Grandma Who?
Today’s For Better or For Worse does come off as an informational strip for those papers which only carry the feature on Sundays. It mentions:
a. Elizabeth is getting married.
b. The dress was originally Elly’s mother's (the name Marian is not mentioned).
c. Deanna was the one who made alterations to the dress.
d. Pictorially, a retconned appearance of Elizabeth with longer hair than she has worn in a while.
The most amusing part of the strip is Elizabeth’s close-eyed posing all the way through the fitting and her complete lack of involvement in the whole process. Elly and Deanna are talking, but Elizabeth is acting like some fashion model with as much emotional involvement in the proceedings as a fashion model trying to sell a product. Most brides I have known are a little more talkative.
The most disturbing part of the strip is the appearance of the ghost of Elly’s mom. It is disturbing because the ghost does not look even remotely like Elly’s mom. In fact, she looks more like someone took a drawing of Grandpa Jim and tried to feminize it. Elly’s mom is supposed to look like an older version of Elly with the same basic jaw and head features.
We have made jokes about how Grandma Marian’s dress does not look like it did in one strip years ago. However, Grandma Marian appeared in dozens of strips. There are many reference points for a correct drawing, and yet the artist chose to draw her as a generic old woman. If you need any more indication that the artist is just treading water until this thing is over, then this is it.
a. Elizabeth is getting married.
b. The dress was originally Elly’s mother's (the name Marian is not mentioned).
c. Deanna was the one who made alterations to the dress.
d. Pictorially, a retconned appearance of Elizabeth with longer hair than she has worn in a while.
The most amusing part of the strip is Elizabeth’s close-eyed posing all the way through the fitting and her complete lack of involvement in the whole process. Elly and Deanna are talking, but Elizabeth is acting like some fashion model with as much emotional involvement in the proceedings as a fashion model trying to sell a product. Most brides I have known are a little more talkative.
The most disturbing part of the strip is the appearance of the ghost of Elly’s mom. It is disturbing because the ghost does not look even remotely like Elly’s mom. In fact, she looks more like someone took a drawing of Grandpa Jim and tried to feminize it. Elly’s mom is supposed to look like an older version of Elly with the same basic jaw and head features.
We have made jokes about how Grandma Marian’s dress does not look like it did in one strip years ago. However, Grandma Marian appeared in dozens of strips. There are many reference points for a correct drawing, and yet the artist chose to draw her as a generic old woman. If you need any more indication that the artist is just treading water until this thing is over, then this is it.
posted by howard at 11:49 PM
10 Comments:
howard,
Since Lynn seems to think that she's somehow above right and wrong, it's not much of a stretch to assume she thinks she's above having to be consistent. Generic Old Lady is Marian because Lynn says she is; if we point out she's not, we're picky-faces.
dreadedcandiru2,
It is very possible what you say is true. After all, when the dress reappeared and Grandpa Jim remembered Marian in the dress, that Marian was a whole different, glasses-free, person too. I don't know how she can maintain that inconsistency in character art with the wedding coming up. We are likely to be reintroduced to John's relatives, his dad, mom, sister, brother-in-law, etc. and if they don't look like they used to look like, then Lynn will have a whole company of characters whom long time readers will not recognize.
I'm glad I'm not alone in noticing that the generic grandma-type looks nothing like Marian. What, Lynn can't even reference her own "real people" page at the foob site to remind herself what Marian looked like? Sheesh.
Picking up on yesterday's discussion. Four-year-old Michael wandered off into Thelma Baird's yard. Kind of like four-year-old April, years later, wandering off into the ravine. Elly--not so much for watching her children. Apparently, once they turn four, they can just come and go as they see fit.
aprilp_katje,
What, Lynn can't even reference her own "real people" page at the foob site to remind herself what Marian looked like?
Well, we are talking about the artist so lazy she can’t be bothered to go to the washroom to see what a toilet looks like.
Elly--not so much for watching her children. Apparently, once they turn four, they can just come and go as they see fit.
True enough. In fact, I had presumed that the whole time Elly and Connie Poirier were gardening and talking about Elly taking care of her grandkids, it was not a time where Elly was taking care of her grandkids, since the grandkids were nowhere in sight. From the historical perspective, that may not be the case. She could have been sitting her grandkids the whole time she was gardening with Connie. They are just down in the ravine playing and that’s why we can’t see them. Just reading between the lines, as Lynn suggests we do.
By the way, the question I really wanted to know was whether or not there were strips of Thelma Baird willingly giving flowers to Elly Patterson, or the Who’s Who biography story the first reference to that.
Just reading between the lines, as Lynn suggests we do.
::snerk::
Exactly.
By the way, the question I really wanted to know was whether or not there were strips of Thelma Baird willingly giving flowers to Elly Patterson, or the Who’s Who biography story the first reference to that.
I don't remember any off-hand, but that doesn't, of course, prove there haven't been. None in the first collection, I can tell you that. And if the events described in Who's Who were a reference to strip events, they'd have to be flashback strips, since they refer to FBoFW pre-history. When I have the will and the energy, I'll do some delving. :)
howard,
Elly--not so much for watching her children. Apparently, once they turn four, they can just come and go as they see fit.
That's another example of Elly putting what's convenient ahead of what's right. Watching over children seems like an awful lot of work and takes a lot of mental capital so it's something Elly hates to do. If it were pointless work that a robot could do, she'd do it in a heartbeat. Since it's something that requires her to be constantly thinking, it's something she either palms off on someone else or lets it slide, trusting to fate and faith that the kids won't drink drain cleaner.
aprilp_katje,
I don't remember any off-hand, but that doesn't, of course, prove there haven't been. None in the first collection, I can tell you that.
That’s really all I needed to know. Without a history of Thelma Baird giving flowers to Elly Patterson prior to the time of the reprint strip from the first collection (which I presume was where the "Mike stole the flowers" story came from), then the Who’s Who story about 4-year-old Mike also stealing takes on the aspect of a retcon for the strip which was reprinted on Saturday. In other words, without the Who’s Who story, in Saturday’s strip Elly comes off very poorly as a woman who is practically encouraging her son to steal more of Mrs. Baird’s flowers judging from her comment about the stems. With the Who’s Who, you get the feeling it’s OK that Mike did that, because Thelma has a history of giving things to Elly from her garden, and so Mike’s mistake was to take without asking. Was there any followup in the collection after the reprint strip, where Elly or Mike apologized to Mrs. Baird for the floral theft?
dreadedcandiru2,
Watching over children seems like an awful lot of work and takes a lot of mental capital so it's something Elly hates to do.
She has avoided doing it in the past, but we could have strips coming up where we get to see Elly actually spending more than a few panels with her grandkids. I know Lynn can write a strip about someone baby-sitting because she did a few with April just last year. Whether or not she can do that with Elly is yet to be seen.
Was there any followup in the collection after the reprint strip, where Elly or Mike apologized to Mrs. Baird for the floral theft?
Nope--the strip we saw yesterday was a one-off. The next one to appear, featuring Mike and Elly in different clothing, had Elly outside gardening and Mike asking for permission (denied) to play in the sprinkler. Immediately after that are the sandbox strips where Lawrence shoves Liz aside and she shrieks. Elly appears, rolling up her sleeve (as if she's going to administer a beating to Lawrence). Next day has Michael warning Lawrence to never hit Liz again.
aprilp_katje,
A one-off? Well then, in my opinion, since the Who's Who story on Thelma Baird was so similar to the reprint story, then I think we have witnessed an indirect retcon to that reprinted strip.
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