Those Whacky Kids!
Visually I can enjoy the last panel picture of all those blown-up latex gloves and the surprised look on Dr. John Patterson’s face in today's new-run For Better or For Worse. It does have a genuine comedic element to it and unlike a lot of comic strips with young Michael Patterson making some kind of mess, he is not intentionally malicious. After all, if the dental supplies were this easily available to him, we are lucky that the story doesn’t involve Lizzie and a scalpel.
Mentally, I remember back to times when I had to blow and / or tie balloons for my kids, and I think there is no way a 5-year-old kid like Michael Patterson did all that.
Artistically, it is not a very effective use of the space available for a Sunday strip. The last 4 panels are essentially the joke, and the panels before it are filler. It could have been more effective as a daily strip. After all, who cares if John Patterson has to fix the plumbing on his office and he has to take his kids with him while he does it? On the other hand, Lynn Johnston could be answering my accusations that she is constantly telling but not showing. So, here we see exactly how John got Michael and Elizabeth to his office, and what he is doing there. Let me rephrase to Lynn, “You don’t have to show and tell every little thing, if the show part is not important to the storyline.
Mentally, I remember back to times when I had to blow and / or tie balloons for my kids, and I think there is no way a 5-year-old kid like Michael Patterson did all that.
Artistically, it is not a very effective use of the space available for a Sunday strip. The last 4 panels are essentially the joke, and the panels before it are filler. It could have been more effective as a daily strip. After all, who cares if John Patterson has to fix the plumbing on his office and he has to take his kids with him while he does it? On the other hand, Lynn Johnston could be answering my accusations that she is constantly telling but not showing. So, here we see exactly how John got Michael and Elizabeth to his office, and what he is doing there. Let me rephrase to Lynn, “You don’t have to show and tell every little thing, if the show part is not important to the storyline.
posted by howard at 11:06 PM
6 Comments:
howard,
On the other hand, Lynn Johnston could be answering my accusations that she is constantly telling but not showing. So, here we see exactly how John got Michael and Elizabeth to his office, and what he is doing there. Let me rephrase to Lynn, “You don’t have to show and tell every little thing, if the show part is not important to the storyline.
There is one thing she neither told nor showed: why it is that John has the kids in the first place. We could, of course, assume that this is just the first errand of several but it would haven been nice to have been told that.
Wouldn't most dentists in this situation call building management and allow them to send someone up to do the repair? John may own his practice, but he doesn't own the Spigott Medical Arts Building, and calling building management is the normal procedure.
One thing I find interesting, in a morbid kind of way, is that LJ has John being the parent who expects his young children to sit quietly and stare into space while he does his grown-up stuff. It occurs to me that maybe all the criticisms surrounding this approach to parenting have reached her ears and so she's allowing John, whom she likes to beat up, to be the bad guy. Again.
April- remember his idiot kid grows up to try to fix the air conditioner in his RENTED apartment and the fan in his RENTED apartment and the step on the porch of his RENTED apartment. Later, that same kid forks out $50 for parking and leaves a store with an armful of Valentine's Day gifts for everyone he's ever been in contact with. These people are just morons.
These people are just morons.
Ugh--yes. This explanation is simple, elegant, and, most importantly, true.
Okay, I don't mean to be That Guy who is amazed that her parents' generation had indoor plumbing and penicillin, but what is Connie doing in Saturday's strip? My initial instinct was "computer dating site," but were those around then? What is it?
Ellie, she was placing a personals ad. Lynn re-drew the strip that originally had Connie tap ticka tapping at a typewriter. The strip that ran right after that had Elly reading Connie's ad and saying, "Don't tell me you were actually going to put an ad in the personal column! Connie, this is just too much! Your need for someone has become an obsession! You've got a great kid, a good job and I think you've been acting like an idiot!" Connie says, "Thanks, El... I knew I could count on you to say the right thing."
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