The Silent Penultimate Panel Watch

November 12, 2006 9:33 PM

The Silent Penultimate Panel Watch Each and every day a comic strip abuses the use of the silent second-to-last panel.
posted by boo_radley (24 comments total)

I just found this today because of the Mary Worth thread below. I love these single-issue blogs. I love the Internet.
posted by Bookhouse at 9:37 PM on November 12, 2006

That's interesting. I missed it in the Mary Worth thread, and saw it linked somewhere else. Funny old world.
posted by boo_radley at 9:39 PM on November 12, 2006

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posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 9:42 PM on November 12, 2006

I agree. This is a good example as any of what the Internet is all about. No matter how micro the obsession, someone is out there covering it for you! Thanks boo.
posted by vacapinta at 9:45 PM on November 12, 2006

I wouldn't say you missed it. It was a link on a blog that was linked to on the thread.

I was aware that this was a convention, but it's amazing that he finds examples almost every day.
posted by Bookhouse at 10:01 PM on November 12, 2006

What I want to know is, what the hell happened to the dude who used to do those Garfield deconstructions? No updates since October? Did MetaFilter break him?

Oh, and thanks, boo_radley. I too am fascinated by the depth of folks' focuses (foci?) when something fascinates them.
posted by cgc373 at 10:10 PM on November 12, 2006

FTA: "I thought I had successfully ridded the comics world of thoughtless, useless silent penultimate panels."

Dear Matt Gill-
Useless? They're pacing devices! Are ellipses or paragraph breaks useless? If you said that they were cliche or overused I might cut you some slack. Useless? Please. Scott McLeod devoted an entire chapter in Understanding Comics to the subject of pacing in sequential art. Will Eisner could could, at this very moment, write a more insightful blog on the subject of pacing in sequential art than you ever will. And he's dead! I can appreciate that your OCD demands constant outlet, but please choose a subject that you can speak on with some measure of authority, lest you look more a fool than you already do.
posted by lekvar at 10:18 PM on November 12, 2006 [2 favorites]

I think we could probably take care of this by just pointing out that every print-syndicated comic is incredibly horrible, and moving on...
posted by blacklite at 10:19 PM on November 12, 2006

I think these silent penultimate panels are Good Things. As the reader, you can make them last as long as you want - trap the strip's characters in an hour-long awkard lull, if that's your choice. Plus, you'll be needing a few silent panels in order to fill out your hand of 5-Card Nancy.
posted by Guy Smiley at 10:27 PM on November 12, 2006

1. Notice silent penultimate comics panels.
2. Start blog about it.
3. ???
4. Profit!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:52 PM on November 12, 2006

I think your're frothing a little unnecessarily there, lekvar. He does mention the occasional SPP that works, and praise it.
posted by hattifattener at 10:56 PM on November 12, 2006

lekvar: You may be misreading. I think he means not that all SPPs are useless but that his goal is to eliminate the "thoughtless, useless" ones.

I could be wrong. But he does go out of his way to, say, repeatedly praise a few including the SPP a used by Charles Schulz. Take time to read a few of his entries and you'll see what I mean.
posted by vacapinta at 11:55 PM on November 12, 2006

Stavros, you kinda blew it... step 3 should have been empty. :)

I think I'd pay more attention to his opinion if he actually had, you know, gotten people to pay him money for his comics for a few years.
posted by Malor at 12:01 AM on November 13, 2006

What about the "double-take" in comedies? Bah! We could save about five minutes of celluloid on each Abbott and Costello feature. Easily.

Reference too dated? Oy! I'll siddown.
posted by hal9k at 2:50 AM on November 13, 2006

This week in Garfield is just disgusting. They've turned the comic strip into a broken-record sitcom in its 15th season.

Uh, I mean, "We're bachelors, baby"! Ho-hoooo, hilaaarious!
posted by tehloki at 3:02 AM on November 13, 2006

I'm just grateful he doesn't use "penultimate" to mean "really ultimate."
posted by kirkaracha at 5:34 AM on November 13, 2006

kirkaracha: Agreed. I did notice that he took Jonny Hart to task for doing just that.
posted by boo_radley at 6:40 AM on November 13, 2006

My favorite Garfield MetaFilter thread. Too bad so many of the images are busted.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:42 AM on November 13, 2006

I was just thinking...

I don't think that word means what Jonny Hart thinks it means.
posted by symbioid at 6:43 AM on November 13, 2006

Garfield, you cold have a peter in your mouth.
posted by Eideteker at 7:24 AM on November 13, 2006

Funniest line of Achewood, Eideteker.
posted by quite unimportant at 8:22 AM on November 13, 2006

This guy needs to get a girlfriend. The silent take is comedy gold!
posted by MythMaker at 4:51 PM on November 13, 2006

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posted by arto at 6:33 PM on November 13, 2006

We're bachelors, baby!
posted by Durhey at 1:39 PM on November 16, 2006