I was talking yesterday about comic-strip characters and how they age, or how they’re allowed to age. Some characters, like Dennis “the Menace” Mitchell, never age. The Bumstead family ages, but at a glacial pace. When the strip began over 75 years ago, Cookie and Alexander were children. Now, when they do appear, they’re teenagers. A very few characters, like Lynn Johnston’s Patterson family, age in real time. And some, Like Arlo and Janis, waltz along in something like 3/4 time. In the previous post, I touched on the difficulties faced by the creators of characters who never age. Today, we’ll talk about the peculiarities of aging comic-strip characters. The obvious problem is, they get old! On the plus side, this presents the comic strip author with a continually evolving premise and the potential of new material. On the negative side, much of the new material involves physical ailments and ennui! Who wants to read about that? Fortunately, a lot of people. The challenge is to bring along new, younger readers as well. I try to solve this by presenting Arlo and Janis as being somewhere between the age of 50 and 70. It’s not a perfect strategy, but it’s mine.
There’s Talk and There’s Talk
By Jimmy Johnson
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38 responses to “There’s Talk and There’s Talk”
I think that you use the right strategy. Obviously if you have a strip that has the person in a work place setting (Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Dilbert et tal) you probably don’t want to have the person age. So when was the last time that Arlo and Janis worked? Are they still working?
Back when Blondie started, JJ, Blondie was an unmarried flapper, with several boyfriends. Only later did she get serious about Dagwood, and eventually marry him. For a long time, Alexander was a baby, called “Baby Dumpling,” and later Cookie’s name was suggested by a reader.
I was wondering the same thing as Steve from Royal Oaks. We used to occasionally see A & J at their respective workplaces. We know they aren’t wealthy. And retirement has never been specifically discussed. So we can only conclude that they live in perpetual weekends. That’s a little bit weird. I used to enjoy the occasional workplace humor as it related to our hero and heroine. Or conversely, let them be officially “retired”. No shame in that.
I walk every day. No phone!!!
On a slightly different topic, I absolutely love the 4th-panel art of today’s Strip of the Apollo rocket.
Mr. Johnson, you comment reminds me of a line of a song by Jimmy Buffett, “That’s cause everyone here is just more than
contented to be living and dying in three quarter time.”
I’ve always imagined A&J as being in the late twenties to mid-forties (ages in years). To think of them as, say, 65 takes something away from my perception. Were they in the 65-70 range, Gene would be 45 or even 50!! That doesn’t seem to mesh.
I’d just as soon have them at some constant age, with the different strips merely being anecdotes of various past events. There’s no reason all the events need to be portrayed as current.
I have heard that Blondie had rich parents who disinherited her when she married Dagwood. Or was it the other way around? Wonder if any of those strips are online now? Hm-m-m-m….
Dagwood’s father owned the Bumstead Locomotive Works, but disowned him when he married Blondie. I’m not sure why, but I’m guessing that he considered her a gold digger.
Gasoline Alley runs in normal, or near normal, time. So Walt is over 100 now.
Of course, just because older people have physical ailments doesn’t MEAN they have to be reflected in comic strips: nobody reads Arlo and Janis to read about their health scares.
And Bookworm, it was Dagwood’s parents who disinherited him for marrying a flapper — though if they ever refer to that again, she’ll probably be retconned as a hippie chick and War protester.
Here’s a quote from John Rose, who does the Snuffy Smith comic, that is relevant to Jimmy’s discussion.
Question 5: At 100 years old Barney Google and Snuffy Smith have seen many changes. How has the strip adapted over the years to remain relevant to generations of comic fans?
We mention many of the changes here in this interview. For example, it started out as a strip about a man and his wife. It then became about a man and his race horse, and then about that same man and his hillbilly friend Snuffy Smith who eventually became the star of the feature. In addition, for a number of years, it also focused on these two men being in the service — one was in the Army and one in the Navy. It may seem like not a lot changes in Hootin’ Holler, but small, gradual changes do happen over time. One change I did make many years ago was to make the characters literate. I felt that was important in today’s world.
Peter Parker/Spider-Man was a couple of years older than me when he started, and graduated high school, and aged through college. Dozens of retros and decades later, he’s back in high school (or something). Marvel has one “world” where the original characters aged real-time, I read a story once in that world. Weirdly nostalgic.
I remember when Hi & Lois added the baby. I thought they were going to go Gasoline Alley and start aging the family. Hahahaha. No. She’s still talking to sunbeams.
