4/19 comic question:

Loxley · Post by **Loxley** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 4:11 am

Is that Rikk or Will who suggests leaving Stu behind, and that nobody would miss him?

Sounds like something Will would say... and if so, is it motivated by his feelings for Jackie?

T Campbell · Post by **T Campbell** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 4:43 am

It's Will. Rikk doesn't like Stu much, but he'd never joke about something like that.

The characters in today's strip are Will, Stu, Harry, and the Professor...

Lordjulius · Post by **Lordjulius** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 5:39 am

Yay! I guessed right!

Actually, the first time I read it I thought it was Rikk (interesting insight into his character that he would never do that; hmmm), but when I reread it I noticed that that character was taller than the others, so it had to be Will.

One interesting thing about cartoony art vs. "realistic" art: with cartoony art, such as Jason's (or I should say such as Jason uses for "Fans!"), characters are immediately recognizable, indeed they differ from each other considerably more than real people tend to differ from each other.

"Realistic" comics artists, even good ones, tend to have characters that resemble each other. There's a standard John Byrne face, for instance, and a Neal Adams face. This is not to say all their characters look alike, but they resemble each other much more closely than cartoon characters. Indeed, only the best "realistic" artists are able to achieve anything like the level of differentiation found in real people.

I put "realistic" in quotes because, of course, Byrne and Adams and Andrew Revell are all, in fact, cartoonists. Their drawings are extremely simplified compared to, say, a Rembrandt painting or a photograph. And because of this simplification, this stripping away of detail, which is in the nature of pen-and-ink drawings (and also necessary on a practical level to get the output required -- even Alex Ross simplifies) makes characters all tend to resemble each other, unless you go out of your way to exaggerate their differences, which is what makes "cartoony" art cartoony.

But of course, after you know them for awhile, even people who really do look alike become distinct. Parents can usually tell apart identical twins, for instance, and they look a lot more alike than Andrew's renditions of Stu, Rikk and Will.

So a few more days and I'm sure we'll all know who is who without T having to tell us.

Nullset · Post by **Nullset** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 7:48 am

Now that it's mentioned, I can tell that it's Will. His jaw and shoulders aren't Rikk like. But, I too made the mistake that Rikk was being absurdly blunt. For Rikk, anyway.

Loxley · Post by **Loxley** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 8:25 am

I find it interesting that Stu is among those defending the cigars. Perhaps he realizes that The General is going to mess up his world, that in this case, a successful bid for independance by the South would be a Bad Thing.

I understand Harry being there. He's former military. Will is a good choice, since he's a pretty tough guy. The Professor is leading... but why Stu (who seems tough enough to do the job, if a bit of a security risk and pariah right now) rather than Rikk? Or Alisin?

Those phasers are set to stun, right?

Loxley

Lordjulius · Post by **Lordjulius** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 8:39 am

Loxley wrote

I find it interesting that Stu is among those defending the cigars.

I want to know what the Professor was about to say when they were interrupted. "No unnecessary tampering. Besides, he -- "

Besides, he -- what? The Professor knows that Stu is important in some way not apparent to Will. Nor to me, except for the fact that as an outside observer, I can see there's something there.

Sebastian · Post by **Sebastian** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 9:30 am

On 2002-04-19 05:43, T Campbell wrote:
It's Will. Rikk doesn't like Stu much, but he'd never joke about something like that.

and Rikk Should never call the Professor simply "prof"
He'd call him "sir" or use the full title.

actually, i made that mistake, too but i thinked than Harry was Will and Will was Rikk: It seemed a little strange to me but after what Stu said about Alisin could even be understandable.

Tom the Fanboy · Post by **Tom the Fanboy** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 9:36 am

One of the main reasons I can see Stu fighting is because it's mostly AGAINST the General. He can recognize a bad guy when he sees one. I mean, he does watch plenty of sci-fi movies and if you don't know Darth Vader (tried to think of a more recent one that Stu would've seen but couldn't think of one) is a bad guy when you see him then you've got some problems. Also I can see this as Stu realizing that the whole point of this is not so much to keep the South from losing to the North, but to keep the COUNTRY from losing to the General. Even if he likes the confederacy I think he has enough loyalty to the present USA to not want that to happen.

Of course there's something there LJ! This is a Friday strip! T decided to be extra maliscious this week because not only are we waiting for the fight but we'll be waiting even longer (most likely) for T to have the Proffessor explain it.