This strip is a great example of JJ's 4-panel strip skills.
The story seems to flow forward easily, but then there's the action happening between panels 3 & 4. The last panel not only starts you comparing with the previous panel to figure out what happened, that actually takes you back to the first panel, to get the whole set-up. Then, read forward again and enjoy knowing where it's going.
Don’t know what brought this on, but, I kinda thought this was understood. Just a casual, nicely-landscaped corner of the blogiverse, the good gardeners sharing stuff. Including that prickly old cactus farmer Pete.
Really fun mix of characters here. Malleable mix-up.
Jay Johnson said, "Any day that starts with a shot of Ditko just has to turn out good!"
Heh. Yup. That classic Ditko Sandman face, first glance, jumped off the cover for me on this one.
I may be prejudiced. Amazing Fantasy #15 changed my perspectives on superduper comics, and oh how closely I followed Spidey and Doc Strange the original years. So, an old Ditko fan.
Of course, then the day came when Ditko was gone, and I realized all these beloved characters were merely commercial franchise properties, not an artist's personal vision. Not anymore.
But to mangle Bogie, we'll always have Ditko.
That's a sweet scene. Reindeer, zebra, and moose. Just like it says in scripture. Is that an angel or a cat-girl? And, behind the moose antler... is that a leprechaun? (One must interpret such exegesis by carefully reading between the lines.)
Jesus [i]was[/i] buff. Carpentry in those days was not done with power tools. And as some on AoS were mentioning the other day about a painting of Peter, hauling in nets full of fish will give you Popeye arms. By sheer appearance alone, I think Jesus must have been impressive.
He was the epitome of manly. One of the most memorable things I've ever read was (in my own parlance) that hearty Galilean fisherman did not lay down their lives to follow some mincing mallboy snowflake.
The neighbors across the road have a Christmas creche set out, all lit up, nobody there yet. As it's supposed to be.
Very nice. Thank you, BoB, and my your Christmas season be good for you and yours.
Well, now, I don't think I've heard of Phantom Lady before. Nice gams.
"busy sound of readers around the world typing, 'but what about the Phantom this, or what about the phantom that'..."
Well, I did wonder, wasn't there a LSH gal named Phantom Girl?
Oh, right, you've used her before.
Anyone ever mention that the light-blue text on dark-blue background makes the tags kinda hard to read?
"Left-wing comedian Chelsea Handler…"
I submit that "left-wing comedian" is a contradiction in terms, or an anatomical impossibility.
Funny thing about being out-of-touch with so much of modern pop culture, I only hear about some people - Handler or whatsername Giffen? - after they shoot themselves in the foots. They were no ones to me before, and less now.
Did you really have to title this collection "long, long ago"? Wouldn't one "long" have been enough? 'Cause, you know, BoB, all but a few of those are in my (creak, groan, ha-kaff) lifetime.
I'm pretty sure the Kodak Christmas one pre-dates me.
The Daisy ad ran recently on Ace - commenters were admiring the good "gun control" the kids were exhibiting, barrels up, fingers off the triggers. (I believe the phrase used was something like booger pickers off of the bang switch." Ace of Spades is so educational.)
Never heard of Clarks gum. Tender-Mint and Teaberry? Pleeease! Give me Clove (cinnamon) or at least (what was it?) Blackjack (licorice). They get re-released periodically for nostalgic nerds.
Maybe Clarks was a British thing, like the tell-tale paper Christmas crown the kid is wearing in the Deccacolour ad.
In any case, the less said about the gay ol' time Bruce and Matty are having in the Textron ad, the better. And by gay, of course I mean the traditional meaning, not the corruption. NTTAWW.
For some reason, this team-up just astonished me. Yes, yes, yes, I would buy that comic!
Aragones is a charming gentleman and a cartoon maestro. I grew up on his work in Mad. Wife and daughter and niece still get starry-eyed thinking about meeting him at ChiCon once.
