Thanks for nuthin' 2020 11/27/2020

2020 can kiss our collective butts goodbye. But before it goes we ended our three part advertising saga and John did a Covid-themed Norman Rockwell poster for Thanksgiving. First, about Thanksgiving. We hope you enjoyed yours. We’ll have a distant one, with one kid and her husband in Brooklyn and our son in Colorado. While John and Linda will have two family members visiting and for the rest an equally scattered holiday. For all the wonderful memories Thanksgiving brings, there’s also the political arguments, the aggressive cheek pinching, and drunk uncles falling asleep watching football, so at least there’s a little bit less of that, though to be truthful, this was written before Thanksgiving and I might have too much wine, affectionately pinch Joanie’s cheek and fall asleep watching football, but not during the Steelers-Ravens night game, which might actually be exciting. And I have one question about turkey. If it’s so unbelievably damn good, why does nobody think about making it any other night of the year? Ever? Just asking.

Now onto the ad thing. We all love funny Super Bowl ads with great jokes and visuals at the end, like 90-year-old Abe Vigoda getting tackled at the end of a Dorito’s commercial a few years back. But almost nobody admits to liking a good jingle. We remember them, that’s for sure, but like them? Well, that’s a different story. We all like things we are embarrassed to admit. I, for instance, like Neil Diamond. And This Is Us. As well as a good jingle. But you didn’t hear that here. And when Al is confronted by his buddy on how well the jingle served his business, he was forced to admit it did pretty damned well. That’s his story and he’s sticking with it.

As 2020 comes to close to a close, we hope a vaccine is around the corner followed by a sense of normalcy and hopefully a book of New 60 Comics which will be a perfect holiday gift for next year, hint, hint.

Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week which is already December. Yikes, how time flies,

Andy and John

What we're thankful for: Thanksgiving. What we're not: Mustaches. 11/28/19

It’s a good thing November is coming to a close. It’s a good thing Movember is also coming to a close. Funny how that works. The good thing about the end of Movember is we are running out of mustache jokes. This time Al, a glutton for punishment if there ever was one, is not satisfied with the guys’ opinion of his “stash”. He has to ask Dottie her opinion. Now Dottie has been his waitress for the past 40 years and he knows she pretty much is a wiseass about everything, so he’s taking a big risk in asking her. She doesn’t disappoint.

The next comic and first on your list is a John special. It’s a actually a poster, which we like doing for the holidays. He took the famous Norman Rockwell painting of an American Thanksgiving, and drew our characters into the painting. It’s so nice, we’ve decided to run it twice. Both last Thanksgiving and the 2019 version.

We’ll be back next week with two new ones and before you know it, it’ll be time for the Chrismakkuhzaa (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa mash up) poster. By trying to offend nobody, we are sure we’ll end up offending everybody and then, in true holiday spirit, we’ll each try to blame the idea on the other guy.

That’s it for now. Our tip for acheiving A happy Thanksgiving is more eating less discussing politics. Good luck with that!

Happy Turkey Day

Andy and John

Cell phones, a love/hate relationship 11/15/19

Cell phones - those ubiquitous, annoying objects that we can’t seem to live without - are the subjects of both of this week’s comics. It’s hard to believe how long we lived without them, and lived perfectly well. Example: at a college lecture for Andy’s daughter back in 2004, during Freshman Orientation Week, the professor said, “Back in our day (speaking to the parents, most of whom are squarely in the target group for this comic), when we got a poor grade from a professor, we’d have the week to fix our mistakes and improve our work before the inevitable Sunday night (right after Ed Sullivan) weekly phone call home. Nowadays though, your kid gets a bad grade on Tuesday and the first thing she does is pick up one of these (a cell phone) and call you. And then you pick up one of these and call me! Earth to parents, let your kids figure it out for themselves.” Wise advice indeed. How did we live without cell phones? We lived just like the professor suggested.

Today’s first comic comes from an incident Andy had in Grand Central Station. He was walking with two favorite colleagues from his ad agency, Tanya and Amanda, the latter who doubles as a stand up comic, and they were rushing to make a train. Stuck behind an incredibly slow-moving person who was attempting to text and walk at the same time, Amanda yelled “Luke Textwalker, move it!” When Andy relayed this to John, he immediately switched the scene, because a big wide view of Grand Central at rush hour doesn’t easily fit into a little comic strip frame. Nonetheless, the subject of textwalking is grist for our New 60 mill. And next time you’re stuck behind a slow textwalker, feel free to use the phrase.

Our second strip shows the other side of cell phones. How incredibly useful they are in helping us navigate more easily through our days. In a matter of minutes, Al’s daughter does all his errands for him without ever moving. And this enables Al to spend the day with his grandson. The fact that he’s teaching him how to burp on cue is besides the point. One of your comic strip duo here knows how to do that, but which one? We will leave that to your imaginations.

That’s it for this week, we’ll be back with some more leading into Thanksgiving. In the meantime, have a wonderful, if freezing, cold weekend and don’t textwalk if either of us is behind you. Seriously!

Andy and John

Stuffing the turkey, stuffing ourselves 11/23/18

It seems hard to believe but Thanksgiving is upon us once again. As we get a little older, we lose a few miles per hour off our fastballs, but maybe, hopefully, we gain perspective. The prospect of metaphorically losing a few miles off your fastball is of course was what led John to the fly swatter. Not that HE’S lost anything mind you.

We think a wonderful source of comedy is the difference between how we see ourselves and the way the rest of the world sees us. In our minds, we’re not that much different from when we were in our 20’s and 30’s. At least mentally. But then stuff happens. The cute waitress calls you “sir.” Someone gets up on the bus and offers you their seat. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, some lady leaned out of a car window and said “you’re crossing against the light, old man.” I looked behind me to see who she was talking to (not really, I knew who she was talking to, but being called old man was still a shock.)

Even an act as simple as catching a fly (not a fly ball, but the kind that flies around in the kitchen) becomes a test of “I’ve still got it.” Which is better than a test of reflexes, because let’s face it, they’re slower than they used to be. This week’s first comic shows Al grappling with a fly, and of course, with getting older. But with perspective we adjust. Playing more doubles than singles in tennis. Hitting from a forward tee in golf and mulling a switch to senior shafts. And, speaking of fly balls, playing in an over 60 slo-pitch softball league. But with perspective, it’s all okay. ‘Cause we’re still out there playing tennis, golf and softball (well I’m not playing softball, but as soon as I find an over 60 league, I’m back, and watch out fellas, I can still throw the ball all the way from the pitchers mound to first base.)

The second comic is John’s tribute to Norman Rockwell’s famed Thanksgiving portrait, using our characters. And it’s a reminder to have a great Thanksgiving. Enjoy your families and don’t talk politics until Uncle Albert goes home.

Happy Holidays

The New 60