Comic book dialogue is VERY important... and not just because people pay me to write it, but because it can delightfully enhance when good - and seriously blunt when bad - the gag it's associated with!
Take this example from DELL FOUR COLOR #135 FELIX THE CAT (Dell Comics: Cover Date: February, 1947)...
A mad scientist has created a death ray that Felix has stolen and reversed the polarity, creating instead a "life-ray"! You know... bringing things to life, rather than killing them.
The expected chase ensues, and one of Felix's delaying tactics is to bring a billboard of a tough boxing champ to life, just in time to kay-o the mad scientist!
That is what puts the gag into "Laugh-Out-Loud-Territory"... at least for me! ...And that's why good dialogue matters!
Even The Beagle Boys know THAT!
10 comments:
SUCH a good example of the power of great comics dialogue! Great example partly because it's not just a joke tacked onto the pictorial story--though that can be a fine thing, too. But as you say, it's a line that actually builds on/under the pictorial story, that deepens the reader's experience of what's going on in the pictures. Now, it's not just a picture that's come alive to do something Felix needs it to do--it's a picture-person who has been feeling and thinking something all along, before Felix ever entered the scene. And for whom the punch is just as satisfying as it is for Felix! That line makes the whole gag special.
So, who is going to be the first to make the "punchline" pun, here?
Elaine:
That’s about as perfect a description of what I’m trying to convey as can be! Thank you!
“So, who is going to be the first to make the ‘punchline’ pun, here?”
Um, I *thought* about it, even when I was writing the post… but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it! So, I “punted on this one” and let the Beagle Boys take us out instead.
But, by your asking the question, I’d say you’ve already done it! Congratulations!
The Felix page does show that good dialogue can really punch up a story.
Ha! You and Elaine sure know how to… “sock it to me!”
You might say that pun fits the artwork — like a glove!
And, if Felix had held off on this action until December 26, it would have occurred on… “Boxing Day”!
December 26 is Disney/Lantz animator Don Patterson’s birthday (his younger brother Ray’s birthday is the same as Averi’s- November 23.)
…And Averi’s little sister Cici messed up the symmetry by not being born on Don Patterson’s birthday! …Shucks!
I bet you already knew this, but Ray worked at Disney before working at MGM on Tom and Jerry and stayed there until around 1952-53.
Knew it, but was vague on the dates.
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