Stella gets her poodle on
The characters start to develop their personalities.
The second week of FurBabies introduces a theme that will be repeated at least twice more in the next six months. Stella loves the latest poodle cut, no matter how odd it may be. She will always hopefully show it to Shawm, for his reaction. You can see the rest of the comic on the GoComics site today, June 13. Click here to go there.
It’s essential to have some things repeat in animation (cycles, reused animation) and in comics (characters, story lines). Charles M. Schulz described writing and drawing a comic strip as the hardest job in the world (artistically). It’s hard to come up with a new situation every day. Returning turning to an earlier story helps the cartoonist meets deadlines…and also helps develop the characters’ personalities.
I believe that Schulz created the repeat story line in comics. Correct me if I am wrong here, but I don’t recall seeing anyone doing this before PEANUTS. Possibly it began with Barney Google’s horse Spark Plug never winning a race (Charles M. Schulz was nicknamed “Sparky” after the horse, so there may be a connection here.) In any case, Schulz developed the repeat story line to a fine art. Some only lasted a while (Snoopy grabbing Linus’ blanket). Some ran for years. “I’ll hold the football for you, Charlie Brown, and you kick it.” “The Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch to bring toys to all the sincere children.”
I have a couple of repeat story lines, and as I get more familiar with the characters’ relationships and bring new ones into the strip, they will continue to develop. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, and Stella’s hairdo blocks the view.
I hope that you enjoy the strip.
It appears that Spark Plug DID win a race...once.