Thursday, December 4, 2008

Thumb-notches and a ghost

There's something going on wrong (as we say in the blues) in today's Hi and Lois. Or lots of things: the shifting blackboard, the shrinking eraser, the swelling blackboard sill, the creeping W on Hi's jacket (or is that an upside-down M?), and the metamorphosing teacher. And in the second panel, on the far right: a ghost!

But it's good to see that the dictionary's three thumb-notches are where they ought to be. Perhaps this dictionary is a Teacher's Edition, made for use, not display.

Related reading
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comments: 4

Jai said...

- I think there's a ghost in the first panel, as well. That's clearly Bruce Willis from The 6th Sense! Something strange is afoot in Dot & Ditto's school - maybe they could team up and solve paranormal mysteries in a series of light-hearted and entirely forgettable books for 9- to 12-year-olds!

- Hi might be holding papers in both of his hands, since they're in his right hand for the first panel and in his left hand for the next.

- Hi is happily surprised to hear about Dot's success, Lois is pleasant-faced but the news doesn't seem to strike her as unusual. In the second panel we see that Lois is extremely shocked to hear about Ditto's failure, while Hi is dreary-faced and clearly anticipated the news. I don't have a point to make; I just found it funny that their reactions were so different (Albeit similar). It's a nice glimpse of depth in a shallow strip - sort of like seeing thumb-notches.

- Is it normal for a brown desk to be that shiny? And I guess the "shiny" vertical lines needn't be so random, but that sort of thing works well enough for windows so I'll let it slide.

Word verification: "Ovannons". That ought to be a word. Maybe a geographical feature?

Michael Leddy said...

Hi Jai,

In the first panel: do you mean the man with the bowtie? Or the silhouette?

In my family, we'd say that Hi's arm is "on drugs" (family expression for badly drawn limbs).

That's a nice reading of the contrasting reactions. Maybe the desk is just for display? (I love the apple — straight outta the mid-20th century.)

"Ovannons"? Go for it!

Slywy said...

Ovannons sounds like a female body part or complaint to me. "Where's Mary these days?" "She was in the hospital, don't you know . . . [whisper] bad case of the ovannons."

Michael Leddy said...

Yes, it does sound like that!