A couple of days ago, an off-handed Twitter conversation with my pal Ken Hite (I KNOW, RIGHT?) sparked an idea for Thursday’s DORK TOWER.
It's a Frankenberry Halloween DORK TOWER TUESDAY! New strip up at https://t.co/J5HWa8Fl5C
Be a Ghoul: RT (plz 'k thx!) and enjoy! pic.twitter.com/L9mObV01Bu
— Such a John Kovalic (@muskrat_john) October 25, 2016
@muskrat_john Also, Count Chocula was actually a voivode, closer in rank to a prince.
— Kenneth Hite (@kennethhite) October 25, 2016
@kennethhite Though consensus is unanimous: Boo Berry is the ghost of Cap'n Cruch, lost at sea. Of his bones are coral made.
— Such a John Kovalic (@muskrat_john) October 25, 2016
@muskrat_john Those are marshmallows that were his eyes
— Kenneth Hite (@kennethhite) October 25, 2016
@kennethhite Crap now I am legally bound to draw this.
— Such a John Kovalic (@muskrat_john) October 25, 2016
Thus being legally bound to draw it, I did.
Is this darker than most Dork Towers? Yes. Yes, it is. Though having Igor and Carson at the end lightened it jussssst enough, I thought.
More importantly, it amused me to have the Cap’n warbling a Gilbert and Sullivan HMS Pinafore sea shanty, almost as much as to have him gurgling a line from David Bowie’s Space Oddity.
But then I wondered, was the last line really necessary? Yes, it tied it in to Halloween (and, indeed, into Dork Tower).
I liked the strip as it stood, but thought that less, in this case, might be more. So I changed it to this:
I wasn’t totally happy with the timing (thought there should be more of a pause before the rise of Boo Berry), and then I wondered, were any lines really necessary?
Also, without Igor at the end, the Cap’ns tunes suddenly felts awfully sad.
Gilbert and Sullivan and Bowie were chopped, and the strip became this:
I don’t do “silent” strips often, but the idea intrigued me. It was something different, anyway, for me, and that’s part of the fun of the job. So I’d stripped the strip of the three aspects that originally had me giggling (Igor’s presence, and the musical call-outs). But it was a clear choice: Less, in this case, was a lot more.
Anyway, that’s how you overthink a perfectly good cartoon. And how you make it up to people, by showing them the original iterations anyway.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
–John
PS: Apologies to all the overseas folks who didn’t “get” this Dork Tower at all. Cap’n Crunch and Boo Berry are popular US cereal brand mascots. Thus is the joke explained, thus is the joke no longer funny. You’re welcome!