I'm honestly in awe of what a spectacularly lazy cartoonist G has become over the years. All the way from doing a very solid Gately impression to this.
Not only do we have the typical 'loose arm placed behind the back so I don't have to draw an actual arm & hand,' but now the arm is tucked back even further, as if someone unseen is wrenching it in an armlock. And then there's the hand clutching a likely bible, but seemingly pinching it between forefinger & thumb for some ungodly reason. Nevermind the idea that the pastor seemingly can't even walk to the door of his chapel without needing the comfort & security of his good book, ala Linus from Peanuts. And then there's the hilarious 'stained glass windows,' which moreso look like some demented mashup of hot wax lamps with the weirdest floating gumballs ever. Oh, and bonus pts for the tree to the back left, which decided at some point to embark on a ~10° angle change for... reasons.
All that's to reiterate that I'm genuinely impressed by the whimsical sloth on display. I'm not sure I've ever seen another cartoonist go this route, other than the concept aging out and the gags getting staler and less inspired. That's common as dirt, really. But Gallagher... just for gits & shiggles I want to see how far you can run with this direction before losing significant readership. Like, eventually reduce the characters to little more than blobs, with objects becoming little more than rectangles. Captions would be reduced to the usual keywords, but with no added context-- like meat, bro!, ham, gum and gravy.
And again, all that snarked, I somehow feel like G is holding some kind of sublime mirror up to reality, with me missing the real joke yet again. 😄
I think you're missing some key symbolism and your analysis remains too shallow, and Gallagher doesn't get the credit it deserves.
The stained glass on the left contains 13 blobs. The one on the right contains 14 blobs. As we read from left to right, it is obvious it symbolises leaving an era of wickedness and pain to an era of beatitude and perfection (2×7).
You got the angle in the tree but you missed the idea that even crooked ways can lead to great futures.
The pastor is not showing one of his hands because God (the pastor) works in mysterious ways (does not show his hand).
And he's not holding a bible. The size of the book makes it clear it's actually a notebook where he draws lewd fanfiction of Sonic. It's a reminder of the imperfection of the human desires despite the perfection of the soul.
Noticed the red wall? Well, red is the colour of blood, the colour of violence - the violence that inhabits every person but it still can be contained in the wall (free will).
What a great cartoon, maybe a bit too religious but the messages are so deep.
The church bothered me for a few reasons. He doesn't pick the colors so that is on the colorist. But the design is absolutely horrible. He is always designing a new church but always the same priest. Which causes problems with just how many parishes this one guy has.
You mention the tree. I've long noticed that a lot of his vertical lines aren't at 90° to the horizontal portions of the frame. They tend to drift to the left by a few degrees as they go from top to bottom. I saw a video of him drawing and he uses a triangle but doesn't make sure it's parallel with the top or bottom of the frame.
And sometimes Heathcliff is hiding some impossible geometry behind him that I have to clean up when I remove him.
It would be interesting to see him do some attempts at his older Gately based style. Maybe we would get more expensive open eyes from orange cat. These days open eyes are rare.
In terms of consistency of line, another example is the sidewalk's concrete slab situation. For some reason G didn't even bother drawing the front slab's dividing lawn such that it meets the lawn cleanly. No, it's like someone very oddly made a point of having the corner of the lawn protrude in to the sidewalk just for 'this'll show 'em!' sake. Yeah, nitpicky as hell, but...
This also reminds me of the Gately article that I never finished doing OCR text correction on, which was a chore for ~six pages. In the interview, he comes across as a major perfectionist, always looking to top what he's done before, and of course that can be a disastrous impediment to meeting deadlines. My sense is that a lot of successful cartoonists are like that to some extent, but the fact that a daily strip is mandated usually means that these are hugely driven, talented people. Hergé famously had nervous breakdowns trying to maintain his Tintin output, which IIRC was one full page per two weeks for the magazines. And then there's Gallagher... who was once seemingly like that, yet found some kind of miraculous loophole in the system. Or brilliant new formula, to be respectful. Somehow the flaws and laziness make it all the more interesting, a bit like Mystery Science Theater material.
And sometimes Heathcliff is hiding some impossible geometry behind him that I have to clean up when I remove him.
Yeah, I sometimes notice that and am again impressed by the work you do via your phone.
He doesn’t pick the colors so that is on the colorist.
The usual deal is for a cartoonist to use a key to indicate to the colorist what colors should be used where, but maybe G doesn't bother? I must admit it would be on point, lol.
