(Cartoonist’s note: This is another summer rerun, a post from five years ago. It caught my eye, because I have, in the intervening time, tried to address some of the issues discussed below. First and foremost, I have ceased to think dogmatically about the “four-line” rule. It’s still a guideline, but if I need a fourth line, I use a fourth line. And I’ve tried to be more conscious of the legibility of the dialog in Arlo & Janis. I hope it all has helped.)
OK, so this comic strip from December of last year isn’t exactly “rare.” It’s Arlo and Janis sitting on the sofa, for cryin’ out loud. However, there is something out of the ordinary going on here. Can you tell what it is? That’s right! In the third panel, Arlo’s dialog runs to four lines. It is an unwritten rule here (where all rules are unwritten!) that dialog in a comic strip not run for more than three lines. You’d be surprised how easy this really is. Dialog tends to be terse and to the point, and much of what I write is dialog. I believe punchy dialog actually lends authenticity; remember that, would-be comic strip artists, and writers of all stripes.
I bring up dialog, because I periodically get emails from readers who complain (always nicely!) that they have a particularly difficult time reading the text in Arlo & Janis. I don’t doubt they have problems. Newspapers so reduce all comic strips these days that they’ve become almost impossible to read, particularly for the demographic that is keeping newspapers afloat. I do wonder, though, if A&J is particularly unintelligible. I look at other strips in the newspapers, and I don’t see many of them being any easier to read. I like to think it’s because Arlo & Janis is the one they want to read. Anyway, I have two points about this subject. 1) I am aware of the problem. I have gone to a thicker lettering pen, but I think this sometimes makes me squeeze the lettering, which probably is the worst thing I could do. I have experimented with computer fonts made from my own lettering. This is promising, but I haven’t been able to develop one yet that really pleases me. Perhaps I need to expand the three-line rule to four lines. In short, I am working on it. 2) I would like your observations and suggestions on this matter. It might help.
81 responses to “Giving You a Line”
Yeah definitely MTM made you wonder about the bed thing!
Carol Burnett once did a skit parodying that old Hayes Code rule. The camera closed in on the two feet that remained on the floor while the remaining feet and sound dialog indicating that some baby-making was going on.
For the record, I have absolutely no trouble reading Arlo&Janis in my newspaper, The Telegraph Journal of New Brunswick, Canada.
I thought Fred & Wilma Flintstone were first – but NO:
On Tuesday, 18 November 1947, a 15-minute program entitled Mary Kay and Johnny made its debut on the Dumont network. Like the more famous I Love Lucy series that followed it, Mary Kay and Johnny starred a real-life couple, actors Johnny and Mary Kay Stearns. Mary Kay had been modeling junior wear on a weekly TV show when her husband pitched the idea of a television-based domestic comedy to a sponsor. (Many such domestic shows, often featuring real-life couples, were playing on radio, but none had yet made the transition to television). Johnny got the go-ahead to produce a single episode, so he wrote a light comedic script about a newly-married couple who lived in a Greenwich Village apartment, just as he and Mary Kay, also a newly-married couple, did. The show caught on, and Mary Kay and Johnny, performed live, became television’s first sitcom, eventually running for three years on three different networks (Dumont, NBC, and CBS).
Remember when many TV shows were 15 min.? The NEWS, the Soaps.
Why continue the space program?
https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/38071755_964070170461336_760752838287556608_n.png?_nc_cat=0&oh=638e633af023156bb277ef97243721f5&oe=5C0A6722
Never having see the tv programs mentioned, I need to ask if you mean that the Petrie pair had a double bed on screen.
“seen”
I never watch TV, but I can search. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_and_Johnny BTW, there’s a usage booboo in the 1st sentence under Format. Peace,
So, Jimmy, did you chalk up the “illegible” lettering problem then to print cartoons being so small? Since we are in a geographic place where the best place to read A&J is online, we have no trouble. I have a newspaper from before 1950 with quite large comics. I remember that when USPS printed the “Comic Strip Classics” stamps in 1995, someone (Mort Walker?) joked that at last they’ll be big enough again to read.
But I see your present lettering is larger, with more space around the letters.
And—today, https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2018/07/31 —there’s a four-liner!
Only one word per line for Janis, though. That *is* cheating, no?
Thanks for teaching us. I didn’t know.
Best solution to the ever shrinking comic page would be to recreate Will Eisner’s Spirit insert. Then the comic would have its own pages free from intrusive ads that cause the paper to destroy the content we want in order to add the content that could have been put somewhere else.
The Horror.
From a dispatch from my neck of the woods in The Deep South, regarding an 18-wheeler overturning on an Interstate highway, causing significant traffic delays…
“The accident happened around 5:15 a.m. and involved three vehicles, according to (the County Emergency Operations Center Deputy Director). He said four people were transported to the hospital, including the driver of the 18-wheeler. He said the truck was heading south with hundreds of gallons of sweet tea on board.”
No word from the EOC as to whether counseling services would be available for any Southerners distraught over this tragic loss of sweet tea.
From the Today show:
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/eel-truck-overturns-leaving-motorists-on-a-slippery-slope-of-slime-997552707610
https://www.oddee.com/item_98080.aspx
“…punchy dialog…” It worked well for Hemingway.
Sorry, I don’t pine for the 2nd. Nice limerick, though.
Two cams live. Greater kudus again.
https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-river-wildlife-camera
Peace,
I have no trouble reading A&J in our paper, or most other comics.
They only FINALLY added A&J less than a year ago.
However hate trying to read Non Sequitur as the font size is just on the border for me to make me want to grab the glasses (I’m pushing 62). They get too wordy too.
Ghost has dropped another jean size to 36 waist. At his height he looks amazing. Just saying.
Finally got him a work cowboy hat but not the pony.
I am at oncologist for final bloodwork before moving on to next stages.
Feeling great again and lots of energy.
Hi to everybody. YAY to good news from Ghost and Jackie.
Double that Nancy
Well, Jimmy, I don’t get a newspaper, allergic to the ink, and therefore read comics online. No problem making the images bigger on my iPad. LOL.
Michigan drawn in the style of Tolkien’s Middle Earth: https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/37738432_2048073018560899_4760171790993457152_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=cae5a26ea32663fffd627d33377a0780&oe=5BD29CA4
Getting raves from doctors about fast turn around from cancer.
Oncologist says blood work is perfect, as is bone density. They are running scans to make sure the cancer hasn’t spread but not expecting it to have done so
Seeing radiologist tomorrow but am finished and just have a few burns still open. Can’t begin pool walking or water exercises until they heal.
Back in physical therapy to prepare for k ee replacement.
Jackie, nix the pony. Encourage Ghost to grow a ponytail.
Ghost has exhausted himself dragging me around. He is the most wonderful man unlike any I have k own.
Everyone agrees he looks like a lawman although I szy kindly town doctor. My male employees described him as looking “lethal.