Family Circus: I hope I catch some fish sticks!

This cartoon is hilarious because a fish stick is a processed food product that does not, in fact, resemble any living fish.

Much like Jeffy is a processed cartoon stereotype that does not, in fact, resemble any living child.

Betty: Parry Hotter?

This comic is hilarious because Betty is buying gay porn for her son.

Family Circus: I'm gonna spend all summer not missing school.

This cartoon is hilarious because Billy is going to enjoy his summer vacation.

Marmaduke: You are not bringing home one of those!

No, children, don't cry. The grotesque parrot-creature in the window only looks that way cause Marmaduke's so darn big!

Beetle Bailey: Who gave you the flowers?

This comic is hilarious because Sgt. Lugg is lonely and desperate for kindness, but everybody hates her because she's fat.

Blondie: I'll just have to shop harder to buy more stuff in a shorter time!

This comic is hilarious because it reinforces gender stereotypes.

Arlo and Janis: I'll do all I can to positively influence events.

While the poor artwork in Marmaduke and The Family Circus provides ample ammunition for mockery, it doesn't really prevent their authors from telling the kind of stories they want to tell, mostly because the stories they want to tell are so simple. The less than laudable artwork in Pearls Before Swine and xkcd, meanwhile, is actually something of a feature; it's interesting, and often humorous, to see what Pastis and Munroe can do within their artistic limitations. The drawing in Arlo and Janis, though, is a real hindrance.

Jimmy Johnson's strip is mostly daily gag stuff, but it occasionally involves a reasonably complex continuing storyline, along the lines of a less involved For Better or For Worse or 9 Chickweed Lane. It's not a particularly great comic, but the serialized storytelling is pretty decent. The drawing really drags it down, though. As the above installment indicates, the style of the strip is pretty simple and minimalistic. Beyond that, the characters just aren't very expressive, and that's the real problem.

The conversation taking place between Janis and Gus is pretty serious, and the writing does a decent job of conveying the gravity of the situation. But Johnson isn't able to convey that same seriousness in his artwork. On the contrary, Janis and Gus are so stiff and expressionless that they may as well be in a Pearls Before Swine. And in a story like this, in which the characters should be wearing their emotions on their sleeves, that just doesn't work.

A big part of readers' connection to the characters in For Better or For Worse was image-based. Even without words, the characters' emotions were clear. The drawing in 9 Chickweed Lane is quite a bit more inventive than Lynn Johnston's ever was, but, still, what really gives readers a connection to it is that expressiveness in characters' faces. Johnson's characters don't have that, and it's the biggest reason why Arlo and Janis isn't a very good comic strip.

Marmaduke: Marm, I wasn't done lecturing you.

Oh, kids, don't be freaked out by Dottie's frighteningly skeletal fingers. They're only like that cause Marmaduke's so darn big!

Family Circus: Mommy, was tonight gonna be a bath night?

This cartoon is hilarious because Jeffy has finally snapped. Having already killed his siblings and buried them in the back yard, he is now luring his unsuspecting mother to the doorway. Don't go to him, Thel! Don't do it!

Ziggy: I never express my opinions...I don't want them moving my strip to the editorial page!

Ziggy's lying, of course. He spouts bland populist talking points all the time, just like the characters in Pluggers and Shoe and The Family Circus. And that's fine! Cartoonists have every right to express their opinions. It would be nice, though, if they would acknowledge what they're doing.

With the exception of Pluggers, these cartoons all have more going on than the political, but the political is still there. Populism, after all, is a political position.