Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for July 07, 2009

Now we’re getting to the crux of the matter.

What is it? Diabetes? Heart problem?

Oh the suspense is killing me!!!!

Well then, get to the matter at hand already.

Hope Sergio will not have brain tumor or cancer. Let pray for him to getting better. He is such a nice gentleman.

gaah, Wildmustang1262, exactly my fear!

Something Carmen made?

Hey guys. My grandmother had a stroke on Saturday. Pray for her ok? We didn’t think she’d survive the weekend.

She’s on my list, Librarian. And, I don’t have to tell you that your local library can help make her recuperation easier, do I?

Not at all, my friend.

carmy said, about 9 hours ago

What is it? Diabetes? Heart problem? they can be related

we’ll find out soon

thoughts and prayers for your grandmother LibrarianInTraining

I originally thought that this was going to all be a charade on Papi’s part, to punish Baldo for staying out past curfew; that’s the unresolved issue we were dealing with 10 days or so ago (I think the last we saw of that plot was a close-up of Papi going “Hmmmm….”). But with the arrival of the paramedics and now the hospital trip, it’s pretty clear he’s not faking (if he IS faking, and everybody else is in on it, I’ll be disappointed). But if it DOES turn out that his condition is directly related to Baldo’s breaking curfew, I likewise would consider that cheap and manipulative; teenagers push their boundaries, and that’s NORMAL and HEALTHY, and instilling fear that the slightest transgression will lead to parental death is a very bad message.

I don’t think it’ll be a brain tumor or cancer; the fact that Baldo and Gracie’s mother is dead is enough of a tinge of melancholy for a strip of this nature. Maybe diabetes, though; it’s SERIOUS but manageable, and realistic without being melodramatic.

When Lynn Johnston decided that, in future new strips (if we ever GET any new strips again), the characters in “For Better or For Worse” wouldn’t age anymore, I thought she had written herself into a corner with Grandad. She can’t realistically cure him of his stroke damage, and I don’t know whether it would fit her new direction to have him die, but having him linger around the fringes of the strip forever wheelchair-bound and speechless is just creepy.

LibrarianInTraining - our prayers are with you and you’re family.

i could say what it is (we all know) but knowing that Carlos castellanos is on the site…

LibrarianInTraining said, about 5 hours ago

Hey guys. My grandmother had a stroke on Saturday. Pray for her ok? We didn’t think she’d survive the weekend

LibTrain,….we will keep praying for your grandmother’s. My mum’s and pop’s sides in ancient families had the strokes. Today, I hope the medical will to get better for people’s healths.

LibrarianInTraining, your grandmother is on my list too.

Fritzoid, people with speech loss in wheelchairs are not “creepy”. That’s in the eye of the beholder, I fear. Lynn Johnston was right in pointing out that people who lose the use of some of their faculties don’t lose their humanity -or their sense of humour.

L.I.T. I shall also keep your grandmother and your family in my prayers, good luck and God bless. Carlos, you weren’t kidding when you said there would be a cliffhanger, this one is a doozy.

Librarianintraining, you and your family are also in my prayers. I hope things go well for you, from a Library Tech to you! :-)

For a comic strip, even one which has evolved into a “serious” strip, having a continuing character who can’t speak, can’t move, can’t interact with any other character in the strip AT ALL, and can’t get either better or worse (no pun intended) is creepy.

Does this situation occur in life? Yes it does. Do I have compassion for those real-life people so afflicted, and those who love them? Yes I do. But in real life time takes its toll. Had Johnston kept to aging the characters in real time, stroke-victim Grandad would sooner or later go the way of all flesh, and the story arc would be resolved. As it stands, he’s consigned to a half-life indefinitely. That’s creepy.

I think we’ll have to agree on this one, fritzoid. I don’t see your logic at all. One of the good things about the previous incarnation of Johnston’s strip was that, like all good graphic narrative, it embraced the whole of life.

Maybe it’s because in Europe we tend to take it more seriously as a literary genre. Although I notice that Arlo and Janis are growing older too …

I DO take the genre seriously, and I believe as well that fiction should embrace the whole of life. But let’s look at how such a character might have fared in other media:

If it were a novel, that would be close-ended. The wheelchair-bound, speechless character could maintain that status throughout the work, since it depicts only a small portion of a person’s life. The same goes with a feature film. The realities of having a loved one in that state could be dealt with honestly, and there would be no necessity to have that person either die or be cured by the end of the film.

In a live-action serial drama such as a standard American soap opera, such a character might be introduced (or an established character might suffer a similar affliction), but the realities of the aging process are such that any such character would be around for a limited time. If, on the contrary, you place a YOUNG character in this condition, thus having an individual who can’t speak or interact with anyone else in the show for a potentially LONG time, I doubt the writers would keep pushing the wheelchair before the cameras for very long before writing that character out. There’s no possibility for character development, and only a limited number of compelling storylines for the OTHER characters.

In a comic strip, we of course have the advantage of being able to read Grandad’s thoughts, so even though he can’t interact with the other people in the strip he can interact in a certain way with the reader. But how long can such a relationship be kept interesting? If he doesn’t improve (which would be unrealistic) but he doesn’t deteriorate (which would bely the illusion that no time is passing), then there’s nothing that can be done with the character except to wheel him out every month or so to remind the audience “Oh yeah, their Grandad is in a wheelchair. Isn’t that realistic?” His destiny I fear is to become a prop. He’s less an agent for plot development than the dogs.