Mary Worth acted out.

November 12, 2006 9:21 AM

A month of the venerable, slow moving comic Mary Worth, precisely acted out by fans. Requires QT. via the equally venerable, slow moving memepool.
posted by Rumple (29 comments total)

That was really good. I like how they recreated all the poses, things that work on paper just look ridiculous in three dimensions or with real people. I didn't like the wierd voices though, especially the guy's.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:28 AM on November 12, 2006

Yeah, I've seen these before. I could've gone for better vocal talents, but, aside from that, the eerieness created by their odd positions in relation to each other and lack of motion felt almost Lynchian.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 9:47 AM on November 12, 2006

My take is the voices are odd precisely because the strip is silent, and the artists perhaps want us to feel it odd to hear voices other than the ones in our own head we experience when reading the strip.
posted by Rumple at 9:52 AM on November 12, 2006

I also thought they were trying to match the odd stilted phrasing and emphasis marks of the original comic.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 9:59 AM on November 12, 2006

This is great, voices and all.
posted by found missing at 10:02 AM on November 12, 2006

Does anyone know where we can see this in comic form online?
posted by interrobang at 10:03 AM on November 12, 2006

Eerie
posted by Holy foxy moxie batman! at 10:06 AM on November 12, 2006

Not sure if it was clear in original link, but there are five episodes of this.
posted by Rumple at 10:12 AM on November 12, 2006

Excellent work! The camera angles and weird pointing gestures are right on the mark. Ian is especially good. You can see Mary Worth in color every day at chron.com, the Houston Chronicle's website.
posted by Lockjaw at 10:13 AM on November 12, 2006

Loved it. Nice post.
posted by squidfartz at 10:27 AM on November 12, 2006

Does anyone know where we can see this in comic form online?

Only for purchase, so far as I know, via King Syndicates.
posted by Rumple at 10:42 AM on November 12, 2006

Loved the background wind and music. That and the expressionless dialogue made the video seem like it was taking place in some kind of soulless purgatory. I imagine you could get the same effect with many comic strips.
posted by aliasless at 10:47 AM on November 12, 2006

That just freaked me right the fuck out.
posted by papakwanz at 11:11 AM on November 12, 2006

Holy god, that's amazing.
posted by equalpants at 11:27 AM on November 12, 2006

This is fantastic.
posted by amarynth at 12:19 PM on November 12, 2006

Only for purchase, so far as I know, via King Syndicates.

Damn. I've really wanted to see the actual comic panels since I saw this on memepool.
posted by interrobang at 12:24 PM on November 12, 2006

The Chron has a great online comics section, but it's especially fun to follow Mary Worth (and other "wow, this is still in the newspaper?" strips like "Mark Trail" and "The Girls in Apartment 3-G" thru the Comics Curmudgeon. Their reader comments are usually very entertaining as well.
posted by First Post at 12:44 PM on November 12, 2006

I second First Post on the Comics Curmudgeon. Great, great site.
posted by brundlefly at 1:18 PM on November 12, 2006

Does anyone know where we can see this in comic form online?

You can see some of them here (the drop down menu shows the first week of October's strips).
posted by mewithoutyou at 1:32 PM on November 12, 2006

Too funny. And the best new show I've seen in almost a decade.
posted by wfc123 at 1:40 PM on November 12, 2006

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has them up-to-date with about a month archived at at time.
posted by livii at 3:17 PM on November 12, 2006

Better than the Sin City movie. Isn't that the soundtrack from Eraserhead?
posted by beerbajay at 4:14 PM on November 12, 2006

This is brilliant and creepy. I love it!
posted by piratebowling at 4:36 PM on November 12, 2006

< derail>
Thanks for prompting me to visit memepool again, it's been awhile, and I had the best laugh all weekend watching Hand Teddy Polka!
< /derail>
posted by blind.wombat at 4:50 PM on November 12, 2006

That was eery. Or eerie. Or something like that.

It was like watching ghosts.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:12 PM on November 12, 2006

It has the same meandering, detached feel as the cut scenes from the Silent Hill games. Very nice.
posted by gigawhat? at 9:57 AM on November 13, 2006

Ah, the vapid torpor of Mary Worth. Spot on, especially the stilted pacing. Impressive!
posted by sidereal at 10:16 AM on November 13, 2006

Loved the background wind and music. That and the expressionless dialogue made the video seem like it was taking place in some kind of soulless purgatory. I imagine you could get the same effect with many comic strips.

Yeah, it's like "Waiting for Godot" with really banal advice.
posted by arto at 6:36 PM on November 13, 2006

Yeah, that was pretty creepily surreal. I like it.
posted by dejah420 at 7:08 PM on November 13, 2006