and when I say four panel story structure I don’t mean that it’s simply words and pictures presented in four panels. I mean there’s a reason why four panels works. Each panel serves a purpose in telling the story. Read Peanuts, it’s a formula. Charles knows already what goes in panel 1,2,3, and 4. He’s just making a different joke each time with that formula. This how Watterson learned how to do it in C&H. Nowadays artists don’t bother to study this kind of thing… so instead they write to a rythm instead, resulting in dialogue based humor that doesn’t work as well in my opinion. Mainly because we’re not listening to the characters talking to eachother like a TV show. These are comic strips, we’re reading the dialogue and doing the voices in our heads. It’s not a sitcom, it’s not and animated show, it’s a comic strip.
if anything Cul de Sac is C&H for girls. it’s the only strip in recent memory that is put together as well as Calvin&Hobbes and Peanuts were. Heavenly Nostrils isn’t bad… but this artist doesn’t really understand how comic strips are made good. That’s okay though because at this point I’m used to that. Looking through history it seems like there’s really only six or seven artists who ever understood how to make a comic strip work. Nowadays we just settle for what we get. But still, read Peanuts, read Calvin and Hobbes and then read these other strips. Notice the difference in the way it’s written and presented in four panel story structure. Then tell me Heavenly Nostrils comes anywhere close to that type of quality.
please stop saying this is the girl version of Calvin and Hobbes. This strip isn’t terrible, however the quality of the writing doesn’t even come close to C&H. Even if Marigold was a stuffed Unicorn who came to life in her imagination Heavenly Nostrils would still not be Calvin and Hobbes for girls.
i wonder why little kids make the best comic strip characters? It always seems to work the best. Peanuts is the best comic strip ever with Calvin and Hobbes a close second (my own opinion) And there are some good strips with adults, and the pure fantasy characters are kind of funny because they’re made of magic, like Marigold. But still the most highly regarded comic strips have been about kid characters. (historically, not popular opinion of the times, because people liked Garfield alot and still do… but it was nothing compared to the love and respect people had for Calvin and Hobbes when it came later. Oddly enough I wonder if C&H had been syndicated before Garfield if Garfield might have seemed, ironically enough, a little childish in comparison to the first class ride Watterson gave us with Calvin) It’s interesting…. any thoughts on why this kid comic stuff is so cool? I think its cool.
Of course she doesn’t despise the girl. What sense would that make? Maybe Marigold doesn’t like being ogled by people.