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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

Speaking of art

By Jimmy Johnson

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2002-03-21-art-student.gif
I’m sorry about missing yesterday; life intervened early. To compensate a bit, I’m including the next two installments of the “art” series which we’ve been following since last week. I know something like this crops up almost every day, but I really can’t get over how quickly material becomes dated these days. Imagine young people communicating by email or by talking on a telephone! The speed of change really is dizzying today. When I was a boy, telephones had rotary dials or even push-button dialing pads, but frequently on television someone would be depicted holding an earpiece and shouting into a wooden telephone mounted on the kitchen wall. It didn’t seem weird at all.
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20 responses to “Speaking of art”

  1. Geo Avatar
    Geo

    Our 1st phone was a wooden one with a crank. Then giant black desk phone that you told the operator what number you wanted. And we had a party line with 8 families. Moving on thru the decades…now when I call someone on my cell phone, they ask me, “why didn’t you text?” The grandkiddos ask, “why didn’t you instagram?” I’ve lost touch with my sisters as I’m the only one NOT on Facebook. Oh well.

  2. Geo Avatar
    Geo

    Just occurred to me, Facebook is a party line with WAY more than 8 families on the line. Progress?

  3. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    And FB has the same problem as a party line: snoops taking your information and passing it places where you didn’t intend it to go!

  4. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    How is Janis leaning over like that without falling down?

  5. Mark from Maine Avatar
    Mark from Maine

    Excellent artwork, especially the depictions of Janis in both strips! This was a good spread for your drawing abilities.

  6. TruckerRon Avatar

    Bob, I’m wanting to know how Arlo can lie there and NOT watch Janis? As for her defying gravity… all women have their ways of getting info and don’t allow mere physics to intervene. 😉

  7. Ivan Avatar
    Ivan

    I notice today’s cartoon is a repeat of one from 29th January 2015, just a different background, and of course date.

  8. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Our telephone in my childhood home, which I remember us having for as far back as I can remember, was assigned the number 1175W. The number was changed to 1230R for a short period of time before The Telephone Company converted to telephones with dials. Why that sort of thing stays stuck in the recesses of my brain, I’ll never know.

    As a sidebar, Arlo seemed much less interested in seeing Janis disrobe in the 3-21-2001 cartoon than he did in “Appearing Nightly”.

  9. TruckerRon Avatar

    Today’s current comic (5/10/2018) has a copyright of 2015. I knew it looked familiar! So, am I remembering it or has someone used that gag more recently?

  10. emb Avatar
    emb

    Trucker, Seems to me I’ve seen that JJ cartoon w/in the last few mo. Peace,

  11. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    The May 5th through May 10th cartoons are all reruns. The most logical reasons as to why Jimmy would do that, in increasing order of likelihood…

    1. Busy flogging his minions until their morale improves
    2. Testing his readers to see if they are paying attention
    3. Road trip

  12. DJJG7 Avatar
    DJJG7

    The May 10, 2018, waitress cartoon comes from January 29, 2015. Then the background was white, and Arlo’s suit was blue. But since Jimmy’s been coloring them himself lately, I’d consider that these new 2018 colors are his preference, a gray background and—oh, what is that color of Arlo’s suit? A kind of very dark olive maybe?

  13. DJJG7 Avatar
    DJJG7

    Today’s cartoon, May 11, of Janis stealthily sunbathing, Jimmy really improved the colors of. It’s from July 18, 2009, when the sky was the weakest of azures and the bushes a really gray green. Janis’s weak pink cover-up and Arlo’s bright red shirt made quite a contrast! But these new 2018 azure and aqua colors really harmonize better! And how did he do the sky in the first panel? The strong azure fades up into white, like a real sky.

    Thanks, Jimmy! You make it look easy!

  14. TruckerRon Avatar

    Thanks for pointing that out, DJJG7. That’s the difference between a colorist and an artist.

  15. emb Avatar
    emb

    This Grant’s gazelle just spent several minutes standing on its hind legs browsing on [I suppose] some particularly scrumptious leaves. Its forefeet were propped against the shrubbery below them. All the other Kenya webcams are still on reruns.

    https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-river-wildlife-camera

    Peace,

  16. emb Avatar
    emb

    Today’s Hi and Lois is cute. https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/hiandlois/ Peace,

  17. DJJG7 Avatar
    DJJG7

    TruckerRon, you put the difference well. And you’re welcome!

  18. TruckerRon Avatar

    JJ just posted the one that explains so much about Janis’ attitude towards art school.