Ted / John – Comparison / Contrast
Today’s reprint in For Better or For Worse is the original panel of this storyline with Ted and John going out. There are some good contrasting points between the reprint and yesterday’s new-run:
1. Ted McCaulay has a neck and is (gasp!) drawn consistently from panel-to-panel. He is also drawn more cartoony in the reprints and less muppety than the new-runs. I find that, as I look at both strips, that inconsistency bothers me more than the cartoony aspect.
2. The characters are drawn closer to the reader and fill more of the panel. Lynn’s new-run or modern style often has the drawings as if we were viewing the characters from a long distance. In this respect, I prefer the reprints because it is easier to see the characters’ facial expressions, and it carries the story better. For example, in today’s strip, John Patterson’s hand covers the shocked look on his face in panel 1 when Ted asks him to ask girls to dance. That is a nice touch, and really helps the story-telling. John’s comic reaction to Ted yesterday was imperceptible because it was drawn so small.
3. The verbal humour works. “I know how the single man lives, Ted … Why do you think I got married?” It is a great retort to Ted’s line, is an honest opinion by the character, and is actually a little funny.
4. Both the reprint and new-run have homosexual overtones. In 3 of the 4 panels, Ted and John are touching each other, leaning into each other, and looking face-to-face.
5. Ted’s comments to John do not make any judgment about John’s married life. In the new-runs, Ted rambles on about how John needs to be free. In the reprint, Ted’s concern seems to be mainly that he wants John to experience the life of a single man. Oddly enough, in the reprints then, it is Jean Baker who raises the issue of John’s relationship with Elly being endangered by going out with Ted.
6. John says he knows how the single man lives. We know John’s back history was that he married Elly in university; so he doesn’t really know how the single man lives, unless he is counting his university years before he met Elly. It's not the same being single during university as after you graduate, John. Trust me. At the time of the reprint, Lynn may have been thinking about John sharing Rod Johnston’s history and forgot that John’s history with Elly was different than hers with Rod’s.
7. The clothes Ted and John wore in the new-run match the clothes in the reprint. It was bound to happen eventually.
1. Ted McCaulay has a neck and is (gasp!) drawn consistently from panel-to-panel. He is also drawn more cartoony in the reprints and less muppety than the new-runs. I find that, as I look at both strips, that inconsistency bothers me more than the cartoony aspect.
2. The characters are drawn closer to the reader and fill more of the panel. Lynn’s new-run or modern style often has the drawings as if we were viewing the characters from a long distance. In this respect, I prefer the reprints because it is easier to see the characters’ facial expressions, and it carries the story better. For example, in today’s strip, John Patterson’s hand covers the shocked look on his face in panel 1 when Ted asks him to ask girls to dance. That is a nice touch, and really helps the story-telling. John’s comic reaction to Ted yesterday was imperceptible because it was drawn so small.
3. The verbal humour works. “I know how the single man lives, Ted … Why do you think I got married?” It is a great retort to Ted’s line, is an honest opinion by the character, and is actually a little funny.
4. Both the reprint and new-run have homosexual overtones. In 3 of the 4 panels, Ted and John are touching each other, leaning into each other, and looking face-to-face.
5. Ted’s comments to John do not make any judgment about John’s married life. In the new-runs, Ted rambles on about how John needs to be free. In the reprint, Ted’s concern seems to be mainly that he wants John to experience the life of a single man. Oddly enough, in the reprints then, it is Jean Baker who raises the issue of John’s relationship with Elly being endangered by going out with Ted.
6. John says he knows how the single man lives. We know John’s back history was that he married Elly in university; so he doesn’t really know how the single man lives, unless he is counting his university years before he met Elly. It's not the same being single during university as after you graduate, John. Trust me. At the time of the reprint, Lynn may have been thinking about John sharing Rod Johnston’s history and forgot that John’s history with Elly was different than hers with Rod’s.
7. The clothes Ted and John wore in the new-run match the clothes in the reprint. It was bound to happen eventually.
posted by howard at 10:33 PM
12 Comments:
howard,
In the reprint, Ted’s concern seems to be mainly that he wants John to experience the life of a single man. Oddly enough, in the reprints then, it is Jean Baker who raises the issue of John’s relationship with Elly being endangered by going out with Ted.
This is pretty much where the new-runs get stupid. In real history,Ted wasn't trying to get John to cheat on Elly as much as he was trying to introduce him to the joys of an evening out with the guys. Too bad for him, the guy he was trying to help got married so he wouldn't have to talk to girls. Everything we know about John suggests that he married the first woman he dated seriously so he could avoid having to go out, scope out the action and get rejected. Like Mike after him, He doesn't really know what it's like to be single in the real world but feels qualified to pass judgment anyway.
At the time of the reprint, Lynn may have been thinking about John sharing Rod Johnston’s history and forgot that John’s history with Elly was different than hers with Rod’s.
I think Lynn caused a boatload of continuity problems by forgetting this. In a way, it's a shame she didn't just make John Elly's second husband and Mike's step-father and run with it. It would have been much easier for her to keep things straight in her head, plus she could have gotten in the men-are-dogs cheap shots she adores by having Elly reminisce about her shabby treatment at the hands of husband #1. Though I guess she'd have been afraid to try that with the syndicate in 1979.
