Monday, September 10, 2007

Hybrid Observations

We have two For Better or For Worse hybrid strips in a row featuring Michael and Elizabeth. If this is an indication of how the hybrid is going to go, then there is a distinct possibility that Lynn Johnston may organize her reprint material into themes. For example, Monday and Saturday are strips which detail the relationship between Mike and Liz.

Today, we have Elly chastising Michael for not giving his candy to Elizabeth, who is too little to walk and too little to verbalize. My son, at Elizabeth’s age, had a very sensitive stomach, and I remember one time his grandmother thought it would be amusing to let him eat whipped cream off a spoon. He liked it, but it did not like him. He screamed and cried for several hours before it passed through his system. I find it interesting that Mike’s excuse for not sharing with his sister, seems very true-to-life to me, as does also the bad parenting from Elly. I can only suppose the real-life Elizabeth, did not have any problems with eating.

I also notice that the picture of modern Mike looking wistful as he recounts the story, is a panel which could easily be repeated. Maybe Lynn Johnston, drew up a series of Mike looking wistful, in order to have them ready for the hybrid. The staff can then take one of them, insert text as they will, and make hybrids to their heart’s content.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah, yes. It does look like she has a head shot of Michael ready to insert into classic strips as a framing device. The problem today is Mike's narration: it gave the plot away. As cookie77 said, it would have been far better if Mike had said something like "It was the first Halloween after Elizabeth came home that I knew things had changed." We can look forward to a week of his gazing wistfully, recalling past glories and telegraphing the punch line.

4:19 AM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru2

I fear space limitations may prevent the Lynnions from inserting anything as long as "It was the first Halloween after Elizabeth came home that I knew things had changed." They just have “I didn’t like sharing with a little sister” and felt the need to break shar-ing across two lines.

9:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like today's strip.

I find that the head shot of Michael is helpful in preparing long time readers to the look of the classic strips.

Anon NYC

9:58 AM  
Blogger howard said...

Anon NYC

The head shot of Michael does help in that respect, although it might help the new reader more than the old reader. Long time readers know what is up with the hybrid, but a new reader might wonder why such a crudely-drawn strip is doing on the comics page.

11:03 AM  
Blogger Christine Sweeton said...

I'm not sure if I'm ready for this hybrid thing. I guess I have no choice though.

1:08 PM  

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