Comics I Don’t Understand

Archive for the 'Brooke McEldowney' Category

Where’s Charley?

Cidu Bill on Jun 28th 2010

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, CIDU, comic strips, comics, humor | 51 responses so far

Elyrest: ”At least it’s not an exclamation point; but really — the Empire State Building!!!”

Cidu Bill on May 31st 2010

Please click the thumbnail for today’s subtle 9 Chickweed Lane metaphor for sex.

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Arlo Award, Arlo Page, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor | 16 responses so far

Doin’ That Crazy Hand Jive

Cidu Bill on May 24th 2010

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Arlo Award, Arlo Page, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor, sex | 25 responses so far

Her Mother’s Daughter

Cidu Bill on Apr 28th 2010

Maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t “old enough to be Juliet’s daughter” the same thing as “old enough to be Edda’s twin”?

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor | 23 responses so far

Was??

Cidu Bill on Feb 21st 2010

Does anybody know enough German to translate this?

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, German, comic strips, comics, humor | 28 responses so far

”Autopsy”???

Cidu Bill on Feb 15th 2010

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor | 20 responses so far

Maybe I Should Just Rename It the Chickweed Award

Cidu Bill on Jan 18th 2010

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Arlo Award, Arlo Page, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor | 24 responses so far

Exclamation of the Week

Cidu Bill on Jan 15th 2010

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor | 27 responses so far

Nine

Cidu Bill on Dec 23rd 2009

Did newspapers really find this offensive enough

that they had to replace it with this?

And keep in mind this is a strip in which we come pretty close to seeing actual copulation on a regular basis.

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor | 15 responses so far

Adding to my confusion, MrKenneth subsequently sent this to me for the Arlo Page. while I’m very familiar with the two movies mentioned, I have no idea how this applies unless the point of the comic is that Mr. Juliette is attempting to diffuse the situation by sending his wife and step-daughter into orgasmic daydreams.

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, CIDU, comic strips, comics, humor | 37 responses so far

Hot Dog (Arlo?)

Cidu Bill on Dec 7th 2009

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor | 13 responses so far

Euphemisms I Don’t Understand

Cidu Bill on Nov 11th 2009

Filed in Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, CIDU, comic strips, comics, humor | 25 responses so far

At the risk of Brooke McEldowney calling me an imbecile…

Cidu Bill on Nov 5th 2009

… I’m not sure exactly what he’s getting at Continue Reading »

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Arlo Page, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, CIDU, comic strips, comics, humor | 19 responses so far

Puerile

Cidu Bill on Oct 31st 2009

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, CIDU, Halloween, Jack o'Lantern, cats, comic strips, comics, humor | 13 responses so far

Thar She Bloviates!

Cidu Bill on Oct 30th 2009

Bookworm: Pibgorn and The Fusco Brothers both used the word bloviate — a word I had never heard of until today. What are the odds? Or has some public figure used it lately and I wasn’t paying attention?

Filed in Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, Fusco Brothers, Pibgorn, comic strips, comics, humor, synchronicity | 27 responses so far

Children’s Books From Hell

Cidu Bill on Oct 23rd 2009

During the discussion of Brooke McEldowney and Maurice Sendak’s incivilities, several parents mentioned that they wouldn’t read Sendack’s books to their kids because they were too scary. It got me wondering what other books y’all kept from your kids and why.

Personally, I was okay with Sendak’s books: my kids found them subversive rather than frightening, and that’s the sort of thing they liked. The only books I ruled off-limits were the Berenstain Bears.

I was never a great fan of their repetitive nature — they always involved one of the Bears taking up some objectionable behavior, such as Brother Bear teasing Sister Bear, then a lesson being learned and the behavior stops — but the young’uns liked them so I’d reluctantly read the books to them. I was already getting concerned that after a point these books could be putting bad ideas into kids’ minds when we got to the one where a panda family moved next door. And the Bears were all “oh my God pandas, there goes the neighborhood” and they did everything but burn a cross in the pandas’ yard and I’m thinking what… the… hell???

Of course it all turned out okay because the Bears realized that pandas are just another kind of bear (which in fact they’re not, of course) and that their bigotry was misguided. Not because bigotry is wrong, apparently, but because pandas are just another kind of bear. Presumably if it were a rabbit family moving in next door, it would be okay to organize a lynch mob.

I remember my younger son was 3 1/2 at the time, and I told him we were through with the Berenstain Bears. I told him when he could read by himself he could read them — in Barnes and Noble only, because I wasn’t going to buy them — but I wanted no part of them (and there’s actually a funny epilogue to this, but it’s irrelevant here)

Anyway, the question is, What popular children’s books would you not expose your children to and why?

Filed in Berenstain Bears, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, In the Night Kitchen, Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are, children's books | 92 responses so far

And you know, it’s not just Brooke McEldowney

Cidu Bill on Oct 22nd 2009

Last week, when a Newsweek interviewer asked him whether parents might be concerned that the film Where the Wild Things Are might be too scary for younger children, Maurice Sendak replied, “I would tell them to go to hell.”

Excuse me?? Parents seeking to take responsibility for what their young children see should go to hell???

I could understand saying parents can be overprotective, that a little Wicked Witch of the West never scarred any child for life, there are valid opinions capable of being expressed in a civil manner… but “I would tell them to go to hell“???

I’m really starting to think, you should pardon the language, that there’s a virulent strain of Asshole Virus going around. Obviously Kanye West was Patient Zero, and it’s already spread to comic strip artists and children’s book writers.

Brooke McEldowney and the Imbecile Factor

Filed in Asshole Virus, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, Kanye West, Maurice Sendak, Newsweek, Where the Wild Things Are | 35 responses so far

Brooke McEldowney and the Imbecile Factor

Cidu Bill on Oct 22nd 2009

Okay, so in yesterday’s 9 Chickweed Lane, McEldowney appeared to call readers who criticized him imbeciles. Today in his blog, he says he wasn’t really calling anybody an imbecile, that was only a joke. And we should have known this, rather than taking the joke at face value (there was a joke there?), because we should have known he wouldn’t indulge in gratuitous name-calling and anybody who didn’t realize this is an idiot.

Well, he’s right about one thing: I’m not smart enough to follow his reasoning without getting a headache.

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, comic strips, comics, humor | 30 responses so far

What is Brooke McEldowney’s Issue Here???

Cidu Bill on Oct 21st 2009

I mean, at least when Tom Batiuk called his readers ignorant poopyheads

he went through the pretense of incorporating it into a storyline and writing a “punchline.” And, you know, most readers knew what the hell he was referring to. This is just… bizarre. And not in a good way.

Update: I’ve had to delete a number of posts disrepectful of Mr. McEldowney’s work, critical of his gay and sexual themes, and complaining that he over-uses Thorax. Okay, I agree about Thorax, but that’s not the point here. I like 9 Chickweed Lane, and I appreciate the man’s talents. My only issue here is that I’ve never seen a cartoonist call his readers imbeciles before, even in the face of much more overt criticism (granted Johnny Hart was convinced his critics were going to Hell; but then, he apparently believed everybody but himself was going to Hell), and I’m curious to know what set him off and what was going through his mind when he thought this was a good idea.

Filed in 9 Chickweed Lane, Bill Bickel, Brooke McEldowney, CIDU, Funky Winkerbean, Tom Batiuk, comic strips, comics, humor | 62 responses so far