Michael Leddy on the unintentional surrealism of Hi and Lois
BB pal Michael Leddy told me that he has some real problems with contemporary Hi and Lois strips. I agree. The lousy art is filled with seemingly unintentional misrepresentations of reality that sometimes look like the surreal sets from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Michael said it's getting so bad that he thinks they may now be putting stuff in the strip just to screw with his head. Check out Michael's Orange Crate Art blog for many more examples. Hi and Lois crit on Orange Crate Art
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Wow, this guy must be fun to see a movie with.
I'm reminded of an imdb discussion I had on "The Thing", where one user insisted that the events of the film were impossible because the Antarctic Treaty disallowed the kinds of artillery found on the base.
Is the real estate agent working outside her storefront to save on AC costs?
(Look at the window.)
aww man romulusnr, you beat me to the punch on the backwards window joke.
man..talk about a slow news MONTH for this guy. this is the best stuff he could come up with to blog about?
"ohohoh i see the books in the background are all pink...and so is the book case! is that some sort of feminist thing???" hardy harhar
So, Lois is a real estate agent? I wonder if she got kickbacks from corrupt subprime lenders.
Someone may have too much time on their hands.
Art (I would be hesitant to call comic strips "art", but...) is supposed to be a representation of reality. Or even completely abstract surrealism. Who cares if the house has weird windows, or if you can't see the front door?
I'm hoping these little ticks in the comix aren't actually making anyone feel insulted. People probably give the average comic strip about two seconds, and if they haven't gotten the joke by then, they move on, because who cares. It would take too much mental effort for your average reader to cognize the word "real estate" whilst it was backwards, and then process that information along with the dialog. Not much can be done about it.
romulusnr @2, Exactly! Michael commented on that in his blog post. And for the record, I don't think he's taking the strip too seriously as some of you have suggested. He's just having fun pointing out the ridiculousness!
During the 90's, Blondie did the same thing to me. I would constantly shout at the strip "It's the 90s! screw that dithers scrooge, get another job!"
Mayve it's not a window. Maybe it's a huge mirror and the window is on the right, out of the frame, and we're seeing a reflection of the window in the mirror, in which case the orientation of the lettering is A-OK. Naaah.
But, hey it's only a simple comic strip.
Nancy and Sluggo went through the looking-glass like this too ... I used to cut them out and put them on co-worker's desks at night, with a post-it saying "Knew you'd love this!" ...
uh, read a book.
the specialist @11, Be serious! ;)
2. Developing paranoid feelings.
Not good signs, Mike. Go cold turkey on the "Hi and Lois" right now. If you can't, see a psychiatrist.
On a trivial note, after not having read the strip since I was a kid, I now realize the significance of their last name, Flagston. For those just as slow as me, add "e" at the end. Thanks to Boing Boing for solving another one of life's mysteries.
So, it's never occurred to some of you guys that others may see more than you, or see more precisely than you do?
If the differences between one panel and another don't bother you, fine. Just admit that you see art at lower resolution than Michael Leddy does. Don't insist there must be something wrong with him for caring about it.
@#13: My comment to David about the strip's creators messing with my head was meant as a joke. Sheesh! No tinfoil hat here. : )
Jim Dandy,
Flagston + e = Flagstone
I still don't see the significance.
I'd like to think I'm observant enough to notice the backwards lettering , but I think the cartoonist wanted to save the reader the effort of figuring out what ETATSE LAER means and make sure they get it.
However, the things like window panes that change size from one frame to the next, I could see calling for more attention to detail on the part of the cartoonist. Maybe it's a kind of inside joke or something, or he's just gotten lazy, or never was a detail-oriented person. It's still a pretty good comic strip.