Jim in TN: I agree! What a great panel (and I agree with the thought too!)
Ageing the characters is more interesting. If you do it right you can gradually have the children take over the strip. That way things can move along with changing times and changing readers. You could eventually have a lot of retirement home humour which by that time many of your readers will be able to identify with.
NO WAY is Janis anywhere close to 70! She’s no older than me, and I’m decades away… well more than one decade away from… oh, never MIND!
In early 50’s for A & J is good. Still young enough for pranks… old enough to have some wisdom… Gene should be getting close to 30 now, so that would work… We identify so much with A & J, just about any age works!
Anyone else remember when the Blondie strip also featured Daisy’s slew of puppies?
So I am 75 yet I identify with Janis and always have probably until cancer changed that. It was reason I got hooked on strip, she is only female character besides Cathy I can identify with. Much as I liked For Better or Worse that wasn’t me.
You mean before they spayed her?
No question Ludwig is neutered.
Maybe not ‘perfect’ but quite close. But then based on what I’ve seen from you over the years, perfect was never a consideration, I am your subject! You get more ‘Likes’ than any other on Go Comics, and for good reason. 95% of the time I could swear you spied on my life, my thoughts, my priorities. The comic above is a ‘perfect’ example of this. None of my friends, people I’ve known for over 50 years, view life’s things as I do, and apparently you do. We are of such different and diverse backgrounds, yet you nail it. Well done.
I can relate, I’m somewhere between 50 and 70
I have really enjoyed the strips the last two days talking about Apollo. The command module astronauts had to feel extremely lonely as they circled the back side of the moon while the other two astronauts walked on the moon. Wouldn’t you be afraid to go to sleep?
In space, no one can hear you snore.
I’ve no idea how long the command module was out of radio contact with Earth during its orbits, but that would have been the loneliest part of it for me.
Here are photos of the Apollo 9 capsule and a Mars Rover, taken at the San Diego Air and Space Museum last month. https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62602027_2465006633561855_7626173724965732352_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_eui2=AeHXIIlIXiGf-PYKMnYlnLV97BTXakhrCHstDmW0NTQFE19xozqdIFbxc2JOG69RAYlAbPnyEm2cnwxjyJnJJ8GmYQCPFMrT7Y_gMeQ3JwvBdw&_nc_oc=AQmAsgK09c_vNNSTaR0d7G7HVnncyNfF1FK4bwQeza1G4maY4Kzzlr3g6WVAdKLIH34gbE8PBdlQkom7s64fHvaR&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=4786ddd24df2857d2140946f4bb97339&oe=5D8257B9
https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62434659_2465006950228490_7988517992352710656_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&_nc_eui2=AeEgMbWCaQiaJ26fzkuxfrI7ugkRKA_Rainu2JH-rv2ca3MADjp5sCkF-9trn_YoOK0CXeljPWJS6TuvhYheO0oWZ4HNvxHBqkGuYtc17V-YOg&_nc_oc=AQlLQBvPwIRtqWSliz4gROMJUlTSdwc8zcSRji-ITFBWAPt7bhqh-zJgCJz9_K412cWclnJTRseanA0zY-DhbtKL&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=01504f02f502bd1d10d5c26146f1da0a&oe=5D89CC91
https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/62535243_2465007340228451_2394924891540291584_o.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_eui2=AeE3sGCysLnrrTrbTg2o-5TtreHBUdrdxd5hBO5j_uu-4gaJkka7RXvGd5ekNLnzjGa0OoTF5psaPJ6j8pqLn8N1FqCUvtgLBVq4U4PwJXDTgQ&_nc_oc=AQnwgQiNmuwm_V_RUzY7Wisz5_50rSThGTVxW_abP2ycQdAXZrUWKGHGF-hIFx2uJ4bwPU6AcGPwtxm8rRLOIDBe&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.xx&oh=3582bad8476eab3f11d4818299ff0a4c&oe=5D7D8C9D It surprised me that the Rover is actually about the size of a small car. Without objects to scale when I had seen photos I thought it was rather small.
Trucker Ron–
I think the radio blackout was in the neighborhood of 60 minutes. I recall articles commenting about how the CM pilots were further away from other humans than anyone else in history. I also remember how the radio blackout was so dramatic when the missions had to make braking burns to park the ship in orbit. Reporters were breathlessly recounting that a misfire would send the astronauts sailing off into space, never to return so the countdown to reestablishing communication was nerve-racking.