More Synchroneity

Last time, I had some side-by-side comparisons of two thematically similar characters interacting with each other.  Since then, I've noticed some more eerie similarities with others I've seen and read.

In the early 90s, we were treated to a new Golden Age of animation from Disney, as well as a new supporting character in platforming Video Games who would eventually get his own title and different gameplay mechanics.  In both cases, the both of them were gluttons for punishment.  I'm talking of course, of Wario from Super Mario Land 2 and Chef Louie from The Little Mermaid (who also had a chase episode against Sebastein in Raw Toonage).

On one side of the Pacific, we have a weight-obsessed fashion-conscious shoe-shopping woman with minimalist art, Cathy.  On the other, we've got a Goth-obsessed young girl who's traumatized at the prospect of having to live a normal life, and is usually portrayed in a minimalist Chibi mode, Sunako from The Wallflower / Perfect Girl Evolution.

Going along the field of dramatic pompous old men, we've got the major antagonist for over half of Akagi, Iwao Washizu and the former prosecutor in Phoenix Wright, Manfred von Karma.  I would've liked to show the former with his full poofy outfit, but couldn't find one without too much distracting background action.

While we're talking about Video games, there's Baran, the Dragon General from the Dragon Quest Manga, largely influenced by DragonBall the "Best Shonen Manga in the Universe".  On the S-hero front, there's Omni-Man, from Invincible the "'Best Superhero comic in the Universe". Both men started off as heroes, then were guided towards the path of evil, and then after a confrontation with their sons, gradually gravitated over to the side of good.  It probably has something to do with the mustache.

Next, here's two war generals whose noble battle philosophy is based on hatred.  Den from Battle Angel Alita and Megatron from Transformers.  As an aside, now that Kodansha is no longer publishing the latest Alita volumes with variations of 'Angel' in their titles, they passed up the chance to name their last volume "Earth Angel".

When it comes to portraying Mad Scientists, such as Autobot WheelJack, and Shinigami Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the Japanese seem to have a tendency to have them portrayed with protruding spiral headgear for some reason.


Next on the list are anti-heros who're pretentious blowhards, Namor the Submariner and Vegeta need no further introduction.  And despite their outright condemnation of everybody being beneath their notice, are quite popular with the ladies.

Going into slightly obscure territory, here's two comatose tongue-dangling mascots; Fletcher from Something Queer is Going on, and Bill the Cat from Bloom County.

Lastly, there's the protagonist of Italian Noir Funny Animals comic that even haters of Furries (who've been unfairly bashed in the media) enjoy, Blacksad.  And a former antagonist turned ally from Fairy Tail, Panther Lily.

Duffy Vs. his Computer

It's been a long time since I've posted any Duffy around here, so I'm going to circumvent to demand where none existed.  Some of these were from my first entry on the comic, but they're still at the reduced size (which I haven't bothered to go back and edit), so you don't have to feel ripped off.

While browsing several online newspapers, I came across one that had a scant scattering of various Duffy comics - only two weeks worth.  There was one standalone strip that seemed relevant here:

Already, we're treated to the internal thoughts of an overly obese piece of hardware that has nothing but contempt for the large figure pressing his blobby fingers all over its keyboard.  In addition, the monitor has all the disposition reminiscent of a 1.0 version of Bender from Futurama.  Obviously, this is not going to be a mutual working relationship.

It's difficult working properly with a machine that seems almost malicious in its programming.  Any electronic device that has ready access to your personal information is pretty much just asking for trouble.

 In the rare cases where the machine actually goes out of its way to be helpful, it feels more like mocking than beneficial.  It's as if it's saying it knows more than the slow-thinking bags of flesh sitting across the screen... which isn't too far off the mark.

This style of displaying information in a disconnected monotone manner is only slightly less annoying than the excitable "helpful" Word paperclip icon.  (If I've brought up any long repressed memories that're better left forgotten, I apologize)

And when it actually goes through with the proper requests, it goes out of its way to take its time with compiling the order.  This was back in the days when computers would make funny noises while compiling code in order to ease the minds of writers pining for the days of typewriter clacking sounds.

Usually in these cases, the wise move would be to go to a computer repairman to get past these annoying features that seem less the result of a trojan virus, and more of an ingrained prejudice against the man trying to make the office machine work.  It doesn't help.

Interestingly enough, almost all these comics are displayed in reverse chronological order.  When read backwards, they provide a continuous narrative of escalating conflict resulting in an inevitable conclusion:

Just remember, computers "falling against the wall" is the technological equivalent of "falling down the stairs into a boxful of doorknobs".  If you suspect someone engaging in mechanical abuse, go see a respectable technician.  There are better ways to vent your frustrations than punching your fist through them, but I'll be damned if I know what they are.

Belated December Kitties, Teddies and Murphys

Somewhat fittingly, despite sticking to a schedule of posting on the first of every month, I forgot to do an update yesterday as a result of having too many things on my mind around the holiday season.  Blame Murphy's Law on this one.

