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January 06, 2008
Why Opus Doesn't Have A Blue Head
Um...wow. Just...wow.
You know...um...wow.
I wanted to...um...yeesh.
Okay, let me try and collect my thoughts. Something I've been trying to do the last fifteen minutes since reading this so-called "comic strip."
First off, I have never in my life heard of this method of eyelash wish that Stantis is talking about. Back of the hand? Yes. Even the one with the friend between your fingers. But guessing which finger? That's a new one. Maybe it's an Alabama thing, or a college dropout thing. But I guess we should thank Stantis for spending an entire panel explaining to us something as simple as "Winslow gets a wish."
I should probably stop there. Going into the rest of the strip might drive me mad. There are so many things to criticize. I don't know where to start.
I mean, did Stantis put a note to the colorist that Winslow's head needs to be blue? I think I know why it happened: Winslow's head was supposed to be black, like the rest of his body. But Stantis doesn't know how to draw that. I remember reading a book a few years back about "Batman: The Animated Series," and the great pains they had to take to make sure the animators understood the look they were going for since Bats wears a lot of black (all about drawing with white, a color that's hard to use in animation from what I gather - and Stantis seems to prove that point). Since Winslow only has two black dots for eyes half the time, like in the 1st, 2nd, and 6th panels, Stantis can't do that if Winslow is supposed to be penguin black. But I'm guessing that Stantis submitted a black and white drawing of the strip and expected the colorist to figure it out, and that's why we get Winslow with a black body and a blue head. There's been discussion on Shrubville before about the odd colors chosen at times for the strip, and if I remember correctly Stantis defended himself in a podcast saying that he doesn't have any control over the colors since he doesn't do it himself (or maybe Charles made the point - honestly I don't recall exactly and I'm not going to look it up). But there is simply no excuse - if Stantis did it or somebody else - for this trainwreck of a comic strip to appear in a newspaper people pay to read.
I'm so disgusted with Prickly City that I don't even want to get into the writing. In the third panel, why have Winslow say, "HEY!!!!! IT..."? Wouldn't the "poof" alone tell us that his wish was coming true? I don't get it - all it does is throw off the timing and pace of the joke. Then there's the odd choice of having it be six panels. Why? This could have just as easily been four panels, and it would have spared us not one but two drawings of Winslow as a were-penguin. Simply atrocious.
Once again, I dare anyone - especially newspaper editors - to defend this crap. Please, explain to me why Scott Stantis should be paid for this. I really want to know what kind of justification someone in a position of power at a newspaper can provide for letting this garbage on the comics page. I'll admit that Stantis is decent when it comes to editorial comics - that's why we at Shrubville don't comment on them. But please, keep him out of the comics section. Prickly City Must Die.
Comments
Continuing the bad drawing theme... why are their bodies so long today?
Posted by: John at January 6, 2008 01:56 PM
I think it's a perspective thing Stantis was trying for. He wanted to set up that Winslow and Carmen are pretty tall, so when he became a were-penguin he would seem really small. Which doesn't make much sense since Carmen and Winslow are short themselves and penguins wouldn't be that much shorter. But I too was wondering why there wasn't the same amount of headroom there usually is for the characters, and I'm guessing that's why.
Posted by: The Furnace at January 6, 2008 02:29 PM
This raises a lot of questions: What are the implications of this powerful-seeming magic in a comic strip with hardly any fantasy elements? Is Stantis trying to make fun of the stereotypical liberal interest in New Age things? And last but not least, do real coyotes even have eyelashes?
Posted by: Antenora at January 6, 2008 04:15 PM
