Comments on: The Evolution of a comic strip and its characters – Part 1

By: J_Brisby

J_Brisby — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:15:50 +0000

I can’t explain it, but an awful lot of comic strips seem to evolve in out-of-control fashion after they’ve been around a while. It’s almost like Jim Davis is powerless to stop Garfield’s feet from getting bigger and bigger. When it happens, it’s usually a sign that the strip has jumped the shark, and I can’t help wondering if the artist is simply unable to see what’s happening, or if he sees it but is unable to stop it.

Other examples would include Opus’ nose in Bloom County/Outland/Opus, the goggle-eyes of the For Better Or For Worse characters, the bulbous heads of the alligators in Pearls Before Swine and Jason Fox’s bizarrely elongated head in FoxTrot.

And gosh, how is it possible that Garry Trudeau doesn’t realize that the monotonous repetition of imagery from one panel to the other was absolutely vital to the dry, ironic tone of Doonesbury? When he started making a point of varying each panel in the 80′s, he ruined the strip.

Sometimes I have to go back to older collections of these strips, just to remind myself of how visually appealing they used to be before their artists lost control over their characters’ evolution.

By: The Stumbleupon stampede - one amazing night of traffic » Ordinary Folk

The Stumbleupon stampede - one amazing night of traffic » Ordinary Folk — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:22:33 +0000

[...] phone with Tish last night, stumblers were lining it up droves to read the first part in my series “The Evolution of a comic strip and its characters”. I’d have to go back through the logs on StatCounter but I believe this may be a new personal [...]

By: It’s amazing how we lose track of time » Ordinary Folk

It’s amazing how we lose track of time » Ordinary Folk — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:01:15 +0000

[...] there wondering the last couple days if I’d forgotten about doing the third installment in my “Evolution of a comic strip and its characters” series, well you’re sort of right. I had almost forgotten. In my defense I’ve been a [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:55:27 +0000

Yep, he’s got a team of 20 or so Indiana handling a lot of things for him now. It must be nice :) It’s still interesting to look at how much it evolved over the years though. It certainly did look like a different strip in the beginning…lol.

By: John

John — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 01:49:55 +0000

Mike,
An interesting post, I’m a big fan of comic books/strips. One reason Garfield has probably evolved as much as he has over the years is that the creator of the strip does very little of the actual art nowdays. He turned over the artwork of the strip to assistants years ago, so they probably turned it into a little more of their style. It’s interesting to see how much he’s changed with the strips you show though, it almost looks like a different strip at the start, doesn’t it?

By: Sunday Samplings #8 « The Kat House

Sunday Samplings #8 « The Kat House — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:22:36 +0000

[...] of Ordinary Folk has written a great post about the evolution of a comic strip and its characters. You will see just how Garfield has evolved since 1978. This is the first post in a [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:52:05 +0000

@Tish: My shoes are like little boats…hehe.

@Bob: Glad you enjoyed the article :) You’re right the Simpsons were very different 20 or so years ago as well. I can still remember the little short “skits” of them on the Tracy Ullman show. They were just as funny as ever, but definitely looked pretty darn rough compared to today :)

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 03:08:17 +0000

Wow! What an interesting post. I had never seen “vintage” Garfield. I am reminded of how The Simpsons looked in the beginning vs. how they look now. Thanks for a great read!

By: Tish

Tish — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:00:40 +0000

You know what they say about men with big feet…

They have big shoes. :)

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:45:56 +0000

Hehe…I’m glad my feet don’t grow in proportion to my belly. They’re big enough as it is :P