CSotD: Waiting for Death
Skip to comments
I'm generally hesitant to feature a strip twice within the same story arc, but, since story arcs at Pirate Cove can run on for a year or so, that's not a rule I can expect to apply here. And, while the twice-a-month rule doesn't exist anyway, I'm going to waive it here because today's strip brings up an interesting point about web comics, which is:
Web comics are not just about being able to drop F-bombs.
As you may recall, Death accidentally swapped Biff and Joe's souls, and so she is in his body and he in hers. It's not an unheard-of comedy premise, but today's gag is one that only a handful of syndicated cartoonists — Jimmy Johnson of "Arlo and Janis" springs immediately to mind — would be able to pull off. And Jimmy would only be able to use the main joke, not the topper that follows, nor, I think, would he get away with the "five-and-a-half minutes" subtitle.
What you would end up with would be Arlo-in-Janis's-body sitting upright, frustrated, and Janis-in-Arlo's-body blissfully asleep, and only a handful of readers knowing, or perhaps more accurately, "guessing," what had happened. I think it would be too obscure even for A&J, a strip that doesn't hesitate to make readers stretch their minds for the sake of a good gag.
With a web comic, you do have the freedom to drop F-bombs, of course. You could have Joe-in-Biff's-body complaining out loud and very directly describing what has just happened (and what has not). But it wouldn't be funny, because humor requires a little work on the part of the reader.
There are a lot of web comics out there in which a convoluted joke is explained in great detail, and they don't work. They aren't funny. Miles Davis counseled not to play what's there but to play what's not there, but before Davis ever picked up a horn, Jack Benny had built a comedy career out of punchlines he never actually delivered. To leap from Miles Davis to Cool Hand Luke, sometimes silence is a cool punchline.
In this case, Joe d'Angelo has the artistic freedom to make a joke that does require a little explanation, the directness of which would never fly in a family newspaper, but the good sense and comic timing to let the joke tell itself, which is about comedy, not freedom. The joke is adult without being crude.
The other thing to note is that d'Angelo does an admirable job most days of advancing the plot while providing a genuinely funny gag. Being on the web means he doesn't have the space constraints of a print cartoonist these days, but he's still doing it in four panels. Besides the freedom to use direct language, a web cartoonist has the freedom to use however many panels it takes. But Robert Frost dismissed free verse as playing tennis with the net down, and there is much to be admired in an artist who can produce a concept and make it work well within an established structure, whether it is iambic pentameter or a four-panel cartoon.
And a cartoon that summons up references to Jack Benny, Miles Davis, Robert Frost and Cool Hand Luke all by 6:30 in the morning is a damn good cartoon.
Comments
Comments are closed.