Meta Comics in May

Something very unusual happened May 10, 2018. Three different comic strips based their gags on comic strip conventions. And each used a different approach.

I've remarked on such meta-humor before, but they're usually isolated examples.

The first is from Bill Holbrook's On the Fastrack.

The first panel makes sense after you read the punchline. The word balloon is so common that -- as an object -- it's virtually invisible to the reader. Holbrook makes it a physical object in the first panel -- supported only by Deathany.

The next example was something of a surprise. I'm not a big fan of Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey. I find both the art and writing mundane.

In this case, though, there's some innovation. The characters know they're in a comic strip. If the second panel had stopped with Killer's comment, it would have been an adequate punchline. Zero's comment makes it better, as it builds on that. Killer points out that they can't read the strip that they're in. And Zero's comment goes a step further -- if they can't read the strip, then they certainly can't read the title above it. 

The last example comes from Mike Lester's Mike du Jour.

The week-long running gag is that the office snack cart operator has been hosting cooking segments. Treating panel borders as physical objects isn't new, but it's used seldom enough to be refreshing. 

And note that the hole Mike saws in the second panel is there in the third as well. All three panels show the same location at different times (in sequence, of course). If the panel borders were physical objects, then only the second one should have a hole. But since they're also boundaries of time, the third panel reproduces the damage of the second. 

Not every paper runs Non Sequiter above Mike Du Jour. I wonder if creator Wiley Miller talked with Mike Lester. The panel is funny enough by itself. The victim standing on the X is reading about what will happen to him. Bystanders are all looking skyward, which is where the sign indicates "what you never saw coming" will be coming from. 

But when you put the two strips together, then "what you never saw coming" actually seems to be coming up from below. So even the bystanders won't see "what you never saw coming."

I didn't see that coming when I opened up the paper May 10. 

The Expanding Tracyverse

It wasn't that long ago that I cited an example of Mike Curtis and Joe Staton bringing another comic strip into Dick Tracy's universe (see: Dick Tracy's Dream). The sequence below ran July 12-14, 2016 and brought another long-running comic strip character into the Tracyverse.

I'm not sure if this appearance is somewhat elliptical because of copyright restrictions, but it certainly fits with the character.

Long-time comic strip readers will recognize the Phantom in his Mr. Walker persona. Although the figure is never clearly shown, his upturned collar, low-slung fedora, and dark glasses provide more than enough clues. And the wolf is, of course, Devil as Tracy almost directly says.

In a way, this addition is a twofer. Both the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician were created by Lee Falk, and share the same universe (having appeared in each other's strips). So if Dick Tracy and the Phantom know each other, then Mandrake is part of the Tracyverse now, too.

And as part of the same story arc, another cameo was brought back. Deathany Denobia of Bill Holbrook's On the Fast Track was already established in the Tracyverse (see: Dick Tracy on the Fast Track). She returned in an early August 2016 sequence to provide information about the sidekick of Abner Kadaver, a horror show host turned hitman.

One-off cameos can be fun. Subsequent appearances by them can be even more so.

Dick Tracy On the Fastrack

According to the current creative team of Mike Curtis and Joe Staton, the characters in Dick Tracy's universe are well aware of those in Bill Holbrook's On the Fastrack. In a sequence from January 15, 2015,  Honeymoon Tracy was reading an e-book starring Dethany Dendrobia, an "On the Fastrack" character (see: Dick Tracy and the Literary Double).

January 15, 2016, the following appeared in Dick Tracy (top), and On the Fastrack (bottom).

Dick Tracy discusses the e-book case with Dethany in person, while in Fast Track, Dethany investigates in cyberspace -- and crosses paths with Dick Tracy.  It's a great crossover, thoughtfully executed by both strips.

And I found a few noteworthy things to consider. First, does this mean that Dethany -- and by extension -- the entire Fast Track cast exist in the same world as Dick Tracy? That's a change from having them exist as literary creations in said universe.

Second, note how Holbrook reinforces the concept of identity theft in his strip. He first shows Dick Tracy, then in the final panel, Fearless Fosdick, Al Capp's satirical take on Tracy -- a character that in some ways did indeed steal Tracy's identity.

One more thing -- the first crossover of these two strips (to my knowledge) occurred 1/15/15, the second 1/15/16. Is this going to be a yearly thing? No complaints from me if it is!

Dick Tracy and the Literary Double

In the sequence published January 15, 2015, Mike Curtis and Joe Staton referenced not one but two literary works -- and brought yet another newspaper comic strip into the Dick Tracy universe.

Sam Ketchem has expressed his admiration for Tom De Haven's Derby Dugan before (see: Dick Tracy and the Phony Funnys). The trilogy (Funny Papers, Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies, and Dugan Under Ground) revolves around the fictional newspaper comic strip character Derby Dugan. The Depression-era Dugan had a magic wallet with a never-ending supply of ten-spots. That's what Curtis and Staton (through Sam Ketchem) are referencing.

Honeymoon's response is even more interesting. I was familiar with Dethany Dendrobia, a popular character in Bill Holman's strip On the Fast Track. Dethany's been on some adventures in cyberspace using various avatars, including a 1940's-inspired detective, Dethany Noir. I thought Curtis and Staton were just having some fun with character.

In fact, Holman has published an interactive novella entitled "Dethany in Virtu/Noir" for smartphone and tablet. And it just happened to be released the same date as this strip was published.

So in one sequence, we have references to two literary works involving comic strips. One references a fictional comic strip in a series of novels; the other a comic strip character in a digital publication. And a little bit of character development as well (as Honeymoon tells us what she wants to be when she grows up). Nicely done!