Recent Comments

1. about 12 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “(…) Mom would not really sell Calvin. She has often shown that she loves him.(…)”

   Dad, on the other hand, would rather have bought a dog instead…  8^P

2. about 14 hours ago on Arlo and Janis

   The original strip is from February 29, 2016. That’s because 2016 was a leap year, that is, a year where February has 29 days instead of 28.

   Now, in places in the Northern Hemisphere with strong winters, February is typically the month with the worst weather. In particular, the least optimal weather for grilling.

   So Arlo is complaining that they chose the worst month to make longer during leap years. Of course we all know that it’s a silly complain, but that’s part of the joke.

   Now… I still don’t understand the October 19 thing….

3. about 14 hours ago on FoxTrot

   Awesome! Thank you!

4. about 17 hours ago on Arlo and Janis

   When they try to join in?

   Given that Janis just took $20 from Arlo I would say she totally succeeded!

5. about 17 hours ago on Arlo and Janis

   From the Oxford Dictionary of English:

   “schadenfreude | ˈʃɑːd(ə)nˌfrɔɪdə |

   noun [mass noun]

   pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune"

   No one is having a “misfortune” here. On the contrary, we are having a great time. You see, most people here actually love comic strips. We love reading them, sharing them, exploring them, discussing them with like-minded people. We become little experts in a narrow topic that is totally insignificant in the big scheme of things, but that brings joy to our lives and makes our day just a little brighter. That’s what people call a hobby. You’ve probably heard of those, maybe you even have one although it seems that you probably don’t since you don’t understand us. But the point is: we are having a great time.

   The only person showing some negativity here is yourself. Maybe you need a hobby better aligned with your interests, something that really fulfills you. Because the only thing you achieve with negativity is rotting away your own soul. But if you think that attempting to spread sourness (and failing) is your hobby, please go ahead and knock yourself out.

6. about 17 hours ago on Arlo and Janis

   No… I didn’t call it… It must just be a coincidence that Arlo is wearing a red shirt today!

   I actually said that JJ stoped favoring red shirts for Arlo in the Sunday strips (which he has always colored) around 2009, and in particular since 2012 when he started shifting to the ocher palette he favors now. (I also said that the shift from red shirts was more abrupt in the weekdays, since they stopped being colored by others in January 2018.)

   Therefore, the combination of ocher-tinted furniture and Janis’ attire with “classic” Arlo with bright red shirt and blue pants is probably a coincidence.

7. 1 day ago on Arlo and Janis

   Oh, the thing about the colorist is not my theory. It’s something that JJ explained in his blog at back in January 5, 9 and 10 (currently entries 530, 529 and 528, but that changes every time he posts a new one).

   The first weekday strip colored by JJ was this one:

   gocomics.Com/arloandjanis/2018/01/08

   Starting from that day, you see the ocher-ish colors that JJ now favors.

   But if you pick random weekday strips between March 15, 2004 (the first colored weekday in the archives)…

   gocomics.Com/arloandjanis/2004/03/15

   …all the way to January 6, 2018 (the last strip colored by a hired colorist)…

   gocomics.Com/arloandjanis/2018/01/06

   …you will notice that almost every time Arlo is wearing a red shirt (long or short sleeved depending on the season).

   JJ always colored the Sundays. At the beginning the colors we much more saturated than now, much like what the colorists would later use for the weekdays.

   Arlo’s shirts in the Sundays were of many colors, but in 1997 red became more frequent, and between mid 1998 and early 2009 it was by far the most common color for his shirts, explaining why that color was used by the colorists during their tenure.

   It seems to me that JJ has been favoring the current ocher-ish palette for the Sundays since 2012-ish.

8. 1 day ago on Arlo and Janis

   “How did you find that ?!?”

   Well, it was quite a process. First, I have a browser script written by someone else over a decade ago, that reveals the URL of the underlying image, in this case:

   assets.Amuniversal.Com/422980f0bfbd013d8c6f005056a9545d

   I plugged that into Google Image search, selected all four panels, and got this as the first result (the A&J is towards the middle of the webpage):

   weeklystorybook.Com/comic_strip_of_the_daycom/2016/02/a-trick-of-the-astronomer-royal.Html

   The title of the page indicate what date I should look for in the GoComics archives.

9. 1 day ago on Arlo and Janis

   “(…) Arlo looks a bit more angry in the first two panels (…)”

   Agreed, but in my opinion in the 2016 version Arlo looks angrier than in today’s in all four panels, not just two.

10. 2 days ago on Arlo and Janis

    Yes! They looked better in the original coloring, even though it was colored by a hired colorist instead as by JJ like in today’s version.

    gocomics.Com/arloandjanis/2016/02/29