Sometimes the “throwaway gag” is the funniest. “Have you thought about renting her out for factory work” is a good contender (although I like the actual punchline here too).
There is perhaps an inconsistency here, in that Vachel points out that they don’t have a fridge (the blog originally erroneously read, “friday” instead of “fridge,” if you’re wondering about the posts below), and later we see them having a fridge. This happened because my vision of their world changed (I originally pictured them living a bit more primitively), but I never went back in and “corrected” it because I like that the strip developed, and I can totally justify it by telling you that they bought a fridge that week in order to put the drawing on it.
Ted has little humility, I think. It’s not that he doesn’t see Vachel’s sarcasm, he’s just not very interested in it, and will take an idea if it has merit. I like Ted.
This will also be the first of several messages in a bottle, which is such an endearing kid notion.
I’ve always felt proud of the naturalness of her getting in his way in this strip. I also think this was a good solid intro to Vachel and Dee’s relationship: two wills not very interested in the other’s motivation.
And ahhh…. Walt Whitman. So relaxing.
Blake’s innocent “flaw” in logic still endears me and makes me laugh in this strip.
I also like dogs. Blake does comment that human ways are strange here, but he probably obeyed. I think dogs are confused by things that don’t make sense to them, but it doesn’t actually occur to them to question the will of the alpha.
Pop dog theory for you there this morning, folks!
I remember, when younger, almost the only food I had in the house was a pyramid stack of SpaghettiO’s. For lunch I’d take a can and a can-opener.
Healthier than cake, perhaps, but not much.
From the start i wondered: if she doesn’t speak, how would they learn her name? Originally I think I had them looking for her name written on the tag of her shirt, with obvious brief errors in judgement: “It looks like her name is ‘Fruit of the Loom’ .”
In the original version of this strip, in fact while the strip was still in development before Vachel even existed, this punchline was spoken by a second bear, who was later cut from the cast.
I think what Ted is missing is that with a fish you don’t have to keep buying cartons of milk and crayons.
See how small Blake’s nose is! And his snout! So long!
One of the most striking things I notice in the first strips is how the cast members have visually changed. Dee’s body filled out to match her head, and Ted became bigger, less furry, and his nose grew (but not his snout). Strange to watch comics evolve like that, even when you’re on this side of the pen.
Welcome back (and welcome new!) Little Dee began it’s run exactly 6 years ago, to the day. Upon request, I am running it again: this time with larger images (for better resolution), with some annotation, and with some of the early strips which have not been listed “for sale” will be now made available.
The archives are still up where they were, and the Little Dee book collection are still available through Topatoco.
And, just because there are not enough comics all-things-Baldwin, today I am also beginning the re-run of my daily comic strip Bruno, which ran for eleven years starting in 1996. (Bruno has some adult content).
And lastly, don’t forget to read my current comic Spacetrawler, which runs Monday and Wednesday (which also has some adult content).