Elly Halts Mutant-Style Running
Lynn Johnston loves to show dogs running with the forelegs completely back and the hind legs completely in front as she does two times in today's new-run of For Better or For Worse. Every time I see that, my mind immediately goes to the thought “Dogs don’t run like that.” For the purpose of illustration, here is a video of dogs running in slow motion and an Italian Greyhound running in slow motion. The Italian Greyhound comes the closest to approximating Farley’s gait, but even so, his hind legs do not pass the forelegs. As poorly as Farley’s gait is drawn, it still pales in comparison to that of Michael and Lizzie in the background, especially Michael. In Panel 1, Michael looks like one of those Lego figures, with awkwardly positioned legs due to having to attach the legs on the sides of the figure. In Panel 5, Michael’s knee appears to be all the way up to his chest. Lynn Johnston used to be able to draw running better than that for humans.
As for the purpose of the strip, it is nice to see the Pattersons enjoying their dog for a change in a method that does not involve inflicting pain on the dog. For second day in a row, Elly Patterson falls into the roll of “woman who doesn’t want people to have fun.” The implication from seeing Farley, Michael and Lizzie staring out the window at the storm while Elly looks on, is that Elly agrees with the kids and Farley continuing their chasing game. However, the crucial ingredient missing is to show Elly smiling or at least not frowning as the kids and Farley are tearing around the house in the last panel. For all we know, the kids could have waited until Elly left to go outside and shovel snow, before they started up their game again.
The best visual effect in the entire strip is where Elly’s storm cloud thought balloon in Panel 3 is right over a window showing the storm outside. It effectively illustrates how the kids are caught between 2 storms. At least Elly didn’t tell the kids to play Scrabble or chess as an alternative.
As for the purpose of the strip, it is nice to see the Pattersons enjoying their dog for a change in a method that does not involve inflicting pain on the dog. For second day in a row, Elly Patterson falls into the roll of “woman who doesn’t want people to have fun.” The implication from seeing Farley, Michael and Lizzie staring out the window at the storm while Elly looks on, is that Elly agrees with the kids and Farley continuing their chasing game. However, the crucial ingredient missing is to show Elly smiling or at least not frowning as the kids and Farley are tearing around the house in the last panel. For all we know, the kids could have waited until Elly left to go outside and shovel snow, before they started up their game again.
The best visual effect in the entire strip is where Elly’s storm cloud thought balloon in Panel 3 is right over a window showing the storm outside. It effectively illustrates how the kids are caught between 2 storms. At least Elly didn’t tell the kids to play Scrabble or chess as an alternative.
posted by howard at 9:44 PM
5 Comments:
What I liked was her expression in Panel 4: that's because she just at that second realized that it was snowing out; Elly is like a lot of Canadians and suffers from the delusion that she lives in the Tropics so snowy days come as a rude shock.
In Arizona, we often hear people make the same mistake the opposite way. "Why aren't you playing outside? It's sunny out!" "It's 114 degrees outside!"
If Elly were living in Arizona, she'd probably risk having Mike, Farley and Lizzie die of heat stroke to cut down on the noise.
I would love Elly in Arizona. She would have a great time condescending to the Mexican-Americans.
I would also love Elly in Arizona; that's because she's so stupid, she might actually get bitten badly enough by a Gila monster to die.
Post a Comment
<< Home