With this last installment, there's the question of what to present for next year, since my remaining calendar choices are remarkably slim.  Of the available and noteworthy ones, I have a Nintendo Power Calendar, a Mr. Bean Calendar, and at the lower end of the scale, a Mother Goose & Grimm and Ziggy calendar.
The last remaining two are the stickers for the Kitty calendar as well as a Peanuts one.  These are my options, though I could potentially use something else if there's any interest one way or the other.

EDIT - I just found out that there's already a webpage of Nintendo Power Calendars online, though they're missing the year 1992, which I don't have.  There's quite some unusual off-model character art, made warped by converting some beloved characters to 3-D versions.  Not to mention annoying innovative month layouts that were all over the place instead of the standard 7x5 grid, like this, and this, and this, all of them Legend of Zelda, for some reason.  The sole exception being this Mario one.

Dec. 1 - First Banking "Christmas Club" Opened 1909 - Blair's Observation: The best laid plans of mice and men are usually about equal.

Dec. 3 - First Human Heart Transplant 1967 - Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

As an aside, those are some disturbing-looking reindeer.  Other animals (when they rarely appeared) at least looked like those animals, but apparently, that doesn't matter much in this world of bears.  Even the Berenstain Bears allowed for some variety.

Dec. 6 - Harris' Lament: All the good ones are broken.

Dec. 9 - Murphy's Fifth Corollary: Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

Dec. 12 - Francis Albert Sinatra Born 1915 - Whistler's Law: You never know who's right, but you always know who's in charge.

Dec. 18 - Hadley's Second Law of Clothes Shopping: If you like it and it's in your size, it doesn't fit anyways.

Dec. 24 - Russ' Law of Assembly: The one piece that holds the whole thing together will be missing.


Dec. 25 - Christmas - Law of Gifts: You get the most of what you need the least.

Dec. 31 - New Year's Eve - Lord Balfour's Contention: Nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all.

Feast and Famine

The recent For Better or for Worse rerun had this little ditty that originally ran on November 28, 1985.

The first commentor on the rather redundant Foobiverse Livejournal pointed out that this date was part of a large joint effort with 175 cartoonists worldwide to create comics around the theme of campaigning for the famine in Africa.  This was spearheaded by Charles Schultz, Gary Trudeau, and Milton "Steve Canon" Caniff.  (The last one I was unable to find)


If you pay attention to the particular comics that happened around this time, the stand-alone strips from their collections becomes more significant.





Recently, I was given notice of the discovery of the fact that there were online archives of microfiche newspapers.  In addition to seeing old articles, this was also a boon to finding many old newspaper comics that hadn't been collected.  Of course, it's not completely perfect - there's a lot of gaps here and there, and there are entire years missing.  Not to mention that some pages are aligned horizontally, and most of the space seems to devoted to ads.



To make things more problematic, everything's in black and white, and the quality isn't always very good, and is sometimes out of focus, making reading a chore.

Still, it's better than nothing.

Normally, I don't include Far Side comics out of respect for Gary Larson's request not to do so, but in this case, I think I can make an exception.






In case it's not entirely clear, the Turkey is left adrift in the middle of the ocean on a barebones raft at night, which is why he's complaining despite being spared.


Some cartoonists were unable to make light of a heavy subject, leading to these examples, which were not unlike those "Very Special" episodes of Christmas, only replacing Thanksgiving as a theme.











Because of the special status Thanksgiving has in the States, some papers either printed the relevant strips a day early, or held them back for the day after.

One rather unusual installment was during an arc in Marvin which was a retelling of The Wizard of Oz.

Some serial strips were slightly more ambitious, and tried to implement the subject into their storylines with varying degrees of success.




The clumsiest attempt to reconcile this noble effort comes from Stan Lee's Spider-Man, narrative consistency be damned.  There's even a noticeable bulge along the box wall to show where the extra text was roughly inserted almost as an afterthought.

There's a reason Superhero stuff shouldn't address real-world concerns; they're basically escapist fantasy, totally unsuitable for exploring concepts where strongmen are able to brutalize purse snatchers and bank robbers in dazzling feats and displays of power, but are unable to address corrupt world powers half a continent away.  Not that that hasn't stopped adults who've grown up on the stuff from trying.

Curiously enough, going through these archives turned up the sole unreprinted Calvin & Hobbes comic.

While half of papers got the washing machine version, others got the dinner scene.  It's as if Bill Watterson realized that he had the opportunity to be part of a larger organization, and regretted it when he had the chance.  As a first effort, it's okay, but not great.  Other strips handled the theme of hunger or starvation more memorably.

One thing that surprised me amidst the sheer amount of available material was how much of it was cobbled from truly obscure sources.  The most surprising result was discovering Hartland, by Rich Torrey, which is basically a Bloom County ripoff, using Binkley and his dad as models.  (Another comic, Committed, lasted longer)

There were two comics that had Sam as the first of a duo in their title.


While going through the online archives, I only managed to make it up to the 'M's, before deciding I'd had enough.  WARNING - they get worse as you go along.