This is the last Sunday I drew before my hiatus. It's one of those strips that tickles me no end, which is kinda rare.What I most enjoy is a strip that spins in a circle then takes off in an unexpected direction and this one does that if nothing else. I hit a wall in writing it until the phrase "spray cheese" popped into my head then all the pieces fell into place (note to playwrights, novelists & New Yorker short story writers; when in a bind think "spray cheese"). Otherwise the only thing I struggled with was the expression on Alice's face. That took a stack of paper and half a bottle of ProWhite to achieve; you'll note the relative stiffness in Alice's face in the first panel after I'd tweaked it into lifelessness. By the third panel I had it down.
Alice, you'll remember, has
tried to
wink before.
UPDATE: Regarding "squince" - I was too
late. Though mine incorporated "wink." For what that's worth.
OMG I made a special trip to the store for spray cheese just before reading this. Put in on Chicken in a Biskit crackers; you won't regret it!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I remember my teacher Sister Theresa trying to teach me to wink in third grade with little success. I eventually learned by pulling my eyelid down with my finger, letting go and seeing if I could hold it there.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm all hungry...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice....
ReplyDelete...I have a practical this Tuesday where I have to name all the major arteries and veins in the human body-rather then just leave the spaces for the structures I can't remember blank, Ill just write in "spray cheese"
Oh my that -is- quite tickly, I love how it feels like "just stuff happening" and yet still tickle that much. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite curious about the ProWhite struggles though, would love to see a subtle scan of your work sometime, showing these battles. I never use it, but maybe I have never found the good stuff...
It was fabulous and I was laughing when I read it. Good luck, Richard.
ReplyDeleteYours is the first strip I read when I open the paper every day. I don't know how you think of these things--well, I do.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the daily laugh!
There will probably a lot of people playing with "spray cheese" at superbowl parties today and "squinceing" :)
ReplyDeleteG. Friday: YES! Spray cheese on Chickn-in-a-Biskit crackers is teh awesum!
ReplyDeleteAnd I had my partner worried about me when he heard me LMAO over the last panel. He had to ask me if I was laughing or crying. Pretty much both.