Black and white as originally published.
India Ink on paper.
It now occurs to me that it’s remarkable that the strip works without really answering the questions of “where” and “when.” On second thought, just by remarking about it doesn’t make it remarkable, and on third thought answering such questions is just my hang up and in the lacking of them the strip isn’t at all hurt. Here you go any ways: 1) they are strolling in one of the “backstage” areas of Happiland theme park, where customer/guests’ eyes are not permitted; 2) I like to think that they are on their way home having been released early on such a slow, cloudy day.
Panel 1: The bubble in his hat is a nod to scene from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” with Dopey in the washing Grumpy for supper sequence. The underwater aspect also reminds me of Jiminy Cricket in “Pinocchio” when he was looking for Monstro the whale, especially with Checkov holding an umbrella.
As I continue to color these full page “Sunday edition” strips, many years after they were first drawn, I inch closer to an as-of-yet elusive satisfactory process. The down side for “monotonae” readers, I suppose, is that it throws off any imagined TAGS posting schedule. Case in point, I just painted this one this evening, while the last TAGS posting was three months ago. I apologize for that.
I've always especially loved the whimsy and irony of this one!
ReplyDeleteI recall plotting this one with the thought, “They’re jumping in puddles, and then... ” and getting pretty far with the layout enjoying different ways of drawing puddle jumping without an actual finale. Suddenly and fortunately Connie had the last ironic line.
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