Thursday, November 06, 2008

Farley Uncaged!

When the fancy cage showed up in Tuesday’s new-run in For Better or For Worse, I wondered if Lynn Johnston would remember that she showed an entirely different cage for young Farley the dog in her original storyline. Since that strip is reprinted today without any noticeable alteration to the fence Lawrence and Michael climb over in Panel 2, I would say the answer to that question is “no.” Of course, from our new-runs back in September we know about the existence of Fred the fish, so we can presume that when Michael is deciding between Lizzie and Farley, Fred is not really even in the running. Poor Fred. In fact, I wonder if Fred is even going to make another appearance, or if he has gone the way of Fiona Brass, and is running a pool hall for fish, emphasis on "pool."

As for the strip itself, it is filled full of bad dialogue. “We’re callin’ him Farley” as opposed to “His name is Farley.” That’s just for starters. On the other hand, Michael’s last comment is a very nice swipe at Lawrence who has neither a sister nor a dog. Not to worry. Lawrence will get 2 sisters eventually to make up for it. However, he will have to wait until he comes out of the closet before his family gets a dog, and even then he won’t get to name it.

As for young Farley the dog, this marks the first strip where he actually appears to be alive and not just a little Puppy Wet-Me lump. He needed the appearance of Lawrence to bring him to life and show someone affection. I think Farley decided who he likes best - Lawrence or the Pattersons? I think I understand a little more about young Farley the dog than I did before, and I respect that choice.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ugh. After having had the "privilege" of seeing how FOOB's storyline played out, it's easy to make this choice. The dog is the clear winner. The baby sister turns out to be a spineless, needy, ineffectual idiot.

4:08 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

qnjones,

The dog is the clear winner. The baby sister turns out to be a spineless, needy, ineffectual idiot.

Whereas the dog has the good sense to try to leave the Pattermanse whenever he can. I'm beginning to think that he jumped in the Ravine of Death not only to rescue April but to commit suicide.

5:32 AM  
Blogger howard said...

qnjones,

Farley was grand in his death. However, we don’t get to see the death of Liz. Maybe she too would sacrifice her life to rescue a young puppy who wandered into the ravine of death. As for Farley, he has the distinct advantage of not having to marry and live with his childhood sweetheart. He grabs the nearest girl dog, loves her and leaves her. Imagine how much better Liz would have been if she just had sex with Anthony and then was separated from him, except for the occasional supervised walks together.

As for Michael’s choices, you know that eventually both Liz and Farley will place well behind that of the love of his life, his own ego.

5:42 AM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru2,

I'm beginning to think that he jumped in the Ravine of Death not only to rescue April but to commit suicide.

Absolutely. Otherwise, Eddy would have jumped in with him and dragged April out of the water without anyone else’s intervention. From the writing perspective of Lynn, since the intent of the whole story was to give Farley a glorious send-off, it was a suicide mission with witnesses. Imagine a different ending where the 2 dogs drag April out, Farley has a heart attack, and the elder Pattersons find young April beside a wet Eddy and a dead Farley.

“What happened April?”
“I lost my boat! Waaah!!!!”
“Elly, it’s obvious she tried to kill the dogs by drowning them.”
“Dad. Farley’s not moving. I think he’s dead.”
“April. It’s bad to kill dogs. Bad. Bad. Do you understand?”
“I lost my boat! Waaah!!!!”

5:50 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

howard,

“Elly, it’s obvious she tried to kill the dogs by drowning them.”
“Dad. Farley’s not moving. I think he’s dead.”
“April. It’s bad to kill dogs. Bad. Bad. Do you understand?”


That's pretty much how they'd think, all right. It's never going to be obvious to them that their failure to secure the gate was a serious problem. They have a funny habit of igmoring serious things like that.

6:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Since Farley's death took place in the "WTF is up with her nose?" phase of April, I'm sure I would have had no problem blaming her for drowning the dogs:)

8:16 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DreadedCandiru2

It's never going to be obvious to them that their failure to secure the gate was a serious problem.

Actually, now you mention it, without Edgar to run off and do his “Lassie tells them Timmy is lost in the well” routine, the older parents may have been completely oblivious to anything. The dialogue might be like:

“April, what did I tell you about playing in the ravine?”
“Waah! I lost my boat!”
“Where are the dogs?”
“Oh, they’ll come back when they get hungry.”

9:02 AM  
Blogger howard said...

Nav,

Since Farley's death took place in the "WTF is up with her nose?" phase of April, I'm sure I would have had no problem blaming her for drowning the dogs:)

There was a long phase there where Aypo had the button nose. I never really thought of it as a malevolent force though, just the act of a comics creator trying to draw a nose in a different way from Charles Schulz. I guess that could be malevolent.

9:04 AM  

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