October 29, 1986
In the early years of A&J, Janis was a very insecure character, to the point of neurotic. Many readers recognized her fragility as dysfunctional, but for a disquietingly large number of others and myself, it seemed normal. Arlo wasn’t perfect either. That’s all I’m going to say about that. I always have said, frequently and recently, that my writing carried the strip in the beginning as I found my way as a graphic artist. I still believe this to be true, but taking a long look at some of the early stuff (after not having done so for a while), the writing wasn’t as strong as I sometimes credit it. There were some gems in the beginning, but I think the writing has become more consistent day to day. Sometimes, I think I am very lucky to be here after 35 years.
74 responses to ““Who is this ‘Fig Newton’?””
Re 8-3-20 real-time cartoon: As I established recently, this one would have pre-dated the first time I saw A&J, so this is my first look at Janis Slinky-Swimsuit v1.0. Not bad.
Some years ago, I commented that if I ever did anything noteworthy enough for there to be a movie about it, I waned to be played by Robert Urich. After he passed away in 2002, I observed that if I didn’t do something notable pretty soon, I’d have to be played by Wilford Brimley. Now it’s too late for that, also. And yes, that AoM scene was fantastic.
RIP, sir. You were my favorite character actor of recent times.
This [Dustin for 3 Aug 20] took me a while. For newbies, Dustin [getting hugged in the last panel] has a BA w/ an English major, & is a goof-off at home sponging off his parents. That’s his lawyer dad, in all 3 panels, in 3 different locations, in sequence within part of 1 day. We know none of the other people; these are all simply overheard conversations. It took me a while. If you open this after 3 Au 20, you may have to backtrack to see the 3 Au cartoon. IMO, “Dustin” is underrated. All 4 main characters [younger sister, dad, mom, D] are well thought out, as are others,
https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/dustin/
Peace,
In most of the comics I read I like the main characters. But there are a few that I tolerate for other reasons, though I’d never want much to do with them if they were real. Dustin is one; Jeremy Duncan of Zits is another. Part of it is they remind me too much of real persons that I haven’t liked. And since we only had daughters, I’ve not had to come up with stratagems to raise any boys up to be upstanding young men of good repute.
@ John L
“What was the original date of today’s (8/3/20) strip. And what happened to Janis’s face?”
According to Arlo the strip is from 1986 – others here are better at narrowing it down.
As for the last panel — artist shorthand. And probably trying to make deadline.