we usually think of mood as a scale from 1-5, but there’s actually a negative scale too, where the frown turns back into a smile, but just a little insane !
If I didn’t remember actually reading this in an actual Calvin and Hobbes book as a child I’d think it was ironically photoshopped like those comics where Mickey Mouse and Goofy talk about how reality is an illusion but this comic strip was actually just……. already………… like that……………
Based on what I’ve pieced together from the scraps of interview and commentary you can get your hands on, Bill Watterson was apparently the kind of Artist that routinely had conversations with his publishers that went a bit like this:
Bill Watterson: so I’ve got this great idea for a Sunday Color Page!
Newpaper Rep: let’s see it!
Bill Watterson: 😁
Newspaper Rep: Bill
Bill Watterson: beautiful, isn’t it?
Newspaper Rep: Bill, it’s an entire page!
Bill Watterson: needed room for the backgrounds!
Newspaper Rep: so what, you want I tell Charles Shultz we can’t run Peanuts because you want a full page spread?
Bill Watterson: hrmph
Newspaper Rep: Bill, work with me here! you’re referencing, what’s this, Nietzsche? On the funny pages? Nobody’s gonna get this highbrow stuff!
Bill Watterson: I’m not feeling very appreciated here.
Newspaper Rep: Bill we’re the newspaper we don’t have ink in these colors! I am begging you to think a teensy bit smaller!
Bill Watterson: FINE Jesus you people KILL me
Newspaper Rep: and won’t you please reconsider the Hobbes Doll line offer from Mattel?
Bill Watterson: I want you to listen to me very carefully.
Newspaper Rep: mmhmm?
Bill Watterson: Eat shit and die.
Newspaper Rep: Alrighty then this has been productive
What are some small tidbits of Falin’s character you’ve seen that you think play a bigger part of her character? Things like most people might gloss over?
My example is her telling the group she is willing to risk other people to save them. She’s much more serious and willing to risk innocent lives to save the people she loves.
Honestly took me a while to appreciate that part too! It’s not so obvious if you’re not used to that trope (where teleporting people end up inside other people). Mithrun uses it to attack and I think that should have been what clicked it for that Falin moment but it really didn’t haha. Probably because it happens in such a high tension moment and its only one page. They even seem to have added a little doodle to the manga release to better express it (Which reminds me, Everyone should buy the manga if they can!).
The thing about Falin I think often is a post I saw once that talked about the difference between Falin and Laios when it comes to awareness of others.
