Continuing On
Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse is from March 14, 1981. That leaves March 23, 26 and 31 1981 as the 3 strips not reprinted from March, 1981. All 3 of these are unrelated to Connie talking about Phil, so I predict that tomorrow’s strip must be the long-awaited “’Allo?” girl explanation new-run. Once Lynn covers that ground then the following questions remain:
a. Will Lynn reprint any more strips from March, 1981?
b. Will Lynn go to the sequence starting from April 6, 1981?
c. Will there be any more new-runs in the daily strips?
d. Is Lynn finally done hopping around chronologically with her reprint choices?
The reprint today is one of those strips where I get the impression, looking at the expression on the characters’ faces, that Lynn had a different idea in mind for the strip before she wrote in the dialogue. Elly looks bored and yawning in Panel 2. In Panel 3, she has the appearance of someone being woken up. In Panel 4, she looks as though she is embarrassed by something. I can easily imagine the original dialogue being:
Elly: Connie, why are you always prepared for the worst?
Elly: {Yawning}. Phil wasn’t bothered by your visit. He actually found you were a little dull and lifeless.
Connie: Really? {Elly looks like she is waking up}
Connie: I wonder what I could do to spice things up. Maybe a naughty nightie.
Elly: {Thinking and looking downcast} Is there nothing I can say which will discourage her?
a. Will Lynn reprint any more strips from March, 1981?
b. Will Lynn go to the sequence starting from April 6, 1981?
c. Will there be any more new-runs in the daily strips?
d. Is Lynn finally done hopping around chronologically with her reprint choices?
The reprint today is one of those strips where I get the impression, looking at the expression on the characters’ faces, that Lynn had a different idea in mind for the strip before she wrote in the dialogue. Elly looks bored and yawning in Panel 2. In Panel 3, she has the appearance of someone being woken up. In Panel 4, she looks as though she is embarrassed by something. I can easily imagine the original dialogue being:
Elly: Connie, why are you always prepared for the worst?
Elly: {Yawning}. Phil wasn’t bothered by your visit. He actually found you were a little dull and lifeless.
Connie: Really? {Elly looks like she is waking up}
Connie: I wonder what I could do to spice things up. Maybe a naughty nightie.
Elly: {Thinking and looking downcast} Is there nothing I can say which will discourage her?
posted by howard at 9:45 PM
8 Comments:
In Panel 3, she has the appearance of someone being woken up.
I found her expression in Panel 3 unreadable because she has lost her mouth.
Connie: I wonder what I could do to spice things up. Maybe a naughty nightie.
Elly: {Thinking and looking downcast} If I tell her about the bargain negligees at the Salvation Army, there might not be any left for me.
There's only one way Elly isn't lying about this; that's if my supposition that she told Phil why Connie was there after the fact is valid. Since he didn't know why she was there at the time, he'd have to have been informed by his sister afterwards.
forworse,
I found her expression in Panel 3 unreadable because she has lost her mouth.
That is one of the things I have noticed going through these old strips, is that Lynn’s tendency to remove mouths and eyes, which was so annoying in her modern drawing, has its roots even at the very beginning of the strip. Those body parts are so important to telling the story as a comic strip artist, I wonder why she ever got into this habit. Charles Schulz would never have approved it.
Elly: {Thinking and looking downcast} If I tell her about the bargain negligees at the Salvation Army, there might not be any left for me.
LOL. So true! Of course she and Connie could get fully made up and put on both their negligees and call each other to tell each other how beautiful they are right before they go to bed.
DreadedCandiru2,
There's only one way Elly isn't lying about this; that's if my supposition that she told Phil why Connie was there after the fact is valid.
That’s probably the case. After all, when 1982 rolls around Phil is much more romantically aggressive when it comes to Connie.
The fail for me is the wierd intensity - and positively schizoid variety - of the precious pair's facial expressions/emotions here.
We start with Connie wearing the Semi Bug-eyed Stare of Poleaxed Cluelessness/Mindless Fixation while Elly does Fatal Boredom. Not sure what's animating them other than perhaps Connie is fascinated in a sort of bird-transfixed-by-the-snake way at the ability of Elly to look so utterly expressionless and NOT go face-down on the table.
Panel 3 is a fright; Connie suddenly comes to life in a WAY over-the-top explosion of Hopeful Lust, a 14-year-old discovering that Shawn Cassidy wants to marry her and have his baby. Elly's reaction is hard to gauge with the disappearing mouth thing but seems to be some sort of Frozen Panic, perhaps locked between Fight and Flight at the notion that Connie's overheated ovaries might lead her to mate with the nearest object and unsure whether she contemplates this with joy or terror.
Panel 4 is the real baffler; both women are siezed by the Face of Bug-Eyed Despair. Is it because Connie realizes that the Obscue Object of her Desire isn't there, and that Elly may be lying about the possibility that she will ever get the Taken Token from him? Or that perhaps her sudden flush of fecundity has passed, leaving her in a sort of asexual, post-non-coital depression realizing that she's no closer to fulfillment than she was ten seconds before? And Elly...what's up with THAT look? Is she grieving for the move Connie didn't put on her? Downcast because her friend, as whack, needy and foolish as she is, has a better chance of enjoying the lusty pleasures of extramarital conjunction? Or perhaps she's just had a look at the collections and knows that Connie's passion will not end in dimestic bliss, the Nirvana of FOOBland?
Very disturbing, no matter how you interpret it.
FDChief,
Panel 3 is a fright; Connie suddenly comes to life in a WAY over-the-top explosion of Hopeful Lust, a 14-year-old discovering that Shawn Cassidy wants to marry her and have his baby.
I get what you mean, but you are dating yourself with the Shaun Cassidy reference.
And Elly...what's up with THAT look? Is she grieving for the move Connie didn't put on her?
Possibly. She is looking at Connie’s breasts after all. She may have sacrificed her own desire for the sake of her brother’s happiness. Not to worry though. Ultimately, Elly and Connie end up together.
I get what you mean, but you are dating yourself with the Shaun Cassidy reference.
Should I have referenced Shania Twain?
FDChief,
Should I have referenced Shania Twain?
She's more of the type to appeal to middle-aged Corbeil dentists. Among my daughter's set, Zac Ephron, Robert Pattinson or Taylor Lautner is high on their list.
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