Word Balloons
As we go through the hybrid, I have discovered that I notice little details I didn’t notice before. In the olden days, Lynn Johnston apparently drew the figures, wrote in the words for the word balloons, and then added the balloon line afterwards. The effect we have is that the word balloon often appears to be located behind the heads of the characters, and in the case of panel 4 of today’s reprint strip, even behind the lamp and the bedpost, even though the word balloon stem is in front of the bed headboard. This indicates someone knows how to use an eraser.
In the modern For Better or For Worse, if a word balloon looks like it would fall into the same category, i.e. words too close to the figures drawn so the balloon would have to go around their head; Lynn Johnston usually opts not to put in the balloon lines at all and leaves it as pure text.
Why is there this difference? The obvious answer is that the modern strip is penciled and inked before the lettering is done, and the letterer wants to eliminate the possibility a slip with the pen doing the word balloon which would cause the need for a correction to whatever has already been drawn and inked. In the old strip, I bet Lynn Johnston penciled in everything including the words, before inking it in.
As a note to aprilp_katje, I leave on Wednesday for a vacation with my wife and no kids, if you can believe it. My wife qualified for a free trip to Puerta Vallarta through her Homemade Gourmet work, and her mother and aunt are in this week to take care of the kids while we are gone. They arrived today, and took up most of my time today and yesterday in preparation. I will not be back until late Sunday, so feel free to do Michael Patterson as you wish in my absence, since it looks like we are in reprints all this week. I will try to do April’s Real Blog posts as Michael until I leave.
In the modern For Better or For Worse, if a word balloon looks like it would fall into the same category, i.e. words too close to the figures drawn so the balloon would have to go around their head; Lynn Johnston usually opts not to put in the balloon lines at all and leaves it as pure text.
Why is there this difference? The obvious answer is that the modern strip is penciled and inked before the lettering is done, and the letterer wants to eliminate the possibility a slip with the pen doing the word balloon which would cause the need for a correction to whatever has already been drawn and inked. In the old strip, I bet Lynn Johnston penciled in everything including the words, before inking it in.
As a note to aprilp_katje, I leave on Wednesday for a vacation with my wife and no kids, if you can believe it. My wife qualified for a free trip to Puerta Vallarta through her Homemade Gourmet work, and her mother and aunt are in this week to take care of the kids while we are gone. They arrived today, and took up most of my time today and yesterday in preparation. I will not be back until late Sunday, so feel free to do Michael Patterson as you wish in my absence, since it looks like we are in reprints all this week. I will try to do April’s Real Blog posts as Michael until I leave.
posted by howard at 10:01 PM
15 Comments:
Seeing as how the characters don't look like circus freaks, I'd also say that someone took the time to get the anatomy right, too. I have the nasty feeling that Lynn, or who ever really draws it, is willing to settle for a lot less, artwork-wise, in the name of speed and it shows.
::sob::
Noooooo!
I mean, have a wonderful trip. :)
Tenga grades vacaciones en Mexico
Anon NYC
Anon NYC,
Altavista Babelfish gave me:
Have clay vacations in Mexico.
I thought you might find that amusing.
dreadedcandiru2,
Lynn obviously took more time integrating word balloons into the art in her old strips. As for anatomy, she has said she can't draw hands and today's strip is a good proof of that. Those gnarled claws, Grandpa (I mean Grampa) Jim has for hands, could have been drawn by today's Lynn Johnston.
aprilp_katje,
I know the thought of facing those hybrid reprints alone would bring me to tears also. However, if you have the original collection, at least you have the advantage of knowing what could be coming up for the rest of the week.
Oops! I left out the "n" in grandes!
Anon NYC
She's also not good at drawing coffee cups either. At least she admits what her weaknesses are some of the time.
Anon NYC,
I guessed as much, but I was amused at the idea of a clay vacation.
dreadedcandiru2,
Has Lynn Johnston confessed to drawing a poor coffee cup? I know she has a problem with drawing people holding a coffee cup up with its nonexistent handle, but I don't remember seeing an interview where she said that, but I would love it if she did.
So far as I know, she hasn't said she can't draw a coffee cup. I too would lover to see her admit that but when you consider she can't draw hands, it stands to reason she can't draw hand-held items like coffee cups either.
Aw, crap...that's 'love', not 'lover'.
Hm, the strip that comes right after the one that appeared today features a conversation between Elly and Marian, with no kids present. We'll have to see whether we skip over that to the next, featuring Grandpa Jim as Liz and Michael pounce all over him.
Two John-alone-in-Milborough strips follow, and then a cut back to Vancouver for the next six strips, before the homecoming.
Facing the hybrid alone is frightening, but I have a couple of ideas up my sleeve. :)
aprilp_katje,
It sounds like this particular hybrid storyline could run through next week then, unless Lynn does some editing cuts. That would take it to the end of September, and hopefully October would give us some good Liz / Anthony to liven things up. Snarking today's strip from the perspective of Mike looking at it from the present is possible, but I am definitely tiring of it.
Speaking as someone who enjoys a good train wreck when he sees one, watching Lynn bore her fans to death trying to shoo away her critics seems like a doozy. A few more months of this, she'll call the whole thing to a halt and leave the stage rather than be dragged off.
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