Michael Patterson: Pipe Professional
From this website:
How to light a pipe:
Take your match or pipe lighter (Zippo makes a good one) and pass it very slowly and evenly over the top of the tobacco while puffing on your pipe.
Looking at today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse, I have to say young Michael Patterson looks like a professional. His cheeks are puffed from puffing, his match is lit and being held horizontally across the pipe end to evenly light the top of the tobacco. It’s an impressive display. Me personally, I would have a hard time getting the match to stay lit outdoors long enough to do this, much less anything else. My guess is that Lynn Johnston used some kind of model to show how someone should look lighting a pipe and failed to recognize that a 6-year-old kid, who’s never smoked a pipe before, should be really bad at it.
In the second panel, you see young Michael Patterson go “koff” in reaction as if he is an inexperienced smoker. After his display in the first panel, this is sort of like having a 6-year-old repair your car engine, but then not know how to put a seat belt on.
As for artistic integrity, in the third panel there appears to be a tree behind the fence behind Michael. In the fourth panel, we see the tree from the other side of the fence. It has shrunk down to a small branch-like shrub, so the pipe smoke can be easily visible to Connie Poirier,which will lead into what is going to happen in tomorrow's strip. Yes, folks, even the background trees will shrink in order to support a plot point.
I do like the final panel as a cliff-hanger. In the modern times, Lynn Johnston stopped doing this kind of strip ending in order to drop a punch line in the final panel of almost every strip, even ones telling a story. If she were to do this one today, Connie would have a thought balloon with wordplay about fences and smoke. Something like:
a. You can fence in a fire, but you can't fence in the smoke.
b. I feel Phil is in the field behind the fence; but instead I see the smoke from the sneaky schemes of 2 small fry.
c. Where there's smoke there's going to be spankings.
d. Sniff! That smells like some of my good stuff.
I had hoped that Michael and Lawrence would be protected from pipe burns by wearing gloves outside, but as I look at the strip carefully, it appears both boys take off their mittens and handle the pipe with their bare hands. Then they put the mittens back on when they are not handling the pipe. I guess from Lynn's perspective, she was more concerned the boys would set the mittens on fire with the pipe and burn their hands that way.
How to light a pipe:
Take your match or pipe lighter (Zippo makes a good one) and pass it very slowly and evenly over the top of the tobacco while puffing on your pipe.
Looking at today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse, I have to say young Michael Patterson looks like a professional. His cheeks are puffed from puffing, his match is lit and being held horizontally across the pipe end to evenly light the top of the tobacco. It’s an impressive display. Me personally, I would have a hard time getting the match to stay lit outdoors long enough to do this, much less anything else. My guess is that Lynn Johnston used some kind of model to show how someone should look lighting a pipe and failed to recognize that a 6-year-old kid, who’s never smoked a pipe before, should be really bad at it.
In the second panel, you see young Michael Patterson go “koff” in reaction as if he is an inexperienced smoker. After his display in the first panel, this is sort of like having a 6-year-old repair your car engine, but then not know how to put a seat belt on.
As for artistic integrity, in the third panel there appears to be a tree behind the fence behind Michael. In the fourth panel, we see the tree from the other side of the fence. It has shrunk down to a small branch-like shrub, so the pipe smoke can be easily visible to Connie Poirier,which will lead into what is going to happen in tomorrow's strip. Yes, folks, even the background trees will shrink in order to support a plot point.
I do like the final panel as a cliff-hanger. In the modern times, Lynn Johnston stopped doing this kind of strip ending in order to drop a punch line in the final panel of almost every strip, even ones telling a story. If she were to do this one today, Connie would have a thought balloon with wordplay about fences and smoke. Something like:
a. You can fence in a fire, but you can't fence in the smoke.
b. I feel Phil is in the field behind the fence; but instead I see the smoke from the sneaky schemes of 2 small fry.
c. Where there's smoke there's going to be spankings.
d. Sniff! That smells like some of my good stuff.
I had hoped that Michael and Lawrence would be protected from pipe burns by wearing gloves outside, but as I look at the strip carefully, it appears both boys take off their mittens and handle the pipe with their bare hands. Then they put the mittens back on when they are not handling the pipe. I guess from Lynn's perspective, she was more concerned the boys would set the mittens on fire with the pipe and burn their hands that way.
posted by howard at 3:22 PM
8 Comments:
My guess is that Lynn Johnston used some kind of model to show how someone should look lighting a pipe and failed to recognize that a 6-year-old kid, who’s never smoked a pipe before, should be really bad at it.
It's almost reassuring that she never bothered herself with asking the question "Does this make any sense?" that far back; that's because we are no longer burdened with the notion that she at one point cared what she did.
What I want to know is where are they? Ostensibly, they were going over to Lawrence and Connie's house to smoke the pipe. Today, we see Mike telling Lawrence that Connie cannot see them because she's in the house. Then, in the final panel, she has come out of the house and sees the smoke from where the kids are. Connie doesn't live next door yet, so they're not in the Patteryard. Where are they?!?!?!
I'm a pipe-smoker, and I'll tell you that there's a technique to loading, lighting, and smoking a pipe, which must be learned. Now, maybe they watched Phil closely enough that they sort of know how to do it. That's conceivable. What I don't get is why Lynn can't draw a pipe.
DreadedCandiru2,
It's almost reassuring that she never bothered herself with asking the question "Does this make any sense?" that far back; that's because we are no longer burdened with the notion that she at one point cared what she did.
Certainly I think from the very beginning, Lynn had a strong desire not to have to do research, and it shows.
aprilp_katje,
What I want to know is where are they?
Judging from the direction of the house to the fence, I would guess they are behind the back fence of Connie’s yard. However, I have no idea whose property is behind Connie’s. It looks like they went to Connie’s to smoke, but then just to stand behind the fence of her yard. What you really have is the kids putting themselves in a position where they can be discovered by Connie, so she can get the pipe. In the original storyline, where Phil went to Connie’s house once to deliver Michael there, and once after their New Years’ Eve date, there was no sense that Phil had been over there more often that those 2 times. This time around, Lynn has shown Phil is over at Connie’s house much more often, so the story could have been simplified to have Phil leave his pipe over at her place.
josephusrex,’
I'm a pipe-smoker, and I'll tell you that there's a technique to loading, lighting, and smoking a pipe, which must be learned.
Now, maybe they watched Phil closely enough that they sort of know how to do it. That's conceivable.
I don’t know. These are fairly advanced motor skills for a 6-year-old to know how to strike a match and puff the pipe at the right time to set the tobacco on fire.
What I don't get is why Lynn can't draw a pipe.
I think she might have been copying a Popeye cartoon at that point.
This time around, Lynn has shown Phil is over at Connie’s house much more often, so the story could have been simplified to have Phil leave his pipe over at her place.
Ah, but that would have required doing a new-run in place of the strip where Michael reveals the pipe to Lawrence. And you know abot LJ's ambitious schedule of vacations.
And you know abot LJ's ambitious schedule of vacations.
Yes, I do. Also she seems to have developed a tendency to entertain budding, young cartoonists at her place in Corbeil. If what I suspect is correct, we are going to be in for a load of reprints in the next few months.
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