Mitch4 sends this in: “Some kind of META, or 4th Wall … The META aspect is that it acknowledges being a comic. The allusion to the Silly Putty tradition of pulling off a layer of ink from the funny papers (and maybe applying it elsewhere, like a rubber stamp), here goes farther and shows us the removal of a layer of his physical body, leaving a skeleton. The artist’s hand reaching in to do this is reminiscent of Escher’s meta practices.”.
Boise Ed sends this in, and wonders: “Is it my imagination, or are cartoonists in general doing a lot more fourth-wall gags recently? This example is more blatant than most, though.”
Not a strong vote of confidence from the cartoonist.
I don’t know the revenue model at Comics Kingdom, but I see Wannabe has 309 followers (those who have make it one of their favorites). A lot of the comics with larger numbers are strips that have been around forever, either with new authors (Blondie, 13.8k; Family Circus 10.6k; Hagar the Horrible 13k) or simply classic reruns (Buz Sawyer 1.6k; Beetle Bailey classics 12.7k)
Newer strips tend to have much lower numbers. (Macanudo, 3k; Todd the Dinosaur 2k; TBD 900).
That’s not a comprehensive list,
Saving you the trouble of looking it up: “Estradiol is a form of estrogen, a female sex hormone that regulates many processes in the body. Estradiol is used to treat menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal changes, and to prevent osteoporosis (bone loss) in menopausal women. Estradiol is also used to treat low estrogen levels in women with ovarian failure. It is also indicated to treat certain types of breast cancer and prostate cancer.”
That last panel is intended to be intentionally confusing, so doesn’t count as a CIDU.
Boise Ed sends this in: “Here’s a different approach to the fourth-wall mania.”
I have read (but not personally confirmed) that the image-transfer trick with Silly Putty no longer works, because most newspapers have switched to water-based inks.
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No, I wouldn’t join in the idea that there has been a recent increase in fourth-wall cartooning. More likely: (1) As we become consciously attuned to it, we naturally find more; and (2) Many of the examples that CIDU readers send in, or that editors find, are some species of “meta” (or “self-conscious”) but not really the subcategory of “breaking the fourth wall” .
Yes, I’m wearing my “cranky taxonomist” shoes again. I’m accepting the full equivalence of “meta” and “self-conscious”, which can be applied to many art forms, whenever the content indicates an awareness of existing within a work of art or narrative. “Breaking the fourth wall”, deriving from theater practice, is a kind of meta but requires an awareness of an audience, and especially addressing the audience .
In line with that, I would say that the B.C. at the end of today’s post is clearly meta, of some species we could work out a name for if needed; but not an instance of fourth-wall breaking. They know they are in a drawn environment, but don’t involve the readers directly in any way.
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And for that matter, much the same applies to the Lío at 2nd position in today’s post — the one with my comment, where I gave in and called it fourth-wall as well as meta. But I’m retracting that now, to say instead it is some other form of meta, but not fourth-wall. It does not make reference to, nor address, the reader.
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Speaking of breaking the fourth wall, Dee Fish is bringing her longstanding character Dandy Q. Dog into her new strip Adventures in Dungeoneering. He’d break the fourth wall if he could find it. https://scontent-dfw6-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.99422-6/837663332_1063405689851084_547925718755818792_n.png?stp=dst-jpg_tt6&cstp=mx1280x1928&ctp=s1280x1928&_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=IpVAO0R1kRIQ7kNvwGbYBj-&_nc_oc=Ador8thUfzelhJzLgwLpUbF4FvrD8XTaN-qwCrxA5p5v_WK-tCPVnN55Pj9_Jw7D2tQ&_nc_zt=14&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw6-2.xx&_nc_gid=DI9MeFZXJHiuEQ0AqLNM4g&_nc_ss=7b2a8&oh=00_AQO_FXBKuVUcC5e36RFWlmVKTk6f9lZECAegzj9If_77Jg&oe=6ACAE011
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I think it is interesting in the Lio cartoon what did and didn’t transfer to the Silly Putty. The hair didn’t, but apparently the skin did. Unless he has no skin and just wears clothes over a skeleton. Not a complaint or anything, just an observation.
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Regarding revenue models for comic strips, Dan Thompson commented a couple of years ago on why he doesn’t produce more new strips for his very funny strip “Harley” over at GOComics. He said that he would have to reach an audience of 10,000 followers for his remuneration to be enough for the amount of work he put into the strip since Harley wasn’t syndicated to newspapers. At the time, his strip had about 8,000 followers (if IIRC) so it didn’t seem like an impossible goal. Well, last April, GOC culled whatever database it had of “dead” (both literally and figuratively) followers and the number of followers for all strips fell sharply. “Breaking Cat News” dropped from over 300,000 to under 5,000; Gasoline Alley from more than 20,000 to 5,000; “Chickweed” from 78,000 to 18,000. Dan’s strip dropped to 3,400 and seems unlikely to ever hit 5,000, let alone 10,000. I would guess that creators’ pay was adjusted but the decrease of followers was not uniform among strips.
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@totally2183f25f58: Thanks for that. With 309 followers, it does seem pretty unlikely for Wannabe to be a meaningful contribution to Luca Debus’s rent.
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You missed a big part of Rae The Doe here.
Rae the Doe is a trans comic, with the main character being MTF (hence why a doe would have antlers, explicitly called out in one of the very first strips). Estradiol is a component of hormone therapy for that transition.
I don’t fully get the joke in this one (maybe “Estradiol” sounds like “idol”, but that’s the best I have), but that’s why that specific hormone was mentioned.
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Somehow when I looked at today’s post, I only saw the Nancy entry. Been wondering all day what the heck all these comments were about, finally clicked through on Gnoman’s because I couldn’t remember ANY recent Rae the Doe entry! Glad I did, things make a LOT more sense now.
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I don’t follow Rae, so I don’t know the recurring characters. The last panel appears, to me, to be a newscast about a sleep-walking robber, which fits with the blackout mentioned in the middle panel.
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Antler growth in deer is hormone-driven. Females develop them sometimes in nature. If Rae is undergoing hormone treatment, I would expect that her antlers wouldn’t develop. But I’m far from an expert in the field.
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Fourth-wall and/or genre awareness happens frequently in Sally Forth. Instances usually referred to as “Forth Wall” in comments.
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