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December 23, 2007
The Scott Stantis Guide To Botching A Simple Holiday Strip, Vol. 42
Wow. Is there anything Scott Stantis CAN'T screw up?
It's a simple premise. Winslow, dressed up and singing like a drunken, pantless department store Santa, realizes when he's halfway through "Winter Wonderland" that he's still in the desert and it's really hot there. Now it's IMPOSSIBLE to mess up that simple gag, right?
No, Virginia - not for Scott Stantis.
The first panel is fine. I'm confused as to why Winslow would put on the big black boots but not pants, but otherwise the drawing and even the singing are fine.
Then there's the atrocious second panel. Stantis tries to do his weird "head turning in confusion" trick again, and it's horrific. The three faces of Winston appear, only one of which seems to have a mouth (the one facing right). Stantis screws up this old comic strip technique by having Winslow's hat move with his head as well, instead of staying put while he whips his head back and forth. I've never drawn a comic strip in my life and even I know that.
But that's not the worst of it. No, I would have to say that Stantis' odd choice of how to separate the word "Wonderland" between the first and second panels takes the snowcake. I think 99% of the people out there would think it's logical to have Wilson say "Wonder...land?" But not Stantis. Instead, he gives us "...and." When I first read it I was confused. "...and" what? Did Stantis forget the rest of the line, and Winslow was supposed to say, "Walking through a Winter Wonderl...and where's the snow?" Nope. Stantis just thought it would be funnier to separate the word in the most confusing way possible. Heck, even "...erland" would have been funnier. But not for the worst comic strip writer ever.
The less said about the last panel, the better. I don't even think that's Winslow. If he wasn't red and yellow, I'd think that was a completely different character than the one appearing in the first panel. The dimensions are all off (look how huge the hat is and how round his body is now - even his arms are puffier). And is Stantis so lazy that he won't even take the time to repeat the background from the second panel? Winslow realizes he's in the desert again - why would that disappear? Why not show a low angle of a melting Winslow with the huge sun (NOT the moon) hanging in the sky behind him? Or am I being too much of an Ebeneezer in how critical I am of a light-hearted holiday strip?
Bah, humbug. We all know the real scrooge is a comic strip "artist" who is somehow, some way getting worse with every single strip. Even when it's as simple as having a coyote singing Christmas songs in the middle of the desert.
