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

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

“Who are these people?”

By Jimmy Johnson

(Cartoonist’s update: It took me a while to put together the following run-down of the extended family in Arlo & Janis, so I’m going to leave it up for another day for any late-comers. I’ll try to have some fresh content Thursday. By the way, a friend convinced me I need Twitter for communicating with convention-goers at upcoming comic cons. So, with trepidation, I set up a Twitter account, @arloandjanis. If you Tweet, check it out. Maybe you can give me some pointers. I don’t understand it at all. — JJ)
For a comic strip that has been around as long as it has, Arlo & Janis is blessed with a steady influx of new readers, especially on the Web. Occasionally, when events skip from the title characters to their son and his family, many of those new readers are left asking, “Who th’ heck are these people, and where is Arlo & Janis?” Now this will be a snooze for most of you, who’ve been reading A&J for a long time, but I thought it would be fun to take time on the blog today to introduce those other people in Arlo & Janis.

We must begin, of course, with Gene. Simply, Gene is the son of Arlo and Janis. For years in the strip, he was an almost daily presence, playing the role of the precocious little boy. But the characters age in A&J, if not in real time something close to it. Eventually, he went off to college, but he spent his summers working in a seafood restaurant “on the coast” that belonged to the family of a childhood friend. You might rightly ask, “What coast?” It’s never specified, but I grew up visiting the beaches of the northern Gulf Coast, from Gulfport to Apalachicola, so I suppose influence from that area is inevitable. You are free to insert the coast of your choice.


That childhood friend was Mary Lou. Mary Lou grew up on the beach, and she and Gene first met when they both were about 12 years old. They may have been the same age, but when it came to “precocious,” Mary Lou was far beyond young Gene. Yet, they bonded as friends. For several years, Gene would return to the beach with his vacationing parents and renew his acquaintance with Mary Lou. However, “Lou,” as she’s sometimes called, was destined for a life crisis of her own, and the two drifted apart briefly. The age of digital communication being what it is, though, they never lost touch completely, and by the time Gene the college boy arrived to work at her family’s restaurant, they were in love. Having weathered her crisis, Mary Lou played a large role in the day-to-day running of her father’s restaurant and initiated Gene into the demanding business of hospitality.


That “life crisis” was Meg, Mary Lou’s daughter. An intelligent and good-natured only-child, she literally grew up in the family business. She spent many hours doing homework and coloring in her grandfather’s cluttered office, and she sometimes lagged for quarters with the bus boys behind the restaurant. To further amuse herself, she would sit in a booth at slow times and bundle silverware and napkins. To be sure, she inherited the family work ethic, but the child in her took immediately to the child in Gene. They’ve been buds from the time they met. And, no, Gene is not Meg’s biological father, since it often is asked.


Gus is the patriarch of the coast clan, Mary Lou’s father and Meg’s grandfather. Starting from nothing, “Pop” has owned and operated a series of motels and restaurants along the coast. He owned the motel where Gene’s family stayed on several of their vacations, which is why Mary Lou was living at the beach when she and Gene met as children. Actually, Gus’ real business all along was real estate, as he sold one concern and purchased another. That beach property you wish you’d bought back when it was dirt cheap? Well, Gus did buy it, and he’s done quite well. After the kids married, Gus made Mary Lou and Gene partners in his popular restaurant, and when he sold the site to developers he rewarded their hard work generously. It was this largess that is bankrolling their current dream of living for themselves on their small farm. A no-nonsense man with an infinite love for his daughter and granddaughter, Gus is one of my favorite characters.

Well, that’s about it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief recap. I would like to remind everyone that there’s one more week in the Kickstarter campaign to resurrect the parsonage in Camp Hill. If you’re interested, click on the link below. If nothing else, check out the video! I worked a long time on that sucker, believe it or not!

The Return of an Undead Building

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

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56 responses to ““Who are these people?””

  1. emb Avatar

    First?

    In any free society, the conflict between social conformity and individual liberty is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary. -Kathleen Norris, novelist and columnist (27 Jul 1880-1966)

    Peace,

  2. emb Avatar

    Above quote is the Thought for Today from Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day, my first online site most days.

    IMO, it’s accurate. The reason, for instance, that I’m comfortable w/ gay marriage but others are not. [Disclaimer: I’m extremely hetero myself, though no longer able to do much about it; the safest flirt in town.]

    Peace,

  3. emb Avatar

    Debbe: About that cooler and its cooling of the packing room. It’s basically a free-standing fridge for cooling eggs, right? Unless it’s vented to the outside, it heats the packing room. If it’s vented to the outside, it heats the neighborhood, as does your whole workplace. One of my early Bemidji Pioneer columns deals with that. [Free usage lesson in the above cooler info.]

    Mark in TTown on 27 Jul 2016 at 8:56 am # ‘Dale, you are thinking of Ruth.’ I often do; I married her. My bright redhead had never been to Paris, and her parents were a conservative married-for-life couple. Her longest trip was w/ her high school class* to D.C. But Elaine was a very literate genius [and literally so, by IQ definition]. Fortunately, she also had hormones, and, as a freshman coed#, was entranced by a bright sophomore Cornellian’s bass voice, or something, resulting in another married-for-life couple. I was [and am] blessed.

    *She was valedictorian; I was in the top 8th of mine.
    #Two currently non-PC terms of which I’m particularly fond.

