Then again, isn't it ALWAYS?
Here is the inside front cover gag from ADVENTURES OF MIGHTY MOUSE # 4 (St. John, Cover Date: May, 1952), featuring a lesser-known Terrytoons character, Little Roquefort.
We'll enlarge the gag panels for your reading pleasure. Take special note of the LAST PANEL, where I feel the DIALOGUE makes all the difference!
Click to further enlarge, if necessary!
Consider that "Percy the Cat's" line here could have been something to the effect of: "Now what do you suppose went wrong?", and the gag would still have been successful - because Percy was thwarted by something he was completely unaware of... Little Roquefort's being inspired by some "words of wisdom".
However, the gag would have worked strictly "on it's own slapstick merit", with Percy's closing line being of no consequence, rather than the line ADDING humor to the gag!
The unexpected - and, from his perspective, unexplained - backfiring of Percy's plan is far more humorously bolstered by the closing line as written!
...Especially if it were delivered in deadpan!
And that's why good dialogue can make a bad story good, while bad dialogue only serves to further MAGNIFY a bad story's flaws - and good dialogue always makes a good story great!
I'll leave you discerning readers to decide which is which, of the two unattributed dialogue examples below...
Any questions?
6 comments:
That cat can't understand why the mouse wouldn't eat a cheese loaded with firecrackers? If he fully understood gratefulness, he be appreciating it by now!
Ah, this reminds me of the great lines William Van Horn put in the mouths of villains who were falling through the air. In "The Ghost of Kamikaze Ridge" Hank the Hermit observes, as he's plummeting through the air behind the cabin full of Ducks he pushed off the mountain, being pulled by the rope end that caught his foot: "Mother told me there would be days like this!" And in "Deck Us All!" Jones is falling off the side of a mountain--thanks to his most recent aggression in the current battle with Donald--when he says, "Why do the fates despise me so?" I note that in the German translation, he says, "What have I done to deserve this?" I imagine Van Horn's quirky dialogue is sometimes a challenge to translate...still, that's One Less Laugh for the Reader.
Sometimes an unexpected line does make a gag stand out more.
The art on this Mighty Mouse comic really captures the look of the cartoons themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the Terrytoons animators drew this.
‘Rehab:
You write: “That cat can't understand why the mouse wouldn't eat a cheese loaded with firecrackers? If he fully understood gratefulness, he’d be appreciating it by now!”
Can’t speak for poor Percy, but *I* very much appreciate the “irony” – and humor – of your comment!
Well done!
Elaine:
You get EXACTLY what, in my roundabout way, I attempted to say in this post!
William Van Horn, especially at his height in the 1990s, was a master at wonderful lines of dialogue that pushed some of his already-over-the top humor… into orbit!
But he, it must be assumed, was gloriously demonstrating the lessons he learned from Carl Barks – who would have his characters say the most amazing things in response to some unexpected setback, physical pratfall, or astounding event that might occur in their presence!
My most favorite of which is found in Barks’ “The Twenty-Four Carat Moon”, when a new planet literally comes into being before his eyes, Uncle Scrooge COULD merely have said (in some “Fresh and Modern” dialect): “Gasp! I can’t believe it!” - but, thankfully, in Carl Barks’ good old “Funny and Clever” world, he said: “I’m afraid to open my mouth! My brains might fall out!”
I have LOVED that line ever since reading that story’s first American reprint in WALT DISNEY COMICS DIGEST # 8, toward the end of 1968!
So much so that I found a place to “tribute” it in “The Wonderful Wishing Crown”, for the 70th anniversary of Uncle Scrooge!
You can find panels reproducing both Carl Barks’ use of the line, as well as my own tribute TO that use, deep within the linked post above!
And, I need not say that “Funny and Clever” has always been (from Floyd Gottfredson and his various writers, to Carl Barks, to Vic Lockman, to Don Rosa and William Van Horn, to Geoffrey Blum and Gary Leach, to the “Core Four”) - and should always remain - a hallmark of the best Disney comics have to offer!
Deb:
The St. John MIGHTY MOUSE comics were drawn by actual Terrytoons animators like Connie Rasinski, Art Bartch, and Jim Tyer.
That, along with better stories than you might expect, given the nature of the original Mighty Mouse theatrical cartoons, made these comics special. Recurring villains like “Dr. Ohm” and “The Claw” (both pictured at the right side of the cover at the top of this post), along with good old nemesis “Oil Can Harry”, and even a “Lois-Lane-like” girlfriend named “Mitzi” made them unique! In an uncharacteristic statement coming from the likes of me, the St. John MIGHTY MOUSE comics were worlds better than even the Dell and Gold Key versions… and you won’t hear me say THAT very often!
Yet, few comic book aficionados have even heard of St. John today, as they faded away in the 1950s.
HERE is but a small array of classic St. John Mighty Mouse covers! Tell me they’re not great!
In the mid-1960s, Gold Key reprinted a handful of St. John Mighty Mouse stories (with new covers) and, seeing them for the first time – as I did back in 1964-1965 – was like seeing Golden Age Carl Barks!
St. John issues, I’m finding, tend to be on the more pricey side and are more often found in lesser condition. The small number of Gold Key reprints – pictured HERE - may be a better way to introduce yourself to this great (and, alas, forgotten) material!
You’ll be seeing more of St. John’s MIGHTY MOUSE comics (and the wonders and oddities therein) in other “Adventures in Comic-Boxing” posts.
Post a Comment