Santa Claus = The Bestest Mom Ever
In contrast to this strip from 1982 where Elly revealed to a Michael the truth about Santa Claus on the premise the Michael asked for the truth, in this new-run from today’s For Better or For Worse, Elly opts for the lie. If you ever wanted proof that reprint Elly has more integrity than new-run Elly, there it is.
We also see the Lizzie in the backpack / baby carrier. We haven’t seen that since November, 2008. In more recent strips Elly seemed to favour the stroller. Frankly, in a crowded mall situation, where it is a lot easier to get knocked over by other people, the back carrier is not the safest option. In my children’s younger days in that situation, I got asked by security personnel to take my child off my back and let them walk if they were able to do so.
Artwise, this is an odd strip. Lynn took the time to hand-draw the brick walls without using a straight edge and including a lot of hand-drawn mortar, but then she turns around and makes the background people in the mall almost all silhouettes for the last 5 panels. We have the stark contrast of artistic excellence with artistic laziness. That's unusual for Lynn Johnston, where artistic laziness has been the hallmark of the strip for the last few years.
As for the point of the strip, this one falls into a category I call, “Retroactively complimenting mom” strips. It’s kind of like this strip from earlier this year. One might question why Michael Patterson would let Elly’s comparison of motherhood to Santa get away without a word of explanation. For the boy who thinks moms are magic, Elly’s explanation could be perfectly reasonable; although he does go to completely silence and shows no reaction to what Elly said. No doubt he is thinking something like: “There she goes again – comparing everything to how hard being a mother is.”
Elly says that Santa is like being a mom, because “everyone expects you to do everything and be everywhere at the same time!” Obviously this does not work in today’s strip where Michael’s expectation is the exact opposite of that. Michael questioned the appearance of multiple Santa precisely because he did not expect Santa to be everywhere at the same time. Personally, I never really thought of omnipresence as a mom-like aspect. “Do everything” seems much more like it. That being said, the idea that Elly thinks Santa’s job is like the job of being a mom, where that job is defined as the martyrdom of motherhood, is very amusing to me. In other words, Santa is like being a mom, except for that birthing babies and taking care of the children part.
We also see the Lizzie in the backpack / baby carrier. We haven’t seen that since November, 2008. In more recent strips Elly seemed to favour the stroller. Frankly, in a crowded mall situation, where it is a lot easier to get knocked over by other people, the back carrier is not the safest option. In my children’s younger days in that situation, I got asked by security personnel to take my child off my back and let them walk if they were able to do so.
Artwise, this is an odd strip. Lynn took the time to hand-draw the brick walls without using a straight edge and including a lot of hand-drawn mortar, but then she turns around and makes the background people in the mall almost all silhouettes for the last 5 panels. We have the stark contrast of artistic excellence with artistic laziness. That's unusual for Lynn Johnston, where artistic laziness has been the hallmark of the strip for the last few years.
As for the point of the strip, this one falls into a category I call, “Retroactively complimenting mom” strips. It’s kind of like this strip from earlier this year. One might question why Michael Patterson would let Elly’s comparison of motherhood to Santa get away without a word of explanation. For the boy who thinks moms are magic, Elly’s explanation could be perfectly reasonable; although he does go to completely silence and shows no reaction to what Elly said. No doubt he is thinking something like: “There she goes again – comparing everything to how hard being a mother is.”
Elly says that Santa is like being a mom, because “everyone expects you to do everything and be everywhere at the same time!” Obviously this does not work in today’s strip where Michael’s expectation is the exact opposite of that. Michael questioned the appearance of multiple Santa precisely because he did not expect Santa to be everywhere at the same time. Personally, I never really thought of omnipresence as a mom-like aspect. “Do everything” seems much more like it. That being said, the idea that Elly thinks Santa’s job is like the job of being a mom, where that job is defined as the martyrdom of motherhood, is very amusing to me. In other words, Santa is like being a mom, except for that birthing babies and taking care of the children part.
posted by howard at 12:12 AM
4 Comments:
That being said, the idea that Elly thinks Santa’s job is like the job of being a mom, where that job is defined as the martyrdom of motherhood, is very amusing to me. In other words, Santa is like being a mom, except for that birthing babies and taking care of the children part.
Not to mention the screaming that he has no help and no time to himself part and the drinking coffee with the Easter Bunny (who laughs at all his dumb jokes) part.
Lynn took the time to hand-draw the brick walls without using a straight edge and including a lot of hand-drawn mortar, but then she turns around and makes the background people in the mall almost all silhouettes for the last 5 panels.
Clearly, LJ exhausted herself drawing that brick wall. You see, the job of cartoonist is kind of like the job of Santa or Mom.... ;)
DreadedCandiru2,
Not to mention the screaming that he has no help and no time to himself part and the drinking coffee with the Easter Bunny (who laughs at all his dumb jokes) part.
And there’s Mrs. Claus who never does anything except make sexist comments about what Santa does, and spends her spare time hiring only handsome male elves.
aprilp_katje,
Clearly, LJ exhausted herself drawing that brick wall. You see, the job of cartoonist is kind of like the job of Santa or Mom.... ;)
You have to draw everything and draw it everywhere at once.
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