Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for September 20, 2012

what am I missing?

they are wondering if she is showing yet

The subtle change in her & the clergyman’s hair could mean she sees a storm blowin’ in. Maybe the decreasing number of gulls indicates something?

Maybe the gulls just delivered their wedding gift? She shouldn’t look up with a bird overhead.

I’m with rusty on this one, I think a bird just delivered a nice gift… she’s looking up at the bird, they are looking at the “gift”

I must concur, that makes more sense than mine

Oh! Maybe it’s just me and what passes for my sense of humor….But I thought she was just being funny….pretending to stare at the sky as though considering her answer.

Hmmm…. I do? Do I?….hmmmm…while Gene quakes in his boots.

Well, if it were ME, anyway….LOL

the bluebird of happiness strikes again…

Birdie, birdie in the sky …

Can You Say HURRICANE?!?!?

Don’t the “Do you” questions come before the rings? Because she’s putting a ring on Gene in panel 2. I’m voting for a storm a-comin’.

old fisherman’s lore is seagull that craps on you is good luck .So Good Luck to the kids

Unless this is a 3-D remake of “The Birds” I am totally lost on this one.

Looks to me like she’s looking at that stray hair… which is either blowing in the strengthening wind, or is just sticking out like that because her head is angled up.

Beyond that, I got nothin’. I hope tomorrow’s strip clears it up.

I like the pacing. Enjoy the moment!

Isn’t her mother dead? I thought she was looking to heaven to her mom

Surreal! you invite a bunch of family and friends to witness your vows then slip off and take them out on a deck with no one around!!! WTF!!! No best man, no maid of honor, no parents, no daughter in sight. what! they are all pressed up against the door and windows? makes no sense even for a comic strip.!

Why does she look up in the last frame?

All I can think of is the part where the preacher asks that anyone who has objections to their marriage to speak now or forever hold their peace. It doesn’t augur well. What next? Meg’s father shows up? Snide remarks about a soiled bride?

She renews her vows but gets distracted by a flight of birds in the middle of it. How commited is that?

Um, I think the bird dropped a little “gift” on her.

They’re looking at her. She’s already been hit.

Maybe the gull made off with the shiny, pretty ring? And now they’re wondering how to complete the ceremony?

never heard of the ’seaman’s’ lore; nice touch if it is true.but I think a bit of reality; even at its best life can be messy at times.

Thanks – Gene got hit, not Mary Lou. Ruins my earlier dress stain joke.

A lot is being said with these three panels, and yet, it still leaves a lot of conjecture. Guess we’ll just have to wait.

Okay the art work in panel three was corrected so the strip makes sense now. I don’t think I can say the art work was cleaned up though.

The bird stain is a dark blue on the black jacket (hit the enlarge button) while it should be a white splotch on the black jacket.

Go to the archives site to see the strip as it was intended.

Actually Jimmy Johnson explains it on his blog, it was improperly rendered. http://arloandjanis.com/yes

Panel 4 should show white on Gene’s shoulder.Jimmy commented on (and corrected) the colorization of this strip on his site http://arloandjanis.com/

All your answers are questioned at the Arlo & Janis page:

http://arloandjanis.com/yes

Looks like the colorist thought that a white patch on Gene’s shoulder in panel 4 needed coloring in.

This is exactly the “annoying variable” I was thinking about last week. But, it’s these mishaps that make an occasion even more memorable, that freeze a moment in our memories by giving us something special and unexpected to recall. This was just the birdie version of throwing rice at the newlyweds. Good Luck, Young Love!

The answer is on the arloandjanis.com website. Check out Gene’s shoulder in the corrected 4th panel.

After going to arloandjanis.com, the artist, Jimmy Johnson has the corrected rendering. Yes, the seagull let loose on poor Gene.

Jimmy explains the problem on his blog. The bird poop is supposed to be on Gene’s shoulder.http://arloandjanis.com/

It’s bird poop. The colorist accidentally colored it dark purple like the rest of the suit “highlights”. If you look close you can see the splat in the last panel on Gene’s left shoulder.

Maybe she suddenly wishes she did a big cheesy wedding where they release doves. I thought for a moment that she was thinking she’d never be free like a bird again, but she has a kid, and if she hadn’t gotten that idea completely out of her mind by now, she’d have committed suicide or have become a miserable person.

Calling Alfred Hitchcock…..

On his website Jimmy Johnson says this is miscolored – the blue blob on Gene’s shoulder in the last panel should be WHITE.

