The above A&J favorite of mine is another excellent example of what I was talking about in the previous post. The writing and the drawing work in tandem, the essence of a newspaper comic strip. Or so some would say. I also enjoy a good pantomime comic, a complete idea represented without any words. I am always proud of myself when I produce such a strip. I think comic strips that are exclusively pantomime would be extremely difficult to turn out every day. That might explain why there are so few of them. They seem to have been much more popular in a bygone era. Conversely, many very popular strips have come along in the modern era that rely heavily upon dialog and spoken punchlines. It’s whatever you, the reader, judge to be worth five seconds of your time, really.
Sound Affect
By Jimmy Johnson
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47 responses to “Sound Affect”
Is this strip an example of a cliffhanger? Or made a vase hanger. Poor Luddie…
Five seconds of our time? We gladly give more than that. Especially nowadays, when we seem to be surrounded by nothing but dour news.
Just beautiful! It leaves the reader to assume the next, unshown, panel….
It reminds me of one of the final scenes from the film Goldfinger when Bond defuses an explosive device with only 007 (of course) seconds left on its timer.
Last evening, for the first time this breeding season, I saw the several of basement janitorial crew working on the Decorah nest. Neat, but do they ever scurry!
I totally remember this one. That it was great in 2004, and just as good now!
Having had multiple cats, I love it because it reminds me of things that happened. It also reminds me of the opening page of a Donald Duck comic where Donald is totally wrapped up in a tv show involving a runaway train while the nephews are working out a math problem using their train set. At the climactic moment of the train crash on the tv, the nephews crash their toy train and Donald flies out of his chair.
For those who probably missed it, I posted this last night:
This is an amazing brief tour of Van Gough’s world!
https://www.ksl.com/article/46769048/have-you-seen-this-take-a-trippy-step-inside-van-goghs-paintings
Wow!
Thank you for sharing this!
1. “Juggernaut” was a fairly good movie for its day.
2. I always spend more than five seconds on Jimmy’s strips.
Which of the “Juggernaut” films are you referencing?
I was unaware that more than one was made. So, I will assume that I mean the first one. Made in the 70s, I think.
Re cartoons “that rely heavily upon dialog”, I can think of one series in particular that if the words in some of the individual cartoons were any weightier, I swear their sheer number would cause the entire strip to slide right off the screen of my computer.
I’ve always been an adherent of the philosophy that in cartoons “less is more”.
And speaking of weighty, Jimmy nails it again. Arlo in the 6-25-20 real-time cartoon is almost every man weighing under 400 pounds. And a non-zero number of the ones over that weight.
“Lio” by Mark Tatulli
A great presentation of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xAw7c96Doc
https://abc3340.com/news/offbeat/incredibly-rare-male-tortoiseshell-cat-finds-loving-home-in-new-york
Wow! I did not know that. Thanks, Mark.
Random thoughts gave rise to memory of Mom’s 1930s-’60s use of “to give sand.” Part of ordinary family or NYC acquaintance conversation, not heated, but usually about an absent third party, [e.g, “Sue gave him sand for” an infraction of some sort, perhaps an unjustified complaint], or about herself, “Grampa gave me sand for that.” Figured it was likely a Southern [LA-MS] saying, but cannot find it under slang or idioms. One of her Univ. Pictures home office friends was from Texas; he may have used it. Never heard it from Dad [MO native], or non-family NYCers. I expect she and aunt Edna, her next younger sister, both used it. Seems unlikely it was idiosyncratic to her immediate family, or to a restricted bit of the Gulf Coast. Pass Christian?
Peace,
I’ve not heard it, emb, so no help on that (in Kansas until 1968, AZ since then). I’m always interested in regional phrases, though, so I like hearing about this one.
Texas Gulf Coast boy here EMB, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard that usage either.
Rusty
P.s. is Jimmy going to leave us hanging about Janis’s future tanlines (or lack thereof?) ?
I do know “too dumb to pound sand in a rat hole,” though. Anybody else know that one?
I don’t.
I also had not heard of “gave (someone) sand for” until reading above. I’ve lived in New York City; west central OH; northeast KS; west VA; east central OH; east central FL; southeast SD; and northern IL. Occasional forays for a month at a time to the Poconos, PA; central NH, too. Passed through a lot of other places, but not for sufficient time to gather the local sayings.
Think the derivation (of “gave sand for”) is from the uncomfortable grittiness of sand as often noticed around beaches?
I know that one also, Nancy! But I haven’t heard the one about “giving sand”…
I’ve heard the expression go pound sand but never the one emb mentions. I grew up in Alabama but have also lived in Texas, Tennessee and Hawaii and was exposed to other guys from all over during my time in the Navy and never heard “give sand” used.
