I am enjoying doing the character of Howard Kelpfroth on the April's Real Blog. Howard is the man who attacked April's sister Elizabeth in the comic strip For Better or For Worse in the August, 2005 strips. Elizabeth is rescued by her childhood sweetheart, Anthony Caine, setting up what is expected to the denouement of the For Better of For Worse strip when it gets retired in 2007.
As I was reading the Howard strips, I was reminded of an interview with J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of books, where she said something to the effect that she was disappointed that her readers so symphathized with 2 of the main villains of the series (Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy). As I read those books, I saw the flaw in her writing method. The villains regular receive come-uppances from the main characters of the book that mark the heroes as being cruel. With such cruelty, no matter how over-the-top evil she makes them, the readers still like the villains.
Years ago, I had seen the movie musical Oklahoma on TV, and found myself symphathizing with the villain of that piece, Judd. No matter how mean the character was in the musical, he could not match the cruelty of the rest of the entire cast to him. I got to perform this part on stage, and worked my darnedest to get symphathy for the character and got very nice reviews for my efforts. It is my belief, that when you have a 3-dimensional villain, then the villainy really works.
In contrast to these works, I compare Charles Dickens, who would have his heroes suffer degradation after degradation, and the villain would not get his come-uppance until the very end, usually with the hero trying to show some kindness to the villain. This is why you remember Scrooge, and Fagin more than 100 years later.
Howard, however, is by-the-numbers villainy in For Better or For Worse. He sees Elizabeth Patterson and immediately starts making suggestive language to her, stalking her at her home, and then exits immediatly after his job is done leading Elizabeth to her rescuer. I expect that his ultimate fate will be announced in the September letters from the main characters of For Better or For Worse fabricated on their website. I expect that his fate will be incarceration of some sort. At this point, Howard may disappear from the April's Blog as a character, as it would be impractical to continue it.
What I have been trying to do is to give Howard a little more dimension. He is representing himself as an pretentious performer in the Milborough Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Light Opera Company (which is a takeoff on an organization that actually exists in my town), who says he was employeed by Elizabeth's boss, Lawrence Poirier to set up Anthony to look good. Lawrence has already been outed by the strip's creator, so there is a connection in the sexual orientation. The other connections in the comic strip with Lawrence are his high school friends Gordon Mayes (who recently and mysteriously took Elizabeth to see Anthony at his home) and Elizabeth's brother Mike, who has already been forced to marry his childhood sweetheart by the strip's author. All of these things were done by the strip's author, presumable to gain the readers' sympathy with Anthony and his troubled marriage. However, the author has stacked the deck so high for the readers to like Anthony, he is now imminently unlikable. All of this deck-stacking fit to make a nice conspiracy theory.
The part I have not decided is if I am going to continue down this path of Howard as stupid and gullible enough to attack someone at the behest of someone, or if I am going to move the character to true villainy after the September letters reveal the details of his incarceration. Wait and see.
As I was reading the Howard strips, I was reminded of an interview with J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of books, where she said something to the effect that she was disappointed that her readers so symphathized with 2 of the main villains of the series (Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy). As I read those books, I saw the flaw in her writing method. The villains regular receive come-uppances from the main characters of the book that mark the heroes as being cruel. With such cruelty, no matter how over-the-top evil she makes them, the readers still like the villains.
Years ago, I had seen the movie musical Oklahoma on TV, and found myself symphathizing with the villain of that piece, Judd. No matter how mean the character was in the musical, he could not match the cruelty of the rest of the entire cast to him. I got to perform this part on stage, and worked my darnedest to get symphathy for the character and got very nice reviews for my efforts. It is my belief, that when you have a 3-dimensional villain, then the villainy really works.
In contrast to these works, I compare Charles Dickens, who would have his heroes suffer degradation after degradation, and the villain would not get his come-uppance until the very end, usually with the hero trying to show some kindness to the villain. This is why you remember Scrooge, and Fagin more than 100 years later.
Howard, however, is by-the-numbers villainy in For Better or For Worse. He sees Elizabeth Patterson and immediately starts making suggestive language to her, stalking her at her home, and then exits immediatly after his job is done leading Elizabeth to her rescuer. I expect that his ultimate fate will be announced in the September letters from the main characters of For Better or For Worse fabricated on their website. I expect that his fate will be incarceration of some sort. At this point, Howard may disappear from the April's Blog as a character, as it would be impractical to continue it.
What I have been trying to do is to give Howard a little more dimension. He is representing himself as an pretentious performer in the Milborough Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Light Opera Company (which is a takeoff on an organization that actually exists in my town), who says he was employeed by Elizabeth's boss, Lawrence Poirier to set up Anthony to look good. Lawrence has already been outed by the strip's creator, so there is a connection in the sexual orientation. The other connections in the comic strip with Lawrence are his high school friends Gordon Mayes (who recently and mysteriously took Elizabeth to see Anthony at his home) and Elizabeth's brother Mike, who has already been forced to marry his childhood sweetheart by the strip's author. All of these things were done by the strip's author, presumable to gain the readers' sympathy with Anthony and his troubled marriage. However, the author has stacked the deck so high for the readers to like Anthony, he is now imminently unlikable. All of this deck-stacking fit to make a nice conspiracy theory.
The part I have not decided is if I am going to continue down this path of Howard as stupid and gullible enough to attack someone at the behest of someone, or if I am going to move the character to true villainy after the September letters reveal the details of his incarceration. Wait and see.
posted by howard at 7:44 PM
4 Comments:
And I'm enjoying reading your posts. It was a stroke of brilliance to take the one-dimensional brute from the comic strip and make him an articulate, cultured and seemingly gentle soul. (For now, anyway.) Keep it up!
Thank you very much for the compliment peggy. I am hoping that For Better or For Worse will have a "Trial of Howard" storyline, but I suspect it will be dealt with in the FBOFW website's monthly family letters.
qnjones,
That's a good idea. I think I will work toward developing the Howard / Becky relationship, so this will make sense when LJ sends Howard up the river.
I am pretty sure that Liz will have pressed charges. LJ specifically mentioned it as something that Liz should do referencing her call from Lawrence. It was kind of fun to mention the Lawrence call to Elizabeth in one of the Howard posts, so I could actually have our blog move slower in time that it does in the strip for a change.
You are quite right about the sinister undertones. I'm glad you picked up on that. Just because Becky likes him, doesn't mean Liz should. Becky is much more of a loose cannon than Liz.
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