Two strips (so far) from Mother Goose and Grimm in which Grimmy gets taken (involuntarily) on a speech balloon ride through his favorite strips. A species of meta-comic, whose subject is the conventions of cartooning (in this case, conventions about the representation of speech and thought), and in which characters exhibit awareness that they are in fact in a comic strip.
Just a year ago, we had a Pearls Before Swine strip of this sort, and now MGG floats over Pearls (after Blondie, but before Shoe.)
When Pig flies. From my 5/22/21 posting “Up, up, and away…”: … in my beautiful speech balloon: a Pearls Before Swine cartoon (with a Family Circus finale):
(#1)
The … cartoon is one of a species in which speech balloons are treated as physical objects in the characters’ context, objects that contain the words the characters say, words that the characters can see and read (see some similar examples in the speech-balloons Page on this blog) — and simultaneously are treated as lighter-than-air flotation devices that will rise in the air and carry objects with them.
MGG yesterday. Ralph is sleeping on a couch in MGG, and then …
(#2) Dagwood (sleeping on the couch) and his dog Daisy, from the Blondie strip
MGG today. Grimmy is now past the couch, floating through Comicland (with full awareness of his situation):
(#3) Panels 1 and 2: Rat and Pig from Pearls Before Swine; Panel 3: Shoe and The Perfesser from Shoe
What will tomorrow bring? June 12th is National Superman Day, but I suspect that DC’s Superman comics aren’t among Grimmy’s favorite strips.
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