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Eric: If they get married, would Esther need to change her name to The Girl?
(From Scary-go-Round! Click on the thumbnail for full sized Spaniel Cognition!)
Did you see what John Allison did there?
Oh, I don't mean The Boy and Esther indulging in makeouts. I mean, they've been spending days trapped in a Caravan in Sodden Wales. Sooner or later, there would be kisses and the sex and all. That's just part of the fun of adventure.
But what we've had here is a connection between Allison's works, thematically speaking. A few days back we had a flashback to Bobbins that made me a happy person (it did my heart good to flash back to the halcyon days of Rich Tweedy and my own congestive heart failure. Nothing makes the heart grow fonder like reminding it of the time it swelled three times its size and stopped working so good). Now, while it was a chance to see the way Amy can't remember her hair used to be magenta instead of crimson (oh, what a sad person of details I am), it was also a chance to reconnect to a different time in our heroines' lives. A time when romantic escapades were the order of business and Shelley was less a multiple-death victim and somewhat inept adventuress and more a ginger ninja.
It's life, really. You grow older. You grow up. Things change.
And the next generation comes after.
Really, it's a hallmark of Allison's work. Once upon a time it was Rich Tweedy and Scotty Dean, Fallon Young and dear old (not yet completely batshit insane) Holly West. But time passes, characters go insane, and other characters get fired so hard they spontaneously no longer exist. As he moved into Scary-go-Round, he moved into Tessa and Rachel, Ryan and Hugo. And eventually horrible things happened to two and a half of them and the last faded into the background. Characters come and go. Life goes on. Evolution happens.
And here we are. Erin, who has always been the serious and somber Winters girl, now turns to Amy for advice. The Boy muddles his way through, only to finally have the heart of semi-dark Esther. Even as the pair turn to inhospitable Welsh adventure to find Tim Jones, sent into exile, I find myself flashing back to Holly heading off to the Himalayas to find Tim's brother Van Dyke Jones. (Only instead of Devil Bear Battles there were Hallucinatory Yeti Stripteases.)
In short, things change. Things remain the same. Tackleford endures. And as Allison says himself, on his About Page, change hangs in the air like a big, hungry bat, and at any time it could strike.
And through them all, we'll be reading, 'cause the one constant is how good this strip is.
Posted by Eric Burns at August 24, 2006 1:14 AM
Comments
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.websnark.com/nav-commenters.gif)
posted at August 24, 2006 10:07 AM
The best thing about that strip is the counter displaying The Boy's rapidly dwindling IQ.
It's funny because it's true. So very, very true.
Comment from: Mr Myth posted at August 24, 2006 10:18 AM
Yeah, I have to say, I've always been very impressed by the fact that Allison can basically completely switch casts in his comic without losing reader interest.
And at least thus far Shelley has remained part of the core cast, despite the various traumas endured.
Comment from: Ford Dent posted at August 24, 2006 10:26 AM
I think the most interesting thing is that Esther has apparently had her eye on the Boy the entire three years she's known him. I had always assumed the Boy's first awkward sexual conquest would be the younger Winters, because Esther has done a bang-up job of not showing her affections to the Boy (either that or I'm really, really obtuse).
And the dwindling IQ box for The Boy was one of the most true-to-life things I've ever seen.
I knew a guy that we referred to as The Boy in high school. I think we tasered him once.
Comment from: Mr Myth posted at August 24, 2006 10:58 AM
Oh, there has been a few hints of Esther's previous interest in the boy, though lately I had thought she might step aside for Erin, since the two had become good friends.
But Devil Bears can easily change the course of events, as proven time and time again.
Comment from: miyaa posted at August 24, 2006 11:27 AM
See, I would have thought if Esther and The Boy would get married, The Boy would have demanded a proper name, like say, Andrew. (which means manly. Also happens to be my name. And I'm not manly.)
And I could have sworn what really scared the bears off was a bear-eating snarky. But I could be wrong. Anyone actually eaten bear?
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at August 24, 2006 11:33 AM
It looked like a shark/bird hybrid of some sort. I assume it's something the goblins cooked up.
Comment from: iconoclast posted at August 24, 2006 11:53 AM
As Chris Wright and others have said...
the IQ thing? totally true. women are brainwave vacuums when there's a chance of makeouts or sexings.
i suppose it's the same for gay men too
that whole having two brains and only enough blood to run one...bad business, that.
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at August 24, 2006 12:19 PM
Oh, and I forgot to add: not since Susan Cooper has a storyteller been able to so accurately capture the peril and rampant humidity of Wales...
Comment from: SeanH posted at August 24, 2006 1:58 PM
I think it's an owlshark, a creature perhaps even more questionable than the famous owlbear.
Comment from: quiller posted at August 24, 2006 2:05 PM
Perhaps Esther should change her name to That Girl...
I'm struck by the utter absurdity of the thought of any woman screaming out "Oh, The Boy!" in the throes of passion.
And the creature looked like a Landshark to me.
Random disjointed comments brought to you by the letter "Q".
Comment from: quiller posted at August 24, 2006 3:49 PM
Ah that's it. An inland shark!
Comment from: HydrogenGuy posted at August 24, 2006 5:09 PM
Do you suppose that tomorrow - or in the coming weeks - he will become known as The Man?
Comment from: miyaa posted at August 24, 2006 9:28 PM
Ye, gods. The amount of puns and witty phrases he could incite with The Man. It's enough to turn it into, I don't know, Achewood.
Comment from: Nentuaby posted at August 25, 2006 12:10 AM
http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20060825
LOL.
I think... I think the Snark was a day early.
Today's comic is brilliantly absurd. I finished it, left the page, and THEN began laughing out loud in the most deliciously literal manner.
Comment from: JoeFF85 posted at August 25, 2006 12:12 AM
The Boy is The Man... but it didn;t last. If he'd just gotten a few more boinkings under his belt then it might have had a chance to set so he wouldn't have reverted. Poor The Boy.
Also: Esther's "Good Morning" look totally looks like a "good morning, would you care for roudn two before breakfast" to me. Woo, way to go The Boy.
Comment from: dreamshade posted at August 25, 2006 7:47 AM
Oh, man, today's follow-up is perfect.
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