The first one seems a little weak. The repeatedly shifting position of the eagle doesn’t convey any sense of “flight”, and the gag itself is merely a reworking of Aesop’s fable about the “fox and the (sour) grapes“.
Kilby. I don’t know. The fact that the eagle is suspending in a solid background and that he *is* an eagle was enough to indicate flight I think.
And I don’t think it’s the sour grapes fable, which is about the inconsistency of belittling something just because you failed to achieve it, but rather an angry cursing the person who wronged you. The eagle doesn’t think the mouse will cause indigestion and the eagle doesn’t go home telling a story about how he avoided a poisonous mouse and it’s a good thing, the eagle goes home bitter and hoping a bad happens to the hawk who stole what he thinks was rightfully his.
But…. it’s pretty weak. And eagle is frustrated so the punch line is …. he yells something in anger… I guess it’s funny because we can recognize it. Actually I didn’t think it was that bad. Humorous at a glance, but a joke that with any analysis you realize what appears to be there, under logic *shouldn’t* be there.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Scratch doesn’t want the hawk to eat the mice he wants to eat.
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The first one seems a little weak. The repeatedly shifting position of the eagle doesn’t convey any sense of “flight”, and the gag itself is merely a reworking of Aesop’s fable about the “fox and the (sour) grapes“.
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P.S. Jennifer’s suggestion is perfect: it would have been a significant improvement to reverse the order and treat these two as one extended strip.
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Kilby. I don’t know. The fact that the eagle is suspending in a solid background and that he *is* an eagle was enough to indicate flight I think.
And I don’t think it’s the sour grapes fable, which is about the inconsistency of belittling something just because you failed to achieve it, but rather an angry cursing the person who wronged you. The eagle doesn’t think the mouse will cause indigestion and the eagle doesn’t go home telling a story about how he avoided a poisonous mouse and it’s a good thing, the eagle goes home bitter and hoping a bad happens to the hawk who stole what he thinks was rightfully his.
But…. it’s pretty weak. And eagle is frustrated so the punch line is …. he yells something in anger… I guess it’s funny because we can recognize it. Actually I didn’t think it was that bad. Humorous at a glance, but a joke that with any analysis you realize what appears to be there, under logic *shouldn’t* be there.
LikeLiked by 1 person