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.
Punch Line
By Jimmy Johnson
Recent Posts
Ghost of Christmas Past
This holiday Arlo & Janis comic strip from 2022 is similar in concept to the new strip that ran yesterday. I thought the latter ...
Spearhead
I have produced a number of comic strips related to Veteran’s Day. Especially in latter years, I have tried to emphasize the universal experience ...
Dark Passage
Remember: it’s that weekend. The return to standard time can be a bit of a shock in the late afternoon, but I rather enjoy ...
What’s old is old, again
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to build a web site, but there are similarities. Everything needs to be just right, or ...
Back to the ol’ drawing board
I don’t have a lot of time this morning. I wasn’t going to post anything, but I’m tired of looking at that old photograph ...
Thursday’s Child
On Sunday, I teased you with the suggestion there are more changes coming here. There are. They will appear soon, and I think you’ll ...
252 responses to “Punch Line”
part 2
Friday Steve Staruch does requests, tell him the Oldbear sent you.
http://info.americanpublicmediagroup.org/LP=584
(Sections, Friday Favorites, Make Requests)
Thu & Fri At 8 CDT will be a rebroadcast of MN Orchestra’s visit to Cuba
Dearest Ghost, the YouTube video is very fine. The composer is great, so is the orchestra; the concerto is pleasing. Thank you!
Old Bear, I can see that you appreciate good music. Those Minnesota Public Radio sites look good … I will try them out.
Dear Mindy from Indy, what you are going through, shouldn’t happen to a person like you. You are doing a great job, but you aren’t getting much support! I wish I could help somehow. I hope all these darned problems will smooth out, and soon. Much love, from Charlotte.
Mindy from Indy, I had an idea for improving convenience stores years ago. install a video order screen on the outside of the building along with an “airlock” type door for passing merchandise out. Don’t let the customers into the building from dark to daylight. Have them enter their orders on the video touch screen and pay using a bank-style drawer. Then put the merchandise in the pass-through, and let them take it and go. By airlock, I mean a double door arrangement where only one can be unlocked at a time, preventing anybody from getting into the building that way. Safer for employees, eliminates theft/shoplifting.
Claude Debussy – Images: Iberia is playing on the MPR Stream right now.
If you know how to pronounce “Debussy”…you may not be a redneck.
This explains a lot:
http://cheezburger.com/6397949952
Good morning Villagers….
Oh my, Indy Mindy, I so empathize with you. You deserve a medal and a raise 🙂 for the BS you have to put up with….I have a low tolerance for inept people. (How many felonies can I have???)
And right now ‘Skittles’ is getting on my nerves….we shipped him to the other hen house yesterday 🙂
I learned a new word yesterday. Fans are being fixed at my hen house, down to five not working. I told John (our main electrician) that the temp in the house was 90 degrees….he said that was good as long as it was ambient. I put on that dumb blond look and said….explain that $50 word to me….he responded that as long as the temp is the same inside as it is outside that is good. I also asked him what temp the alarm goes off….100 degrees.
The Corp is also calling every two or three days, and their main maint. man is asking about egg production. It is going up, and I give the total egg count for the days he ask. He always asks how I am doing….told him I’m sweating right now. It’s hot, and I am not allowing anyone in the hen house as I do not want my girls getting stressed in this heat. He said that’s good, and laughed. I told him they were my babies, and he said again that is good.
The Boss got into the pit with his tractor and stirred it, we have a fly infestation….and stirring the pit should help eliminate those nasty pests….I hate flies, and I wonder why they were allowed on board the Ark!
Steve, enjoyed your posts on traveling…been to the Atlanta airport a few times…had lengthy stayovers but never had to stay overnight. Hope your business trip ends well.
Miss Charlotte, thank you. I too am concerned about eMb…as well as cxp, who usually keeps us updated by eMb’s emails.
GR 😉 That is one of the few songs by Elvis that I love. I watched a docu on him a while back, and it was in the beginning days that he would sing faith based songs, a cappella, with some other black singers….wonderfully done I will say.
Going to be another humid, sweltering day……
ya’ll have a blessed day
Denise 🙂 nobits!!!! cute!!
today’s real time strip is cute, as well as the first comment on TDS
today’s grin:
http://cheezburger.com/8506422784
I would hope I wouldn’t be seated there 🙂
And TR, that is the truth…..
and Sandcastler is MIA
And where is Symply Fargone these days? He is Fargone missed here.
Bad news: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11666316/christopher-lee-dies-live.html
Mindy, you’re in my prayers. Retail is such a tough business, and you’re in the toughest segment. You are an amazingly strong and level-headed person.
