In fact, he apparently plays an Olwell bamboo. (ok…it’s not a whistle.)
hehehehe..check out how he’s holding it. 
That isn’t right? DANG! Now I have to learn all over again.
I’ve always been amazed at the overwhelming ignorance of artists as to the proper hand position for flutes… it’s as if they all learn from the same cartoon, LOL…
Even in some really well done paintings they are just sooooo inaccurate… and even with all the flautists and whistlers in the world, so few seem to notice… Why is that???
I presume the artist’s ignorance in advance. Most of them are going to know bollocks about anything they don’t do, themselves, just like the rest of us.
Well geesh you guys…Alley Oop is a caveman, a troglodyte fer’ heaven’s sake.
Don’t you think protocol might have changed a bit over the past few thousand years?
If anything we should be highly impressed that he can even manage to figure out that you PLAY it rather than hit someone over the head with it, in lieu of this fact. There’s just something sexy about a caveman that plays the flute. 
Do you read Pibgorn too? Nine Chickweed Lane? Get Fuzzy?
Pibgorn is way cool. And for the benifit of the neofite, they are starting thier series over, with a double comic every day until they get up the the present. If you look now, you’ll be able to backtrack till nearly the beginning and read up until today. Fantastic Artwork. You’ll recognize the same work in 9 Chickwood Lane. Brooke McEldowney.
At least he has five fingers per hand…
Get Fuzzy rocks…Monkey meat!!!
It took Western artists centuries to observe running horses accurately enough to depict their legs correctly. There is a famous painting by Gericault of horses racing at Epsom painted in 1820 which depicts the front hooves reaching out as though they would strike the turf simultaneously, rather like a long jumper. This was the traditional method of representation which I think was only abandoned about 1870 when photographs showed it to be quite wrong. But even a few minutes reflection on the mechanics of running should have alterted earlier painters to their mistake; any horse moving as they depicted them would have come to a sudden and possibly painful halt.
that is true. why is it that most comic-figures have only got four fingers??
While, it is certainly very true that artists tend to do a poor job of portraying instruments and their playing technique (I used to be annoyed by Mickey Mouse playing a banjo with a round soundhole in the center), I honestly think that the way Oop is holding the thing, in this case, is done for humorous effect.
Obviously because whistles only have six holes, Ames old fruit.
Actually it’s three fingers and a thumb. try playing the whistle with four fingers and no thumb on each hand and see how far you get…
Neanderthal man invented the flute some 60(?)000 years ago. But their flutes were made of animal bones so they could be used for clubbing heads as well 
.
now don’t confuse me, you know that’s not what i meant.
Alley has more problems than just knowing how to hold a flute correctly. He appears to have two right hands. Being left-handed myself, I realize that having two right hands would be a serious impairment.
doesn’t look like two right hands to me?
Me either. I think you have to check the location of his thumbs…they seem ok.
Nymph! 
omaniac 