Abe
Cidu Bill on Feb 12th 2010
I originally posted this two years ago, and to the best of my knowledge it’s it’s only CIDU ever not to have drawn a single comment.
Filed in Abraham Lincoln, Bill Bickel, CIDU, John Deering, Strange Brew, comic strips, comics, humor | 24 responses so far
Wayne Feb 12th 2010 at 12:06 pm 1
No comment.
padraig Feb 12th 2010 at 12:30 pm 2
Ditto.
Frank the curmudgeon Feb 12th 2010 at 12:46 pm 3
Yup.
guy Feb 12th 2010 at 01:01 pm 4
Is it a play on the phrase ‘wilderness years’, referring to the time he was out of politics?
Pete Feb 12th 2010 at 01:03 pm 5
Maybe because many famous politicians have a period in their careers called “The Wilderness Years”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill:_The_Wilderness_Years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon#Wilderness_years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Amery#Wilderness_years
RyanE Feb 12th 2010 at 01:12 pm 6
mkilby, you forgot ‘confusing’.
Ha Ha Ha! Oh, I get it! …. nope.
I’m getting nuthin’ on this one.
MarkH Feb 12th 2010 at 01:21 pm 7
I think it’s ‘where did Abe’s beard come from?’ or possibly ‘why did we only hear about him when he was already old?’
Of course that’s the only reason men grow beards, because we’ve been stuck on a desert island for years with no food or water….
Judge Mental Feb 12th 2010 at 01:35 pm 8
I think it involves the beard also, or at the very least Lincoln’s appearance in general. If you were just shown one picture of the comic, without the caption, I don’t think you would have automatically assumed it was Lincoln. The character could easily have passed for “generic cartoon castaway guy”.
Kevin A Feb 12th 2010 at 01:41 pm 9
Carl Sandburg wrote the multi-volume tomes, “Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years” and “Abraham Lincoln: The War Years”. I’d guess that The War Years is probably still on most school library book shelves, even though it takes up significant space. (Ah, when I think of the children’s stories we might have had…)
yellojkt Feb 12th 2010 at 01:57 pm 10
Got me stumped.
Fnord Feb 12th 2010 at 02:17 pm 11
I think the cartoonist is making fun of his own art. He had another comic in mind, drew some generic bearded dude on a desert island, then happened to notice that the guy looks a bit like Abraham Lincoln. He thought it was amusing that he’d accidentally draw Lincoln as a stranded castaway, so he discarded his original comic idea and just relabelled the sketch.
Dyfsunctional Feb 12th 2010 at 02:30 pm 12
Or maybe we were supposed to assume “generic stuck-on-an-island-guy” until the last panel. Little did we know it was Lincoln all along.
rain Feb 12th 2010 at 02:36 pm 13
There’s a great song by John Prine called “Jesus: The Missing Years” that ponders what that Jeebus guy did between 13 and 30.
Maybe Abe Lincoln was on a three-hour tour and his log-construction Minnow was lost?
Or maybe it’s just a silly gag that’s silly for the gag of it.
Darwin Feb 12th 2010 at 03:01 pm 14
Happy 201st, Abe.
Rumpelstiltskin Feb 12th 2010 at 03:28 pm 15
I think Pete and MarkH have it. Might have been “funnier” had he been clean-shaven at the start and the beard gradually grew?
Lihtox Feb 12th 2010 at 05:35 pm 16
I think Kevin has the right idea; the phrase “lesser-known” in front of “Castaway Years” suggests there are some better-known Years (so-called) of Lincoln; the Sandburg theory is as good as any.
Tullia Feb 12th 2010 at 06:08 pm 17
I think it’s just a silly gag for its own sake. Ha, Lincoln on an island! Whew.
zbicyclist Feb 12th 2010 at 08:36 pm 18
Old Abe won’t get a Fed Ex box.
David N Feb 12th 2010 at 09:28 pm 19
Should be retitled “The Lesser Known and Even Lesser Understood ‘Castaway Years’ of Abraham Lincoln”.
Mark M Feb 12th 2010 at 09:54 pm 20
I think it’s pretty good. I kept thinking something was going to happen with each panel. Nothing did and the castaway ends up being Abe Lincoln. Who would have thought?!?
rain Feb 12th 2010 at 11:18 pm 21
To stave off loneliness, he paints a face on a coconut, names it “Douglas” and debates it for hours and hours.
Chuck Feb 13th 2010 at 01:59 am 22
Rain, you win.
mkilby Feb 13th 2010 at 03:02 am 23
Hrrrumph. At some point after RyanE’s observation (#6, 1:12pm), the Power That Be (i.e. CIDU Bill) must have decided that my comment (originally at #3, now gone) was a little too curmudgeonly. It is strangely appropriate that Frank the Curmudgeon took its place with a distinctly non-curmudgeonly comment.
I still think this cartoon is dull, meaningless, and poorly drawn, and that’s why all the polite people didn’t say anything about it two years ago (as Mother used to say, “Remember dear, if you can’t say anything nice…”)
mitch4 Feb 13th 2010 at 09:28 am 24
Thanks for clearing up the mystery of RyanE’s observation which, when I saw it, was apparently referring to something invisible.