3D Or Not 3D

Here's the latest WaynoVision comic for your enjoyment:

I've mentioned in previous posts that it's always satisfying to come up with a wordless gag. (We're not counting "EXIT," since that's a bit of scenery, not dialog or a caption.) This is the second silent comic to appear since we launched WaynoVision back in December. You might recall the earlier one, which puzzled a few readers.

I sometimes preview gags with friends and colleagues to get a feel for how successful they are. This one got a delayed reaction from some of my test subjects, which is nice. The teenage cyclops blends in with the other patrons, but once you notice him, he becomes very prominent, so the unresolved tension lasts for an extra beat, resulting in a little more relieved laughter when you put the pieces together.

This drawing is a bit unusual, in that crucial information is supplied by the color (in the lenses of the 3D glasses). If the gag had run in black and white, it would be difficult for the glasses to be recognizable as 3D lenses. Gray tones could have been used, but wouldn't have worked very well. In this case, having the comic run online only, in color, is an advantage.

The final comic was pretty close to my original sketch. And, yes, I drew the sketch in July of last year.

When I looked at the sketch later, I realized that the layout was reminiscent of a classic Charles Addams cartoon, showing Uncle Fester in a theater, giggling at a sad movie. The gag is different, though there's a similarity in concept, with one moviegoer being somehow different from all the others.

A little research revealed that this appeared in The New Yorker back in 1946, and that the original art sold for a little over $40,000 at an auction in 2012.

My research also confirmed that the characters who came to be known as The Addams Family, by way of the mid-1960s TV show, only acquired their names when the show was in development. They were never given names in his cartoons.

New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff discussed the work of Charles Addams in reply to a series of questions from New York Times writer Patrick Healy back in 2010.

Thank you for reading the blog. Please check out WaynoVision every Monday. Each mouse click brings me closer to that new pencil sharpener I've had my eye on.