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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

The Finish Line

By Jimmy Johnson

(Might as well see this Gene thing through. I’m guessing the Summer Olympics were going on when these posts appeared in 2012.)
The closing ceremony is upon us; our Gene Olympiad is coming to an end with today’s 10 classic cartoons from 1992. You don’t have to suffer withdrawal, though. Come back regularly to arloandjanis.com for an
Arlo & Janis cartoon from the past and other activities. Extinquish the torch! Furl the flags! The official proceedings are concluded, but stick around: the Rolling Stones and Elton John will be along any minute now.

Buy the new book, "Beaucoup Arlo & Janis!"Today's "Arlo & Janis!"

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 ...

101 responses to “The Finish Line”

  1. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Old Bear:

    Sorry. Brain dead here.

    To what does “1886” refer”

  2. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Crud.

    That should have been this:

    To what does “1886” refer?

    Clumsy fingers, along with brain death, I guess.

  3. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Rick it referred to your comment above. 1886 year of publication.

    “I will begin the story of my adventures with a certain morning early in the month of June,
    the year of grace 1751, when I took the key for the last time out of the door of my father’s
    house.”
    — “Kidnapped” Robert Louis Stevenson — 1886 —

  4. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    “Are we rising again?”
    “No. On the contrary.”
    “Are we descending?”
    “Worse than that, captain; we are falling!”

    — “The Mysterious Island” Jules Verne — 1874 —

    Spoiler BTW Captain Nemo has a part at the end.

  5. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    Dedicated to Debbe – Happy Birthday

    “Along with teaching us that lamb must be cooked with garlic and a lady never scratches
    her head or spits, my mother taught my sisters and me that it is a wife’s bounden duty to
    see that her husband is happy in his work.”

    — “The Egg And I” Betty MacDonald” — 1945

    A movie was made staring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray

    Ma & Pa Kettle was a spinoff of the movie.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Egg_and_I

  6. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Mysterious Island was made into a good movie as well. It had James Mason as the lead and great special effects by Ray Harryhausen.

  7. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    But they HAD to add a female. Even the 1929 version had one.

    The 1961 version wasn’t too bad.
    About that time every movie had to have a female to complicate things.
    Some were so loosely based on the book only the title was the same.
    It is one reason Ann McCaffrey did not want any of her books made into
    movies. And the reason JKRowling insisted on such tight control.

    Rant over.

  8. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    Old Bear:

    Thanks.

    Oddly enough, that’s one novel that I have never read.

  9. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Oh, Janis says. Her reaction was very different when it was a lizard running up her pants leg!

  10. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    My son and his wife took my wife and I to see ELO last night. We had tickets in the 17th row. I had been watching YouTube videos of some of their prior performances over the last two weeks (although Facebook muted the video that I took due to potential copyright infringement), so I knew what to expect. I had waited roughly 45 years so it was definitely something that I had long anticipated.

    Today I feel like the day after a High School reunion. Although there were plenty of concert-goers that were younger than me like my son, some of the people looked like they had been transported directly from the 70’s, but with a special aging affect administered to them. The music did transport me back to my youth, which brings both a joy and a sadness. I had half expected to tear up, but never quite got that emotional.

    Before the concert, after the warm up band, they piped in George Harrison and Tom Petty music that Jeff Lynne (ELO) had produced. The execution of the concert was absolutely perfect, just like anything that Jeff produces.

  11. David from Austin Avatar
    David from Austin

    Healthy baby girl, Kathryn, after my mother. She is 8 lbs 11 oz, 21.5 inches. As are all babys (when they belong to you), she is beautiful.

  12. Steve from Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    One of the sign of the times is that to go into an arena or stadium, one has to pass through a metal detector. As we were in line, I commented that this might take a while as quite a few of us have bionic joints. I got a few smiles and nods from other concert goers.

  13. emb Avatar
    emb

    The story line leading here is odd [suffice: While going “bleah” at each other, they touched tongues but nothing else, then each had a “not bad” bubble, one of which he now holds], but this strip will mean more to some of us geezers than some of you youngsters.

    https://www.gocomics.com/9chickweedlane/2018/08/17

    Notary sojack! [Stupid speelczech.]

    P.S. That “I” somewhere above: “me”?

  14. TruckerRon Avatar

    And for those mystified by the phrase from “the ancients” cited in that Chickweed Lane:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etaoin_shrdlu

  15. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    They left out the speech bubble that read “Unsanitary!”.

    By my lights, if some things are not unsanitary, you’re not doing them right.

  16. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Ghost, like you can’t eat barbecued ribs or watermelon without getting something on you.

  17. Llee Avatar

    Congratulations, David!

    Steve, sounds fun 🙂

    Yep, books into movies….. chancy thing.

  18. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    Yeah, Mark. Something like that.

    Come on, Arlo! That *was* an “Oh” moment, at least compared to a myocardial infarction. Or are you miffed that Janis didn’t show more relief that you weren’t having one?

  19. Llee Avatar

    Does anyone but me flash to Stargate SG1 when the Ancients are mentioned? (and thanks for reminding me about 9CL!) When the news started talking about someone called “Omarosa” I kept thinking of the episode where Daniel is swiped by the merman alien guy who keeps asking “What Fate Omarosa?!?!?!?” And then Daniel connects it to …Mesopotamia? And a legend of an ancient being….

    And then last night I rewatched a couple episodes, one being where ONeill (Richard Dean Anderson, btw) gets the knowledge of the Ancients downloaded into his brain which leads to all KINDS of problems.

    no? just me, then….. but that’s ok.

    🙂

  20. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    My most recent watching was ET (the movie, not that stupid show), and a second season episode of CSI.

  21. DJJG7 Avatar
    DJJG7

    Ghost, you’re really right. (Two entries above.) There’s a lot that goes through our heads in a moment, and that’s what we we all admire about Jimmy: He notices those complications and includes them.

  22. DJJG7 Avatar
    DJJG7

    And in other news, today we finally get to the banquet in Gasoline Alley on the GoComics site! Little Orphan Annie is there, Sandy is there—all of those old characters at the Old Comics Home, which I presume Arlo and Janis may not even visit yet. I do believe that A&J gets more traffic, so may I suggest heading on over to Jim Scancarelli’s wonderful art? It is all building up to Gasoline Alley’s 100th anniversary in November.

  23. Galliglo in Ohio Avatar
    Galliglo in Ohio

    Congrats, David!

  24. emb Avatar
    emb

    Ghost:

    Surprised that was not everyone’s response. Geezer here, of course, one often among clinically oriented staff at SHB, where Reception/Emergency Desk in West Lobby has a big sign CHEST PAINS? TELL US NOW.

    Panel 1: seated middle-ager outdoors is clutching his chest. 2.Frightened, wide-eyed female companion clearly thinks “his heart”, asks if he’s all right. But it’s just a bug in his shirt. 3. Relieved, smiling, she says “Oh.” 4. Not realizing her initial fear, he thinks she doesn’t care that he’s been attacked by an intruding bug. Splendid, insightful strip. JJ doing what he does best.

    Peace,