Home of the comic strip Arlo & Janis

The Woman Must Be Strong

The Woman Must Be Strong

March 24, 2003

Why is the above A&J comic strip black and white and tones of gray? Because it’s so old? No, no, no. It’s because I plucked it from the GoComics archive instead of my own digital files. I do this more and more for several reasons. For one thing, my own digital archives aren’t nearly complete; I have more to choose from at GoComics. And it saves me a little time in the morning. And they are, after all, the same cartoons. And the strips from GoComics are already colorized, which I truly do consider a plus. I think colored work shows up better on the Web. However, all the strips at GoComics up until two years ago were colored not by me but by an outside party. contracted by the syndicate. The colorists worked with no instruction from myself and, because of my proclivity to work on deadline, usually had little time. So, I took a live-and-let-live attitude toward their work which, it must said, was usually good. But sometimes it was bad. Today’s classic A&J would be one example of the latter. So rather than subject you to Janis’ purple pants suit, I “desaturated” my copy from GoComics. That is, I made it black & white. If you must see the original, there’s the link above.

Jimmy Johnson

84 responses to “The Woman Must Be Strong”

  2. In the days of the syndicate colorist it was not unusual to see the color of an item mentioned in the text (a flower, clothing, furniture, etc) become an entirely different color in the drawing. I believe J.J. had to clarify this phenomenon on a few occasions.

    Reply

    • The most notorious* offenders were the colorists employed at Reed-Brennan, but as that outfit was part of King Features perhaps Jimmy dodged the worst of it.

      *on the Usenet group rec.arts.comics.strips

      Reply

  4. I thought it was because Janis was watching a black and white movie on tv with the lights off. So that we were seeing her lit only by the tv screen.

    Reply

  5. I think Jimmy may have shared this one before. It reminded me of a story that I believe that I told here of the time when my wife and I were newlyweds and my brother, Marvin and his family came up for a visit. They stayed overnight and Marvin fancied himself to be an architect, so he came up with a plan to rearrange the furniture for better efficiency. So we moved everything around in our small apartment.

    I do not think that they were on the outskirts of town before I had moved everything back!

    Reply

  6. I continue to successfully lose weight as I am 30 lbs less than last October. I am about halfway to my goal weight, which I weigh at or less than for the first 40-45 yrs of my life. My training for my marathon is going exceptionally. I walked 22 miles on the 29th and have been walking much faster during the week.

    On Monday it was announced that the marathon that I planned to participate in was cancelled due to a low number of entries. I looked around races in the Midwest for marathons on April 4th that could accommodate my slow pace. I did find a race a week earlier in Columbus OH on March 29th. It is a 12-Hour event honoring the Ohio State Alumni that have been Killed In Action in service to our country. I am friends with Chef Robert Irvine, who does a lot of events for our military and veterans and he said that it was serendipitous and that I was meant to participate. So it only meant moving my last 20-22 miler up one week. Since it will be the fourth time that I have gone that distance this year in training (that may be a record for me) I do not anticipate any issues. Just thankful that I had the insight last October to finally do something about my weight. It is more important to feel good than to look good, but in my case I feel like I’m getting both….Now to buy new clothes!

    Reply

  8. Matt: You wrote “So the question is, then: does this explain, or does it NOT explain, Janis’ “farmer’s tan” in 11/9/19 panel three?
    https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2019/11/09”
    What am I missing? In panel 3, skinny Janis’s exposed skin is all one color, the same color as her hand holding the photo. How is that a “farmer’s tan”? [I presume her white toes are mini-socks of some sort.]
    Peace,

    Reply

  9. Re 3-5-20 retro cartoon: For those of you who clicked on the link to March 24, 2003, to see just how hideous the color of Janis’s outfit was, I hope you clicked forward to the March 25, 2003, cartoon. It’s one of the classic classics. Even though she is apparently wearing the same outfit as the day before, what she is shown wearing in panel #3 is something entirely different.

    Reply

  14. Some of you may have seen on the net a mention, more a less a recomendation, re a movie made several years ago about a situation with a worldwide epidemic. I watched it and there are holes in the plot that you can fly a747 through. I do not suggest that you watch it as it may spread incorrect ideas re the coronavirus. How’s the Corona beer selling these days I wonder?.

    Reply

  22. Still no Jimmy, & still only 2 eggs in Baltimore. They were unattended when I arr. 15? min ago, but someone came to doorway, looked around a bit, jumped in, moved eggs around, finally began incubating. These 2[?] don’t seem very dedicated. Expect a mammal I know who is due today will be more enthusiastic. [Just possible she birthed Mon., but I’ve heard nothing.] No relation, just friends.

    https://explore.org/livecams/birds/peregrine-falcon-chesapeake-conservancy

    Peace,

    Reply

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