CSotD: Chronicling small moments (and shopping for the holidays)
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Sandra Bell Lundy is an expert at capturing small moments, and today's "Between Friends" is a good example of how she likes to celebrate and deflate the absurdities and inconsistencies of life.
It took me awhile to get into this strip, because she employs a realistic level of self-deprecating humor that is not the norm, even now that there are a good many more strips by and about women, whose humor tends to look inward.
Lundy exaggerates, of course, because most comedy is based to some extent on exaggeration, but she maintains a realism in both tone and graphics that keeps "Between Friends" firmly rooted in normal life. Nobody races around with six arms, and the situations that come up are quite normal, even when they arrive at a maddening pace.
She also has a small but versatile cast, and today's strip is perfect for her own doppelganger, Susan, while it would have worked less well for the worker-bee, Kim, who would have required a set-up to explain why she needed a positive moment on this particular day, or for Maeve, who would have gone through an entire process of questioning the barrista's motivations.
Besides, it would be nothing for Kim or Maeve to go back and complain about being overcharged. For Susan, this was a moment of assertiveness to be treasured, especially when it results in her getting more than she expected.
And, since she knows that Kim or Maeve would have demanded and received satisfaction, and since she has a pretty low opinion of her own sense of adventure, she can then turn the whole thing in on herself and realize how very little it takes to make her feel terrific.
Any comic that works at all has specific characters for specific gags, but often the differentiation is based on unrealistic quirks or extreme characteristics. If you needed a joke about dirt, for instance, "Pigpen" was your man, but, beyond that, he mostly appeared in group shots, because "dirt" was his sole attribute.
But Schulz's other characters, despite their quirks, were more nuanced: You'd have to think it through to determine whether Charlie Brown should be talking to Schroeder or Linus at the wall, assuming the topic was neither Beethoven nor blankets.
However, the majority of strips, even some pretty good ones, are essentially based on jokes about dirt, blankets and Beethoven, not on existential conversations at a brick wall. Their characters simply don't have the depth to step away from their established quirks for a less slapstick gag.
Lundy doesn't have the massive cast of "Peanuts" at her disposal, but she has a small rep company with enough individualization that she can do gag humor when she's in the mood or more character-driven ruminations like this one.
It's a touch that puts the strip on a level with (fellow Canadian) Lynn Johnston's iconic "For Better or For Worse," or Jimmy Johnson's "Arlo & Janis," which is not bad company.
Now then, let's segue into holiday shopping: If you visit Sandra's blog, you'll see that she is just putting the finishing touches on a calendar and, since she's selling through Cafe Press, the whole cross-border Canada Post/USPS interface and issues of currency exchange are joyfully irrelevant.
Meanwhile, though CSOTD is more comic strip- than comic book-oriented, I would be remiss if I didn't admit that Tom Spurgeon's "Comics Reporter" (which is more comic book- than comic strip-oriented) is a daily stop from which I have drawn more than a tidbit or two and which I always find interesting. It's a good place for any fan of the medium to visit, but I would particularly point out that he has just posted an extensive guide to comics gift-giving.
And I would also particularly point out that I vehemently disagree with his statement that "When it comes to gifts, comics are best for people that already like them as opposed to people that may like them someday."
I am cultivating a small coven of future aficianados through age-appropriate holiday gifts. It worked on me and I'm confident it will work on them. Experiment #1 has already begun coming with me on studio visits and can speak confidently on the differences between "Persepolis" the graphic novel and "Persepolis" the animated film. I started her out by letting her borrow my "Barnaby" reprints and have made collections and graphic novels regular gifts since then.
In any case, his gift guide is prodigious and, if you can't find the right comic collection or graphic novel there, you need to give up and hit the Hickory Farms kiosk.
Though I do believe that, when it comes to gifts, meat-flavored cylinders of extruded chemical goo are best for people that already like them as opposed to people that may like them someday.
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