Water is tricky to draw. First, you turn on both the hot water and the cold and then stick your hand under it. When it feels just right, you plug the drain. When enough water has run into the tub, you sit down, and inevitably you’ll feel like you’re being boiled alive. Water is also tricky to depict. I was getting better at it when this cartoon ran in 1995. The wave in the first panel doesn’t look very convincing, but the foam in the last three panels looks about right. When drawing water (with a pen), less is more. Water is about negative space, what you don’t draw. That’s the way it is for me, anyway.
Wavering
By Jimmy Johnson
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248 responses to “Wavering”
Charlotte, what I get is that Janis is talking to Ludwig. The “deal” was that they would not eat between meals. Ludwig broke the deal, thereby causing Janis to also fall off the wagon; serve herself up some ice cream; and blame Ludwig for her lapse.
Voilà. Six panels explained in three sentences. 🙂
But what happened to the anvil? Inquiring minds want to know? Is that why no Arlo in the Sunday strip?
Dear Ghost, your explanation is very plausible, and I bet you are right. Although, Janis seldom “communicates” with Ludwig the way that Arlo does; it seems part of her “persona” that she never talks to the cat; does she? I don’t remember her doing so before, but I could easily have forgotten.
Mark in TTown, your question is a good one and probably lots of people are wondering too. However, I predict that we are never going to see that anvil again.
Mark, thanks ever so much for taking the trouble to find that link to the bookseller … I was interested in the strips, but am not such a devoted Steve Canyon fan; another of the villagers was more interested, I forget who! But I do intend to check out that link and just browse around, tomorrow, or when I have more time, soon.
Charlotte, Janis does speak to Ludwig on occasion, but not as frequently as does Arlo. Nor does she seem to use him as a foil for offbeat remarks.
http://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2014/01/15#.U55pHfldWa8a
emb: would that be when the House of Lords did nothing in particular and did it very well? 😛
Woke up, fell out of bed. I just had to look, having read the book.
Good morning Villagers….
Somebody spoke, and I went into a dream…….good morning Jerry 🙂
Miss Charlotte, and indeed, it is an awesome sight to see our flag, that big, big, flag; waving against a blue sky. We still haven’t heard from Jackie. And I am getting concerned.
Yup, the Sunday strip was a good one…I love Luddie….T-shirts with the A&J logo with a pic of Luddie….there’s where I’d put my money.
GR 😉 I have sat on a dock of a bay, only watching the sun rise.
later…………….
Good morning! Now it is my turn to be baffled. I don’t get the 2014/01/15 comic strip. Janis comments on Ludwig’s coat. I don’t know anything about cat food, canned or uncanned. “Won’t you please, please help me?”—since some are quoting Beatles songs.
DJJG: Glossy coat stemming from increased cat dander (dried spit) augmented by presumably greasy canned food. Said grease now on Janis’ fingers.
Hint, DJJG: “Oiliness is next to glossiness.”
Or, what TR said.
Got it! Thanks! I wonder if all jokes are in jokes, after all.
regarding the anvil…never say never. 🙂 It’s been known to hang in the sky a time before surprising someone…..
June 22, 2014…
Janis: “Arlo! What was that noise? Arlo?”
Lily:
Another Savoyard, or did you just happen to see Iolanthe and remember that line? BTW, today’s TIP is very good and only a bit naughty. The TIP BlogSpot is a bit naughtier, and good, but can’t put two URLs in one post.
http://www.gocomics.com/that-is-priceless/#.U576TWdOVOw
Who is quoting Beatles’ songs?
Here’s the BlogSpot.
http://thatispriceless.blogspot.com/
Yay, naughty bits.
I see by the old calendar on the wall that it’s time for me to make another (at least nominally) “on-topic” comment. So ref today’s (6-16-14) A&J cartoon…
My first thought was that Janis was exaggerating, but if she weighs 120 pounds, that would mean she had sweated off about two and one-half pounds (or two and one-half pints) of fluid, which is possible, given a long walk on a hot day. But if so, shouldn’t she look more like a wet T-shirt contestant? (Most of you know what I mean.)
Lily? 😉
emb, “Three Women Dancing” was on Melcher’s gocomics site on 6-10-14. Someone (not I) suggested the caption “Charlie’s Angels on Spring Break”.
OK, I think I get it. DJJG needs help, and other Villagers have been quoting Beatles’ songs, so DJJG asks, “Won’t you please, please help me?”, which I assume is from a Beatles’ song. Lily and I, of course, have been quoting Wm. S. Gilbert, from Iolanthe, by G&S.
GR6: I wondered if I’d seen that one before [not that I mind seeing it again]. Thanks. emb
P.S. We are leaving ourselves open to the charge that men have one track minds, to which Arlo once responded, ‘Guilty!’
I don’t have a one track mind. It’s just that all the tracks end up at the same destination.
Quiet day. Well, emb and I have done our parts.
Sorry Debbe – First shift, swing to looong thirds for the weekend, then swinging back to first has put a damper on my trouble-making abilities. (Quick [insert favorite search site here] search of Kokomo will show plenty of others got into trouble for me.)
Several people now have said I look like an older Shirley Temple. I guess I get the idea, but this morning after leaving work (13 hours later), I picked up my new glasses. As I had my contacts in, I couldn’t see what I looked like in them – OMG! – I look like my mother.
Fingers crossed for Jackie.
Clearly those tracks lead not to Grand Central Station. Likely the Round House. Most probably the end of the line. And, from looks of the wrapped rails it was not much of a ride. 😉
Made it back about 11 p.m. last night home. Mike went from oncology floor to ICU to oncology yesterday. He has been very critical and one kidney is blocked, they did emergency procedure to stop sepsis, have to get him better to operate on kidney. He will have to have procedure on esophagus too apparently. My daughter said she had never seen so many people in an ICU room, four doing arterial draws and four doing vein draws all at once.
Because I am sick all the time anyway, no one wants me in room with a compromised cancer patient but I did get to see him for a few minutes a day.
My daughters and grandkids managed to lose the keys to my van they have been driving on a Sunday so I ended up driving about 500 miles round trip yesterday with replacement.
No, I am not doing well!
Love, Jackie Monies
Jackie–
So sorry that things are not going well. Many here missed you over the weekend and expressed their concern about you. Others of us missed you, but didn’t say anything. As both Winston Churchill and Rodney Atkins say, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
David