"Get a Room" (Nov. 23)

[DetailBear]

Get a room? For that little kiss? And it embarrassed them? A few over-reactions, it seems to me. Or am I missing something?

[Allan_ecker]

Yes, this didn't work out as well as it should have.

The idea is that Volair and Saundra are currently at the "Horrifically Disgustingly Happy Couple" phase, you know, that part where you stare into each others eyes in abject adoration for 80-90 percent of the time, and make out the rest?

I know that when I'm in that phase, such accusations are -incredibly- embarassing, because you're suddenly reminded that you're in a public place, because about thirty seconds ago, you had no idea there were more than two people in the universe.

This does not come off very cleanly at all in this comic.

Worse still is the poor recognition I'm likely going to get on the "future" Volair and Saundra, making this joke incomprehensible to all but the most die-hard (or freakishly observant) fans.

The original punchline was "Volair, you evil old goat", but as it turns out, Tales of the Questor did that exact punchline already for something different.

So, this is a pretty weak comic. Indeed, nearly the entirity of the color strips have poor punchlines and bad pacing. This is partly because I'm already "done" with the strip, even though I'm not "finished", if you get my drift, and partly because Umlaut House doesn't transition to full-page layout as well as I'd hoped. If I do UH again, expect it to be a four-paneler with few exceptions.

[RandomScribe]

I liked this comic, actually. I thought it was funny, although it took me a couple minutes to figure it out. At first glance, it does look like the characters in the fourth panel are the same ones as in the third--they look almost the same, and are standing in the same places in front of the same background. The only thing we have to go on is that Saundra's hair suddenly appears to be different... maybe if you showed enough of Future!Volair and Saundra to make it clear they were wearing different outfits? *shrugs*

In any case, we get to see Volair in all his fully-colored glory, so I'm not complaining. ^^

--RS (Though it doesn't do all that much for Saundra, oddly enough. )

[Andrick]

Since I had the grace of reading this thread prior to the comic I did not fall into the same trap of not understanding for a few moments. Still it is easy to see the confusion possible as RS pointed out. Maybe some photoshop trickery to take panel three, blow it up to a distorted proportion, blur everything to make it look like a discernible but unfocused foreground and layer it over panel four to make it appear like we are looking past Saundra & Volair to see older Saundra & Volair sitting behind them.

[Maximuscoolman]

To me, the best part of this strip was actually realising that it was Volair playing a trick on himself. It made me think "Hey, that's clever" when I realised, make it too easy to realise and you take that away.
The get a room thing kind of confused me too though, since

The idea is that Volair and Saundra are currently at the "Horrifically Disgustingly Happy Couple" phase, you know, that part where you stare into each others eyes in abject adoration for 80-90 percent of the time, and make out the rest?

I've never been in that phase.

[DetailBear]

OK, I get it now. RS was right; the only detail to catch on was Saundra's hair changing. The asymmetrical paneling did make the last panel the smallest. Both Saundras are wearing white, and we can't see Future Volair's shirt in the last panel, and the sky is the background.

But the joke is pretty funny.

[RandomScribe]

You know, it might also work to just redraw the fourth panel a bit smaller and merge it with the third. In UH's minimalist geometry, "to one side and smaller" would probably read pretty well as "behind." Just another idea.

--RandomScribe, who promises to stop picking apart your comic, Allan. No, really, this time I mean it. >.>

[Fallwind]

*click* HAHAHAHA!

AH! ok, now i get it.