Charlotte, you’re not alone! I usually don’t follow the music links, either. And to continue the heresy further: while I feel honored when a cat allows me to pat it, I am really a dog person. 😀
Debbe 😉 I thought I had used “ambient temperature” in something I wrote about flying. Perhaps you missed my foolishness that day. Or perhaps I was talking about OAT (Outside Air Temperature) instead. (P.S. Ambient is also often used as part of the phrase “ambient lighting”.) Stay cool, hon.
Don’t feel entirely alone, Denise. I’m a dog person, too.
And I will have to say that 9CL has, this week, earned a +2 for nightgown cleavage. (But a -3 for lack of pokies, so it’s still a net -1.)
Fast report I am in Rockport Texas for the TX 200 memorial service for Mike with girls and grandkids , still embarrassing them. This is incident lyrics as expensive as a funeral but Mike was a legend and “the most interesting man in the world ” so he deserves the memories and this means a lot to girls.
We baked Cowboy Cookies ate Cajun seafood boil, eggs Benedict and swam in pool , went to bed about midnight. Fabulous bay view from suite and white rockers on a private porch at Lighthouse Inn.
Meeting our fishing boat charter to go to the sailboat mast cross out in bay after lunch, then back here for seafood (not dumped on table!) And more pool time.
Later and love, Jackie
Oops, forgot to say Debbe, do you have man eating dogs and armed security on hen house? We paid $4 a dozen for eggs with a limit of 3 boxes per person. And the big news here seems to be Blue Bell ice cream. There are benefits to be had by not reading a newspaper or turning on a television for six months.
For those worried about demise of written word like me, I subscribe to Tulsa World, an excellent paper who fails by not carrying A and J. I consider that a major fault.
Love Jackie
Debbe that cat lives at our house. The TV goes on, she gets on the table, then we exile her to the bathroom.
Ghost I see that the idea of pokies is never far away.
Yes today’s AJ was well done. The comments sounded like Ghost was not far away either.
Actually, it looks like they used all the salacious plumbing jokes over on TDS, so all I have to offer is…
Q: What happened to the newlywed couple that didn’t know the difference between Vaseline and putty?
A: Their window panes fell out.
Debbe-
I’m alive and as well as can be expected. eMb hasn’t sent me any more emails, so I cannot add anything here from him.
Thanks for asking.
The book OOPS, Or Life’s Awful Moments by Art Linkletter had a good story about a woman helping her husband with plumbing a kitchen sink. Look up the book in your library. It’s good for many laughs.
While I have been traveling my deputy has turned out to be a master plumber. He has repaired and rebuilt or replaced and l my plumbing. At a very low cost in return for the free apartment.
I have been afraid to mention during plumbing cartoon run for fear of jokes.
Now he has started on repairs on all the wood trim in house which he is also expert at. I told him he would not be shot at doing most home repairs but he wants to be law officer. His fiancee and in Laws are too
And the burglary rate in neighboring subdivisions has increased while ours has dropped .
Love Jackie
Mindy, I offer the following without comment. In Pensacola there is a store called the Happy Seven. It sits directly in front of a low income apartment complex and it is owned and operated by South Koreans. They keep at least four guns hidden in the store including behind the counter and in the cooler. They will not only shoot you inside the store but they will chase you outside and shoot you in the parking lot if they can. No one has attempted to rob the store for many years. The last guy was arrested when he went to the emergency room for treatment of his injuries. He was from out of town and did not know that you do not attempt to rob that store.
BTW Mindy, Can I assume that the wages paid to the employees are beyond your control? Few people that can get a job anywhere else will work in a convenience store for minimum wage. Did anyone hear what happened to the McDonald’s employees that were trying to organize a strike in California? I heard that they were demanding a minimum of $15 an hour.
Sand is busy working on a massive humanitarian project. Relocating a city of 850k is the kind of project he has been trained to carry out. This was rather sudden and is taking lots of effort. Please sign up to take in refugees if you are able, would be most helpful in this hour of need. http://www.theonion.com/article/report-san-francisco-shut-doors-over-rising-rent-50634
Loon, it will obviously be easier to relocate the populace of a city wanting to be moved than one that does not, but still, I can see how that would a Herculean task. So we can expect to hear from sand in like 25 years, perhaps?
Note: I may have space available for a few refugees, but I must warn those in charge of assignments that there are strict sex, height, weight, hair color and comeliness parameters that must be met.
Ghost: Ah, the window putty joke. I first heard it as a college freshman and it still makes me laugh.