Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for March 07, 2014

Like a canary in the head mind….

Oh, sure, blame it on the colorist that colors the center of the cowlick…Wait, is that the guy that makes their couch brown on Sunday? Fry ’im….

Tap dancing on the 4th wall.

A little bird told him what people are saying.

BTW … Sundays are colored by the cartoonists themselves…Mon-Sat by colorists hired by the syndicate.

Most but not all cartoonists have a very brief color guide for the colorists to follow … ie basics like skin tones, hair color, probably Arlo’s red shirt…The strip description at right says they have a “salmon-colored couch” so that may have always been part of Jimmy’s instructions….

but whatever he does on Sundays, it’s his own choice.

I have a canary on my head.

Your argument is invalid.

(Perhaps too obscure.)

4th wall?We don’t need any stinking 4th wall.

Janis: Comic strip? Black and White? What are you talking about?

I presonally like the new hairstyle better, or alternately, I really don’t like that canary on Arlo’s head! Nothing complicated about that.

We get black-n-white except for sunday in our newspaper..so don’t worry about it..By the way, Rudy says he will remove the canary for you if you like..

Before the way it was drawn today, it looked more like a small flag to me.

Remember when Janis’ hair looked like she was wearing a pot on her head?

I vote to keep the canary!

Now that you mentioned it I can’t see anything but the canary!

I like the new do. Suck it up, Arlo. If you can’t stand change, soon you’ll be one of those crusty ol’ dudes yelling “You damned kids — get offa my lawn!”

When the canary was only there on Sunday, Arlo could pretend he was wearing one of the “church lady” hats from Curtis.

ChessPirate: Is that anything like “The Girl with Flags in Hair”, by Debussey?

Janis used to look like she had a pot on her head.

Will anyone else “get” the Debussey remark? (Okay, I am showing off.)

I always thought it was supposed to be just a single strand of hair that sort of looped over the top of Arlo’s head…sort of an errant hair that wished Arlo had a halo.

From what you say, April Anemone, I take it that Debussy wrote something called “the Girl with Flaxen Hair.” No, I didn’t get it.Arlo is pulverizing the 4th wall.

April Anemone: What do you think I was doing? I am a mondegreen fan and that is right up there with Taco Bell’s Canon.

Heh heh. Many of these decisions of changing the characters in any little way become life or death decisions for some readers, so cartoonists test the waters with these drawn out storylines. Meanwhile readers like me who don’t give a dang ding didlly about what people look like are screaming "I don’t give a blankety blank blank how you blankety blank blank style his hair, just give me some blankety blank blank observational humor