Phil at Play (Things Phil Never Did Before)
Today’s new-run in For Better or For Worse reminded me a lot of the old strip with April playing with Robin and Meredith. In fact, 2 of the panels appear to have been used as models for this strip. However, it could just be the way Lynn draws things, so they appear to be similar by coincidence. For example, this strip and this strip and this strip all have similarities to the strip from today. I tried to find other strips where Uncle Phil played with Michael and Elizabeth like this and found none. I tried to find a strip where Elly played with Michael and Elizabeth like this and found none. There was a strip where Phil took Michael and Elizabeth to a fair, but nothing this physical.
Instead the only strip with Elly playing using the Comic Strip Catalog looking for “Elly play” is this strip. I just love that strip. It showed that Elly can only play with kids if they are not her kids or grandkids.
Instead the only strip with Elly playing using the Comic Strip Catalog looking for “Elly play” is this strip. I just love that strip. It showed that Elly can only play with kids if they are not her kids or grandkids.
posted by howard at 10:48 PM
10 Comments:
You really need to post a warning before some of those links. The Mike-Weed grappling was bad enough, but to include Anthony and Liz in the rose bushes...I really didn't need that this early in the day!
Another similar, and very recent strip, was this one, only for some reason Elly isn't here, shrieking at the kids and Phil. That might be because there's nothing in today's strip to suggest where they are.
What the HELL happens to Mike in panel 4? Sees God? Brain explodes? Has a sudden premonition that in twenty years he will be a suburban drone with a passive wife with a Moe Howard haircut and two kids he will chew off his own leg to escape from?
If I saw that coming at me I don't care how tired I'd become, I'd set a record for the quarter mile getting away from it.
That's not a kid amped up on visitors, sugar and play, that's a kid having a crystal meth cortex meltdown...
Michael's hideous visage in Panel 4 is indeed symbolic of something: Lynn's inability to remember what facial expressions are appropriate. Instead of looking happy, he looks like he's gone mad.
forworse,
You really need to post a warning before some of those links.
WARNING: Some of these links have images which may scar your brain.
Something like that?
FDChief,
That's not a kid amped up on visitors, sugar and play, that's a kid having a crystal meth cortex meltdown...
Well, Lynn Johnston does encourage her readers to read between the lines. That explanation seems reasonable considering the way Mike looks. Actually, that may be too mild an explanation now that I take another look at Mike in that panel.
DreadedCandiru2,
Michael's hideous visage in Panel 4 is indeed symbolic of something: Lynn's inability to remember what facial expressions are appropriate. Instead of looking happy, he looks like he's gone mad.
That is one of the interesting things about comparisons between the new-run and reprint art. Lynn used to be a lot better at drawing facial expressions. Modern Lynn resorts to silhouettes and long distance drawings to avoid seeing her characters’ faces and now we know why.
howard, I think it's more reprehensible than that; Old Lynn, much as she stole a lot from Sparky, actually tried to draw something unique for each strip.
New Lynn, OTOH, has become so slick that she just draws one of her stock characters or items. Look at the "happy kid faces" in this strip - change the hair and they look identical. Lynn's not actually drawing Mike and Nizzie, she's drawing her stock "hyper kid face" and sticking a couple of pen lines on it to make it look slightly different for each kid.
The Old Lynn was a pretty awful draftsperson at times, but you couldn't say she didn't care. She put a lot of effort and the best skill she had into her work.
This crap is just phoned in.
FDChief,
New Lynn, OTOH, has become so slick that she just draws one of her stock characters or items.
That was certainly true in her most recent drawings of Ted McCaulay, where she took her standard mutant muppet head and put Ted hair on him. For years Ted McCaulay had a very distinctive nose and jaw shape, and it was all gone.
The Old Lynn was a pretty awful draftsperson at times, but you couldn't say she didn't care. She put a lot of effort and the best skill she had into her work.
True. She definitely had character designs. In Liz' adolescence, she drew Candace as thinner than the other girls. She had distinct jaw / nose / chins. I went back to old strips to figure out how to draw Mira, Wilf, Jim, Iris, Candace and others for Foob's paradise. Now there's a generic face for each of men, women, and kids - maybe a bit wider sometimes.
It's like she got more interested in the backgrounds and the people got smaller so she lost the detailing and care there - and then she lost interest in backgrounds, so we get silhouettes
One thing Lynn hasn't lost interest in is her infernal tendency to change the visual perspective in every single panel. Sometimes that works well, as in today's strip, but other times it is very confusing who's in what direction.
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