7 replies
I'm honestly in awe of what a spectacularly lazy cartoonist G has become over the years. All the way from doing a very solid Gately impression to this.
Not only do we have the typical 'loose arm placed behind the back so I don't have to draw an actual arm & hand,' but now the arm is tucked back even further, as if someone unseen is wrenching it in an armlock. And then there's the hand clutching a likely bible, but seemingly pinching it between forefinger & thumb for some ungodly reason. Nevermind the idea that the pastor seemingly can't even walk to the door of his chapel without needing the comfort & security of his good book, ala Linus from Peanuts. And then there's the hilarious 'stained glass windows,' which moreso look like some demented mashup of hot wax lamps with the weirdest floating gumballs ever. Oh, and bonus pts for the tree to the back left, which decided at some point to embark on a ~10° angle change for... reasons.
All that's to reiterate that I'm genuinely impressed by the whimsical sloth on display. I'm not sure I've ever seen another cartoonist go this route, other than the concept aging out and the gags getting staler and less inspired. That's common as dirt, really. But Gallagher... just for gits & shiggles I want to see how far you can run with this direction before losing significant readership. Like, eventually reduce the characters to little more than blobs, with objects becoming little more than rectangles. Captions would be reduced to the usual keywords, but with no added context-- like meat, bro!, ham, gum and gravy.
And again, all that snarked, I somehow feel like G is holding some kind of sublime mirror up to reality, with me missing the real joke yet again. 😄
I think you're missing some key symbolism and your analysis remains too shallow, and Gallagher doesn't get the credit it deserves.
The stained glass on the left contains 13 blobs. The one on the right contains 14 blobs. As we read from left to right, it is obvious it symbolises leaving an era of wickedness and pain to an era of beatitude and perfection (2×7).
You got the angle in the tree but you missed the idea that even crooked ways can lead to great futures.
The pastor is not showing one of his hands because God (the pastor) works in mysterious ways (does not show his hand).
And he's not holding a bible. The size of the book makes it clear it's actually a notebook where he draws lewd fanfiction of Sonic. It's a reminder of the imperfection of the human desires despite the perfection of the soul.
Noticed the red wall? Well, red is the colour of blood, the colour of violence - the violence that inhabits every person but it still can be contained in the wall (free will).
What a great cartoon, maybe a bit too religious but the messages are so deep.
Nice work! :D
Thank you for your service.
The church bothered me for a few reasons. He doesn't pick the colors so that is on the colorist. But the design is absolutely horrible. He is always designing a new church but always the same priest. Which causes problems with just how many parishes this one guy has.
You mention the tree. I've long noticed that a lot of his vertical lines aren't at 90° to the horizontal portions of the frame. They tend to drift to the left by a few degrees as they go from top to bottom. I saw a video of him drawing and he uses a triangle but doesn't make sure it's parallel with the top or bottom of the frame.
And sometimes Heathcliff is hiding some impossible geometry behind him that I have to clean up when I remove him.
It would be interesting to see him do some attempts at his older Gately based style. Maybe we would get more expensive open eyes from orange cat. These days open eyes are rare.
In terms of consistency of line, another example is the sidewalk's concrete slab situation. For some reason G didn't even bother drawing the front slab's dividing lawn such that it meets the lawn cleanly. No, it's like someone very oddly made a point of having the corner of the lawn protrude in to the sidewalk just for 'this'll show 'em!' sake. Yeah, nitpicky as hell, but...
This also reminds me of the Gately article that I never finished doing OCR text correction on, which was a chore for ~six pages. In the interview, he comes across as a major perfectionist, always looking to top what he's done before, and of course that can be a disastrous impediment to meeting deadlines. My sense is that a lot of successful cartoonists are like that to some extent, but the fact that a daily strip is mandated usually means that these are hugely driven, talented people. Hergé famously had nervous breakdowns trying to maintain his Tintin output, which IIRC was one full page per two weeks for the magazines. And then there's Gallagher... who was once seemingly like that, yet found some kind of miraculous loophole in the system. Or brilliant new formula, to be respectful. Somehow the flaws and laziness make it all the more interesting, a bit like Mystery Science Theater material.
Yeah, I sometimes notice that and am again impressed by the work you do via your phone.
The usual deal is for a cartoonist to use a key to indicate to the colorist what colors should be used where, but maybe G doesn't bother? I must admit it would be on point, lol.