From: matt@unidata.ucar.edu (Matt Hicks)
Subject: Re: something different (no really) re: Inconsistencies in comic strips
Organization: Scientific Computing Division/NCAR Boulder, CO
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 16:46:10 GMT

dxf12@po.CWRU.Edu (Douglas Fowler) writes:

218z
>     I tend to notice inconsistencies in things, perhaps because of my
>analytic nature - on the TV show M*A*S*H, for instance, the character that
>Alan Alda played had his home city in different states on different occasions.
>There were a few others there, and Star Trek is sometimes loaded with them.
>     I'm intrigued by the fact that I see very few in the funnies - this is
>ironic because the writers have to produce stuff every day, rather than
>20 scripts a year.  Today was the first inconsistency I'd noticed in a
>good while in a comic - in Hi & Lois, the twins were fighting over a toy,
>and the mother made them sit in different corners. (The punch line was the
>boy asking when they could come out fighting again, just like boxers.)  A
>similar type of joke was made last spring with the twins fighting, and the
>boy saying his cornier was better than hers, but the punishment was standing
>in the corner.  You'd think he'd stick with one or the other, but you'd
>think that about the TV shows, too.  Do they assume people won't notice?

It seems to me that the obvious answer to this (rather pointless) question
is that comic strips are nearly always solitary efforts (or the work of not
more than two people) while the other media mentioned here are collaborations
of 10's or, over the course of several TV seasons, 100's of people. It is
quite simple for a dedicated cartoonist to keep track of the world that he
has created in his imagination, and in which he lives everyday. Even on the
two-person collaborations, it is usually the job of one person to write the
text while the other illustrates the ideas, so only one person has to keep
track of the events.

But, Doug, it is important to remember that CARTOONS AREN'T REAL. One of the
beauties of comic strips and cartoons is their flexibility--you can do or 
say anything you want in a cartoon world. Thus, the question of consistency
in comic strips is largely pointless. In "The Far Side," a single panel con-
tained one dog that could ride a bicycle and one that couldn't--a glaring
inconsistency? No, a joke! Your Hi & Lois example is beyond trivial. Anyway,
the guy who used to draw Hi & Lois (Mort Walker?) died a year or so ago and
his strips are being drawn by his sons. Could be the punishment changed
with the passing of the torch, but I'd quicker think that it was _convenient_
to have the combatants go to their corners and sit down like boxers to add
a facet to the joke. 

TV series deserve to be treated differently since they are usually an attempt
to recreate some semblance of the real world. We can expect factual information
to remain the same in dramas and the less bizarre sitcoms. But human behavior
is notoriously self-serving and inconsistent, so a character has the leeway
of doing the unexpected when events dictate such a change. There's a fine line
between being observant and being anal retentive (as pointed out in an 
earlier post.) Have your fun, but don't go overboard.
--
_________________________________________________  /\_/\  _________________
Matthew  B.  Hicks     | Unidata Program Center | ((ovo))  The spotted owl:
matt@unidata.ucar.edu  | UCAR, PO Box 3000      | ():::()  the other "other
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.strips