(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”
Being British I often have to look up your culture references. I certainly learn a lot. I presume Dick Van Dyke broke the the double bed rule?
The ladies gave me this yesterday, for my desk.
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f7/20/92/f7209244ebacc1039c4af9c72bf28334.jpg
I was hoping for one a bit more skimpily clad, but this will do quite nicely.
Ref the above and today’s new cartoon, perhaps Arlo should try counting lovely faeries flying over his bed.
Ghost [&other “prancing, leering, billy-goats]:
“Play Days” in the Sunken Garden greenhouse at the Como Conservatory in St. Paul” is “more skimpily clad” but would not fit on your desk. She’s about half life-size. Site views from 5 angles.
http://www.comozooconservatory.org/attractions/art/play-days/#/info
Peace,
TV, the electronic tranquilizer. Better than sleeping pills.
Jackie will just have to get something larger for him to put in her gardens. Besides the flying pigs she already has.
How about this one, Ghost?
https://www.designtoscano.com/product/arising+nude+female+illuminated+statue+-+eu2002.do?sortby=ourPicks&refType=&from=fn
Seems to have happened in the right county: http://www.wsmv.com/story/38812804/chicken-nuggets-litter-east-tn-town-with-no-dipping-sauce-in-sight
Mark lamps such as yours adorned some newel posts – back in the day.
IIRC, the Petries also had twin beds.
Mark, I bet that lamp would cast some, ah, interesting shadows.
While passing through Broken Arrow this afternoon on the way back from Tulsa, I had to stop at my cellular provider’s store to resolve a minor service problem. Afterwards, Jackie convinced me to stop at what she said was one of your favorite grocery providers (rhymes with “Shouts”) for my first visit. I was impressed. Since we seem to spend a goodly portion of our lives running up and down the BA Expressway, it will be a good place to get some diet related products for Jackie and some healthy foods for me.
While looking at the meat and seafood selections, Jackie mentioned to one of the staff that it was my first time in one of their stores, which led to the department manager coming out and introducing herself to us. After a nice chat, she gave me a complimentary bratwurst. I have to say it was the first time a lady has ever gifted me with sausage. (Customer service done right.) I’ll be going back.
Thanks Mark!
Glad you liked it, Ghost. And you too, Galliglo. That store is nice, I use the one on Harvard now because it’s closer. Great produce and meat.
I haven’t been gifted with sausage, but I did have a chance to gift someone there with something. While waiting to check out there was an older woman in front of me. She was telling the cashier how someone stole her car not long before. The car was recovered, but the thieves threw away her reusable shopping bags. I had extras in my car and offered them to her, and she was glad to have them.
Lost: The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) had Rob and Laura sleeping in twin beds because the censors did not allow couples on television to sleep in the same bed back then. (An exception was Ozzie and Harriet Nelson in “The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet” TV series. This couple was married in real life.) From the IMDB website
Yofau is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. I celebrated with a double chocolate chip fudge nutrition bar.
Ghost bought traditional chip cookies at bakery.
Choose your own chip!
https://scontent-dfw5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/38458604_1916956768342559_8837634903672619008_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=bb03fb46b129a545f22a9e676ac52fb2&oe=5C12DE70 This one had me laughing out loud. It reminds me of when Jackie’s Google maps app was giving her weird time and distance information. That turned out to be due its having got on bicycle routing, not car.
Interesting analysis. Introduced Rock Pigeons [= park pigeons] that inhabit the Sanford Health Bemidji roof would like the cheap stuff, and I’d like them, as squab, but only that.
https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/lifestyle/4481561-why-many-bird-seed-mixes-are-filled-stuff-birds-wont-eat
Peace,
Good article, emb. My ex and I used to go the feed store and buy the big bags of sunflower seed and the premium fruit and nut mix. We would mix it together and store it in plastic buckets to keep it fresh. That attracted plenty of variety, all right. We also planted a sunflower seed variety pack by our back fence. The plants with the smaller sunflower seeds attracted a lot of goldfinches.
Not a fan of the NBA, but even friends that are fans admit the games aren’t much worth watching until the playoffs begin. Which also seem to last several months.
We’re arranging Jackie’s pantry, as well as pulling out the short-dated canned goods and staples to go to a local help-yourself food blessing-box. Since she will be consuming only the food her diet plan is furnishing, I decided it might be interesting to experiment with a Dystopia Diet. A few years ago, I read a number of dystopian novels, and it occurred to me I could pretend that much or all of the food distribution system had collapsed and see how I could manage subsisting on what food stores are on hand. I’ll let you know how I fare on that fare. Wish me luck.
Take care, Ghost, we don’t want to see you fading away from malnutrition.
Any bird-lovers in the Village, the birdseed article emb posted is very interesting. I noticed for myself years ago that the birds weren’t interested in some of the seed varieties, so after some experimenting, I settled on millet, which we sprinkle around for the ground-feeding birds, and the whole shelled sunflower seeds in the hanging feeders. The latter seeds attract Cardinals, Goldfinches, Purple Finches, other interesting birds depending on the season of the year, and a bonus is there is not much litter to pile up and look ugly.
I feel that I am getting my money’s worth and not wasting cash on useless seeds and shells.
Mark in TTown: The various GPS/mapping guides not only differ in their settings but also in their usefulness for different driving needs. The most commonly sold ones are meant, of course, for use in automobiles. Using one of those in a big rig leads to errors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsAlzV4qSD8&frags=pl%2Cwn
Ghost and I went beyond cleeaning pantry. We got a lot done in kitchen and big pantry out in laundry. I am exhausted but feel a great sense of accomplishment.
No one really I have had work for me here at house has ever been more than a shove it somewhere out of sight organizer.
We are in a give it away, throw it away or put it away mode right now.
The house has been warehousing inventory for stores to point we could barely inch our way through storage bins. We are reclaiming our home.
Hopefully we will conquer the mess, room by room.
Trucker
The Minneapolis paper did an article about GPS sending people down a
dirt track road after a 2 mile repaved & improved section of highway was opened.
Took a month and a half after the county officials complained before it was changed.
The advice was “use common sense and if it didn’t look right it wasn’t right.
Tow truck co.s liked it though.
By us the county road takes a jog along the State road for a bit.
Ever since they paved a short section of our township road it looks like
a continuation of the County road, and at least 1 car a day comes up
and turns around in the neighbors driveway.
The State will not allow the county to put a County Road sign to clarify the situation.
And of course drivers miss the arrows before the turn.
As I mentioned last year, GPS Navigation on my iPhone 5 tried to route me down a boat landing and into Lake Eufaula. I no longer have that phone.