Funnies: Past, Present,Future
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Spotlight on Arlo and Janis; Luann; Crankshaft; Barney & Clyde; Reply All/Reply All Lite; Bottom Liners; Lio.
Come July 29 Arlo and Janis will have been around for 40 years and cartoonist Jimmy Johnson, as is his wont, will be celebrating the anniversary this coming week, but with a twist as he “remasters” some classic comic strips. Below is a look at the “strange” artwork from the first Arlo and Janis.
Also Greg and Karen Evans are rerunning the second week of the Luann story about the characters appearing at the 2005 San Diego Comic-Con. And like last week they give readers a heads-up in the first panel where they also remaster the original look:
As this year’s San Diego Comic-Con begins and ends with this week and the Luann Comic-Con story is a three week arc I wonder if this week’s comic strips will be edited or if the Evanses will continue the reruns into next week.
Also getting a coming-up-this-week month alert is Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis having Crankshaft visiting Winnepeg.
This notice comes by way of The Winnipeg Free Press:
School is out, and cranky bus driver Ed Crankshaft is headed on a road trip — to Winnipeg.
Crankshaft and his son-in-law Jeff Murdoch — who for the better part of the last decade has sported Winnipeg Blue Bombers sweatshirts and tuques in the Crankshaft comic strip — are set to begin a daily month-long story arc [emphasis added] where they visit the Manitoba capital to see a football game.
The story begins today and can be read in the Free Press and nearly 500 other newspapers that carry the strip, including the Los Angeles Times, Denver Post, Dallas Morning News and Seattle Times.
The visit to Winnipeg will be featured both daily and Sunday as The Free Press runs a couple upcoming Sundays.
“It worked out really well,” creator Tom Batiuk said during a recent phone interview from his home and office in Ohio.
Batiuk visited Winnipeg last summer to research the city and took in a game at Princess Auto Stadium, as a guest of the Bombers. He even ran out on the field with the team before the game.
Batiuk said he took plenty of photographs when he was in Winnipeg with his wife, Cathy. Although he is the creator of Crankshaft, which began in 1987 as a spinoff from his comic strip Funky Winkerbean, he doesn’t draw the cartoon.
“I wanted (illustrator) Dan Davis to have lots of references,” he said.
“He really nailed it. Dan does terrific work.”
Small Print Minutiae
Catching up with the daily strips after a couple of weeks we have yesterday’s Barney & Clyde and Reply All Sundays listing their new Tribune Content Agency syndicate affiliation.
Donna slipped on her Reply All Lite Sunday issue which still had the Counterpoint Media slug.
I’m still waiting for GoComics to reinstate Reply All to their Big Board.
In case you missed it (because I certainly did).
I had been wondering why Tribune Content Agency (TCA) hadn’t publicized their acquisition as distributor of the Counterpoint Media features. Turns out they had and I’d just been looking in the wrong place.
June 27, 2025
Tribune Content Agency is proud to introduce our newest syndicated content offerings, featuring exceptional editorial cartoonists, columnists, and comic strip creators. These fresh voices and perspectives will engage your readers with timely commentary, relatable humor, and compelling storytelling…
Remaining with TCA we look a bit closer at today’s Bottom Liners by Eric and Bill Teitelbaum.
Something has changed with the Bottom Liners cartoon panel. Today’s really noticeable script paste over in the word balloon is just the latest example. Compare the lettering of the past few days with the lettering from before July 17, 2025. Something has changed – but what? Did Eric retire?
Oops
Mike Peterson has mentioned in the past that newspaper editors pay no attention to their funny pages.
Want proof?
For four days the Washington Post ran the Spanish version of the Lio comic strip in their English language newspaper. Admittedly Mark Taulli‘s Lio is a minimal script strip but still – for four days!!?? Mike Rhode reports.
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