Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Chin-full (or -less) Wonder

Today's strip (Maid of the Mist) reminded me of the conversations we had when Brent's father was introduced.

"Why?" you say?

Well, this poll may explain:



I'll share my own thoughts later when we have results.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

With his ever-migrating mouth, it's hard not to see it as 'no chin, just turkey neck'.

Anonymous said...

Well, he is getting older. A progressive turkefication of his neck is not all that surprising.

Another Whiner said...

On another topic, what's with the really thick dark lines Kurtz has started using in places that clearly don't warrant them? Like the outline of Brent's head in the first panel.

Anonymous said...

Completely off the chin subject but I just noticed this when I looked again for the poll. Brent in the last two panels really have a whole Bloom County feel. Am I the only one who sees this?

tim said...

@brian:

I hadn't thought of it like that, but you're right, and it's what inspired the poll.

Especially in the third panel, Brent has less chin than usual. It makes him look like Binkley a bit.

Anonymous said...

I dunno I can see a chin when he looks to the side, but his mouth still bugs me me if I look at it too long, like it's gonna pop out the top of his head.

But who stares at Brent's mouth that long anyway? Weirdos that's who.

Anonymous said...

Re: Puss In Face- Is that title the dirtiest that PVP has ever been?

Anonymous said...

Wow. The punchline to the "cat head" strip really falls flat. I kept re-reading it, thinking I'd missed something. Cole's appearance is the same from the first panel, to the last, so it's not like anything new is revealed. Obviously Francis is denying his scratched up appearance to be nice to Cole, but it doesn't make it funny. Bleh. At least Cole looks kind of funny. But seeing Cole raise his glasses was creepy. Apparently the glasses are the same shape as his eyes? What explains Francis's weird alien bug eyes?

Duck said...

Re: Cole's "bug eyes", I challenge you to draw a comic that has realistic looking eyes and glasses. My guess is that Scott's explanation (besides how much more weird it would look otherwise) is that Cole's glasses are thick enough to basically magnify his eyes so they appear to fill the lenses.

Anonymous said...

"Well, he is getting older." - and the mouth? I didn't think getting older meant your mouth slowly creeps up the face to eventually lay claim to Mount Forehead.

Anonymous said...

Julia said...
On another topic, what's with the really thick dark lines Kurtz has started using in places that clearly don't warrant them? Like the outline of Brent's head in the first panel.

I actually liked it in this case. It provided a definite foreground/background effect so that SK could attempt to draw the falls. Especially in light of criticism Sk's been taking for indistinguishable linework.

R.W.McGee said...

Whoa...did Cole always have Cyclops glasses? That was a little weird, when he lifted them off his head, they looked like a visor.

I don't know if I caught the punch-line, but as scratched up as Cole's face appears to be, I think the pain would inform him that he has 'cat-face'

Another Whiner said...

@theoriginaljes

The thing is, that line was so dark I thought Brent was wearing headphones.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that chin is getting ridiculous. I don't doubt for a second his mouth will one day be above his eyes.

Also, many people have been wondering about Francis' eyes. Please allow me to present an explanation. Like Cole, Francis wears glasses and what we see are the bottoms of those glasses intersecting at his nose. Unlike Cole, Fancis is a dirty hippie and his shaggy do covers the tops and the arms of his frames. Not a perfect explanation because it would be tricky, to say the least, to have so much hair to completely cover the arms of your glasses, but I think it fits pretty well.

Anonymous said...

If this strip continues on the Alien theme, I'd hate to think what Scratch had down Cole's throat.

*urk* Oh, I threw up in my mouth a bit...

Jai said...

Julia is talking about the thick outline on the top of Brent's head in the very first panel of Maid of the Mist. Which she said, but apparently some people missed it. She's right, the line stands out very awkwardly. And - although this is unrelated - "Maid of the Mist" doesn't tie in with the strip, which is weird. Yes, I know about the Niagara ferry. Yes, this is about as worthless a thing to wonder about as can be imagined. Too bad, I'm wondering it anyway!

I liked Puss in face, mostly. I'm not sure what the heck Cole's doing in the third panel (I would suggest simply removing the "SNNRK"), but his terrible "cat-face" is great. Not-as-great is the attention that is drawn towards his crazy glasses in the third panel (I like the push-the-glasses-up pose and all that, but come on! Those glasses are CRAZY! Damn, Cole, get a new prescription already; we know your artist is capable of drawing decent glasses). The only thing worse would be to watch Cole try to untie (Or unclip? But if we're going strictly by appearances, then it's more likely to be an iron-on design) his horrible triangle necktie.

Admittedly, the punchline is a pretty weak because Francis' expression looks nigh-exactly the same (Despite different eyebrow positions - I guess because none of them lend themselves well to expressions of disgust, horror, or "shit, you look bad") in every panel. Too bad.

Anonymous said...

@ ds1:

Holy CRAP, I totally forgot Francis even WORE glasses. How long's it been since they were drawn in any way that made it obvious he was wearing them?

tim said...

Francis wears glasses?

Anonymous said...

He did originally. I'd totally forgotten about it until it was mentioned. It used to be that Kurtz drew the arms of the glasses over Francis' hair, but like ds1 said, now his hair covers the glasses.

Anonymous said...

"I didn't think getting older meant your mouth slowly creeps up the face to eventually lay claim to Mount Forehead."

1. I was just ribbing the turkey neck comment.

2. The fundamental structure of a man's primary facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) ensure that no matter how high his mouth goes, his eyes and nose will always be above it.

Even if it squishes his face in the process.

Anonymous said...

Pleased to be of service, everyone. I, too, have been reading the comic and this blog for quite some time so I thought it apt for me to chime in. I'm just thankful that I wasn't fed to the wolves on my first post.

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

DS1 - we're not that bad, as long as you don't come here and tell us to get a life and its just a comic strip we're generally fine.

Also, making a reasoned cogent point helps to0 :).

Anonymous said...

@ julia

I didn't see that. But, it would totally make sense --> Brent wearing noise-reducing headphones for his ipod at Niagara Falls...

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