Agnes by Tony Cochran for May 17, 2020

“…nor shall I hate you because you are beautiful.”

Some people have an easier time with “L” than others. When writing script capitals, a “Q” is tricky for me. And my wife still doesn’t write a capital “S” like I was taught to.

Luckily, those “L’s” aren’t shaped like Agnes’ calves & feet!

Wait a second… dot every “I” and cross every “T”? I think I finally figured out why no one can read my handwriting.

From her description, Agnes seems to be combining lower case t’s and i’s (which need crossing and dotting, respectively) with upper case L’s…

lower case l’s have no “feet.”

I don’t really believe that handwriting means much…

probably a rationalization, cos I had terrible penmanship all through elementary and high school….

at some point every new teacher would approach me with a handwriting practice book.

By college, I’d learned to “draw” my letters neatly…

I can write perfectly on a blackboard, or in a crossword puzzle… even do calligraphy on cards.

It’s hard to explain… but it’s “faked” good handwriting…

and impossible to maintain for a whole 3 page letter.

When I write naturally, I can’t always read my own notes to myself.

My brother’s handwriting was so bad they sent him to a special class… and his son was the same.

Yet they both are/were college professors.

BTW… I’ve never been convinced that the cursive capital Q I was taught in grade school is correct.

It looks more like a tall numeral 2.

Font sets and the way real people write never seem to include that 3rd grade Q…

I think more people do what I do, and use a “printed” capital Q with a cursive tail.

A lot of other cursive capital letters are weird, too… Z’s, G’s.. does anybody make that pointy leftward loop on a T?

Of course, I’m talking about American handwriting… in other countries some letters are different.

Meanwhile… what did the poor monkey do?

“Just because you are a character doesn’t mean you have character.”

Comic letterers, probably.

https://youtu.be/em9lziI07M4

What the “L”, Aggie… ☺

Please PLEASE Mr Cochran, make your text large enough to be readable! It seems to have shrunk over the last few months. Thank you for considering my request.

Please make the print smaller, it’s way too easy to read for those of us with poor eyesight.

If the lettering on this strip was any smaller, it would coalesce into a black hole and suck us all in to Agnes World.

Whether or not that would be a good thing I leave up to each reader to decide.