Friday, April 8, 2011

Comments Are Back!

By popular request, readers can again post comments here at "Johnny Optimism" (look for the little "comments" hypertext under the cartoon, and click to either read comments or leave your own).

Readers are encouraged to leave their opinion of the cartoon, cartooning in general, the events in Johnny's ever-dwindling life, the frustrations of your own ever-dwindling life, or pretty much anything else...except politics.

Over at Hope n' Change Cartoons, it's "all politics, all the time" and readers are encouraged to go there and vent. But that world isn't Johnny's world. Johnny's world is a place filled with strange, damaged, and flat-out sinister individuals...and yet also a world of inexplicable yet inspiring optimism.

Hopeless and pointless optimism, granted...but still, optimism.

Your thoughts?

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10 comments:

James said...

Haha I was "popular request"! I've never been that before!

So, on to business - I like and approve of crazy-little-girl-with-toy-duck, as a concept and as a character. It does make me question exactly what kind of hostipal Johnny is in, where someone with "every-physical-ailment-ever-itis" is placed in the same ward as a dangerous schizophrenic, but of course that only makes it funnier.

John Robert Mallernee, KB3KWS, in Vernal, Utah said...

I love this comic strip!

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@James- I have fondness for all the characters in Johnny's world, But there's a special warmth for the little girl and Mr. Duck. Even I don't know how much of what she says represents an odd sense of humor, hallucination, or some really dark secrets.

As far as where all of this takes place, the most frequent setting (where Johnny interacts with others) is some sort of rehab wing of a hospital. Although Johnny also attends a traditional school from time to time (as we know from the occasions when the school nurse calls his home to report accidents).

@John Robert- Thank you! The underlying theme of Johnny Optimism is "Hurt till you laugh." Sometimes, when Life pushes us far enough, laughter is one of the last remaining options. Whether that laughter represents strength, defeat, or simply insanity is up to everyone to figure out on their own.

But despite everything, I like the idea that Johnny himself exhibits strength and hopefulness. And the importance of having a good dog.

Stan da Man said...

I was going to say that I find the 'brace legs' girl disturbingly attractive (as, apparently does Johnny - they seem to have a real 'Calvin / Suzy' thing going on) but then I realized that comments live on the interwebs forever, so decided not to..

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Stan da Man- Probably a good call. But she is pretty, intelligent, and spirited. But in a reversal of the Calvin/Suzy relationship, she tends to be the one who initiates the insults and putdowns. But is she mean...or just bad at flirting? Time will tell.

Jamie said...

Ha! You know you have a good thing going when people start slash-pairing your characters, Stilton. If I see it again I'm adding it to your TV Tropes page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JohnnyOptimism

Also, about my above comment: "Hostipal". God I hate myself sometimes.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Jamie- I'd never seen the TV Tropes page. Fun stuff, and I thank you for pointing it out to me!

By the way, I just finished loading the cartoons which will be appearing for the rest of the month, and I enjoyed re-discovering some that I'd forgotten. Hope you'll like them too!

Bobo said...

Johnny getting a dollar gift reminded me of a time when I was much, much younger that all I wanted for Christmas as a dollar. I got one. What a great Christmas memory for me. I'll call my mom and thank her, again. (I'm not going to call Christmas by some other PC name, as that would make my comment politcal.)

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Bobo- by the way, comments aren't just available in this particular slot...they'll be available under ALL the cartoons from this point forward.

And getting a dollar in a card is a good memory for me too. In fact, I wish I'd gotten one today.

Anonymous said...

You're a genius. Period. (Not asterisk!)