Arlo and Janis - Cast

Cast

The focus of the strip is tightly on its two title characters, a middle-aged, middle-class baby boomer couple with an easygoing approach to life. The family surname is Day, but it's only rarely used in the strip. Johnson confessed, "When I first sold the strip, the family had no name. The strip itself had no name! Preparing to launch, the syndicate brain trust decided, 'Let’s make their name Day and call the strip Day by Day. ' However, it turned out there was an old, semi-defunct newspaper column called Day by Day, and legally timid heads prevailed. The strip was named Arlo and Janis. I subsequently kept the name ‘Day.’ Why not?"

• Arlo is Janis' husband. "He works for one of those vague, comic-strip corporations that survives year after year despite inept management, disgruntled workers and no apparent purpose." Arlo is drawn wearing a tie when at work, and at home he wears jeans and a plain t-shirt. His character is generally laid back and ironic. He enjoys barbecues, and dreams and daydreams of sailing. He can be riled by injustice and marauding squirrels. He ponders the meaning of life, monitors his decline, and doesn't get enough exercise. He is in his late 40s.
• Janis is Arlo's wife. Like Arlo, she is shown to have an undefined corporate job, at which she has been known to receive embarrassing faxes and emails from Arlo. Especially in earlier strips, she was portrayed as insecure about her looks (despite Arlo's sincere compliments) and, due to that insecurity, prone to "petty jealousies." She worries about Arlo's health and about Gene growing up. Janis is sincere, straightforward, and works hard on her relationships. She gets plenty of exercise, and enjoys gardening. She has at times sunbathed secretly, despite the danger to her health. "A highlight of the strip's run was when Janis bobbed her shoulder-length hair."

• Gene (Eugene) is their son. Arlo and Janis were once frequently joined by their son, but as Gene slowly matured, his presence in the strip shrank dramatically. He is a good kid. Having been approximately eight years old when the strip was introduced, he's roughly eighteen in 2007; a week's worth of strips in June 2007 featured Gene's high school graduation, and in August 2007 he is shown leaving home for college. Johnson maintained that Gene's diminished role in the strip was due to his wanting to show realistically the way that adolescents begin to lead their own lives. In time, Gene received more panel-time as his relationship with Mary Lou blossomed. The couple surprised Arlo and Janis with a small wedding ceremony in September of 2012, and they seem to have been pronounced man and wife in a pantomime daily on 9/20/2012. They were presented as "Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Day" in the final panel of the next day's installment.

• Ludwig the cat was first seen in the third panel of the daily published November 2, 1993, and has only more recently become a regular character. Except in fantasy sequences, Ludwig behaves like a real cat. On Johnson's blog, at least, he is often referred to as "Luddie", and his fans are identified as "Luddites".
• Other Cast Members: other characters take part in storylines on occasion, some as established "guest stars", but no other characters appear regularly in the strip, and few ever recur at all. One who does recur is Mary Lou, a summer love whom young Gene met while on a family beach vacation in 1993, and who in time married Gene. Johnson had brought her back into the strip on several occasions as early as Christmas 1993 and the summer of 1994, including the summers after Gene's first three years of college (2008, 2009 and 2010). Johnson said that Mary Lou had taken on an importance second only to the three main characters and Ludwig, and that she and her family are about the only recurring characters outside the immediate family. In 2009, Mary Lou, an unwed mother from a previous relationship, became Gene's first mature love interest and in 2010 Gene offered Mary Lou his great-grandmother's ring. In September of 2012 she became Gene's wife.