Go to http://arloandjanis.com/yes and look at Gene’s jacket

Just got blessed by the Heavens.

Birdie, birdie, in the sky…Why’d you do that in my eye?(Aren’t you glad elephants don’t fly?)

Birds drop “presents” tooZemogj

JJ said there is bird poop on Gene’s shoulder in the last panel and blames it on the colorist.

another strip that Jimmmmmmy Johnson drew that doesn’t make sense

The correctly colored version of this is on http://arloandjanis.com/ and the birds left a gift on Gene’s tux.

Frame 1: "Do you Gene take Mary Lou…. Do you Mary Lou take Gene…. etc, etc. etc.Frame 2: Exchange of rings. Some evidence of windFrame 3: “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you… etc, etc, etc.,” Happy, happy happy. wind is picking up.Frame 4: Mary Lou sees something Gene and the pastor don’t. Falling bird poop? (sign of good fortune) Bird dive bombing Gene’s hair?

Two birds become one just like the wedding. third bird is the master who is gone by the time the 3rd panel

My first thought was that she was looking up at the birds knowing she was giving up being “as free as a bird” in some sense. But, the pastor and Gene looking down does seem to suggest bird crap.

From arloandjanis.com, this is the link to 1993 strip where Gene and Mary Lou first met:

http://arloandjanis.com/5160

So sweet!

http://arloandjanis.com/

It took me a while to realize in the second panel she is putting his ring on his finger. I thought she looked angry as she pointed to the palm on her hand. Now I see that it’s the ceremony and something is happening above them on the last panel (storm, plane, something falling, ect).

this should clear it up – http://arloandjanis.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012-09-20-wedding1.gif

It’s very hard to see (poor coloring) but there is a “gift” from a gull on Gene’s left shoulder.

I know I’m late to chime in on this one, Mystery solved. In the printed copy of my newspaper you can see the “bird splatter” in the online version you can’t see it because of the coloration. Although, by the way Gene is looking, at first glance, I am reminded of Jimmy’s very famous “nothign better than a peek” strip. A chip off the old block! lol

“The colorist did a bad job. Go here for the original. It is perfectly clear. http://arloandjanis.com/yes#comments (Those who are guessing about gifts from birds got it.)”After looking at this strip in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where there IS no color, I thought, “Well, the good folks at GoComics will explain it!” Thanks for the link, LV, though the commenters didn’t seem to mention that it was Gene who got splatted on. (The GoComics crowd had already explained what was going on with the hands [Mary Lou putting the ring on Gene’s hand]).

The “Do yous” arrived before the “Do-dos” it appears.

Go to the page for retro Arlo comics and comment and you will see the way the strip was supposed to look in the last panel.

Maybe it’s a scene from the ‘Birds’

“Let me get some tissue.”“Don’t bother, the bird’s miles away by now.”

Doesn’t ANYBODY read the previous comments before posting???

Thank you, LVJeff, for providing the first explanation and link…

and thank you, in rather dwindling order of enthusiasm, to the next couple of dozen people who pointed out the same information and/or link….LOL

(and a reminder to the half dozen or so still wondering or conjecturing….psst …. hey… you might try reading at least a couple of the previous posts.

Sigh…..

And I was wrong.Oh well… had it been ME, as I said, it coulda been right.Cos I would totally do that. :)

Meanwhile, here’s a live link to the correct coloring

and a close-up:

Tanks!

wtf???????

Seems there’s a lot more confusion than answers with this strip… and it’s supposed to be a milestone… I think?

If you go to www.arloandjanis.com you will see that what was published here was missing an item in panel 4. Gene was the gift recipient from the Flyby.

In the correct rendering Gene in the final panel has a white splotch on his left shoulder. In the Ucomix strip he does not.

Dave53…

Even after my (I hope politely) exasperated post we get two more expressions of puzzlement and two more explanations of what has already been explained ad nauseum!

I think a lot of people must just use the “add a comment” feature without reading any comments!

You can see the bird hit on the groom’s shoulder in the last panel.

The colorist erased the punchline to the joke. Here is how it should have looked: http://arloandjanis.com/yes

JJ fixed the coloring on this and reposted on A&J.com.

AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!

Splat was it. The colorist missed the boat.

In the next day’s strip it’s more obvious what happened; in this strip the colors aren’t distinct enough to show what landed on Gene’s left shoulder.

Fire your colorist.