    Peace,

  4. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    Good morning all. I think it is raining but that would require me getting out of bed. I need to find the broken cell phon gthee and go visit AT&T. Why do I hate that so much? Also they own my cable company now and the dish has been off roof for months. Hate going! Hare going!

    And it’s time to chaner day. Mmmge my sheets. I can’t believe I used to hdo that every day. My how widow hood changes us. The dog and I just move to other side of bed where no one sleeps. He has decided to quit kissing me to wake up and moved to back of my knees and gone back to sleep.

  5. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    Maybe I should turn on lamp? Dark in here and Hal can run amuck.

  6. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Good morning, Jackie. Why do you have to get out of bed for it to rain? Just curious. 🙂

  7. emb Avatar

    At least someone else is up. Today’s TIP BlogSpot is cute. Peace,

    http://thatispriceless.blogspot.com/

  8. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    I told you Meg was just like Gus yesterday. And here comes the daily to confirm it. Very funny Jimmy, especially the carrot.

    I like Meg by the way and I am curmudgeon who doesn’t like kid strips. I like Gus too and I don’t like old geezer strips either.

    You are doing just fine, keep it real. I don’t tweet or twitter although they keep telling me I have an account.

  9. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    Ghost to open the plantation shtters and confirm it is raining enroute to bathroom. My bathroom is same size as my bedroom, this being Oklahoma and this being an old remodeled house.

    Bedroom is dark and quiet. It has to storm for rain to get sound through at this end. New apartment where Glen lives only has one roof, metal, so rain can be heard there. I know because that is where I lived while Mike was ill, he lived in front half of house. Pets and I moved to back.

    It’s like a duplex with a big buffering room between. You never see the other resident.

  10. JACKQULINE MONIES Avatar
    JACKQULINE MONIES

    This is old and often rebuilt cottage that grew and grew. My bedroom actually has three roofs and one actually has a second set of rafters and they left that on and built over. We removed the top one and replaced most of plywood on it but Lowe’s left that one on and put metal roof on top of it.

  11. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Oh, I see… a house, wrapped in a house, inside a house.

    I should not make fun of what anyone posts just after they awaken, for the same reason I don’t post just before I go to sleep. Hint: Yesterday morning I woke up still wearing one sock.

  12. emb Avatar

    One of Elaine’s CT relatives had a house like that. Once they had inside plumbing,* they converted a former extra bedroom into a bathroom. Huge. It had a parlor organ in it.

    *MD who delivered our third child announced its gender by saying, ‘This one has inside plumbing.’

    Peace,

  13. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    But we’re you and the sock alone in bed? Now THAT would be weird. I have awoken at times to find myself partially dressed but socks?

  14. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    That is what one of my friends from Virginia always said about my house, it reminded him of an east coast cottage where generations kept adding on. It rambles. And yes, all bathrooms have been afterthoughts.

    If we make it that far I am adding one out in yard in back by garden. I bought materials about a decade ago but late husband never got tuit. You know those wooden nickles worth a tuit?

    We are currently building a shorter fence across back yard to keep two elderly dogs out of garden. Only one can possibly climb over, other is too fat.

  15. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    Jack Davis (1924 – 2016), American cartoonist and illustrator, and one of the founding cartoonists of Mad magazine in 1952, has died.

    2016 continues to take its toll.

  16. DJJG Avatar
    DJJG

    Jimmy, thank you again for the wonderful bios and portraits! Since you can’t have them up all the time, maybe you could have a button that takes readers to them; on the other hand, I’m sure you thought of that and have weighed having the bother of another button.

    I listened to my first Bill Clinton speech last evening, this being quite an election. At one point he was denigrating a false portrayal of his wife Hillary, falseness of course being something anyone should denigrate. But he likened such a thing to a “cartoon”! A poor thing because it is “two-dimensional,” he said! I almost wanted to turn it off. Cartoons can—and often do—have as much depth as any art form. His speech writer should have known better and given him the word “caricature,” what he really meant.

  17. Wanda Avatar
    Wanda

    I love A&J! I have been reading their comic strip for years. I knew Gene when he was a little boy.

  18. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Thanks, Ghost. I hadn’t heard that. Jack Davis was one of my favorite comic artists long before Jimmy came along. He will be missed. Here’s an article about him I just found: http://www.newsfromme.com/2016/07/27/jack-davis-r-p/

  19. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    I loved the old Mad. Had totally forgotten Little Anny Fanny. That was funny.

    Cartooning is Art with a capital A. But so is Adultery or has Clinton forgotten that big red letter he wears?

    Or perhaps it doesn’t count if you don’t inhale or swallow?

  20. Ghost Rider 6 Avatar
    Ghost Rider 6

    “…swallow?” 😀

  21. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Not explaining the prior administration justification of whether it was adultery or not.

  22. Mark in TTown Avatar
    Mark in TTown

    Jackie, to borrow a quote, “He is the father of lies, and the truth is not in him.”

  23. emb Avatar

    “Dustin” is usually funny, but I particularly like today’s [27 July]. Those not familiar with Dustin et al. need to know that he has a bachelor’s in English but is still sponging off the folks, his younger sister is a more diligent and also bright, and dad is a [mostly defense] lawyer. Mom, not in today’s strip, has a daytime call-in advice-type radio show, and does not share dad’s weight problem.

    http://dustincomics.com/

    Peace,

  24. Jackie Monies Avatar
    Jackie Monies

    Why does the cartoon style look so familiar? Do they have another strip or is derivative?

    Mark, I love your quote. I need to find me a candidate to get behind.