Oh, also--I noticed Ted and John both have the shaded noses of drunkenness. I hope they don't intend to drive that way (but of course they will).
April_Patterson,
In a way, it's a shame she didn't just make John Elly's second husband and Mike's step-father and run with it. It would have been much easier for her to keep things straight in her head, plus she could have gotten in the men-are-dogs cheap shots she adores by having Elly reminisce about her shabby treatment at the hands of husband #1.
Not only that, it would have made the whole Michael-Elizabeth dynamic a lot easier to explain. Knowing going in that Liz and Mike were half-siblings would make his anxiety and need to assert primacy not only more understandable but a little bit more sympathetic.
DreadedCandiru2,
Everything we know about John suggests that he married the first woman he dated seriously so he could avoid having to go out, scope out the action and get rejected. Like Mike after him, He doesn't really know what it's like to be single in the real world but feels qualified to pass judgment anyway.
This is very Mike-like. I remember how much pressure Mike put on Deanna during their university dating to admit she loved him and to agree to a long term marital relationship. But this is not just Mike. In the Anthony and Liz story, “Another Chance” is the theme; but the first chance of that story was when Anthony proposed to Thérèse in university and not to Liz. Lynn has a strong theme about how you don’t want to be out of university and single starting from the very beginning of her strip.
Knowing going in that Liz and Mike were half-siblings would make his anxiety and need to assert primacy not only more understandable but a little bit more sympathetic.
Probably, but it would not have helped Lynn’s desire to bash Rod Johnston’s poor parenting via John Patterson, if the character was going to draw sympathy from her readers.
aprilp_katje,
In a way, it's a shame she didn't just make John Elly's second husband and Mike's step-father and run with it. Though I guess she'd have been afraid to try that with the syndicate in 1979.
There weren’t a lot of divorced comic strip characters in those days. After all, JJ and Mike didn’t get divorced in Doonesbury until 1996 and that was considered to be a cutting edge story in comic strip land. As for whether it would have helped Lynn Johnston to do it that way, it probably would have. After all, she did eventually introduce April Patterson to the storyline and then continuously forgot that John and Elly still had a kid in the house so many times you could almost count on it happening again whenever there was an opportunity. The only danger with husband #1 is Lynn’s own memory of how that relationship was.
The clothes Ted and John wore in the new-run match the clothes in the reprint. It was bound to happen eventually.
But they don't...Ted's sweater has switched up, hasn't it? Why isn't such simple continuity being monitored? This strip has lost it's legs and is rolling downhill at an alarming rate.
Anonymous,
But they don't...Ted's sweater has switched up, hasn't it?
You’re right. Once again I was fooled by the Yahoo colourist who coloured out the distinction. Oh well.
Why isn't such simple continuity being monitored?
It is a strange thing, because you would think Lynn Johnston had to at least look at the strips she planned to reprint, in order to be able to pick them to reprint them. Of course, she may have looked at them, but was too lazy to take a copy of them to her drawing board to use as a reference. Then again, this is the same woman who regularly starts drawing a figure from a certain perspective then decides to change the perspective mid-drawing and doesn’t go back to fix the first part she drew. With that level of laziness, I suppose I should be excited that Ted is wearing anything remotely like what he had on in the reprint.
This strip has lost its legs and is rolling downhill at an alarming rate.
Very true. I would be hard-pressed to find another piece of work which the original creator is so actively in the process of destroying.
Speaking of continuity, take a look at which hands the characters are using to hold their mugs.
In the first two panels, Ted holds his mug with his left hand. In the last two, he holds it with his right. The apparent reason for shifting hands is so that he can touch John's arm, but he uses his right hand to do that in the first panel. One would expect him to use the same hand to do the same things twice within a few seconds.
John holds his own mug in his left hand in the first panel but transfers it to his right hand in the second panel so that he can look at his watch, which is on his left wrist (though obscured by his sleeve in the first panel).
I assume from the fact that John wears his watch on his on his left wrist that John is right-handed. Most right-handed people would use their right hand to hold a beer mug.
Oh, and by the way, what's up with all this arm-touching? Thirtyish straight white guys (married or not) living in Ontario didn't do this very much with their guy friends in 1979 and they don't do it today.
Anonymous,
Oh, and by the way, what's up with all this arm-touching? Thirtyish straight white guys (married or not) living in Ontario didn't do this very much with their guy friends in 1979 and they don't do it today.
There is something about Lynn Johnston writing male friendships that puts in an undercurrent of sexual attraction. Just yesterday, John toasted “To us!” Then on Friday, Ted said to John, “A guy like you needs some freedom!” To which John responded that he was “not a bird in a cage”, which could be interpreted as a reference to the movie “The Birdcage”. And all the while they are saying this Ted keeps touching John. This all started back on March 3, when John said to Ted, “Forgive me for saying this, Ted – but you need someone else in your life!”
If it was once or twice, you could forgive the author. But when she gives you example after example, it becomes pretty hard to ignore.
The word verification for this comment is "ellystif."
Earlier, it was "phuch."
Subtle commentary from the word verification software?
The word word verification software is all-knowing.
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