By the way, razorback, to follow up from yesterday:
“Maybe I was wrong about comic strips as a whole. Maybe deep characters with complex personalities, beautiful artwork, a storyline that can manipulate your emotions and leave you wanting more, smart writing, and jokes that make you laugh and/or think are just filler and all you really need for a comic strip that people will flock to is a no-luck loser living in a crapsack world that gives him/her nothing but suffering as he/she impotently tries to better their station in life. Or maybe I’m just too awesome to depend on a comic strip to make me feel better about my life.”
I understand your position and I sympathize, but open-ended continuities (such as comic strips) have to be careful about developing characters outside of their usefulness. In a closed narrative like a novel or movie, there can be character arcs, people can undergo drastic changes as a result of ‘learning experiences’, and that’s fine because “And they lived happily ever after” is a very satisfying thing to read AT THE END of a story. But where do you go from there? After many years of having Daisy Mae chasing (but not catching) Li’l Abner every Sadie Hawkins Day, Al Capp succumbed to public pressure and had her catch him. They married, and had a child. Until his dying day, Capp regretted marrying off Abner, because he could no longer have him DO so many of the things he (Capp) wanted him to.
Strips where characters age, like “Doonesbury” or “For Better or for Worse” need character development, because the behavior of Mike at 20 would be inappropriate for Mike at 45. Ms. Babcock isn’t showing any indication that her characters are older now than they were when she started the strip, even though they “remember” continuity that was printed within the strip years ago. But if Mona permanently changes her look, and her therapy does wonders for her and she becomes a happy, well-adjusted personality… Well… Poorly-adjusted people have more dramatic potential than well-adjusted ones. Tolstoy wrote “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
We don’t enjoy watching the suffering of FICTIONAL characters because it makes us feel superior to them; it’s more like the catharsis Aristotle wrote of when we watch tragedy. We suffer with Charlie Brown, particularly because he doesn’t deserve the unhappiness that was piled on him for 50 years. But when we put down the newspaper, yes it’s true, we are glad that WE are not Charlie Brown.
(By the way, I’m of course aware of the cartoon in which Coyote “catches” the Roadrunner, but the humor is maintained because he is not in any position to enjoy the fruits of his efforts. It was an ironic wink that Jones gave to his audience, and any ‘victory’ for Wile E. was purely pyrrhic.)
You might also refer to Ruben Bolling’s recurrent “Dinkle, the Unloveable Loser” character in Tom the Dancing Bug. Dinkle fails, yet there is no emotional satisfaction in in watching him so simply because he deserves to suffer.
Watching the unworthy succeed = high emotional response.
Watching the worthy suffer = high emotional response.
Watching the unworthy suffer = low emotional response.
Watching the worthy succeed = low emotional response.
margueritem over 14 years ago
Awwww, I feel better now. Donna is just a tad miffed, however.
skorpia900rr over 14 years ago
About time she started having a lil happiness in her life! Mona needs some loving!!!
ladywolf17 over 14 years ago
Mona are you blushing?
ejcapulet over 14 years ago
YAAAAAAYYYY!!! That just made my day!
Sisyphos over 14 years ago
Now, suddenly, Donna is jealous. And Mona is sheepish, like a very young teen experiencing her first puppy-love!
cleokaya over 14 years ago
Do I sense some tension.
lewisbower over 14 years ago
And Mona, that smoke coming from your mouth makes you look and smell like a Hawaiian dragon.
AliKzam over 14 years ago
That’s better! Nice save, Ryan!
green_engineer over 14 years ago
That’s funny Lewreader! I’m liking the way this turned out, Donna should just wait in the car!
The missing M. Smokey over 14 years ago
Maybe Donna will adopt me.
arsmall over 14 years ago
Yay! LoL, I love Donna’s expression in panel 1. Let the fun begin..
Jaedabee Premium Member over 14 years ago
Awww!!!
Nighthawks Premium Member over 14 years ago
at this point mona will wake up, naked, with a pool of vomit and an empty bottle of gin next to her
Ray_C over 14 years ago
Donna should wait in the airport and let THEM have the car for awhile.
donwater over 14 years ago
Fog up the windows!
MamaTaney over 14 years ago
YAY!!!!!!!!!! This just totally made my day!!!!!! :)
Dorian over 14 years ago
Yaaaaay! I agree, ejcapulet and MamaTaney!!
ottod Premium Member over 14 years ago
Not only is he young and handsome, but obviously much quicker-witted than most mere mortal males.
my_discworld over 14 years ago
Aw, I’m so happy :) I hope it continues to go well!
fritzoid Premium Member over 14 years ago
…and here comes Mona running up to the football…!
fritzoid Premium Member over 14 years ago
By the way, razorback, to follow up from yesterday:
“Maybe I was wrong about comic strips as a whole. Maybe deep characters with complex personalities, beautiful artwork, a storyline that can manipulate your emotions and leave you wanting more, smart writing, and jokes that make you laugh and/or think are just filler and all you really need for a comic strip that people will flock to is a no-luck loser living in a crapsack world that gives him/her nothing but suffering as he/she impotently tries to better their station in life. Or maybe I’m just too awesome to depend on a comic strip to make me feel better about my life.”
I understand your position and I sympathize, but open-ended continuities (such as comic strips) have to be careful about developing characters outside of their usefulness. In a closed narrative like a novel or movie, there can be character arcs, people can undergo drastic changes as a result of ‘learning experiences’, and that’s fine because “And they lived happily ever after” is a very satisfying thing to read AT THE END of a story. But where do you go from there? After many years of having Daisy Mae chasing (but not catching) Li’l Abner every Sadie Hawkins Day, Al Capp succumbed to public pressure and had her catch him. They married, and had a child. Until his dying day, Capp regretted marrying off Abner, because he could no longer have him DO so many of the things he (Capp) wanted him to.
Strips where characters age, like “Doonesbury” or “For Better or for Worse” need character development, because the behavior of Mike at 20 would be inappropriate for Mike at 45. Ms. Babcock isn’t showing any indication that her characters are older now than they were when she started the strip, even though they “remember” continuity that was printed within the strip years ago. But if Mona permanently changes her look, and her therapy does wonders for her and she becomes a happy, well-adjusted personality… Well… Poorly-adjusted people have more dramatic potential than well-adjusted ones. Tolstoy wrote “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
We don’t enjoy watching the suffering of FICTIONAL characters because it makes us feel superior to them; it’s more like the catharsis Aristotle wrote of when we watch tragedy. We suffer with Charlie Brown, particularly because he doesn’t deserve the unhappiness that was piled on him for 50 years. But when we put down the newspaper, yes it’s true, we are glad that WE are not Charlie Brown.
(By the way, I’m of course aware of the cartoon in which Coyote “catches” the Roadrunner, but the humor is maintained because he is not in any position to enjoy the fruits of his efforts. It was an ironic wink that Jones gave to his audience, and any ‘victory’ for Wile E. was purely pyrrhic.)
fritzoid Premium Member over 14 years ago
You might also refer to Ruben Bolling’s recurrent “Dinkle, the Unloveable Loser” character in Tom the Dancing Bug. Dinkle fails, yet there is no emotional satisfaction in in watching him so simply because he deserves to suffer.
Watching the unworthy succeed = high emotional response. Watching the worthy suffer = high emotional response. Watching the unworthy suffer = low emotional response. Watching the worthy succeed = low emotional response.