Sim broke all kinds of boundaries with Cerebus. I have a large middle-part Cerebus comics collection (no earliest issues), and all the collected editions... up to a point. IIRC, he was deep into riffing on Hemingway when I gave up the series. The series was intriguing on many levels. Felt bad that, um, we drifted apart. "Marvel and Decease" was funny for comics fans.
Even though I knew where this was going, practically from the headline, it didn't make it any less funny. You just keep on posting the best stuff, BoB.
This brought to mind the classic Henry Morgan routine, Twelve Bottles (link should cue to 3:58).
Comedian Tony Barbieri, like comedian Kathy Griffen or comedian Jim Carrey, etc.?
Comedy - I don't think these folks know what the word means. Rudeness, mocking, and insults only worked for Don Rickles. Do not attempt this yourself.
[Germanic accent] "Acch! Here ve see ze rich textures und vibrant colors chacteristic of this rising young arteest. Ze sublime use of ze white space, ze chris-crossing of stark streaks, express the suppressed rage and frustration of kinderhood, while the swirl of yellow and bold mix of blues and reds suggests an outlook of cosmic consciousness unavailable to elders. Now accepting bids starting at $2,000,000…"
Are those shoes set out for St. Nickolas' Day?
Leaving goodies in shoes — even weirder than in stockings (hung by the chimney with care). lt's a tradition I'd never heard of, but Milady's family (Catholic, Chicago) always did. So, we started when our kids were little.
Now the kids are all moved out. But MJ & I carry on for each other. Out-of-town son gifted his then-girlfriend (now the parents of our grandson I just have to mention :) ) last year. Can't be sure, but seem to remember daughter gifted other son last year (both live in the same apartment building).
Silly, but memorable tradition. (Sings with Yiddish accent: Tradition!)
Or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about? ;)
The year MJ was pregnant with the twin boys, our Christmas Card was a pic of flip-flops - mine, hers, daughter's, and two tiny decorative pair (like, keyring or rear view mirror dangly size).
"[Trump] knows that there are questions about the election that deserve answers,” Clinton said in the interview.
Questions like: Why isn't she 50 points ahead, you may ask? or questions like Why won't she accept the election results and just go away?
:)
White decorations at Christmas? The horror!
I'd just like to say that it has not escaped my notice that PoliNation has little white snowflakes drifting over it again. Where is the rainbow snow?
;)
Almost a week late, realized I'd never said thanks for the congrats on our new grandson.
Need to get him enrolled in that daycare center you repost from all the time... ;)
BoB: Wow, thanks for doing all the research I was too lazy to do!
The hardest working BoB blogger around, lazy? Ha!
I left Geraldine and Ricky for you to research. :D
Noticed I had a visitor and a Like on my new little test blog! Wondered how you'd found out about it, then I saw that WP auto-links back when I linked to here. Handy. No hiding!
I've seen just a couple of these before, including The Faith Tones. With those hairdoos, how could I help but search on them:
All of the women were trained church musicians, accomplished pianists and organists, and were members of the Lottie Moon Missionary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem NC. Their combined talents, along with their availability, proved to be quite productive. They quickly became a much sought-after group among numerous Southern Baptist churches often lacking in talented or inspirational musical devotionals in the area.
…the original members of The Faith Tones performed in hundreds of non-denominational churches across the Southeastern and Southern U.S. for the next eight years up until 1972.
The last known documented performance of The Faith Tones took place on October 26, 1971 during a week-long revival celebration at the Tyro Baptist Church in Lexington, North Carolina.
—I Laugh, Therefore, I AM blog
And Jesus Use Me is available for a listen.
Wait.. what? You've only now been introduced to ST:TAS? I kinda envy you. It's the second-best ST ever, being as it's really just an extension of TOS.
What's Adam Strange going to do to figure out who's who? Hit them with his blaster on stun? Oh, well, I'll find out when I read the story. ... uh ... oh, no...