I’ve seen “go pound sand” in cartoons of the flapper era, say, 1920s. Cannot recall any live usage thereof, however.
Yes I have used Pound Sand on occasion. I looked it up and basically it was thought that pounding sand was one of the most menial jobs. I also read where it might have been attributed to the sand molds (that have been used for centuries) and to get a perfect mold, one had pound a lot of sand to get it right. Supposedly the Master would tell the apprentice if he wanted to be useful, go pound sand.
Just a quick update. I have started to inch my way back to losing weight. I have found that deep tissue massage has helped me to not retain as much water after my long walks. I did a Marathon on March 29th, another on May 9th and intend to do another one on July 4th. I have found a great path in the woods, so that will help keep me in the shade as the high will be 90°. I have signed up for a small marathon in Grand Rapids on August 30th that does 4 mile loops in the woods. But this will be an official race, with a shirt, medal, bib and a certified course. I really enjoy Grand Rapids and I think that my brother will meet me there.
This is for Rick in Shermantown, Ohio–
There are a LOT of films with multiple versions we have never seen or maybe forgotten about. At the IMDB I found “Juggernaut” versions released in:
1936 with Boris Karloff, Joan Wyndham, and Arthur Margetson
1974 with Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, and David Hemmings
2017 with Amanda Crew, Stephen McHattie, and Matty Finochio
Also a 1968 documentary (“No parade of power, faith or pilgrimage ever held as much promise for change as this strange, cumbersome truck convoy from Canada in 1967. The cargo was a calandria, the seventy-ton heart of an atomic reactor, headed for Rajasthan. Even the biggest traditional juggernauts could not match this one, passing over roads specially strengthened and through city walls torn down to make way.”)
and a
2003 documentary (“An age-old Indian ritual in a maelstrom of images and sound”)
I’ll be watching that 1968 documentary tonight!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAPRKj0lL-s
TR:
Thanks! And I will put the documentary on my bookmarks of films to watch.
I have heard “Gave Grief” and “Got Grief”
One a variant of the other?
I believe in the first “True Grit” movie, that a comment was made such as “he’s got sand in him” or “he’s got sand, I’ll give him that…” something like that. In this context sand is synonymous with courage, integrity, strength of character, possibly stubbornness?
Saying somone’s got grit is the same as saying they’ve got sand. You’ve got ir right, Dan.
Old Bear, I think you’re right. One is the provider of a hard time and the other is the recipient.
One for the books: grew up with an “old saying” that was apparently not one, just an expression used by Mom, her sister, & whoever they got it from. Don’t believe I ever used it myself. Puzzle.
Peace,
Speaking of old movies, who remembers “The Graduate”? Specifically, the scene where Ben Braddock is given some sage advice for the future…
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
Mr. McGuire: There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?
Two things reminded me of that…one, at the store a bit ago to pick up some sugar for Jackie, I found that Dominos is now packaging four pounds of it in, you guessed it, plastic canisters. Hadn’t seen that before. (Perhaps I don’t get out enough.) About time…paper sugar bags have been around, for what, 150 years?
The second thing was that I recently saw a still shot of that very scene, except the caption has Mr. McGuire saying, “Plexiglass. Oh…and masks.”
That last paragraph reminds me I meant to compliment Jimmy for wringing a bit of humor our of the COVID-19 situation, which is by no means any kind of a knee-slapper.
And speaking of wringing, as from the Sunday thunderstorm, I believe I have posted this in the past: Don’t worry about the sound of thunder. If you hear it, it means the lightning has already missed you. (Yeah, I know…I never was never able to convince my mom of that, either.)
Plastic instead of paper? I shop every week and I have not noticed this. I will on Friday. BTW, what day of the week do most folks shop? My Mom always went on Friday AM as that was when the paycheck would hit. But with the current situation, I found myself going very early on days that they let Seniors shop. Lately, I have gone at about 3:00 in the afternoon and there has been little traffic in the store. And the TP and Paper Towel aisle is fully stocked. Bread flour and vitamins are still a little sparse.
We are still low on instant dry milk in our stores in Utah.
As an example of a strip that relies heavily, too heavily, on dialogue I nominate Get Fuzzy. Strangely I had just mentioned it to Ghost a couple days agi, he had never heard of it. I suggested he read a few, don’t know that he did.
About “Get or give sand” I have a simple explanation. It was a four letter euphemism for hell. Your family probably didn’t use profanity, mine didn’t and they substituted a word they understood.
Having said that I cannot remember my Granny’s substitute for catching hell!!
A very wordy strip is Sally Forth. A little off the wall and when it is too wordy I skip right over it as I have to Zoom in to read it! But usually pretty funny.
I nominate “Cathy” as the wordiest strip!