Half-baked attempt at an intra-frame collage: Two separate strips are spliced into one frame. One strip is a goofy light animal cartoon with broad characters and simple jokes, a' la Garfield. The other is a Soap Strip drama along the lines of Rex Morgan. Think of quickly flipping back and forth between two channels on TV.
The splitting of the two strips causes a dis-jarring sense of confusion which leads to misinterpretation (the discussion around the mask might be taken as Jungian in nature, actually this idea came to me following a sleep clinic overnight). The two stories are by themselves banal, but spliced together they hint at a deeper meaning.
When I was a kid, I invented a cartoon character named 'Ken the Koala,' whose main character trait was that he was excited at the prospect of food. He comes back here - for the first time in over forty years - perhaps having grown a little scruffy with 5 o'clock shadow, yet with an undiminished character arc. His roach friend is new, and presents a tired cynical foil to Ken's gastrocentric enthusiasm. I'm bored already.
In the same vein, I feel as though I know the couple having the discussion about masks, having read them already in a million domestic scenarios. I do want to know what happened to that guy's right arm in the third panel, though. There's some intrigue there.
Point of clarification: This was drawn in March of 2020, right before surgical masks would come into the public discussion because of the pandemic. I'm writing this in January of 2022, and it's still an issue. In the intervening time, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers have become a force. This strip wasn't anticipating that. As with so many things, I didn't anticipate the massive idiocy of the U.S. public to perpetually pose such a significant risk to everyone's health.
Half-baked attempt at an intra-frame collage: Two separate strips are spliced into one frame. One strip is a goofy light animal cartoon with broad characters and simple jokes, a' la Garfield. The other is a Soap Strip drama along the lines of Rex Morgan. Think of quickly flipping back and forth between two channels on TV.
ReplyDeleteThe splitting of the two strips causes a dis-jarring sense of confusion which leads to misinterpretation (the discussion around the mask might be taken as Jungian in nature, actually this idea came to me following a sleep clinic overnight). The two stories are by themselves banal, but spliced together they hint at a deeper meaning.
When I was a kid, I invented a cartoon character named 'Ken the Koala,' whose main character trait was that he was excited at the prospect of food. He comes back here - for the first time in over forty years - perhaps having grown a little scruffy with 5 o'clock shadow, yet with an undiminished character arc. His roach friend is new, and presents a tired cynical foil to Ken's gastrocentric enthusiasm. I'm bored already.
In the same vein, I feel as though I know the couple having the discussion about masks, having read them already in a million domestic scenarios. I do want to know what happened to that guy's right arm in the third panel, though. There's some intrigue there.
Point of clarification: This was drawn in March of 2020, right before surgical masks would come into the public discussion because of the pandemic. I'm writing this in January of 2022, and it's still an issue. In the intervening time, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers have become a force. This strip wasn't anticipating that. As with so many things, I didn't anticipate the massive idiocy of the U.S. public to perpetually pose such a significant risk to everyone's health.
ReplyDelete