I really like comic strips, do you?
Nov. 6th, 2022 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigidLike a lot of people my age (old but not ancient, withered but not yet dust) I spent Sundays poring over the newspaper's funny pages. We got The Chicago Tribune, whose politics aligned more closely with my parents' politics while also just being more classy. The Chicago Sun-Times was a TABLOID (gasp).
When I say "tabloid" I don't mean "circular devoted to nothing but gossip and scandal," I mean that a broadsheet is meant to be read while seated at a table or a desk or a big stretch of couch with sections pulled out to be read later. You have to have a lot of elbow room as you shake the pages around, fold them, etc. Any time you see someone reading a newspaper at the breakfast table it's a broadsheet style paper. A tabloid newspaper opens like a book or a magazine. You don't need much room to read it, you can read it while on the train or the bus without getting in the way of other people too badly. The only time it has special sections is on Sunday and that's mostly ads and maybe a television guide, and The Sunday Funnies.
That's how it used to be, anyway. Like most people in the USA I haven't picked up a physical newspaper in years.
Even though we subscribed to the daily paper we weren't always allowed to read the daily funnies section (and we were NEVER allowed to touch the crossword, although the Jumble was sometimes open to us). My dad needed full access to the newspaper for work-related reasons and didn't want us messing it up. We'd get access to them when we bundled the papers up for recycling, though, working through several weeks at a time. Comic strips hit differently when you're reading the story line in one go instead of one strip at a time, one strip every day.
It was an interesting study in pacing, in story telling, in the way that daily or serial stories are different from, say, an issue of a comic book which is different from, say, a graphic novel like "Watchmen" that is a complete product.
I've always loved comics and like a lot of people that is rooted in comic STRIPS. When they're good they're VERY good, but they don't get a lot of respect.
Because I'm a nerd who enjoys LOVING things I started a little community here on Dreamwidth called Four Panels. It'd be really fun if you join me, I'd love to see you there.
When I say "tabloid" I don't mean "circular devoted to nothing but gossip and scandal," I mean that a broadsheet is meant to be read while seated at a table or a desk or a big stretch of couch with sections pulled out to be read later. You have to have a lot of elbow room as you shake the pages around, fold them, etc. Any time you see someone reading a newspaper at the breakfast table it's a broadsheet style paper. A tabloid newspaper opens like a book or a magazine. You don't need much room to read it, you can read it while on the train or the bus without getting in the way of other people too badly. The only time it has special sections is on Sunday and that's mostly ads and maybe a television guide, and The Sunday Funnies.
That's how it used to be, anyway. Like most people in the USA I haven't picked up a physical newspaper in years.
Even though we subscribed to the daily paper we weren't always allowed to read the daily funnies section (and we were NEVER allowed to touch the crossword, although the Jumble was sometimes open to us). My dad needed full access to the newspaper for work-related reasons and didn't want us messing it up. We'd get access to them when we bundled the papers up for recycling, though, working through several weeks at a time. Comic strips hit differently when you're reading the story line in one go instead of one strip at a time, one strip every day.
It was an interesting study in pacing, in story telling, in the way that daily or serial stories are different from, say, an issue of a comic book which is different from, say, a graphic novel like "Watchmen" that is a complete product.
I've always loved comics and like a lot of people that is rooted in comic STRIPS. When they're good they're VERY good, but they don't get a lot of respect.
Because I'm a nerd who enjoys LOVING things I started a little community here on Dreamwidth called Four Panels. It'd be really fun if you join me, I'd love to see you there.
