I have a Dilbert calendar with older cartoons. There’s one that I just don’t get. Here’s how it goes:
Panel 1: Dilbert is talking to a guy in a lab coat, who’s holding out a little cup to Dilbert. Lab Coat Guy says: “We know these random drug tests are unpleasant for employees.”
Panel 2: Lab Coat Guy offers Dilbert a little bowl of nuts and says: “That’s why we offer free cashews.”
Panel 3: Dilbert is now talking to Dogbert at home; Lab Coat Guy isn’t there. Dilbert says: “Suddenly I thought about Charlie Brown but I don’t know why.”
That’s it.
If memory serves, the comic came out shortly after the death of Schultz and that day most of the major syndicated comics ran a Peanuts related strip as a tribute.
I don’t remember the exact occassion for that strip, but it was either the date of the last Peanuts strip, or shortly after Charles Schulz’s death that members of the newspaper comic artists trade group (I forget the name of the organization, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same one that arranges the April 1 “crossover” strips) decided to honor “Sparky” Schultz and his enormous impact on newspaper comic strips. Some strips had maudlin single panel tributes, others had subtle references (Get Fuzzy had Rob, one of the only characters on the comics page to actually change his clothes regularly, wearing a shirt like the one Charley Brown wore), others had characters commenting on the Peanuts strip, or lamenting the fact that a favorite neighbor was moving away. Scott Adams took the bizzare, post-modern approach, by recognizing that there was no particular reason why Dilbert would actually think of Charlie Brown or Peanuts that made sense within the logic of his world, but that he had to anyway, and making that the joke.
Quite clever and oddly touching if you know the context. Meaningless otherwise.
[QUOTE=Alan Smithee]
Some strips had maudlin single panel tributes, others had subtle references (Get Fuzzy had Rob, one of the only characters on the comics page to actually change his clothes regularly, wearing a shirt like the one Charley Brown wore)QUOTE]
Actually, that day’s Get Fuzzy was explicitly about Peanuts. Satchel was reading the comics page and complaining that the strip that had replaced Peanuts wasn’t as good. Rob said, “It isn’t replacing Peanuts. It’s just a new strip.” and told Satchel to read his Peanuts books instead. The last panel had Satchel wondering if Charlie Brown ever got to kick the football.
The name of the organization is the National Cartoonists Society. According to Tribute to Sparky (a very nice book of the tribute strips than can be purchased at the CMS Museum either online or in person), political cartoonist and NCS VP Mike Luckovich organized it that all cartoonists do a reference to Peanuts on May 27, 2000, the day he was to recieve the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award from the NCS. (The idea was Mutts’s Patrick McDonnell’s). The idea was that it would be a surprise for Sparky to see his characters referenced in every strip on that day. Although the award was given and the strips ran, Schulz did not get to see it-he died in February.
I had a feeling there was more than just the shirt in the Get Fuzzy strip, Biffy, but I just couldn’t remember. Actually, I think there were at least two occasions when other artists made reference to Peanuts. The other may have been the last day of the last original Peanuts strip. Was that when Rob wore the Charlie Brown shirt, or was it part of the strip you mentioned? (And actually, are you sure that strip wasn’t the one that ran with the final** Peanuts**?)
mobo85, thanks for the information. That book looks like one I’d like to have. Patrick McDonnell is a comic artist I really like. He strikes me from what I’ve read and from his work as someone who, perhaps more than anyone since Bill Waterson, really cares about newspaper comics as an art form and a medium, and as a really nice guy to boot. Most of his strips would come across as sappy and lifeless in anyone elses hands, but he makes every strip seem fresh and genuine.
I really don’t understand people who say there’s nothing good on the comics page anymore.
All the same: offering cashews at a urinalysis!? I reiterate and reinforce **Northern Piper’s ** “Huhh?” It just seems like Scott Adams’ misguided struggle to forcefully encrypt the image of “peanuts” into his cartoon as an homage. Such disappointment from one so creative and talented.
That was a good idea, but honestly, I wouldn’t have had any place to store it properly. What did you do with it? Has it held up? And most importantly, what was Rob wearing?
Well, I didn’t exactly store it away in a mylar sleeve with acid-free backing–in fact I just tossed it on top of my record shelves, along with a small pile of other miscellanea. And you got it right: Rob was wearing a Charlie Brown zigzag shirt.
Little Nemo: look at the position of Dilbert’s arms in the last panel. He’s fiddling with his PDA under the table, but it looks like he’s fiddling with Little Dilbert.
