from True Grit passes down at the used to be beach from my boat house in yard.

    Love Jackie

  6.  Avatar
    Anonymous

    Squall warnings until 10 PM, long day ahead. Traffic was light when I was out for my morning *$$. Glad we are on terra firma, Loon has a great deal of motion sickitist.

    Debbe, keep the girls cool.

    Jackie, keep to the high ground.

    Everyone, enjoy a blessed day.

  7. sandcastler™ Avatar
    sandcastler™

    Above was me, got an upgrade and screen name went poor.

  8. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Debbe 😉 OMG! Orange is absolutely my favorite color for a string bikini. How did you know? 🙂

  9. Steve from Royal Oak, Mi Avatar

    Ghost that story reminded me of the “Malice in the Palace” when Ron Artest of the Indiana Pacers went into the stands to hit a fan that he believed threw a water bottle at him. He picked the wrong person but the guy that he picked was obviously a push over. We always wondered if he would have gone after someone if they were the same size.

    One of the guys that I worked with at the time was tall, skinny and liked to wear Winnie the Poo shirts to work, even though we were both in Sales and that was not too professional. He also spent 5 years in Japan and taught Budo and Martial Arts. When I showed him the video and asked him what he would have done had he been the fan that Artest attacked and he started laughing. “Minimum of 5 seconds and Artest would have been screaming for his Mommy”

    Lesson is don’t fight anyone. You never know if they have the ability to kick your…….

  10. sandcastler™ Avatar
    sandcastler™

    Lesson, the unknown can and will kick your ass.

  11. Galliglo from Ohio Avatar
    Galliglo from Ohio

    Blessings to all in harm’s way…

  12. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Good morning Jackie, at least you have boats, if you have to take to them. Glad you liked the Buster Keaton film. He’s one of my favorite comedians. Everybody have a great day and be careful if you are near flood waters.

  13. Jackie monies Avatar
    Jackie monies

    Saw the grocery riots in Houston on whether channel and all the empty shelves. No one in Oklahoma stocks up for anything but ice storms. Super Wally was empty last night, two checkers working and empty lot. Drove into town minutes after 9 pm and they had rolled up streets, turned out the lights and locked doors.

    Of course if snow and ice are coming you can’t find bread, beer or dried pinto beans!

    Love Jackie

  14. Debbe Avatar
    Debbe

    GR 😉 …if I had told you it was an itsy bitsy, teeny whiny, ,polka dot bikini….I’d have got the same response 🙂

  15. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Debbe
    Got to be yellow dots

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