MythTickle by Justin Thompson for May 07, 2009

Joe_Minotaur says: In a pig’s eye, a pig sty, is heaven on Earth, but a porcine pilot, in his plot, sought a higher berth. His life’s mission, a lofty ambition, was to reach into the blue. He even took lessons, over several sessions, and you know…the swine flew!   Joe I must say one of your better ones. Very creative.   2327 PDT [0627z 05-07]

Thanks Skulker! Not what everyone would call poetry, but I liked it.

“hold the planets” …Does that mean with or without the Pluto chaser?

Star light star bright First star I drink tonight

Twinkle twinkle little star Step right up to the celestial bar

Dom Perignon commenting on a glass of his bubbly.

And then the long task of figuring how to keep the stoppers in the bottles against the pressure of the bubbles…not solved until he discovered cork, and then developed the wire cage to hold that in place!

Very nice, Justin.

Does this mean that when I look at the stars it really is OK that my nose tickles?! And I thought it was just allergies.

First allergy I’ve heard of to stars… Although I often do sneeze when I go into bright sunlight.

If you’re reading this, Justin, I like this format of the strip better.

Thanks, yes, I am reading. I like the three frame thing because it reads faster and the joke hits you at a good speed. Humor is funnier when it’s faster. Also, it takes less time to do, less drawing and a lot less coloring. The drawback is that sometimes I need that extra panel for rhythm, to take a beat between a joke or a delivery. Plus some strips need a bit more detail, like if there are 3 characters involved, and when it shrinks down to the size frame you see today it’s a mess. I should always try to draw simpler anyway. Hm. Oh well, I’ll just do whatever is best for the individual joke and not get locked in I guess.

j

Some comics have to have 4 frames. For either pace or wordiness. Looking at today’s, I cannot imagine putting another frame in there. Where would it go? Before the last one? Too slow. Too much time for Boody to think before saying ‘OW’. Not a big enough payoff. So sometimes it’ll be three, sometimes it’ll be 4. Sadly, I can do that because I don’t have a bunch of newspaper editors to answer to. :)

Justin I appreciate how the pacing of the joke effects the number of panels. But know this too - I really like your artwork and four panels simply means one more to enjoy. You are truly the heir of Walt Kelly and Uderzo & Goscinny(Asterix). Your art carries the strip that much farther. So when are you going to put all this great work into a book?!

@Lycka, if you are having trouble with the smaller comics, above the strip you can hit “View Larger” to blow it up double size.

And, Justin, I’m glad you can use your flexibility to best effect. But, for you sake – and to support your continued work here – we might wish you were not so flexible because you had to fit a publisher’s format…

Thanks for that, it’s very nice to hear. Y’know what? Please write the editors if you’d like to see me in your papers. They probably don’t know about it.

j